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Last May I had the opportunity to visit Susan Martin Maffei and Archie Brennan in their studios in New York. It was one of those experiences that is hard to share partly because it can’t be translated well in words and partly because I treasure it so much in my heart that talking about it just doesn’t seem to bring the experience justice. But I’ll give it a go anyway.
Barbara’s work has long been some of my favorite work in tapestry. Take a look at some current and past work in the photos below and then check out her website linked at the end of the post. Her work often deals with issues of humanity’s relationship to the environment but her work is extensive and varied and well worth study.
While we were looking at the show, I asked Barbara some about her practice and if she had any advice for younger artists. She said that she had had a teacher early on who told her to weave every day. She replied that often she didn’t know what was next. She didn’t have an idea for a new piece yet, so she was waiting for that to happen. The teacher replied that it didn’t matter. She should weave every day. If she didn’t have a new idea, she should weave her sketches or anything else she could think of. Just weave.
As someone who often finds herself in that place of “I don’t have the next idea worked out,” I found this to be exceptional advice. I think that the practice brings you through the times where you don’t feel an idea bursting out. The weaving itself will result in new experiences and the next piece will come quicker this way.
Barbara took that advice. She weaves every day and her vast body of work is testament to that.
Sweet mountain air, a community of people who love tapestry, and five days of fun.
The Colorado 2018 design retreat was so much fun. We had a wonderful group of people. As an instructor, it is so rewarding to spend five days with people who are able to ask questions both of the other people but also of themselves. They were able to dive into their creative selves and identify what they wanted to work on and then actually work on it!
This was a retreat where I encouraged everyone to follow their own path. This did mean that they had to think some about what they wanted to work on before coming to the retreat and then follow their ideas with some guidance from me and their fellow weavers throughout the week.
I grew up in Northern New Mexico and have spent much of my adult life living in and around Santa Fe. I love this area of the globe a great deal and have explored a lot of it over the years. People love to visit New Mexico and I often get questions about where they should visit on their vacations.
I get this question so much I thought I'd better write a blog post about it. Please don't think that that is altruistic of me. It is self defense. I love my home state and I'll happily spend 30 minutes writing someone an email listing all the places they should go. This post is my shortcut for future requests. If you have other ideas especially of fiber-related places to visit in Northern New Mexico, please leave them in the comments.
I've really enjoyed seeing the new Fringeless pieces everyone is weaving.
We did a drawing for one of the pieces Sarah Swett wove during the filming of the online class, and this little tapestry is coming to live with Tina W. Congratulations Tina!
So I made a mistake. Maybe.
The jury is still out.
There is a whole industry around teaching online classes and I have taken many classes in how to build successful online classes. And I have built some great ones, so clearly the information I've learned is useful.
But all of those experts advise opening registration in your online class before the class content opens. Build excitement they say. Get them invested with a little bit of content they say. Get them all pumped up they say.
So for Fringeless, I decided to do that.
And I found out that tapestry weavers are an amazingly enthusiastic bunch!
Four selvedge warping for tapestry is something I've been interested in for years. I've followed the adventures of weavers such as Susan Martin Maffei, Michael Rohde, and Sarah C. Swett as they used this technique in their work.
As Sarah Swett and I were shooting the video for our Fringeless: Four Selvedge Warping online class, Sarah talked some about how four selvedge weaving has changed the way she practices her craft. Listen in the video below.
