Monkey Business

I am posting this photo just for the fun of it!
We were recently in India for seven weeks — from mid-January to early March.
Without exaggeration, every moment there was memorable.  We saw many monkeys, of which this one photo is just a peek into the way in which these rascally creatures weave their way into the everyday life of India..
“Monkey Business” isn’t about this kind of monkey though. It’s about a California native flower affectionately known as monkey flower.  It’s one of the first to bloom each Spring. It’s colors range from soft creamy peaches to vivid reds. We have many now blooming on our hillside.  Here’s what they look like:

And here’s a photo showing me working on it, and what my “Monkey Business” looks like:

A Few of My Favorite Things

Greetings friends! It’s been almost five weeks since our return from India — still not quite the length of time we were away.  And even now, not a day passes without some thought or feeling or sense of being in that incredible country overtaking my awareness, and I pause to cherish the gift of remembrance.
Since we’ve been home I have once again taken up my usual pursuits: piano, weaving, flute, long walks.  Spring is upon us...the air is a sweet welcoming caress...beckoning me outside to wander among the burgeoning chaparral. New growth everywhere I look, and wildflowers sprouting among the shrubs.
I started weaving the day after we returned, and just completed “A Few of My Favorite Things” a few days ago, in time to hang it at 2Create before their monthly “First Friday” social event.
It is a celebration of being home again: Spring wildflowers, Cleveland sage, muntz sage, grasses that I gathered years ago and have been keeping for a special weaving, beads from my favorite bead shop in San Luis Obispo, yarns from Colleen’s yarn shop in Ramona.       21”x15.5”      $280

Twilight

TWILIGHT....the in-between time....the last sigh of the day....the quiet, soft time of gathering the threads of the day....the shadows and purple of dusk....the settling in for the night.....
I wove this piece in the twilight of 2017, using long fronds of wand buckwheat that generally grow at higher elevations, but happen to like growing on our hillside as well.
I had started reading poetry again in the morning, and came across a lovely piece from Stephen Mitchell’s anthology entitled “The Enlightened Heart”. Here’s an excerpt from a poem by Lao-Tzu that went straight to my heart:

I have just three things to teach:
Simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and in thoughts,
You return to the source of being.
Patient with both friends and enemies,
You accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself,
You reconcile all beings in the world.

This message went into my weaving of “Twilight”.
The beads are made in Ghana from recycled glass.  “17x28”. $210.  
50% of all my sales are donated to the California Chaparral Institute.
Please share my blog with your friends....thank you!
And here are some photos for your delight:

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.....