Day and Night and Artemisia

Greetings during these remaining days of 2017!
Now we are experiencing the subtle shift which the equinox brings to us, from dark to light.
When I was designing this work, however, we were in the waning days of late autumn, as night overtakes day.
Listening to the quiet voices of the chaparral, I heard echoes of my own voice amidst the call of the artemisia (aka California sagebrush).
I gathered the last of the blooms, now mostly seed pods, and wove them into yarns of wool and cotton, using a tapestry technique know as “clasping”: two shuttles, one entering each side of the shed and wrapping around each other within the shed, in this instance forming a line of dark and light.  The mix of blue yarns in the warp represent rain — as my friend Tim so aptly pointed out when he saw the piece.
It’s on display at 2Create Gallery, at the east end of Main Street in Ramona.  17” x 24”   $332

on the east end of Main Street, in my home town of Ramona.          17” x24”          $332

More on Sacred Waters

When someone asked me for more information about “Sacred Waters”  I realized I had neglected to write my characteristic story of the genesis of the weaving, as well as technical details, so here ‘tis:

I was inspired to weave this piece while on a hike we took last Spring at the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument in northern New Mexico. It is a celebration of the profound role that water plays in the life of planet Earth.
The change of vegetation as we hiked down into the 800-foot deep gorge and then along the coursing waters of the Rio Grande and up again to the plain reawakened in me a recongnition of the role of water in our environment, as well as the role we play in honoring and preserving places such as Rio Grande del Norte.
I used tamarisk twigs and foothill buckwheat and junko grasses, along with yarns and beads and a smattering of metallic threads to evoke the sparkling quality of the rushing waters of the great river.
27”x31”.  $490.  Please share my blog with a friend.  Thank you!
 Best wishes and many blessings to all...kcc..........have a peaceful day............kccweaves@gmail.com

Sacred Waters

Greetings from Boston! What a fabulous city! I’ve been thoroughly enjoying immersing myself in the art scene here. Today I will round out my visit at the Institute of Contemporary Art, tomorrow I head home.
It’s been quite a journey, from April until now, and I’m grateful for every moment. (Especially the three weeks we spent in Santa Fe and Taos!)
When last we met I posted about weaving throws.  I wove several in the intervening months, along with a few more botanical weavings.
Five new botanicals went first to Borrego Art Institute’s Kessler’s Kitchen, for the month of May.
Then, in June, at the behest of owner/manager Molly Begent, I took a mix of four new and old weavings to 2Create Gallery in Ramona. (www.2creategallery.com)
Two have sold (yeah!) and since then I have adopted a routine of replacing/switching out a new weaving each month.  As you can imagine, this keeps my focus on weaving, and I’m loving it!
I finished my latest work before I left for Boston, so it’s ready to hang this weekend when I am home again.
Here it is: Sacred Waters

To Weave a Throw

In between my last post and today, I designed, measured, threaded onto looms, and started weaving two new warps: one botanical and one a throw. Many people comment on what it must take to ready a loom for weaving, so I thought it would be fun to post a blog on this topic.
The inception of the process does not follow a singular path, but varies.  Sometimes it starts with an impulse of colors and/or types of yarns, other times it might be what plants catch my eye, and occasionally a comment from someone who sees my work and and wants "something like that".
The latter spawned my newest warp for a series of four throws.
B wanted a throw like the one I made in October, but a different color.  "How about blues?"  "Okay!"
Here's what the warp looked like as I was winding it on my warping mill:

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I wound twelve yards each of six different yarns to give me 46 inches of width on which to weave four throws.  Total 546 strands, six strands at a time in four bundles, to increase the efficiency of the processes of measuring, counting, which took just under a couple of hours.

Next: transferring the yarns onto the loom:

 

This part takes several hours, and requires a good deal of concentration so as not to miss- thread a heddle or cross-thread the warp.  I break it up into 30- to 45- minute segments so I don't lose concentration and also so I don't end up with a stiff shoulder!

Once the heddles are threaded and the reed sleyed, it's time to tie the warp onto the from beam and weaving can start.  (Mind you, some would say  it's all "of a piece" , meaning the weaving starts when you start measuring your yarns. This is true for me.)

Here's the first of the four throws:

B, I hope you like it! It was a joy to weave, as always!

Next post: Romancing the Sages.....

This morning the thought came up: find beauty in small things.
Finding beauty in small things magnifies the beauty each cycle of day and night holds.  It magnifies the beauty that life holds.  We need only hearts that open and eyes that see.
The fragility of life, its ephemeral nature, gives us pause, brings beauty into focus.
This is what my latest botanical weaving represents: beauty in small things, life's fragile, ephemeral nature, bringing beauty into focus.
Please take a moment to pause, and see what you can see....
"Oaks" is 37"x19".

Greetings! As you well know, Spring is bursting out all over.  However, this morning I want to take you back in time to December 15, 2016, for the weaving I want to show you today was inspired by a scene I witnessed on that date. To wit:

What a glorious sunrise this was!  And I was moved to try and capture it with yarns and twigs and a collection of amber beads I had stashed away in my studio.  Here's the final product -- you may recognize it from an earlier blog, when I was pictured at my work table twining the fringe.  I call it "Mesa Sunrise".  53"x29"

The recent rains have plumped up Earth and her greenery, suffused the air with scents of growth and decay and all manner of chaparral scents, including the various sages' pungent
This little weaving, 18"x13", was extemporaneously woven on Monday when the sages were calling for my attention.

Greetings!
At the insistence (dare I write "persistence"?) of my friend Nina, I am posting close-ups of yesterday's image of "Manzanita Reverie".
With these you may better appreciate the subtlety of the weave structure, not to mention colors, plant textures, ....ENJOY!

From the OED:
REVERIE:  1) joy, delight, wildness, wantonness; 2) fantastic, fanciful; 3) a daydream.
Yes!  That perfectly captures the essence of this happy piece, which I have entitled "Manzanita Reverie". Those bits of plant that you see wantonly arranged in the body of the weaving pictured here (more clearly if you enlarge the image) are manzanita catkins.
I collected them late last fall. They were all over the great rounded manzanita plants which practically cover our hillside, and they simply called out to me to include them in a weaving.
Of course, manzanitas are not the only native California plants we have here; hence I've woven in sages and everlastings and asters and grasses and poppy pods at the top of the piece, and then inserted a row of sweetly fragrant salvia clevelandia leaves along with that vibrant red stripe just below center line.
I have my friends Jill and Beryl to thank for the rough-spun natural flax yarn I used as a major component of the weft, and I have my friend Carolyn to thank for the coral bead embellishment on the fringe.  Overall measurement: 24"x24".
May this reverie of mine bring you much joy!

Friends are such a blessing in life!
My friend Nina shared a quote with me from a passage she read in "Art and the Artist".  Here's an excerpt:  "...a piece of art is just a piece of the heart of the artist.... The expression of a piece of art is the expression of the life of the artist."
So it is with me.  Every time I gather plants for weaving I feel as though I'm gathering a part of my heart, a part of myself, to weave into something beautiful and endearing and enduring.
I currently have two works in process, one of which is close to completion, and I'll share a photo of it on my next post after it is finished and ready to hang.
For now, take a peek at my other work in progress, "Chaparral Sunrise".

Greetings! It's a new year and a new weaving!  This one's called "Wildflower Whimsy".
When I was gathering materials, I also gathered the qualities of wildflowers that came to my mind: freshness, fullness, innocence, wildness, harmlessness, simplicity, artlessness, gentleness, naturalness.  This botanical weaving is an expression of all of these, with innocence and simplicity perhaps more readily evident.
The fine gauge pale yellow warp yarn, and the open tabby/plain weave structure,  present simplicity and innocence.  The mixture of colors and textures of the additional yarns, as well as the flowers themselves, evoke the range of qualities I called upon.
And as I wove from top to bottom, I cut away an inch or so of the warp, symbolic of the bit-by-bit loss of natural habitat for these adorable and yet vulnerable treasures.
Next week: "Chaparral Sunrise". Meanwhile, be well and happy in pursuit of your passion!