And a few inches more--but only a few

More progress today

The dark area that will move to the left and define the large stone below it has started.  I'm eager to move above it and tackle the next challenges of new stones.

On the teaching side of life, I have the Florida Tropical Weavers Conference lined up for next March.  The dates are March 20-22, 2015 at Lake Yale Conference Center.  Three teaching dates are now planned for 2015 and that will be about it for the schedule, I think.  Although possibly there will be a couple of one day workshops here in north Georgia that my friend, Pat Williams, and I might host... we'll see.

This weekend is one of the festival weekends in Dahlonega.  This time around it's Bear on the Square--link to that event is here.  It's one of my favorites and the weather looks great--so I'll be strolling around tomorrow, buying stuff and listening to good music!

Stones progress today

I've been able to spend several hours weaving today.  Here's how it looks as I leave the studio for the evening:

I'm showing more of the loom instead of cropping into the image as I usually do when I post.  On this loom there's quite a bit of area in which I can weave before having to advance the warp.  But I'll be rolling the piece up a bit on the cloth beam by tomorrow afternoon and so this may be the last time I see the bottom of the tapestry for several months to come.

Right now the highest point on the left side is just under 20" high.  The whole piece will be around 72" high so I'm nearing completion of the first third of the image.  Lots of weft to travel through warp before this tapestry is woven!

A link to Tapestry Share blog post about my upcoming Peters Valley class

I just posted to Tapestry Share with thoughts about the class I'll be teaching this June at Peters Valley School of Craft.  I won't rewrite that post here but instead give this link, if you'd like to see what I said about there.

More later about the continuing stones!  Maybe.

Weaving stones again

Slowly, slowly the stones are growing.

I'm almost to the point where the dark lines can slash both to the left and to the right.  If you'll look at the painting that's the basis of my cartoon in the left side margin you can see the bold paths the dark areas between the stones take throughout the piece.  I almost think the design is about those in-betweens as much as the stones themselves.  It surely does take longer to weave these slashes of dark than it does to paint them!

Folk School Adventure for this year is complete...

... and this wonderful group of students and the terrific teaching assistant, Sidsel Moreb, made it an exceptional experience!  More photos from the class will be posted soon.  This was at the closing ceremony yesterday afternoon.  The display behind us holds the work of the week.  Many admiring comments were made by viewers about the beautiful results from all the long hours of tapestry weaving.  Thanks, ladies, for being such a willing group!

Folk School--here I come!

I'm off to meet 10 eager tapestry folks later today at John Campbell Folk School.  Wifi is only available at Keith House there so I might not be posting about the class until I get home.  If I do have time to do so, I will.

In the meantime... here's a photo from a 2007 JCFS class taken one evening after students had left:

They were doing lots of work then, as you can see from the table full of looms, yarns, and notes.  And I'll have a couple of the same folks in this upcoming class.  It's always nice to see them again.

And, it's a beautiful day for a mountain drive!

Off it goes! ATB10-selected tapestry has been shipped

This afternoon I mailed off the tapestry that was selected for the American Tapestry Biennial 10.
The shipping box I packed it in is the one from Uline that I mentioned a few posts back.  It's quite sturdy and I hope it will live up to its reputation as a box suitable for art work shipping.

Here's the way the things came together:

There are three layers of foam in the box; the top and bottom layers have this egg-crate like configuration.

The middle layer is of foam that's cut to make a window within which the tapestry lays.

I covered the face of the tapestry with a sheet of muslin.  My name is on all part of the shipping materials, including this cloth.

The 1/2" foam core board lays on top of the fabric covered tapestry.  I have a diagram on the board to remind about how it's to be repacked when this show is over.

I wrapped the tapestry in a sheet of plastic and then placed back into the foam window.

The box has plastic lining on both lid and bottom.

And here it is, sealed up and ready to take to the post office.  I placed a sheet inside which had these photos as a reminder to those who'll be repacking and shipping the work to the next venue in Kent, Ohio.  From there it will travel to Omaha, Nebraska and then be returned to me next April.

I'm wishing this tapestry well on its travels--and the same good wishes go to the work of the other artists who have tapestries in ATB10.

John Campbell Folk School preparations continue...

Over the years I've developed handouts for my classes.  I almost always do revisions to the file and that's what I'm working on now.  I continue to find mistakes and correct them... then new ones pop up!  The technical things are fine, it's typos that I discover.  Since I don't have an editor who double (and triple) checks me I just live with it and hope the students understand--and try again with the next revision.

ANYWAY, here's what I did for part of yesterday... diagrams of structure:

You can see from the X and scribbled out areas that I screw up when "weaving" with marker!  It's easier to take out when weaving with yarn.  With the diagrams, I just have to start over and hope I can stay in control.

I don't know if any of these diagrams will make things clearer than demonstrations or photos.  I do demo of methods in class.  In fact, I have a loom with a large warp on it that I do most of those with... easier for students to see what I'm showing, I think.  I also have photos of detail in my handouts.   But nothing takes the place of doing it yourself and seeing the results and, I hope, understanding what is happening.

Now... for a bit of springtime from the backyard:

I've been watching the budding of the small ginkgo tree in the yard for about a month now.  About two weeks ago the buds were showing green at the tips.  Now they're bursting out with tiny leaves.  I LOVE them!  The ginkgo tree is one of my favorites.  There's a large one at my studio yard and a glorious one on campus at the university that I always enjoy seeing in the fall.

These were on the sidewalk at the studio last fall.

This is looking up into the big ginkgo on campus:

I've woven one small tapestry in the past with ginkgo leaves featured... don't have a photo of that on this computer... maybe I'll add one later if I can find it on the laptop at the studio.  I turned it into a pillow--and gave it to a friend.  I get to sit on it when I visit!

OK... later today... I found the photos of the ginkgo tapestry.  First, here it was before it became a pillow.  I designed it by doing a scan of ginkgo leaves with a piece of handwoven fabric from Central America--the leaves were laid on the scanner bed and the fabric placed on top of them.

Here's the pillow and the chair it rests on at Noel's house.  The chair is a handmade one and as you can see by the spinning wheel, Noel spins (among her many other tasks!)

Stacking those stones

More stone work

Slowly, slowly, slowly the stones are stacking together.

I've been in the studio only for short times over the last few days.  And my weaving time will be curtailed next week as I'll be doing preparations for my class at John Campbell Folk School that will begin on the 13th.  I'm looking forward to the week--should be beautiful springtime weather in Brasstown and the group that's meeting for the class will be a mixture of old friends and new folks.

My June class at Peters Valley is beginning to have some enrollees... hoping for a few more, though, to be sure that the class will make!

This and That and Another Thing

My time at the studio has been scant in the last few days since my husband had a bit of surgery.  The surgery was outpatient but we still were at the hospital for most of yesterday.  While there, I didn't even do my usual waiting room sketching.  Just spent the time by reading and waiting; waiting and reading.  Oh, watching the clock and waiting for the call from surgery was part of it all, too.

He's doing pretty well so today I'm at the studio for a couple of hours to put in a few passes on the tapestry and catch up on emails.  I've just learned that I have a piece accepted in the exhibit, The Art of the Cloth, that's going to be in New Hampshire and Pennsylvania in 2014 and 2015.  That was exciting news and I'm happy to be among the artists included.

Next week I'll be sending off a tapestry to another juried exhibition, American Tapestry Biennial 10.  The show will be in three locations across the country between this May and next April.  The exhibit's first venue is the Visions Art Museum in San Diego.  Next will be the Kent State University Museum in Kent, Ohio.  And, the last stop of the exhibit will be Kaneko in Omaha, Nebraska.

Since the work will have thousands of miles to travel and be unpacked and repacked several times I've invested in a sturdy box from Uline.  I called them late yesterday to order the box--and up drove the UPS truck with it today!  Talk about service--I've never ordered from Uline before but, so far, I'm impressed.  This box is indeed a bit of an investment as it cost way more than I'm used to paying for packing materials.  But the description reads well...

and the real thing looks as sturdy as promised.  So... I'll pack it up, send it away and keep my fingers crossed for safe journeys for the tapestry!  

Another thing to add to this post is a link to the wonderful article Janette Meetze has written about the tapestry diary practice that I've been engaged in for several years and that others are exploring, as well.  Janette's writes about her own tapestry diary occasionally at her blog, as does Jan Austin.  Here's the article link at the American Tapestry Alliance's website.

Now... time to close up shop here, go home and see what I can prepare for the guy for dinner!