Aurora 2

Managed to get almost 1000 picks done today, and I am tired.  It just becomes so addictive.  "Just a few more picks; what will the next inch look like? etc."  

The first of three images is done.  It looks funny because of the angle winding around the front beam, but so far I am pleased.

Weaving again

I am so thrilled to get the repaired circuit board from the factory.  The loom works perfectly now.  It was so frustrating to be without a loom for five weeks.  We went back and forth on what was wrong, but ultimately all is well.  Of course, I was in Maine for a week of that and in Minnesota for a few days, too.  So I did have some other things to do.  But I became so tired of being loom-less, that I actually wrote up my lecture for Complex Weavers a year from now.  That's bored!  Here is the trial strip for my new piece: Aurora.  Below it you can see some areas of floats in the black and white, when the loom was misbehaving on the left side.

I think I am going to like the blending of colors in this one.  The next picture is of the first 800 picks of the design.  There are 5800 in the file, so I will be at this for awhile.

The texts around the frame refer to various bits of science I learned about auroras, while I was doing my research for the piece. 

Irene is gone

Irene blew through, and we were very lucky.  We did not even loose power, although we would have if we had lived just 20 miles to the east.  All it left was a fantastic amount of leaf litter.  Since the weather has been so nice since then, it was not unpleasant to do the yard work to clean up around the house.  This is the view from the living room balcony.

Some fascinating upholstery

This was the upholstery on a chair in a small inn in Lubeck, Maine.  Thought you might like to see it.  It is obviously doubleweave, but how many shafts would it take as a dobby?  How many shuttles? Any guesses?  You can click on it to see it up close.  It was lovely on a small occasional chair.

Good news/bad news

The loom is down at present.  A new small part is due soon, and Vibeke and Co are always so good about helping to troubleshoot problems.  So maybe the loom will be functioning later in the month.  We are off for a driving trip to Maine for a week anyway.  That should be a nice break.


The good news is that I actually had one of my newer pieces accepted into a show.  It is the New York Textile Study Group show in Lower Manhattan, December 6 to February 19.  The piece accepted is "Pixilated Forest."  I am so pleased.  The juror was Rebecca Stevens of the Textile Museum here in Washington.

This is the homegrown image that I submitted.  But last week I had four of my newer pieces photographed by a professional.  Her work is vastly superior to what I can do myself.  I am looking forward to getting the CD so that I can apply to some other shows.

Inspired by science

Just like Alice is inspired by math in her weaving, I have decided that my next piece will be inspired by science.  I have always been in awe of the northern lights, aurora borealis, since I first saw them as a 12 year old in northern Michigan one summer.  So the next piece is a triple of three panels of aurora with phrases about the astronomy surrounding them.

With four shuttles in black, green, red and yellow there is an interesting palette of possibilities here.  

Should be interesting to see how this weaves with all that dither in the colors.  This may take awhile, however, since I may need to get a new part for the loom.  I changed some pistons that were not performing and seem to have done something to one of the connections.  So frustrating.

City Lights

The color blending piece is now finished as well.  I really am a klutz with sewing, but I get there eventually.  I like this piece for all the neat things I learned about color.  I am hoping it has made me more adventurous with the weft colors I choose.  I have called it "City Lights", because it began life as a blurry photo from NYC.  I am sure it was an accident, and the friend who took it meant to delete it, but fortunately he didn't.  And then, of course, I moved some things around in the file in the interest of a more balanced composition.

If you click and go in close, you can perhaps see the color magic.  For example, the frame is woven with red, blue and green on the black warp.  At a distance it is a nice lively gray.  Up close you can see all three colors.  Fun.