Silvia Heyden: Tapestries

A wonderful exhibition of Silvia Heyden's work opened Tuesday night at the Betty Ray McCain Gallery  This gallery is part of the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Raleigh.  What a joy to see these tapestries in person.

The exhibition was curated by Lee Hansley and a talk was presented by Silvia's daughter, Francoise Heyden.

Francoise discusses Silvia's last two tapestries.

From Above

Francoise named this tapestry, she explained that Silvia loved to fly and especially enjoyed the view of the clouds from above.

A Weaverly Path

This was Silvia's last tapestry and was cut off the loom after her death by her family.  

Francoise lovingly talked about her mother sitting at the loom staring at this tapestry without the physical strength to engage the treadles and complete the weaving.  The detail below shows the butterflies of yarn and how close to completion it was.

Detail - A Weaverly Path

The opportunity to view this work up close after viewing book illustrations and digital photos was so meaningful to me.  I so admire the tapestries and Silvia's "weaverly"  view of the world.

Greek Wave

Berea Sunset

Detail - Berea Sunset

This detail of the bottom of one of the tapestries illustrates Silvia's feather weave technique.  I submitted my entries for the ATA's Beyond the Edge on Monday.  Silvia's work is a prime example of breaking the "rules" of tapestry and creating distinctive edges.

After the Storm

Eno in Motion

Francoise stressed her mother's emphasis on movement in tapestry.  Silvia said about her work "In my decades at the loom, I have never copied images, but rather have sought to let the patterns emerge organically as dictated by the process of weaving.  Instead of superimposing a form to be woven on the weft, I have always looked with my 'loomish' eyes to see what the weft and warp would allow me to execute."

I know I will be going to see these tapestries a few more times.  Let me know if you want to come along.  I have the documentary and Silvia's book but seeing the work up close brought tears to my eyes.  Thank you Silvia and family for this opportunity.

Recombobulation Zone

My favorite thing in the world is taking tapestry classes.  It is the jammiest of my jam!  I kept stalking Ruth Manning's website to find her woven faces class.  Last May, I gave up waiting for Ruth to come south and signed up for her class at Lost Art Fiber Studio in Wisconsin.  I am so glad I did.

Last Thursday I flew into Milwaukee and drove to Waukesha.  It is a lovely little town on the Fox river.

Friday, we started class with looking at Ruth's work and enjoying freshly baked pumpkin scones and coffee Nancy lovingly provided.

Ruth's work reflects a joy and vibrancy that I love and of course her use of wedge weave with traditional techniques drew me right in.

Ruth brought an amazing variety of colors and textures for us to work with and got us started on our woven faces.

She demonstrated various techniques and because the class was small, provided lots of personal attention.

Not having a drawing or art background, I had trouble with proportion.   The upper left pic shows my fellow with way to much girth, he would have looked like the incredible hulk.  In the bottom pic, the little bit of arm gives more definition to the body.  A helpful suggestion from a classmate.

Day three, the scones were orange and almond and the coffee was plentiful.   We worked on our eyes and hair.  Such delightful characters showed up!

I love this sign just past the screening checkpost at the Milwaukee airport!  I am home and so thankful to have had this opportunity.  Ruth is a knowledgeable and generous teacher and Nancy Wilson a terrific host.  The other students were so much fun, who knew Wisconsin people are so nice.

Shrooms

While camping last weekend at Parker's Creek we had a beautiful site right on the lake, a terrific climbing log and lots of cool mushrooms.  Riley and I tromped through the woods collecting all the different kinds of mushrooms we could find.  It was great fun, smelly slimy but fun.

I dutifully did research for the proper methods, there are many sites about dyeing wool with mushrooms.

• I placed my chopped up mushrooms into jars, filled the jars with water and let them "steep" in the sun for two days.
• Strained the extremely slimy and smelly mushrooms and placed them in cheesecloth. 
• Scoured and mordanted 40 grams of wool yarn.
• Brought mushroom/ yarn up to 170 degrees and held it for one hour.
• Soaked overnight and VOILA!

Five of the most uninspiring shades of beige yarn ever produced.

Bonus, it smelled so bad even after multiple washings... I threw it out!

Night Chant

It is a challenge to describe this tapestry's path from conception to fruition.  It started with the fabric scrap pictured below and dyeing yarns in a gradient to match.

The concept was holding space, also known as "suspended self importance" or it isn't all about me.  Being present without judgement or control and offering unconditional love and support. 

I sampled for this tapestry and lined up my yarns.  The original gradient plus black, some deep purple and purple and silver glitz.

I checked for value below using grayscale.  Thank you Tommye Scanlon

Finally began the weaving on July 8th at Arrowmont. 

Most of my family and friends know of my interest in all things Navajo, especially weaving related.  I was scheduled to attend a class at Arrowmont  this summer but unfortunately the Navajo weaving class had to be cancelled.  I'd read all of the Hillerman books over the last few months and enjoyed not only  the mysteries but also all the information related to life on and off the reservation.

Some of the most interesting information was about the religous ceremonies.  Especially the Night Chant.  This is a nine day ceremony, involving the whole family and community coming together to contribute to the healing and or restoration of balance to loved one.  The cermony is complex, involving multiple dances, sand painting, chants and more.  This is just a few verses of the poem.

Dark cloud is at the door.

The trail out of it is dark cloud.
The zigzag lightning stands high upon it.
An offering I make.
Restore my feet for me.
Restore my legs for me.
Restore my body for me.
Restore my mind for me.
Restore my voice for me.
This very day take out your spell for me.

As I read about the Night Chant I thought of dozens of people coming together, putting their lives on hold for nine days to dance, sing, chant and pray another into health and balance.  Holding Space Navajo style.

I finished this tapestry on August 3, 2018.  It was woven at 10 epi with hand dyed Frid on my C. Cactus Flower loom.

Arrowmont Day Two

I cannot say enough good things about this place.  Although it was a scramble to arrange for our alternate class, everything is going beautifully.  The staff is amazingly responsive and the weaving studio is spacious and well equipped.  Today we tackled ikat.  This is a resist dyeing technique where the yarns used for weaving are wrapped in areas to resist the dye such as pictured below.

See these wrapped little bundles almost ready for the dye pot.

Sasha going over acid dye basics.

Below Sasha demonstrates untying the yarn bundles to begin weaving.

This is Katsuri, an even more labor intensive method of dyeing.  Sasha is wrapping yarn precisely over a comma.  Then you mark the fabric so the image of the comma is covered with the resist tape.

Below is my sample weaving as I practice weaving with my ikat dyed yarns.

Day two at Arrowmont  is done.  Tomorrow we will begin weaving larger peices, putting into practice the tecniques learned today.  Sometimes life brings you surprises that are just what you need.  Learning these ikat techniques from Sasha is actually more applicable to my tapestry practice than the Navajo class would have been.  Go figure!

Arrowmont

It is surprising that I haven't posted in a month, but I have not been idle.  My tapestry weaving of late has been more about process and play than product.
I had such fun with the dye experiments chronicled a few posts ago.

 I am not in love with the tapestry that resulted.  But I achieved the goal of using texture in wedge weave with mixed fibers all dyed in the same fustic pot.

I love rusty stuff so added this rusted tin sun.  This is aptly titled "Good Day Sunshine."  My tapestry "A Joyful Noise " is in Reno at Convergence.  What I am most pleased with is the vibrant color from my natural dyeing efforts.

I also did a small Navajo sampler last week to get ready for my class at Arrowmont .  Unfortunately the instructor had a medical emergency and could not teach the Navajo class as scheduled.  Arrowmont scrambled to replace the class with one on Ikat in weft faced weaving with Sasha Baskin.

Sasha is an artist in residence and a talented textile artist.  My favorite type of instructor as well, knowledgeable , organized and encouraging .  We have a small class of six women.  Many of them were new to tapestry but Sasha had them weaving with a completed sampler tonight.

Tomorrow, ikat dyeing!  Least you think it is all good food and giggles...we work hard here at Arrowmont.   See below!

Just playing around...

Play is our brain’s favorite way of learning.

-Diane Ackerman

                                                                                 —Diane Ackerman

 

Playing with fiber is definitely my happy spot, add good friends and sheep and I am truly content.   Maryland Sheep and Wool 2018 is a bright memory.  My purchases focused on yarn to dye for tapestry weaving based on some recent "play."

Above is a bundle of various white and undyed yarns in my stash.  I pulled strands of linen, wool, silk, mohair, cotton and synthetics.  I wanted to dye the bundle and see how the different fibers and textures would take the dye.

I weighed the bundle, washed it in synthrapol and mordanted it in a solution of 20% wog (weight of goods) of alum and 6% wog cream of tartar.

This is fustic.  Old fustic is available ground or as wood chips and also as an extract. It yields a range of colors from strong dark yellows to a peach color on silk, cotton and wool and it has good light-fastness.  Fustic is an easy dye to use.  I put 50 grams of fustic wood chips in some pantyhose in a crockpot of water and simmered it on low overnight. 

I was pleased with the variety of colors.

I decided to do another bundle using a similar process with cochineal.  Cochineal is a potent natural dyestuff that is derived from the crushed, dried bodies of the female cochineal bug, a scale insect native to South America. It dyes beautiful reds and pinks. The Cochineal bugs live and feed on the Prickly Pear cactus. These little critters have been crushed and used as natural dye for hundreds of years.  A little bit goes a long way!  Note in the picture above the cottons and synthetics did not take the dye.

I needed to exhaust my cochineal dye bath and had what I thought was a great idea.  I had ordered a bunch of Vevgarn in neutrals and grays several months ago.

My goal was to get various depths of shade by putting all these shades in the same dyepot.

No joy with this one.  No variation in my reds but alot of learning.

Trying to exhaust the cochineal.

Still trying to exhaust the cochineal.

Playing with my fustic dyed yarns with textured wedge weave.

Whoever wants to understand much must play much. -Gottfried Benn

Play on!

Hahastiin

Mary Redmustache Kealy's wel loved tools.

Thanks to all for the wonderful input regarding the line between admiration and appropriation.  My dear daughter sent me a link to this article which was most helpful.  The Navajo language is beautiful and mysterious but it is not my language and I won't name any work using it.

Hubs and I went back to visit the The Gregg Museum of Art and Design so I could show him a Navajo loom in real life.

Mary schooling Preston on her loom.

Mary's rug in progress

Preston's plan is to build me a traditional Navajo loom.  Mary showed her batten to him so he can make one.

The title of this post is the Navajo word for husband.  Dear hubs is my greatest enabler, maybe facilitator is a better word.  He created a dye spot for me in the garage.

It is awesome. I did some dyeing this weekend and how great to have a dedicated dye spot.

Horsetail, madder and the mystery fungus from Carolina Beach.  I placed this picture on facebook and ravelry last October seeking it's identity.

We never definitively settled on an answer but I think decomposed turkeytail is the most likely suspect based on these results.  1 refers to first skein and 2 refers to the second skein trying to exhaust the dye bath.

In the above picture are three skeins dyed in a small black walnut vat.  First, second and third dip.  I love natural dyeing and really need to do more research.  I would love to explore a variety of greens next.