Magic carpets and Hokett looms


I am teaching a new class at Convergence 2014. It is called The Mobile Tapestry Weaver: Weaving Tapestry on a Hokett Loom.

I proposed this class because it was a way to play. And as I've worked on the class the past year, I've been able to live in my imagination a little more.

Despite the background studded with upstanding members of the Dutch Reformed church, a bevy of professional-type relatives, 17 years in healthcare service, and a fair amount of innate perfectionism, I still dream of magic carpets and tree houses.

I still believe my grandmother had garden trolls--I saw them in her Tulsa garden when I was 6.
I remember riding on the bathmat in the orange and green bathroom at home when I was 8. It was green shag. (The bathmat is new but the bathroom is still orange and green... maybe I can ride the new bathmat)

And I loved the huge dollhouse we had when I was little (Yes, Auntie ML, I know it was yours when you were a kid)... the perfect spot for magic carpets and little mouse-house inhabitants. Now that I have little looms to weave on, perhaps I should weave some doll house magic carpets.

So creating tiny tapestries, not small format works of art, just tiny tapestries on beautiful little looms appealed to me suddenly. This is a place I can make things that don't have to be sold to a gallery. No one even has to see them. They are just little things to play with... tiny magic carpets for garden trolls perhaps. And the loom fits in my backpack.
 
Jim Hokett's small looms and tools are beautiful and a lot of fun to work with. If you ever get the chance to go to a conference where he is a vendor, make sure to stop at his booth. It is a treasure trove. You can find out more about him on his blog: http://wouldworkifhewantedto.wordpress.com/
Yes, that is "Hokett Would Work". He is a funny guy, that Jim.