September has been a marvelously creative month for me and that is largely because two of my dearest tapestry colleagues came to visit a week apart. Cornelia Theimer Gardella was here for a week-long joint residency and then Sarah Swett and her adventurous dog Beryl stopped for several nights.
Having fiber friends is important and these visits remind me why that is. Both Cornelia and Sarah have had a big influence in my own tapestry life. I met Cornelia 20 years ago at Northern New Mexico Community College where we were both students in the fiber arts program. And I got to know Sarah through a little fan-girl following and then an American Tapestry Alliance retreat in Colorado almost ten years ago now. She wrote the forward to my book, The Art of Tapestry Weaving.
Why are tapestry friends so important? These two women know me well enough to ask the questions I need to hear. And they’re not afraid to tell me what they see in my work or my choices that might be leading me in directions I’ve said I don’t want to go.
Residency with a collaborator: Cornelia Theimer Gardella
Cornelia came with her husband Kurt to do a residency in my studio. We’re working on a joint project and this was the perfect time to hash out what we needed to work on to make it happen. This is the first residency I’ve done with another person and we also included our spouses who will also have a part to play in the final project. Cornelia and I had time to each work on our own ideas for the project and times we talked together about how and why we got to where we are and our vision for the work over the next year.
We also had time to do a little exploring including a Cliff Palace tour and a sunset hike at Mesa Verde.
Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde National Park. Ranger-led tour.
Sunset at Mesa Verde National Park looking toward Sleeping Ute Mountain in Montezuma Country, CO
Spindles and repeats: Sarah Swett
Sarah talks about her trip to the Four Corners on her Substack blog, The Gusset which I highly recommend you subscribe to. She drove down from Idaho with her heeler Beryl to spend some days talking tapestry and fiber. We discussed all sorts of things: how to make or dye yarn, materials used in tapestry, current tapestry world drama, and the ever-present dogs.
Sarah and I talked some about the way color works in our tapestries these days. I am not going to share my current dye experiments on the blog right now, but they’ve been fun and have some interesting parallels with Sarah’s coffee filter weaving, as surprising as that is.
Dyeing in process for a new tapestry
Collaboration
Both Cornelia and Sarah currently use what might be called a minimalist style of expression in their tapestry weaving and I dearly loved the ideas they both brought forward during our chats. I can only imagine if they’d both been here at the same time, all our creative brains might have caused quite a fiery glow.
I am so looking forward to working on a big project with each of these artists over the next year and a half. Stay tuned for more details as they emerge!*
Weavers and dogs
Beau climbs into Cornelia’s lap
If you’ve been following my journey with Beau, the puppy mill rescue, you’ll know what a joy it is to see this. He climbed voluntarily into Cornelia’s lap. He is still very skittish around anyone he doesn’t know and he forgets he knows everyone most of the time. But if you’re sitting down and are a calm person, he might just decide you’re trustworthy.
Below is what happens when you try to take a photo of two dogs and one of them is an adolescent dachshund who won’t sit still for commands or bribery. Beryl was a sweet lady who sat patiently to have her portrait taken. Sarah eventually had to sit down to get Sal to even join the event.
Good girls. Sal and Beryl probably both ready for a nap. Beau was still unable to join the party due to his difficulties with other dogs.
That is a whole lot of tapestry trouble all in one place.
Cornelia and Rebecca at Mesa Verde National Park
Sarah Swett and Rebecca with two sniffing dogs
*I created the Fringeless four-selvedge warping class with Sarah and you can join the class HERE.
Cornelia and I did our last large project together in 2010 when we had shows in Albuquerque and Erfurt, Germany with our mentor James Koehler. You can read about those on my blog HERE. There are more blog posts if you google or look backwards in time from the one linked.