Tapestry Diary

,

Tapestry diary: Agnes Martin

,
Tapestry diary: Agnes Martin

While teaching in Taos, NM in January, I visited the Harwood Museum. I saw many marvelous things there, one of them being the Agnes Martin room. On my Tacoma trip this month, I wove a tapestry diary piece in tribute to Agnes Martin (1912-2004). . . .

I wanted to play with these feelings in a tapestry diary piece both to think more about how her paintings were constructed physically but also as a way to remember my reaction to the work. The tiny 2 x 2 inch tapestry is nothing like an Agnes Martin painting, but the experience of making it absolutely cemented something about the work in my mind and made me excited to learn more about her creative experience.

The making of this little tapestry diary piece was nothing special and indeed, did not take long to weave. But the experience and process of making it helped me revisit the art in my mind and think again about how and why it was made.

,

Yarn experiments and more little weavings

,
Yarn experiments and more little weavings

I grew up in New Mexico so it always feels like coming home when we decide to come south for a little vacation. We’re back for the week spending some time with family and friends and watching the snow storms roll across the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. I packed the car with a small selection of little looms, fleece, yarn, and a couple spindles for a week in northern New Mexico. Thus far I’ve finished a piece I started in Georgia and have warped a few more looms with some vague ideas what the next tapestry diary piece will be on one of them. I thought I’d share a few things I’m messing around with for fun this week.

,

Fall in Colorado: weaving leaves

,
Fall in Colorado: weaving leaves

The leaves are changing. In fact, after the snow we had last week, they’re probably mostly done. I’ve taken a few high-altitude hikes lately to enjoy them and found the colors inspiring for tapestry design. Of course the design process always starts with photos when it involves a place I’ve been though sometimes the final weaving looks nothing at all like the photo. I’m usually interested in the feeling of the place more than depicting it in woven form. These sorts of inspirations usually get approached first in my tapestry diary.

The end of September we went to Pingree Park (those of you who come to my CSU Mountain Campus retreats know it well). There is a broad swath of aspens surrounding the campus and they were brilliantly yellow and orange that week. I was still pretty tired from my east coast trip, so we only hiked about 6 miles through the leaves enjoying the sunshine.

,

A tapestry weaving demo

,
A tapestry weaving demo

I made a video while weaving some of the tapestry I talked about in my last blog post. It shows me weaving for about 13 minutes on The Beckys. This is a tapestry diary piece about personalities and perception. This version of the video starts with me talking for a moment in my campsite and then the rest of the video is me weaving. I’ve added music in case you get bored, but feel free to turn the volume off after I stop talking if my music choices are not yours.

I made a second version of this video with real-time commentary about what I was doing and why for the Weaving Tapestry on Little Looms online course. If you’re in that course, you can find that version of the video in the Answer Vault section of the class. It describes how and why I am making the choices I’m making while weaving. If you haven’t taken it yet, now is a great time to do it.

,

Little Looms and Ani

,
Little Looms and Ani

I’ve been going to Rocky Mountain Folks Festival in Lyons, CO since 1996 when I was gifted a ticket for the weekend. Later I dated someone who not only went for the full weekend but also for song school the week before. Now I choose who I want to go hear and this year it was Ani DiFranco. She was headlining Friday night and there were a few other bands I wanted to hear, so off we went last Friday to Planet Bluegrass to sit in the sun and the rain and hear some music.

It turns out that festivals are also good places to weave. I brought my tiny copper pipe loom and finished the tapestry diary piece just before it got dark.

,

Process not product. Travel weaving.

,
Process not product. Travel weaving.

Emily was off speaking at a conference on the east coast last weekend and I decided to take myself camping. I loaded up the car with all my favorite bits of camping gear, a cooler of random stuff that was in the frig, and looms + yarn. I had multiple small projects in process and somehow I thought three days in the woods was going to be enough to finish all of them.

Instead, I started a new one.

This little idea was in my tapestry diary idea book and I decided to weave it while testing out this new Handywoman loom.* The piece is called The Beckys and it is about the way I mostly see myself versus how someone else in my life sees me. I’m pretty much the eternal optimist, so you can guess which side is the one I think expresses something about me.** The yarn is wool and silk from weaversbazaar with 20/6 cotton seine twine warp. The campground is pure Colorado.

,

Wet feet and weaving in the woods with a new yarn

,
Wet feet and weaving in the woods with a new yarn

Life gets too busy too often and I forget to sit still sometimes. One of my favorite things to do is go backpacking. I think I like it mostly because it is so simple. A few bits of gear, some food, a good pair of trail runners, and the all-important bug repellant and I can spend time in the woods. Last weekend I went up to the Rawah Wilderness in Northern Colorado for three days. It rained much of the time. There has been so much snow in Colorado this year that not only was I camping next to snow banks, but the ground everywhere was mush… and of course the mosquitos love all the water.