The heat of summer

Time Warp and Weft exhibit in Athens ending soon--July 29 will be the last day!  I'll be going back on the 31st to help with the packing up of the works from everyone who participated and getting them sent along their ways back to Colorado (Kathy Spoering and Rebecca Mezoff), Oklahoma (Janette Meetze) and Rhode Island (Janet Austin).  Geri Forkner, who lives in Tennessee, will be coming to Lyndon House for the unfolding of the coverlets in the Fold/Unfold exhibit on August 19 and will pick up her daily weavings then.  I'll bring mine back to Dahlonega on the 31st--if I can get them in the car along with everyone else's boxes!  I'd made a separate trip to deliver my work back in May but since Geri's boxes will stay in Athens, maybe I can squeeze them all in.

Beth Sale, who's the Exhibitions Curator for the Lyndon House Arts Center, has been a pleasure to work with as this show came together.  I've been involved with many aspects of the exhibit from the outset, beginning early last year.  Lots of emails back and forth to Beth and especially among the others who participated as we planned the details.  I also approached the editor of Shuttle, Spindle and Dyepot to see if she'd be interested in an article about the exhibit.  She was, and it was published in the summer edition of SS&D.

So, being involved in many ways with Time Warp and Weft over the past year and a half has given me a new appreciation of all of the work that goes into the preparation for and mounting of an exhibit.  Thank you, Beth Sale, for everything you've done to make this a wonderful exhibit experience for the six of us--and for the visitors to the Lyndon House Arts Center!

Now... other things.  I've been working consistently (at last) on the new tapestry that I'd started in early June.  It's based on an earth pigment painting I made while at the Lillian Smith Center last year.  I'd designed the cartoon last fall by cropping a vertical section from the small painting and having it enlarged at the university print shop.  Since the inspiration for the tapestry was earth pigment, I decided I wanted to weave the piece with natural dyes.  What better way to used up the remaining black walnut dyed yarns from last year's 2016 tapestry diary, I thought.  When I got back from Penland this spring, I dyed with black walnut and also with henna (the henna has given me a variety of orange and red-oranges that I wanted to add to the browns and grays of the black walnut).  I've continued to dye a few skeins as I've been working on the tapestry.

I have a goal of finishing this by mid-August.  I reached just over the 1/2 way point yesterday (33" of the 60" of the design).  Will I do it?  Maybe!  Time, and a bunch of weaving, will tell the tale.

Here's where it is now... first shot, a view of the loom with the weaving underway.  Second photo is a closeup of the piece.

I'm working on the 2017 tapestry diary daily; the flower for July is an Althea or Rose of Sharon.  There's one growing right outside the window of my studio here at the house and the flowers have been a constant presence throughout the month.  Here's where it stands today--lots to do to finish it off before the 31st.