Round the Mountain

This morning I headed to Black Mountain to do some work in our western office.  As I came across the continental divide it started to snow, big fluffy flakes that thankfully melted right away.  After work, I headed to the Blue Spiral 1.

This is a lovely gallery in downtown Asheville, NC with a invitational show called "Into the Blue."  So glad I was able to take in this show and see several tapestries by Connie Lippert.

Achadh
25 x 26

Detail of Achadh

Finishing detail of Achadh

Ghigau
25 x 24

Refraction
25 X 30

Ice Palace
26 x 30

I am a huge fan of Connie's work.  She is coming to North Carolina in March to do a wedge weave class for my guild.  More details here.

The show included a variety of work, paintings, sculptural pieces as well as the tapestries.

Reflections not Resolutions

New Year's Day is a natural time for reviewing the past year and thinking ahead.  2018 was an interesting year.  In looking back at my tapestries, I was not as prolific as I wished but had some successes and lots of wonderful opportunities for inspiration.  My current inspiration is arising from reading Connie Lippert's book.

The following quote from Martha Stanley really resonated with me as it did with Connie. "Time working in the same technique is always well spent, it teaches me as I push it in newer directions, trying to get closer to the core of what it can really do.  Look carefully for the parts of weaving that are trying to choose you."

I have written previously about my inexplicable attraction to wedge weave.  This is part of my artist statement.

"Almost immediately, wedge weave captured my attention. This ancient Navajo technique allows the weaver to transcend the vertical warp and horizontal weft by weaving on the diagonal. The distortion of the selvedges and the ability to allow the colors and shapes to develop intuitively at the loom appeal to me. It is a departure from the structured grid of life. "

The two pieces from last year that brought the most satisfaction in the process and product were both wedge weave with hand dyed yarns.

A Joyful Noise

Night Chant

Even playing with natural dyes and wedge weave with less than satisfactory results is enjoyable and rich with lessons.

What's a Madder You?

This piece resulted from a natural dye class at SAFF with Jackie Ottino.  We dyed Cormo with madder using different modifiers.  This was a small sample for a larger piece that will never come to fruition.  What I had envisioned with bright reds and purple became muted pinks and lavender due to iron in the mountain water we used.  Also cormo is lovely for knitting and spinning but not for tapestry weaving, it is simply too soft.

2019, I am going to work on some larger pieces, using the Zeus.  First I will finish this.  Starting with a little unweaving.  

There will also be more of these in the next year.  2018 included a fun class with Ruth Manning and these characters resulted.

Won't You Be My Neighbor ?

An old fashion selfie taken with my young kiddos in a photo booth at Crabtree Valley mall shortly after our move to Cary.  The fortune from a cookie from lunch that day.

Weave on into 2019 with health and grace my friends!