Extreme Beading

After a brief hiatus, I am back. Sometimes it is just necessary to hang back a bit instead of going full throttle. I hate being human sometimes, I just really don't have time ;) I have called this project 'Extreme Beading', but have changed it to 'One-A-Day', like the vitamins.
I took all 16" of my loom and warped it for 7 bracelets. I will work them all up, one a day for a week, and then cut them all down and finish them. I know I still have to finish my brow band as well, but figured since the rest of that work is off loom, I will do that in 'down time', hoping to finish that by this Sunday (crossing fingers). Here is a pic of the seven loom designs. I did not run out and purchase the bead colors they show, I used from my stash this time around.

This next image shows the loom all warped and ready for me.

and this is the first piece, still on the loom

I have my next one all ready with the colors from my stash, so I will post it tomorrow. Have a wonderful Wednesday! (PS-I think I came up with my next project all ready! Maybe...)

Working Small

Peruvian Mask, hand-dyed wool tapestry, 47 x 79.5 inches

I’m a rug weaver. Or at least, that’s what I started out weaving, but nobody will put them on the floor. And rugs are big—at least 36 x 60 inches. So I’ve started trying to think smaller, but for me, that still means about 30 x 30 inches. Today while weaving on the Mirrix, I was thinking about how different it is to weave in a small format. The logical part of my brain doesn’t think it should make any difference, but it does. All movements are small and constrained compared to weaving on my large horizontal loom. I am not saying that’s a bad thing, but it is an adjustment. The Peruvian Mask piece at the top of the page is big. I had many more butterflies going than I usually do, and I was standing while weaving, just trying to get this one finished. This one talked to me until I wove it, but I though I’d never get it finished. Of course, the fact that some health-related, family issues were happening at the same time didn’t help!

Now, for a total change of subject—did you think you’d ever hear the words “Elton John sings at Rush Limbaugh’s wedding” used in a sentence? Evidently, it’s true. He’s 59, she’s 33, hmmm… it’s like coming from different countries.

Creativity--I love the creativity and innovation that artists have. Take a look at the jewelry of Kate Cusack, if you haven’t already. Zippers! What I want to know is where she finds metal zippers!

And from Eye/Hand you have these Oaxacan Wonders.

 

 

 

 

 

I have a couple of these that I bought in Oaxaca many years ago. Mine are not the mythical creatures shown here, but the common, everyday animals made mythical with their bright colors and geometric designs. The ones show here are by Jacobo Angeles Ojeda and Maria del Carmen Mendoza Mendez.

Sherri Woodard Coffey:      Website   Blog

Yippee! It worked!

I advanced the warp that I wrote about in today's post, and it actually advanced! I have several small itty bitty unintentional samples, but it looks like I am going to get all the way on this one. Now I am going to try and publish the post from Live Writer. We'll see how that works, hmmm...

Trapezoidal Cube?

It seems that I am weaving a trapezoidal cube, which I’m sure is not possible, but we’ll see. Maybe I can call it a freeform cube. At any rate the above is my current experimentation with the Mirrix. The turquoise oval is made using 2 strands of Paternayan yarn. It is amazing to me how different yarns weave. The Paternayan yarn seems to have a mind of its own. Since this is the first time for using this yarn, I am not sure if there are different varieties of the brand or not. The small square is woven of some cotton that I found at Joann’s. I have also woven in some index card strips to the left of this trapezoid to hold the empty space for what is going above.

It will be time to advance the warp, so I am hoping that, finally, I have a correct warp in place. The picture on the right is the one that I’m working with now. Fingers crossed!

Our local arts organization sponsors various classes for artists, one of which is using Photoshop Elements. Elaine Taylor did an excellent job teaching the class, as always. It’s been a long time since I have looked at that program, but it’s a lot more robust than the original one that I tried out. My Photoshop program (the full version) is very old, and I’m sure that if I buy a new computer, it will need to be replaced. It is also very expensive, so Elements may be the way to go. The regular Photoshop also has way too many bells and whistles that I never use and don’t want to spend the time to understand.

After not feeling very well for a week, I am back to the loom and working, and experimenting with some of the yarns that I wrote about in the previous post. Tomorrow I will have some pictures of what I hope is my correct warp. After this evening I will need to advance it, so we'll see.
Sherri Woodard Coffey

Yarns, Yarns, and More Yarns

Yarns, Yarns, and More Yarns

Sherri Woodard Coffey

I see what is posted from “real” tapestry weavers about the yarns they use, and the one most often mentioned is Paternayan wools. Since I dye all my own wool, I really hadn’t paid much attention to these mentions, other than to notice the word—after all, it IS a pretty unusual word. One way that I hope to use the Mirrix loom is to experiment with a pictorial tapestry, something I’ve never done before. With that in mind, I made a little trip to my local needlepoint shop, The French Knot. This is not the needlepoint store that I remember from many, many years ago; it is NOT your mama’s needlepoint store. The type and variety of yarns now available is astounding! Besides the amazing number of silk, metallic, cotton, and Paternayan yarns, there are also some others that seemed quite interesting. Below are pictures of the types that I bought, but not the colors. I included a color chart for Gold Rush, so the variety of colors can be seen.

The yarn below from the Thread Gatherer comes in a very small skein. It’s 100% kid mohair. You can see the colors that this yarn comes in here.Another mohair yarn that I got is from Gumnut Yarns, an Australian company. It's what they call their Tulips selectionJ. L. Walsh Yarns-silk/merino 50/50 blend. I couldn’t find a website for the company, but I did find this information from Caroline’s Thread and Canvas:

J. L. Walsh Silk
We stock Silk/Wool, a 5-ply 50/50 blend. It is an over-dyed thread with subtle richness and color variation. We currently stock the 50 most popular colors.

This yarn is overdyed, so there are color variations as one would expect. In fact, that’s one of the things I like about my own hand-dyed yarns—the little inconsistencies in the color. Those fascinate me and keep me engaged as I am weaving.

All of these yarns are worth experimenting with in a small way. I would not want to count on them for one of the big pieces without this experimentation, so I’ll throw them into whatever I’m doing on the Mirrix in order to test sett, feel, and appearance.

I really am still beading

We moved, and of course things got all discombobulated. I kept my beading front and center though, just not able to bead as extensively. Here is my latest project, moving along, at a much slower pace but still progressing. Notice the pics of my workspace, how I lay out the beads, I read the pattern on a magnetic board with a magnet strip, and my forever faithful blue plastic piece of a plastic folder.