An Impromptu Thing

If you photograph your loom/s sometime on January 1st, 2010 your time, with or without a project on it/them, send me (a) picture/s or let me know your blog/photo-sharing url in the comment here, and I'll make an impromptu "A Day in the Life of/on the Loom" link thing. Would anyone be keen?

Hey, I can be spontaneous!

2009/2010

2009, for me, was sucky year, and I won't bore you with a list of things I did do, or I had intended to do, or didn't do.

Next year, I have two big goals:

1) Enjoy my life as an artist/weaver, and live like one, doing the things artists/weavers do. Experiment more and try new things.

2) Open my wee Esty store and make it as lovely and girly as I like.

And one small goal:

3) Loose weight, exercise more, spend some time and energy on my appearance. Because it will be good for my head as well. I am getting old and am frequently spooked by the woman in shop windows looking back at me. Use it, or loose it, right?

And a few on the Wish List:

4) Set up an accounting system of some sort, finally.

5) Update my website.

6) Get my head around Esty, (hopefully before I start on my wee store,) Online Guild (UK), Hand/Eye, The Big Idea & Weavolution. Or chuck the computer out the window from our second/first (not ground) floor office and be happy!

7) Try not to plan too much ahead or make lists.

Happy 2010, Everyone! May all our warps be colorful, or nuanced, heavenly to the touch, and your tension even and obliging.

(The stained-glass lamp shade was made by my friend of 25 years, Chiaki Ohta Nakamura, in Japan. She has become a veteran stained glass artist and an almost-Yoga instructor; I hope we can get together in January.)

Designers/Weavers Need to Step Up?

I found this post via Dr John Maeda's tweet. In a roundabout way, it ties in what I've been thinking of. If we, I, feel the profile of handwoven textiles, (and not textile art,) need to be raised, particularly in the art world, I believe weavers, I, need to step up in making technically excellent (whatever that word means to you,) and aesthetically pleasing (including "challenging") work and and grab every chance to get the textile exposed.

I don't know how to reconcile this with pleasurable weaving, following recipes, or recreating a cloth, which I also think is worthy.

I've felt I need to step up for a while. At least high enough to justify the prices the galleries charge for my work. And this is as good a day as any to be remind myself of it.

Nicely Put!

Yes, Chris Beech is right! See here.

Dazed and Confused

Yesterday I was full of ideas and inspirations, but today, I'm profoundly confused about weaving in blocks I don't even know where to start to combat this confusion.

Ugh....

A Day with Doni

Ben and I spent a lovely day with Donatella of Doni's Deli and Her Dearest. That's them!

The day started with heavy-ish rain, we were running late, I missed a phone message from Doni, but we finally caught up at The Suter for morning coffee. Almost as soon as I sat down, I had to ask Doni to demonstrate the bag construction she posted almost a year ago, of which I could not make sense then, nor last night. But when she showed me, it seemed quite simple, even for me, so I'd like to make one for me, and a tiny one for my almost-four-year-old niece.

(Please excuse my berry-stained finger; read on.)

We had a look around The Suter, while stopping often for weaving talk, then had a walk on the beach on Rabbit Island. Doni and Dearest bring lovely whether to wherever they go; look at the sky when we arrived there,


And the Michelangelo sky just a short while later after our walk!

Remembering her love of Scandinavian designs, we went to Hogland Art Glass, after which they headed east, and Ben and I went berry picking again.

Or course the day was much too short to talk fully about weaving and her experience at Bradford, (I learned that she did not live in England for a year,) and about designs and what's happening in Italian textiles and hand weaving, but we had a lovely day, and thought it sounds so trite, Doni was lovely and spirited and very well informed. And we had a fabulous day.

Thank you Doni and Her Dearest! Maybe we will show up in Italy one day. Now, cercherò di noci verdi, si?

I'm Meeting a Weaver/Blogger

I started blogging Unravelling at the end of April, 2006, and I've gotten to know some of you fairly well. That's those of you I have never met in person. I've even spoken to Taueret over the Tasman a few times, and that was wonderful, to put a voice to the words and photos you've become familiar with!

Tomorrow, I'm going to meet, in person, another weaver/blogger for the first time. Someone from quite afar, as a matter of fact. Because there are no weaving stores in Nelson, we'll probably be seeing the sites in the region, visiting one or two art galleries, maybe taste wine or local beer, or go pick berries. We might squeeze in the Bead Gallery, I'm not sure. I'm so excited, because we spoke on the phone today, and I know she really exists!

More here tomorrow, OK?

(I met Dianne before she started blogging, so I do know one blogger, you could say!)

I Survived an Interview

There is a new New Zealand-based craft and baking podcast called Crafternoon Tea with Granny G. I just had an interview, and I'm starting to feel a little sick, trying to remember how I sounded.

Genny contacted me about 10 days ago. I knew about her weekly podcast for a few months but had never listened to it until she contacted me. (Not being one to jump on to new technology quickly, you see.) But I loved Genny's relaxed way of talking, and I wouldn't miss a chance to blather about weaving, so I agreed.

We had made an appointment for 5 PM today. I jotted down things I could talk about, key names, years, phrases... which turned into 3 pages on A3 sheets, but in huge letters. I went to the loo a couple of times, placed two glasses of cold water in front of me. I had practiced speaking slowly and calmly all week, trying to sound mature and intelligent, but of course the second it started all that practice had come to no avail; I was on autopilot, the rapid-fire, bullet-flying, train-wreck-y, gushing, repeating, mumbling self, which should be familiar to those of you who know me in person. Not at all the persona I was going to adopt for this very occasion.

She left me alone to go on, (and on), which, you know, I can manage. I covered many of the things I wrote, but the order was all wrong, and I wasn't funny as I had hoped. In fact, I sounded a little serious in places!! And the funniest bits may have been left out...

Anyway, it was interesting to think of "me and weaving" again in preparation, and instead of writing here, or talking to myself, quite loudly from time to time, it was nice to speak to another person about my favorite subject. Despite in a fragmented, disjointed way it came out.

The interview and more baking tips will be available from Genny's website in early January.

Breaking Tradition?

We spent Christmas Day totally not the way I planned.

Because of the two-week holiday in November and/or berry picking Christmas Eve afternoon, Ben was not in the zombie-like state he usually is on Christmas morning and was up and about well before 8AM. Having only one new cookbook, (Boo hoo!), even I reluctantly and a little begrudgingly was up before 9AM. Where to next?

I got the berry, custard+Christmas Pudding, yogurt, and strong coffee, and we watched an old B&W movie. Then we went to feed the neighbor's cat. If it hadn't been so hot and humid, we might have even gone out weeding, but instead, Ben watched a bunch of Christmas movies, and I went downstairs to weave Mom's blanket some more.


This slow weaving, and I became a little annoyed; about a quarter of the blanket done in an equivalent of half a day. The weft is spongy and I have to make the arc carefully in every pick. Even the camera was having a day off and refused to focus on the boucle.

Hold on, this is double width, so that's equal to two half days for one shawl, so it's pretty much my standard pace.

Then I did something I haven't as long as I remember: I cooked a bird (only a big chicken), with stuffing, potatoes, and a salad! And two and a half hours later we were sitting down to a proper dinner, followed by more custard+Christmas Pudding+berries.

I'm not sure if it was a fluke, or a change in direction. I personally hope it's the former. It's so strange for us to have such a normal Christmas, really, but it was just as nice.

Today, we're off to the hardware store Boxing Day sale. And then Nancy and hubby Mark are coming for supper. At this rate, probably no weaving time, but perhaps an inch or so at the end of the day?

Saturday Daydreaming: How Long is a Weaving Life?

This was my first ever project, in August 1995, woven on my first loom, Ashford 60cm Rigid Heddle. 140cm was the longest I could weave considering the loom's tiny allowance on the cloth beam. Last weekend when we cleaned all the rugs and put out my mother's Christmassy rug, Ben told me which one he liked and which ones he didn't mind if I got rid of, and sadly, this one was in the second category, even though most of its life it sat on the floor on Ben's side of the bed.

I may have mentioned before, but early in 2006 when Dad had a surgery and Mom wanted to sell the house and move into an apartment, she got rid of her beloved Glimakra, on which she wove numerous rugs, her favorite type of weaving. She had it for less than a decade, but when she got it (imported it from Sweden, by fax correspondence, I believe,) she carried every piece upstairs and assembled it all by herself. She loved weaving on it, but it was too big for an average-sized older Japanese women, (she's still much taller than me,) and at one point it gave her massive pain on her left shoulder for six months. Anyway, giving away that loom to a young weaver was a sad day for her and for me. (Worry not, she promptly got a small eight-shaft sample loom, and keeping her loom count at three or four table looms in all.)

Even though I started weaving in 1995, there were more years I didn't weave than I did, particularly when I worked full time, and since I have "become a weaver" I am by no means a prolific one, spending more time thinking about, reading about, and fretting about weaving than weaving. Oh, and blogging about.

Since Mom let go of her Glimakra, I've sometimes wondered how many years I have left in me on the loom. I can see a day when my big loom is going to be too taxing on the body; already I'm able to weave perhaps a maximum of up to four hours than the seven or eight I used to just three years ago. And then I think of Peg Moorhouse, whose motto this year is "92, not out" and who still weaves every day.

So, am I daydreaming, or worrying again? I'm daydreaming about a smaller, purpose-built computer-operated loom, but that's something I can plan and work towards. No, I'm daydreaming about weaving for another 40 or so years. I'm daydreaming of weaving until the day I drop; wouldn't we all like to go the way Mr Collingwood did, on the loom?

Today is my parents' 54th wedding anniversary, and Taueret's, a.k.a. Hope Nesmith's birthday! Happy Happy All Around!