A sense of accomplishment

I think what I really do as an occupational therapist is try to give people a sense of accomplishment--that they are doing something meaningful with the present moment. At least I think that is what might be the most important thing about my OT job... not so much the talking and the gait belts and the planning and the paperwork and the productivity and the weights and the suspended equipment (that is for sensory integration with kids for those of you who have gutter heads) and the therapy balls, the details the details the details.

Making art is where I feel that sense of accomplishment myself--not that I'm getting anywhere, just that I like what I am doing when I am lost in the studio. I feel like the moment is as it should be despite the details. So my OT professors were right all those years ago when they said that meaningful occupation is important (and it has been more years than I want to admit since I finished graduate school... a child born when I finished would be getting close to graduating from high school now just for some perspective). Humans need to do something that has meaning in their lives and that goes for pretty much everyone. I have found that to be true for my patients in the clinics, schools, homes, nursing homes, and hospitals, and I find it to be true for myself in my studio. Do what you love. Do something that means something to you... I like to believe we'll all be better off for it.

April is Occupational Therapy month. Do something that is meaningful to you. And then hug an OT.

Teaching in New Mexico in June

I will be teaching a three day class at Espanola Valley Fiber Arts Center (EVFAC) June 15-17, 2012. Many of you have been asking when I'm teaching in New Mexico this year, and this is your chance to take a new class from me and support a great organization at the same time.

The class I am teaching is Symbols of the Southwest. Here is the class description:

The southwestern United States is a place rich in culture, landscape, and weaving traditions. Tapestry weaving here is practiced by Navajo, Hispanic, and Puebloan weavers with traditions that reach back hundreds or thousands of years. In this class we will explore questions about the influence of traditional southwestern weaving on contemporary tapestry practice and how symbols are important in Native and Hispanic weaving practice over the last centuries and today. Most importantly, we will consider how we can use symbols from our own experience to inform our design process and investigate the essential pieces of ourselves that lead us to art making. We will use symbol as a design tool, create several tapestry cartoons, and weave either a small tapestry or a study for a larger work.

More information about this class is listed on the EVFAC website under Classes: http://www.evfac.org/classes.html 
and on my website here: http://www.rebeccamezoff.com/teaching/

This class is going to be a lot of fun. I believe that making art is about finding what is essential in ourselves and expressing that in some way. This class uses symbol as a place to start designing for tapestry. We will struggle with what is and isn't weaveable, what sorts of symbols traditional weavers in the American Southwest use, and how we can use symbol and visual imagery from our own lives to inform our tapestry designs. I will provide hand-dyed tapestry yarn as well as a wide range of resources from which students can experiment with different sorts of symbols. Bring your pencils, tracing paper, and your loom (or borrow one from EVFAC) and lets get weaving!

About EVFAC: Espanola Valley Fiber Arts Center is a non-profit center that serves fiber enthusiasts throughout northern New Mexico. The facility has a large collection of looms that can be rented or used for classes. The staff is friendly and knowledgeable and membership to the center brings great benefits. They are expanding their stash of knitting yarns (yeah!) and also carry weaving supplies. They have a dye kitchen and a members library. I recommend a visit and membership if you are in the area! Espanola is 25 miles north of Santa Fe, NM and 45 miles south of Taos.


Here is another post I wrote about EVFAC with more photos: /rebeccamezoff/2011/06/espanola-valley-fiber-arts-center.html

Why skunks are not smarter than I am...

I am only supposing that skunks don't have the cognitive capacity of your average human due to the number I pass dead on the road every day. Sadly, I am not able to get close enough to one to complete a mini mental to test this theory.

Unfortunately, my particular skunk made a reappearance last night. I spent the day making pilgrimage to my storage locker. I promised Emily I would keep my phone in my pocket in case something heavy fell on top of me, but all that happened was that some guy called me twice from a "private" number and said, "Hey (deep silence)". Twice. I hope it was a wrong number.  Anyway, I did manage to find my dye sample book which was the chief reason for driving to Taos today as well as a list of other items plucked from various boxes including the reed I need to warp the LeClerc.

Cassy happy I left room for her in the car between the loom bench, boxes of yarn, and the rolls of cartoon paper and mylar

As I was relaxing last evening with a great new book about tapestry (Tapestry Weaving: Design and Technique by Joanne Soroka--and yes, my copy came from the Brits as it isn't published in the US yet and sometimes you just can't wait especially when it is free shipping from the UK), I heard some suspicious scrabbling at the wall behind the couch--the "back door" hole so to speak. And when my skunk-loving dog Cassy wanted to go out, she was way too happy about the back yard. Her insistent sniffing in the area of the "front door" hole-turned-big-pile-of-rocks (see this post) made my heart sink. I retrieved a flashlight and confirmed a new hole and very recent skunk activity judging by the excitement of one elderly labrador. Whoever said that skunks are lazy and don't like to dig too far hasn't met my high-achieving skunk. She just started digging at the edge of the rocks and busted her way in.

The "back door" hole attempt which apparently was quickly given up on as the skunk moved on to the "front door" hole.

That rock she moved is bigger than a grapefruit and probably weighs half of what the skunk does.

I wonder whether heavy construction, a wheelbarrow of cement, or a meet-and-greet should be my next approach. I do feel that I need to be prepared for the inevitable skunk-meets-dog encounter. This will involve a trip to town to get large quantities of hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, and dish soap. When these three things are mixed, the glop goes a long way to neutralize the noxious odor. But THIS time I am going to be prepared with a garden hose, elbow-level rubber gloves, and preferably a hazmat suit. I wonder if I can find one of those at my local feed store.

Why I knit

Sometimes I just need a break from the whirlwind of trying to hold down two jobs (which, admittedly is my choice)--my "real" job as an artist and my "moonlighting" job as an OT (and honestly some days those labels are flipped)... and like most sane humans, when it gets to be too much, I knit.

One day not so long ago, I suggested a field trip to Buena Vista, a town 110 miles north of here which just happens to have a fantastic yarn store. When you live in a very rural area and you depend on fiber like I do, it doesn't seem crazy to drive 110 miles on a whim to visit a yarn store when you already have a closet full of yarn (as Emily tried hard not to point out too strongly). It didn't take much bribing beyond mentioning Amicas, the favored pizza place in Salida (they have GF crusts!) to get not only Emily, but my sister, brother-in-law, and 12 day old baby to agree to the outing.

I found some beautiful yarn, and felt a whole lot better after an hour of feeling and sniffing the wool.

She got milk, I got pizza. (Her hat was another knitting project of mine. It says, "Got Milk?" Pattern by Smoothfox and available on Ravelry HERE)

Sheep mural at Amicas... which is also a microbrewery though unfortunately the beer is not gluten free.

So if you ever see a crazed look in my eye and my hands feverishly gripping a pair of knitting needles, take a step back and please remember this:

bumper sticker soon to be added to my car's collection...

It works too.

Tales of a Traveling Weaver, Alamosa

... the next adventure...

Here I am living between Alamosa and Monte Vista Colorado. Again.
I didn't think I'd come back to the SLV (San Luis Valley), not because it isn't a beautiful place with great people, but because I really expected my trails to lead me other places.  But the way was clear for 6 months living near my sister, brother-in-law, and new niece. I moved here two days before she was born and already everything is changing before my eyes. Kids grow fast. And it seems my life does lately too.

I live in the midst of center pivot farms. There are cranes and skunks and sheep here. The neighbors behind me have a herd of some kind of big sheep which occasionally wanders toward my back yard. And the sheep dog made friends with my labrador Cassy the other day...

I'm moved into the new house. I started a new job "moonlighting" as an occupational therapist. I'm working hard on the weaving. I finished the commission this week, "finished" being a relative term as I just mean it came off the loom and all the tapestry weavers out there know how much more work is needed to get the piece to the new owner. 

I pulled out the LeClerc tapestry loom that was my grandmothers and stared at it puzzled for quite awhile as I realized I had never warped a large vertical loom like this one and I didn't know how to do it! Oh, I had some ideas, but none of them seemed quite right. I was looking for a way to put on a continuous warp like I do on the smaller vertical tapestry looms, but couldn't come up with something that would work well for a long warp. I unrolled the old linen warp my grandmother had on the loom and found that the top beam had gotten wet at some point when she had the loom as the warp was molded to the apron. This was minor damage and will be remedied fairly easily.  As for the warping, Tommye Scanlin came to my rescue and I think I now have a warping plan. All I have to do is dig a long enough reed out from under piles of book boxes in my storage locker 90 miles from here. If you don't hear from me soon, look under the books and loom parts.

Thanks to my father for putting the LeClerc back together when I was busy with other things, to my Uncle Carl for good suggestions of how to get the rust off the rods where they got wet, and to Tommye for warping suggestions. 

The Shannock loom of James Koehler

James Koehler passed away unexpectedly March 4, 2011. He left behind a studio full of looms . Two large looms remain and are now for sale. The 100 inch Cranbrook loom was described in the last post HERE. The other loom is a 100 inch Shannock tapestry loom. James bought this loom in the last year of his life. He was considering a move to using a vertical tapestry loom. He had a machinist make a special rack for a reed to replace the larger-spaced raddle that the Shannock came with and was ready to warp the loom when he died.

There is a detailed PDF on my website HERE with specifications and many more photos of this beautiful loom. I wish I had room in my studio for it myself! Please feel free to contact me using the information on the PDF or through my website with more questions or if you want a higher resolution copy of the PDF for printing or posting. The loom is currently in James' old studio in Eldorado near Santa Fe, NM. Pickup is recommended. This loom is very heavy even disassembled. Pricing and other details available at the link below. Asking $6000 or best offer.

Link to the page on my website with information about both of these looms: http://www.rebeccamezoff.com/koehler-loom-information/loom-pdfs/

The Cranbrook loom of James Koehler

When James Koehler died March 4th, 2011, he left a beautiful studio full of looms. The smaller looms all sold quickly, but the biggest two looms remain.

This loom was the workhorse of James' studio and he created many of his tapestries on it over the 20+ years he owned it. It is in exquisite condition and now it needs a new home.

A detailed PDF is downloadable from my website at this link: http://www.rebeccamezoff.com/koehler-loom-information/loom-pdfs/. The specifications of the loom are available there as well as my contact information. If you need more details or a copy of the PDF that can be printed and posted, please contact me. This loom is still in James' old Eldorado studio near Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pickup is recommended. Asking $8500 or best offer.

A commission James was weaving for a hotel in South Lake Tahoe, 2009

The other loom of James' that is for sale is a 100 inch Shannock. Details of this loom will follow this week.