Thursday, September 20, 2012

Already End of Thursday

And I admit there have been more than a few heart-stopping moments this week, including a heavy beam falling on Ben's forehead and the back of my head simultaneously while I tried to wrangle a few more picks out of a warp. But the mistakes have been so stupid I will not admit to them under torture. Unless you serve me Long Island Iced Tea first.

"Friends(hip)"
The draft. Now I'm wondering about renaming this piece from "You've got My Back; I've Got Yours" to "Chin Wag", which is a term I learned in New Zealand from a woman born in Liverpool and raised in Australia.  Which name do you like better?
This is the pattern side; there is one warp end for the plain/inlay side for ever two pattern warps, which works better than 1:1. Since I'm weaving this on a table loom I needed a dead easy lift plan. 

"Self-Portrait"
This is the wet-finished Self-Portrait; it still needs to be affixed to a foam board roughly the size ofthe black line, and it's not as crooked as it appears in this photo. I must admit for something I whipped up in a few days, I am pleased with it. As you can see, I desperately needed a few picks of plain weave at the top.

"Merchandise"
Studying pictures of your buttons and my swatches, I felt the colors and color combinations in my swatches are too "specific" and the buttons would not have the "something for everyone" appeal. So I'm weaving a short length of simple twills on the Self-Portrait warp. I think buttons from this will be immediately identifiable as "related to that piece" in spite of the different structure, which is a bonus. (The Self-Portrait draft has floats of up to 11 ends so was not suitable for small buttons.) But I think I'll make a few gold-and-blue buttons for myself.
Postcards. I need your help. Please see below.

Imagination
Or is it creativity, experience, or just common sense? Yesterday Maria had a photo shoot of her exhibition garments and I was envious of her imagination. I don't want a beautiful young woman, (or even a man,) sauntering in the woods with my pillars, but I have only three ideas for work photos: piece on loom, close-ups or installed-centered-symmetrical "Big Pictures". I've Googled gazillion textile and student exhibitions and catalogues in the last year months, but short of installing the pillars somewhere else, I came up with nothing new.

Which leads me to my conundrum and I hope you can help me. If you go to a textile exhibition and there are inexpensive postcards of the works, what kind do you prefer?  I think as mementos of an exhibition, I like pictures of whole works, unless the close-up is really attractive. Or do you have a so-out-of-the-box suggestion I'll have to go to the next zip code to execute? Also, would you buy "just interesting pictures", i.e. the colors or contrasts drastically altered from works you see in the exhibition, or only truer images? Please, please, leave comments/suggestions/experiences.

Other members of the group don't like postcards and are going for greeting cards with envelopes, but as some of you know I am so a postcard girl so I'm going solo on this one.

3 comments:

  1. Meg, postcards would be lovely. Even the mail people would get to enjoy your work that way! I like best where the colors are true to the work. And the interlacements of your fabrics are always so exciting, I think I would like closeups rather than a faraway look at a whole piece. Several postcards could be created from a single piece of your work and each would be fabulous!
    Vicki Allen, weaver
    Georgia, USA

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  2. When I buy postcards I want a choice of colour and design, I think weaving postcards should also show fabric close up and convey something about weaving. If you have half a dozen designs you could offer sets.

    I have a collection of postcards from potters I admire, partly because I like to look at their work, also as a reminder of people I've met and bought pots from.

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  3. Thank you, ladies. I don't know why but this time around I just haven't gotten into the photo-shooting frame of mind, no pun intended, so I may even solicit Ben's help.

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