Follow me. . .

Dearest readers,

I owe you an explanation.  For a couple years now I've been posting pretty much every week, usually on Wednesdays.  In mid-2016 I waded back into the social media waters on Facebook and Instagram . . . and I'm finding that a very rewarding (for the most part!) way to connect with other fiber artists and friends all over.  But as you all know it's also time-consuming.

So for 2017 I'm going to shift to a twice-a-month schedule for this blog, aiming for every other Wednesday.   Please stay with me!  I think my content will be stronger with less pressure to publish every week.

And please. . . (you knew it was coming) Like me on Facebook (Molly Elkind Handwovens) and follow me on Instagram, @mpelkind.  I'll try to post to these outlets every time I post to the blog.

Today, here's what I put on Facebook:

For my fellow tapestry geeks, especially all who were so helpful last week. . . Here's a progress shot showing the 2/2 twill weave in 2 strands of black Frid, forming the border at the bottom and up the left side. It's fiendishly difficult to photograph but I think you can see the texture difference between the twill and the plain weave areas in gray. By the way I'm enjoying weaving on the floor loom! Different, but fun.

XOXO
Molly

A day in the life

It's time for a WIP (work in progress) check-in.  This time I thought it might be fun to share with you "a day in the life" of this artist.  Yesterday, Tuesday 12/6, was somewhat atypical, in that I had no appointments, meetings or exercise classes on the calendar.  A blank slate!  And it was rainy--a perfect excuse to stay inside and work in the studio.

I kissed Sam goodbye at about 7 a.m. and headed downstairs.  I spent 45 minutes working on cleaning up the back of my tapestry diary.  I have tied off the warp ends in fringe on both ends, so it's stable at least.  Because I left so many open warps, it's not as simple as just trimming the weft tails on the back to about one inch.  I have to tack down those tails so they aren't visible from the front.  T-E-D-I-O-U-S!  Note to self:  no open warps on next year's diary!

The back.  The tails at the top are tacked down and clipped, and slits are sewn.

The same area, from the front

Then I wound the last of the skeins of dyed and natural Churro that I picked up at Tierra Wools in New Mexico last month.  I'm thinking of using these for the Mater Dolorosa tapestry that I have in the design stage.  Till now, I've chosen the yarn to fit the tapestry design.  This time. with this thick hairy singles, I'm going to have to adapt the design to the yarn.  That will be interesting.

possible palette for Mater Dolorosa

detail shot of collage in progress for Mater Dolorosa design.  Much work remains.

I fetched the PVC loom with the sample for my current, M3, tapestry in progress and decided there was enough warp on it to do some more sampling.  So I added a hem and wound butterflies from the yarns I want to try.

At 9:30 a.m. I headed to the office to work at the computer, fleshing out the classes I'm offering at SEFAA in the new year.  I'm really excited to share what I've learned about the value of a daily practice in  Discover Your Daily Practice, on January 15.  The following week, in response to requests from my design students last summer, we'll experience a non-threatening method of discussing and evaluating artwork, both others' and our own, in  Art Critique 101.  Three design workshops in Color, Contrast, and Collage will happen in February and March.  Click HERE for more information.  Registration will open in the next couple weeks--I'll let you know!

After lunch I wove for awhile on this piece, whose working title is M3 (for Mary/Mother/Me).  I like how it's going, but it is slow.

I wound the warp up to show the entire piece.  Soon it will begin to wind around the cloth beam! 

After the rain let up I walked Harry and then headed to the Y to swim laps.  For me nothing works so well to get out the kinks in my muscles . . . and my mind!

For me yesterday was pretty much a perfect day.  I am grateful.

The Joy of Finishing

Awhile back I griped in this space about having too many projects underway at once.  I'm happy to report that finally, finally I have got some projects finished, others well underway, and a couple empty looms sitting around, at least for a little while.

I finished the scarf for my sister-in-law, plus three extra for our upcoming show.  Please check my Facebook page for details about that event if you're in the Atlanta area, Nov. 11-13.

tencel and silk-alpaca infinity scarves (c) Molly Elkind

tencel infinity scarves (c) Molly Elkind

I selected several of the collages I've done this year and, thanks to the patient instruction of my dear husband Sam, learned how to cut mats for them.  What an incredible difference it makes to put a mat around something!  These affordable pieces will also be in our show.

collage of painted words and torn paper in sketchbook

dictionary page for "annunciation" and pasted paper collage

L to R:  "Huh?", Red (T)his, Annunciation,  matted and cropped collages (c) Molly Elkind 2016

L to R: Column and Spiral, Weeping for Istanbul, Manuscript/Portal, collages (c) Molly Elkind 2016

I was very happy to finish a set of four 4" x 6.5" small tapestries that I've been thinking of as small contemporary illuminated manuscripts, because they contain or allude to text.  Three of them were inspired by the collages in the top group photo above.  I'm happy overall with how they turned out, but boy, were they fiddly, in both the weaving (12 epi) and the finishing!  I did and re-did the edge finishes, first thinking I would hide the warp fringe (with a half-damascus that would turn the warps to the back) and then deciding to expose it.  I never could get the corners to be as neat as I wanted.  I like that the fringe is visible.  These will also be in our holiday show/sale Nov. 11-13.

Clockwise from upper left:  Huh?, Red (T)his, WTF, and Annunciation, handwoven tapestries  (c) Molly Elkind 2016

I'm still working on the large Mary tapestry, and I expect it to take several more months at the rate I'm going.  I'm discovering just how hard it is to weave a self-portrait.  Just call me Penelope. 

M3 (working title) in progress

Meanwhile I'm designing the next Mary piece, a smaller tapestry on the theme of Mater Dolorosa, the sorrowing or weeping mother.  Goodness knows, if Mary is paying attention at all, she must be weeping over our world.  I'm thinking of incorporating somehow tiny shards of obsidian I've collected in New Mexico, known as Apache tears.  Wonder if I can drill through them so I can thread the yarn through?  Let me know if you have any intel on this.  Would a bead-reaming tool work?

study for Mater Dolorosa, with Apache tears 

So, that's the way things stand here.  Don't ask about the quilt.

Reconbobulation area

Something that made me smile in the Milwaukee airport last month was this sign, right after I emerged from the body-scanning machine in security.  Sorry the sign is hard to read; I was trying to take the photo with my old phone, unobtrusively, lest I bring down on myself the wrath of TSA.

Though obviously TSA in Milwaukee has a great sense of humor.  The official-looking sign says, Reconbobulation Area.  What a great word to describe the place for fetching your valuables from the x-ray conveyor belt, putting your shoes and belt and jewelry back on and so on. Reconbobulation.  

That's been what's going on in the studio since I returned from Convergence too.  Reconbobulation: remembering, Oh yeah, that's where I was with this tapestry/sketchbook/this other tapestry/scarf warp/new class ideas. . . .  Oh yeah.  Back to work.

Red This, (c) Molly Elkind

This is the third in a series of 4" x 6" pieces inspired by collages that include words or word fragments. Two pieces of matboard separate this just-finished one from the one I'm about to start. Two other pieces are wound around to the back of the loom.  If I get four small pieces from this warp I'll be thrilled.  It's going to be a close call--I may have to needle in the last few passes on this next piece. Note the warping bar perched on top of the Mirrix loom!

Here's the collage that inspired the next piece, and the yarns I'll use.  Though I may choose a brighter blue than the indigo ball resting on the white.  It'll be fun to try to weave that dictionary page in the background!  I'm thinking pick-and-pick.

On the floor loom I'm working on an infinity scarf in alpaca-silk and tencel, commissioned by my very patient sister-in-law:

  

And this is the piece on the big Varpa tapestry loom.  About 37" wide.

Tapestry, working title M3.  (c) Molly Elkind.  Another in my Mary series.

So far so good.  Really enjoying finally having this on the loom instead of on my design wall!

And the survey of works in progress wouldn't be complete without a peek at the diary:

Tapestry Diary of the liturgical year 

Every incidence of mass murder and terrorism this summer has been noted with brown leaves rather than green.  I acknowledged the anniversary of 9/11 on the far left with a hollowed-out brown outline.

work in progress

Last time I updated you on my work in progress, there were five projects underway.  Now there are four.

The tapestry diary continues, of course, with a little bit of weaving done each day, except for days I am travelling.  We are in the midst of the six-month-long "green season" of Ordinary Time, and I am weaving a different leaf each day.  On the Sunday we learned of the horrible mass shooting in Orlando, it seemed right to weave a dark brown leaf rather than a green one.  Since then, mass murders and terror attacks in various locations at home and abroad have followed at a sickening pace. The brown leaves have multiplied.  Yesterday's recognizes those 19 disabled residents killed in a knife attack near Tokyo.  As I was weaving today's gold-green leaf, top center, I heard of a new attack and so the right half of the leaf is brown.  At this rate I wonder if at some point the green leaves will become the exception and the rest of the diary will be mostly dark.

Molly Elkind Tapestry Diary 7-27-16

I have ripped out and rewoven part of the small WTF tapestry. This is another piece originally inspired by my grief over the murders in Orlando.  Below the weaving you can see the original watercolor.

Molly Elkind, WTF in progress

On a brighter note, I am finally done with dithering, tweaking, sampling and just plain procrastinating on my next big Mary tapestry.  Yesterday I wound the warp for it and today I am going to begin to warp the loom.  Finally!  I'm very excited to start weaving.  Here's the sample weaving I've done for colors, values and shapes.  I'm leaving this sample on the loom in case I need to do more as I weave, but I think I know now what I need to know to begin.

Molly Elkind, sample for next Mary piece

And I treated myself to these cute fabric bins to organize the yarn for this project.  Since I work in our family room I thought something nicer than shoeboxes was called for.

Now that class preparation for Convergence is wrapped up (yay!), this morning I returned to my daily collage practice.  The assignment (from Randel Plowman's book The Collage Workbook) was to be inspired by your horoscope.  I'm not a huge believer in horoscopes but this one, about being in tune with the physical world and creatively inspired by it, seemed OK.

I hope that wherever you are, you're finding time for your own creative explorations!

2 + 3 = 3 too many

Many artists like to work on more than one piece at once, and I do too.  If you get stuck, or tired of puzzling out one piece, you can shift gears to another.

Right now I have about five projects going, though, and that's too many.  It's just making me nuts. This is not the first time this has happened; I seem to be a slow learner regarding where exactly the sweet spot is for me.  Sigh.  But we all know the siren call of the new idea, the seductive thrill of beginning something new that will be the most exciting thing ever, right?

Here's what's in progress at the moment:

1.  On the floor loom, two Tencel twill scarves, in belated fulfillment of an order from my very patient sister-in-law last Thanksgiving   months ago.  The first scarf is a sort of buffalo check, taken straight from the color gamp I did a few years back.  You can see it to the left of the orange line that divides the two scarves, winding around the cloth beam.   The second scarf features a straight diagonal twill with occasional veers into the other diagonal direction, at roughly Fibonacci intervals.

2A.  On the PVC tapestry loom, I'm sampling colors and weave patterns for my next big Mary tapestry.

2B. As I sample I am going back to the full-size draft of the cartoon that's in progress on my design wall and making adjustments.  It's really cool the way sampling colors has allowed me to approach the design with fresh eyes and sharper focus on what I actually need to know in order to begin weaving.  Thank you, Joan Baxter!  Here's a detail of the design.

(c) Molly Elkind 2016

3. On the Mirrix tapestry loom, I'm making a 4" x 6" tapestry in the series I'm thinking of as modern, miniature illuminated manuscripts, a piece entitled WTF, my response to the horror in Orlando.  I'm thinking I need to un-weave and re-do the W and the section around it.  Sigh.

4. And then there's the bed quilt I started a year ago, inspired by Turkish tiles and meant to coordinate with the Turkish rug on the floor in our bedroom.  I thought I couldn't tolerate the way the current quilt clashed with the rug, but apparently I can.  Admittedly, this is a project I work on very intermittently.  I'm still appliqueing the right side panel.  Next steps will be to do the applique border along the top and to seam all the panels together.

5.  And you already know about the tapestry diary from last week's post.  This is a no-stress project, only requiring 15-30 minutes per day.  So it hardly counts in terms of adding to my self-imposed project stress.

My son would say at this juncture, "First world problem, Mom."  And he's right.  I am a very lucky woman to have the time and resources to do this work.

Today in the studio

You know how some days, going to the studio and getting started on artwork just feels like a slog?  You drag your feet.  You have trouble getting started and keep finding reasons to procrastinate--the shelves in the refrigerator need to be wiped down!  I need to dust the bookshelves! 

Today was not one of those days.  I got started at 8:00 and enjoyed the rare feeling of creative flow as I moved from one project to the next.  This was the kind of day that reminds me why I stick with this fiber art stuff.

First, I wove today's segment of my new tapestry diary of the liturgical year.  We are in the third day of the twelve days of Christmas, a season whose color is white.  It's hard to make out, but I have added a line of metallic silver that appears here and there in the white sections.  The unwoven sections of empty warps represent days I was away from the loom, either out of town or, embarrassingly, just forgot my new daily practice. 

Then I turned to winding a warp for my next wearable project, a commissioned infinity wrap for a friend.  She has chosen gorgeous navy and dusky blue alpaca-silk.  Two closely related hues add a depth of color that a single solid color just doesn't have. I'm putting on a warp of almost 8 yards so I'll have enough for two additional wraps as well. 

 I love the feeling of this yarn flowing through my fingers!

Then I thought, Before I put this new warp on the loom I'd better be sure the cloth I'd just woven for another commissioned wrap was actually going to make an acceptable piece.  So I sewed the three lengths of cloth I'd woven into infinity wraps.  So simple--two seams and you're done. 

Sewing the label into the back seam is the final step

I had fun with this warp, varying the treadling for different weave structures and also using different variegated tencel yarns.  Lots of variety from one warp! 

These three wraps were all woven on the same solid-colored sienna tencel warp

The commissioned piece is on the far left; the center and right one are the first pieces in next year's inventory.

Then I turned to my Turkish-inspired bed quilt.  I have appliqued the blue trees with their red and orange teardrop shapes.  Yesterday I made some real headway on designing and preparing the applique flowers for the bottom panel and was eager to see what more I could do today.  I need some hand-applique to do in front of the TV in the evening!  One more set of flowers will be added below the tree on the far left.   

Oh, and since it was Monday, there was laundry to be done.

Chores intervene even on the best studio days. 

Gratitudes

On my morning walk the other day I was struck by the last bits of brilliant autumn color in our suburban landscape.

The warmth of autumn is waning, and there's no denying that winter's chill is on the way, if not already here. 

That's OK.  Like many of you, I'm looking forward to seeing family and friends this week, gathering around the table, amazed and grateful for the bounty we enjoy.  Brilliant color, even against a gray sky, is just one of the things I'm thankful for right now. 

Coincidentally, last week I attended the opening of tapestry artist Tommye Scanlin's show at the University of North Georgia.  It was a real joy to see the paintings she has done on recent residencies at Hambidge Center and the Lillian E. Smith Center, many of them featuring larger-than-life renditions of leaves, and to examine in person the tapestries that have resulted from those paintings.  I studied for a long time the interesting variations in color and visual texture in the backgrounds and borders of these pieces.  These tapestries are more than simply translations of paintings into yarn--though in Tommye's hands that would be satisfying in itself.  In her most recent work Tommye is exploring and exploiting uniquely woven possibilities of expression.  The show is up through Dec. 11; I urge you to see it. 

Here on my own loom, I'm finally getting to work with saturated reds and oranges on the tapestry in progress.  Soon I will be weaving several brightly colored shapes all at once in this piece!  That's pretty exciting after all those acres of plain white. 

Here's hoping your Thanksgiving is warm, festive, and brightly colored! 

Work in progress

 I'm in the final two weeks' production push for work for two back-to-back shows/sales in November.  Here's what's coming off my loom these days.

 

 

 

 

Gold tencel weft on black alpaca-silk warp for shawl.  The photo does not capture the metallic iridescence. 

Long tencel striped twill scarves have been washed and are drying before trimming and finishing

And meanwhile, my tapestry is coming along.  I'm so excited to have finished this spiral, after many attempts! It looks slightly off at the top but that will be fixed when the white background coming up on the left finally reaches and covers the spiral.

What's looming?

Here's what I'm working on these days:

On my 4-shaft floor loom, there's a set of 8 tea towels.  I'm using my favorite yarn for that purpose, American Maid sustainably grown and naturally colored cotton yarn.  I'm weaving a pattern that I think of as a huge gingham check, using three different twill patterns and five colors:  two shades of green and two shades of brown.  The yarns are pretty pale until they're washed, so it may be hard to tell the colors apart on your screen.

I've been blessed with a great response to these since my farming friend, Phil Busman of Cherith Farms, has allowed me to put them out at his CSA this summer.  The folks there really "get" the appeal of cotton grown without pesticides and colored without dyes.  Gotta keep those folks happy with more towels!  This bumper crop of heirloom tomatoes is keeping all of us happy. 

And, drum roll please, I have finally warped my big vertical tapestry loom.  As you can see I had to use a step-stool for part of the threading process.  Many thanks to Tommye Scanlin for her indispensable guide, complete with great photos, for how to dress a high-warp loom.  (See earlier post about "It Takes a Village. . . ").

You may recall that my plan was that I'd scale up this tiny abstract tapestry I'd done years ago for my first try at weaving at a larger size on this new-to-me loom.  This design was loosely inspired by the general layout of illuminated manuscripts.

But after my exposure to pattern upon pattern in Istanbul, the arabesque has crept into my original design, and this is the collage I am using as my design.  No doubt it will evolve during the weaving process, but I am pretty excited about it.  It'll be a challenge to weave those graceful curves!

Meanwhile I've been busy with all the preparing-to-weave tasks:  sampling colors and types of yarn and scaling up the design into a cartoon (line drawing) that will go behind the warp and guide me as I weave.  For the first time for a tapestry, I have to calculate the amount of yarn I'll need, especially for the large expanse of white, to make sure I have enough before I begin.  It would not do to run out of that particular white yarn 3" from the top of the tapestry and then discover I can't find the same yarn to finish with!  So this morning I wove a small section with the white, measured it, and then unwove that section and measured the yarn.  Once I've got a full-size cartoon, I can calculate the number of square inches of the white background and figure out how many square inches of tapestry I can weave with the yarn I have on hand. 

But first I have to scale up the design, using the good ol' grid method.  My 8" x 12" collage will become a 24" x 36" cartoon.  At least the math works out with whole numbers!