Taos Fiber Marketplace, a brief recap

I did demonstrate at Taos Fiber Marketplace on Saturday at the Taos Convention Center. It was not a lovely day and Taos was not flooded with crowds of people enjoying the sunshine. In fact, at one point it was snowing. But I did meet many amazing people, most of whom were vendors or artists, and I enjoyed my time there. And I was pleased to have a couple potential students and people interested in my work come and search me out specifically.

Here are a few photos from the weekend. And of course I did a lot more talking than weaving, so little progress was made on the Mirrix.
 
I bought some more tools from Jim Hokett of Hokett Would Work. He makes amazing weaving tools in his workshop in Magdalena, NM. I have not used a boat shuttle for years, but he had some very tiny ones made for using that little bit of warp you want to fill at the end of your project. I never have that problem with tapestry, but I do have trouble with the warp-as-weft sections I use in my headers especially on the Mirrix. The bobbins I have the warp wound on are difficult to get through the narrow Mirrix warp. One of Jim's shuttles was perfect! And it is gorgeous.







This is Bettye Sullivan and the rugs she and her husband Alex make.
I was rather unreasonably excited about this idea. This is Margaret Sunday's flower hammer being held up by magnets. Look at all the tools you can keep track of with an idea like this. I'll be looking for those magnets. Thanks Margaret!

Bengt Erikson tapestries at Collected Works

Bengt Erikson has a show of his tapestries at Collected Works in Santa Fe. The show will be up through May. There are seven tapestries hanging.

My favorite pieces are the School House and Old Church--Finland. I love the simple lines and intriguing forms.
School House, Bengt Erikson, 57 x 47 inches, wool/cotton/linen/stainless steel
Here is a detail of the bottom section of School House. I loved how this shifting 2-warp pattern created texture but blended together from farther away.

There was a similar textural effect on the left side mid-green portion of Old Church--Finland though this time I believe it was pick and pick.
Old Church--Finland, Bengt Erikson, 50 x 45 inches, woolcotton



Detail, Old Church--Finland




15 Ambrose Street, Bengt Erikson, 50 x 47 inches, wool/cotton; Spring--Tacoma, Bengt Erikson, 46 x 38 inches, wool/linen


I enjoyed seeing Bengt's work and I recommend a stop to see it. Also look at his beautiful website at www.eriksontapestries.com. Look for Mim's Favorite hanging near the coffee bar. I didn't get a good photo of this piece, but it is a vibrant blue with trees suggested in orange-brown trunks and green tops. I was really inspired by the simplicity and beauty of Bengt's designs. I will have to return to see them again before they come down.

And if you're a local Santa Fean and you've never been to Collected Works, now is the time. It is a great independent bookstore and they even have a coffee shop.

Taos Fiber Marketplace, this Saturday!

 I will be at Taos Fiber Marketplace this Saturday from 9 am to about 4:30 pm demonstrating tapestry. (I reserve the right to leave to either go to the bathroom or get some lunch in case that is when you're looking for me!)

My new postcards arrive tomorrow.
My loom is warped and a demo piece underway.
Unfortunately the car is still filthy and the dog has to go to the kennel. But other than that, we're good to travel!

If you're in Taos this Saturday, April 20th, stop by the convention center and look me up! The website for Taos Fiber Marketplace is HERE.









If not, maybe you should come by Taos Fiber Marketplace this weekend... that is Taos, New Mexico by the way. Taos Convention Center. Check this website for details: http://www.taosfibermarketplace.com/

Hey, You're Okay.

Thursday is a good day. I get to work in the studio. There is much to be done.
Warping is underway (Harrisville done Tuesday, Mirrix done today).
New ideas are scattered on the design table.
I passed my fire inspection today and will have my business license momentarily.
There are boxes of stuff scattered about for me to constantly trip on. But some of the furniture has arrived and I am somewhat naively assuming that having a place to unpack the boxes into will decrease the tripping hazards.

Emily was in Denver this week and she was kind enough to stop at IKEA and pick up some of the furniture I needed for the studio (and "kind" doesn't actually begin to describe it. She managed to get an 80 pound box of wood that was 5.5 feet long into her Toyota Camry--no small feat). IKEA is one of those places you go into and before you know it, a whole day has disappeared. This is why I didn't go along. I'd still be there in one of those little mock-bedrooms wondering if I could make my bedroom create the same feeling in me and knowing that I can't do it. It was so much easier to send her with a shopping list. She has more self-control.
So we spent some of today putting that furniture together.

The IKEA guys... make sure you have a friend to help you!




At some point I had to go to the hardware store for a rubber mallet because my hands hurt too much from trying to get the parts to go together and the regular hammer chipped the white finish.



And finally I was able to unpack some yarn and figure out whether I have all the colors I need for my workshop in May (see details HERE). I have to dye a few more colors before May 4, but I think I can handle it.
And the challenge of starting an enterprise that has to succeed for several reasons can be really scary.

Fortunately I ran across this TED talk the other night while surfing Netflix.
This is Ze Frank talking about people and care and his Chillout song. I put the song on my iPhone and have been listening to it a lot. You can hear it HERE. Just push the little black triangle on the top of the page. He wrote the song for a woman who emailed him asking for help with her anxiety. He got people to sing along to his track while wearing headphones, record themselves, and then used those tracks to put the song together.
Hey.
You're Okay.
You'll be fine.
Just Breathe.

It helps.

Warping the countermarch loom...

I am happy to say that my Harrisville Designs Rug Loom is now warped. It took about 4 hours longer than I thought it would. It always does. I ran into problems at the end with the tie-up. Apparently after a year and a half in storage and three years of never changing the treadling before that, I have forgotten how to tie it up. After some pondering, I managed to make basket weave with this tie-up:
(where O is a raised shaft and X is a lowered shaft)
Basket weave was nice and all, but not quite the tapestry structure I was looking for. So I tried again with this tie-up (I double the treadle tie-up so that I can reach them easily no matter which side of the loom I am sitting on--you would really only need two treadles):
Bingo. Plain weave.
At one point I was so flustered that I tried to find a diagram online for a countermarch tie-up. The information available is remarkably scare. I will definitely be making a video about this subject before too long. Geez! I am sure there are weavers out there who warp their looms as infrequently as I do (after all, how often do you do a tie-up for your tapestry loom? Only when you take it apart to move it!) and I imagine them all madly googling "countermarch tie-up" and finding nothing much useful.

I went to high school in an age where I did my research in the library with a card catalog and index cards. I copied down information from the books BY HAND. When I was in college I think the card catalog was on computer, but I still was using books (you know, those wads of paper bound together on one edge) for the actual research. By the time I got to graduate school I had a computer into which I typed the information I was copying from, you guessed it, books. But now, I expect to be able to find information like how to tie up a countermarch loom in plain weave (for goodness sake!) on my smart phone in about 5 seconds. The information wasn't there. There was an excellent article by Madelyn van der Hoogt, but it was super hard to read on the tiny screen and the photos were for a different sort of loom than mine and my brain was tired. (The article was from Weaver's magazine, Issue 26 which I believe was printed in 1994.) In the end I dug out Rachel Brown's The Weaving, Spinning, and Dyeing Book. She had a draft for twill for a countermarch loom in there and from that I realized what I had to do. Problem solved. Thanks so much Rachel. You always come through for me.
(The writing on my equipment is courtesy of my grandmother. She didn't have a single piece of weaving equipment that wasn't written on. Mostly it is endearing except perhaps for the first edition weaving books that are underlined within an inch of their lives.)


 

I am pretty glad to be done with this part of the warping especially. I am 5' 10" tall and when I have to climb inside the loom I do understand the greatness of Cranbrook's extended back space. That sectional back beam isn't a very comfortable back rest.

Weaving Tapestry in Santa Fe


To get the ball rolling in my new studio, I am going to be teaching my Color Gradation Techniques for Tapestry class May 4, 5, and 7.
Here is a little something about the class:
Tapestry weaving is the ultimate slow fiber movement. It is also a tradition that is deeply rooted in New Mexico. Santa Fe is the center of that mix of Hispanic, Native, and contemporary tapestry weaving and the result is uniquely New Mexican. Rebecca Mezoff’s tapestry studio in the Second Street art district is a beautiful place to come and learn the art of tapestry or refine skills you already have. The never-ending movement of weft through warp is a wonderful way to express creatively as well as a way to slow down and find some rhythm in life.

Color gradation is a striking feature of Rebecca’s work. She loves to teach the blending of color to students with a variety of techniques and her large palette of hand-dyed wool yarn. During this three-day class, students will explore the movement of color in tapestry by weaving a sampler. Different forms of tapestry techniques to move color will be explored and we will create color gradations in all directions in the weaving. Color mixing techniques will be explored and some color theory will be discussed. More advanced students will utilize the techniques to weave a study for a larger piece. Class fee includes use of Rebecca’s hand-dyed tapestry yarn as well as extensive handouts and resources. The class includes Powerpoint presentations as well as the opportunity to create in a working tapestry studio.

This class is offered Saturday, Sunday, and Tuesday giving you a day on Monday to explore the art districts of Santa Fe or experience some of northern New Mexico.

You can find my other class listings (with more coming soon!) and some testimonials about my teaching on my website at http://www.rebeccamezoff.com/teaching/.

The class will be small and we will have a lot of fun!
Class fee is $295 for the three days which includes my standard materials fee for the hand-dyed yarn we will be using. Students will need to bring their own warped loom for the class, either a small floor loom or a table-type tapestry loom (such as a Mirrix).

Please email me if you'd like to sign up for this class. Eventually I'll be rolling out an online sign-up system, but I'm not quite there yet! rebecca (dot) mezoff (at sign) gmail (dot) com