Weaverly

Honoring Jeanet

Last night there was an opening of a show at Hampton III Gallery, honoring the life & work of Jeanet Dreskin. Jeanet's history of spearheading art projects in Greenville, including but not limited to the formation of the Greenville County Museum of Art, are legendary. As one of her former students (I took printmaking classes from her in the early 1970's at the Museum School) I was invited to join other former students, Jim Campbell, Carrie Burns Brown, and Jo Carol Mitchell-Rogers, all accomplished artists and teachers in their own right, at this exhibition. 

Jeanet was surprised by a birthday cake in celebration of her 96th birthday. She is still active and productive in her Greenville studio. 

Here's my section of the show. It was an honor to be included in the festivities with Jeanet and all the other wonderful folks. 

A few of my books were in the mix.

The show, entitled Teacher/Student, will be on view at Hampton III from Sept. 26 through Nov. 4, 2017. A catalog of all the works in the exhibition is online here. 

A Bird in Hand

Lampas with handspun Herdwick wool, cotton & silk. Click to enlarge.

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Spinning on the deck, listening to Pipe Dreams on NPR, then Thistle & Shamrock. What could be better?

Still miles to go on the Herdwick wool. This is the first time I've ever spun & woven in tandem: spin a few hours, wash & block the yarn, then weave a few days with yesterday's spun wool. I guess you'd call it just in time production. It's a little scary.

But so far I'm keeping up.

A Hodgepodge

The spinning of the Herdwick wool proceeds apace. The bottleneck seems to be the blocking: after spinning I wind the singles on a pvc niddy-noddy, wash them in the sink, and leave the niddy on the back deck to dry. This leaves the yarn kink-free and ready for weaving. Unfortunately I spin yarn faster than it can dry. Solution: spin less, or get another niddy (Argh! The damn spell checker wants to write giddy when I want to write niddy. It seems to be untrainable. Least of my problems.).

Last night we attended a remarkable performance of J.S. Bach's Die Kunst der Fuga (The Art of the Fugue) by Daniel Pyle on the harpsichord at Furman's Daniel Recital Hall. It was part of a series sponsored by S.C. Bach. Here is a photo, taken during intermission, of the two-manual harpsichord played by Dr. Pyle.

Inevitably, the interweaving of the threadings of weave drafts, in techniques loosely grouped under the umbrella of Echo Weave, came to my mind during the concert. How closely music, mathematics, and weaving are intertwined (pun intended).

I told you this post is a hodgepodge. Bear with me. This morning on my walk I was greeted by the sun in very dramatic fashion. Sometimes we get lucky!

Finally, here is a book recommendation for you: Ron Rash's The Cove.

 

Hairy

My first Herdwick singles went into a sample blanket for a new lampas piece. I used my previous presets: the pattern wefts interlace in 3-end twill. I didn't like the effect; I thought the pattern warps should be more widely spaced.

So I worked out a new set of presets in which the pattern warps interlace in 5-end satin. Much better for this yarn. Here are a few aspect ratio samples using the new structure:

That works. The Herdwick is very hairy. I love the way it contrasts in texture with the smoother cotton & silk yarns.

So glad I like it, as I purchased a full pound. Now I've got to sit and spin for a while! Any suggestions for binge watching?  I prefer crime dramas. Not too much violence, but I don't like cosies either. Somewhere in between.

 

Treading Water, Biding Time, and all that.

A road trip: Nantahala Outdoor Center. Beautiful drive in the mountains, sitting in the shade sipping beverages while watching the kayakers on the Nantahala River. 

The bridge over the Nantahala throws great shadows in late afternoon.

Back at home, there is a new bag of carded Herdwick wool to spin. Here are the first samples: singles, washed & then dried under tension to keep them straight. This will be for lampas or tapestry. Very hairy. Not scratchy, just full of texture.

Molli and her human headed back to Florida this morning. I kind of got used to Molli sitting on my desk and looking out the window for the postman. She is a very well-mannered cat, and did not create havoc in my studio, much to my surprise.

A Patch of Blue

We were lucky. A few branches down, a little flicker of a power outage, some noise. This morning on my walk I saw a patch of blue.

Yes, very lucky. 

In the studio, more lampas. Cotton, silk, and handspun wool. 

Aspect Ratio Tests

Here it is 2 pm and the winds still haven't come. An eerie sense of waiting. Impossible to believe they will bypass us. Meanwhile, even though it's unusually dark for mid-afternoon, I continue to weave. I've picked up all the stragglers from the studio floor in case of flooding, and I'm doing some aspect ratio test for jacquard. One of the pattern wefts is cotton and the other is the terra-cotta wool I spun this week and just finished winding on spools.

Oddly, it came out almost exactly square: 63 epi and 63 ppi! This has never happened to me before. Perhaps it's an omen!

With hey, ho, the wind and the rain

I'm waiting for the tail end of Hurricane Irma. We're expecting more wind and rain this afternoon, but nothing like what Florida experienced. I'm hoping there won't be too many trees down and that we won't undergo a power failure, but that's iffy in South Carolina.

Here's all the spinning I did while watching the weather channel with our Florida evacuee over the past few days:

Now to wind it onto bobbins and begin the next jacquard weaving. If the power goes, I'll switch to tapestry…until the daylight goes.

With hey, ho, the wind and the rain.

Shakespeare, Twelfth Night.

New Dishtowels

They're washed, dried, & hemmed. The wefts did their little distortion dance around the cells, just as I wanted them to. M's & O's is a fascinating weave, and underappreciated, IMHO. Here are some closeups.