Where I've been

With my daughter, artist Sofia Arnold, who was in Milwaukee this week, and Faythe Levine at her SKY HIGH GALLERY in the Sky High Skate Board Shop. We were there to see the current show, "Jailbait" new tapestries by  Erin M Riley,  on exhibit now through November 27.
(partially shown, Pink Nail Polish, tapestry, by Erin M Riley).

Gallery curator Faythe Levine and skate shop owner Aaron Polansky share a common vision for making their city a better place by building community through art, creativity and events centered around their neighborhood in the Bay View neighborhood of Milwaukee.  Faythe is also the director and co-author of Handmade Nation, The Rise of DIY, Art, Craft, and Design,  documentary film, and book.

I was excited to see Sky High Gallery, at last. Faythe is a dynamic force seeking, finding and promoting contemporary art and creative young artists. She was one of the first to notice Erin's work, and wrote about it in Fiberarts Magazine, Spring 2011 (well worth finding and reading).

Seeing these tapestries up close, they are even more mysterious to me now. They are densely woven, with hand dyed yarns. Much of the subject of her work is self portraits that young women post to Facebook, and Erin's interest in showing these ephemeral images in the form of woven tapestry. She says she admires Swedish artist, Helena Hernmarck's tapestries. Erin M Riley's weaving, to me, is like plates shifting under the landscape of what weaving can be. Erin is a self declared and devoted tapestry weaver, whose weaving is clearly art.

More Winter

Today I'm trying to remember, unsuccessfully so far, my New Year's Resolutions. Also, I've been weaving some more wool rugs, and making a plan for a small repp weave on my Norwood 4-harness studio loom, where I was so recently involved with Cat Paw scarfs. My favorite colors of poppy red and copper, mixed with a gray and unbleached white will be heart stopping, at least in my vision of them. A good Valentine weave.

In other news, my 12 year old geranium is about to bloom again. Did I ever mention how touching the leafs of this geranium in the studio in January releases such a fresh, unexpected scent, which smells sweet and green? Another favorite aromatic experience this time of year is to grate celeriac before putting it in soup. Well, back to some outdoor sporting activities until I can recall what my New Year's Resolutions were.

Dyeing, again

My next rug is going to be a combination of shades of bright hungarian paprika red and dark chili powder red. I have an appetite for this color, especially at this time of year. I dye the wool pieces in approximately 1/2 yard chunks, to fit the stainless dye kettle I use. There are some variations between each kettle, which is an effect I try to accomplish by changing the color mix a little for each batch. The differences are subtle, but the mixture of close colors across the surface of the rug is much more vibrant than a rug made with a single color. Exciting the eye is what I'm after. My favorite dyes are Procion fiber reactive dyes, because they are quite safe to work with and dispose of, and are also very light and wash fast. With red, this is especially important. My wool rugs are washable, so I don't want any running reds.

The blanket wool I use is a beautiful quality, and quite thick to begin with. To make a 22" X 36" rug I need a little more than 2.5 lbs of wool. This is useful to know when I'm custom dyeing, because I don't make more than I'll be using.

wax and wool

Though masses of Asian lady beetles (false lady bugs) have come flying in to plague us, it is still a great pleasure to print a new batch of wax bags for the store, and labels for rugs and scarves. I have been weaving my winter rugs with the new blanket wool, in the hushed palette of blue gray, mushroom, gray, cocoa brown and olive. Also a few of the short scarves with the simple yarn warp. The yards of spool knitted cord I made last winter have come in to use now as keepers to tuck the scarf into so it stays snug around your neck. Each scarf is lined with cotton velveteen, this one is a dotted gray. This scarf reminds me of the West Fork (the river that runs through Avalanche). It is a trout stream, so this is a trout scarf.

wednesday work

A new order of blanket wool arrived: large soft pieces of gray, gray-blue, mushroom, basil green, soft yellow, and a beautiful bark-gray-brown. The sun lit up the stack, and I don't know which ones to start weaving first. My own rule on my Winter Rugs is to weave just 2 colors in one rug. I'm very tempted to put all of the colors in one long, long rug. I'd like to see that, I know. But I'm going to try to resist it, and attempt to stick to my plan.

Vote for Obama!

I finished a brown and gray-blue rug, dampened it, and dried it in the dryer. The lint trap caught a lot of wool fiber. When I shake it outside in the sunlight, there's no lint. It shrank from 50" when it came off the loom to 45", and became heavy, soft and drapable. I love the heft of these rugs after they're finished. I put this one by my bed last night, to experience the feeling of stepping out on it in the early morning. My husband must think I'm nutty, but he doesn't say so.

The milk weed pods are still pale green outside, but I found these from last year on my shelf.
Cotton wood, poplar, and maple leaves have been falling into the creek behind the store, and there is a pyramidal rock at the edge that I never saw before today. When I scoop pitchers of water for the flower pots on the porch, I smell mint. The path is a mint path. My weaving can't
begin to compare to the least thing I see on the path outside my back door. But, I did finish a new wool rug. It's a good rug, and feels good on bare feet.