It is what it is!

By Kathe Todd-Hooker | February 24, 2010 |
Kona Sunset-Orange is finished except for the twining and braiding. It’s done before the deadline for the Enchanted Pathway exhibit. YEAH!! All I can say is it is about time!!!! I was beginning to worry with all that’s been going on and not going on with FFP and the studio. It has a very boring name. ..Perhaps that will change after I look at it for awhile. Maybe it should just be Kona Orange. It has some interesting colour blends in the sky -oranges and purples mixed together on the bobbin and all through the hatches and hachures. I am not sure orange really describes this piece. I am very happy with the silhouettes’ of the trees against the blazing orange sunset. It’s a technique I will probably use again. The orange pushes the dark navy black to an intensity I wouldn’t have believed possible in a small format piece. The orange is warm enough and the blue black cool enough that it has substances with then appearing like a hole that black elements in tapestries sometimes create visually. Photographing my small format/small sale work can be difficult. There is a shine that happens that makes it look like the warps aren’t covered, when really they are. The rib structure in the photos has a tendency to moiré. The subtle blends are almost too subtle for the photos of the pieces. It’s a real frustration. They almost need to be viewed in real time rather than frozen in a photo. Time to stop moaning and move on! It is what it is!
And, now for the second Kona piece. By the way the
kona pieces are 5 by 7 inches at 20 epi. They are made of dual duty craft thread for the warp and the weft is composed of cotton and or polyesters sewing thread, embroidery floss and rayon embroidery floss. Thank you Jan for the incrediable oranges and the deep turquoise you gave me from your mothers stash. The all cotton oranges and yellows have a beautiful lustre. This is a picture a of the next kona sunset. Taken the next day on the same balcony 1500 feet above the ocean looking out across downtown kona. It is so opposite of Kona Orange in colour. I think the difference was caused by the vog and the erupting valcano.

Good news the So Warped book will be very closed to being finished this week with the exception of the endless proofing and the vast seemingly endless – minutiae that goes along with that such as Indexes, proofing and more proofing that can only be done once the layout is finished. It’s a little longer and stuffed with a lot more information than we thought it would be. So much for the small handbook on warping tapestry looms that we set out to write. We-Pat and I-built a copy of the old pipe loom that I used in graduate school-a pipe loom that was used pre-copper pipe looms. It brings back a lot of memories of sitting by the patio door and weaving obliviously for hours while a plethora of every kid for miles around screamed and created mayhem in the back yard almost silenced by the Debussy’s afternoon of the faun and a healthy dose of Rimsky-Korsokoff and Borodin. Now I have something much more effective my IPOD, but no kids. If you like pulled heddles it works really well for the Gobelin type of heddles. They are so adjustable in height.

Today I tackle the Mirrix. I am really excited about the treadles. I have never personally liked shifting the heddles with my hands, but… It eventfully makes the scar tissue in my palm sore. For most people this isn’t a problem. I also prefer the advantage of being able to use both hands when weaving with my slicker threads at 20-22 epi. But, I do love the Mirrix treadles and the fact i can fit it into a suitcase when I travel. I also like the heddle system itself. It is really fast. I noticed on Lynn Hart’s blog she’s using the heddle bar system on her Shannock, which is a very interesting adaptation. But, you know i don’t mind the tyed heddle system. What i do dislike is the hot glued heddles. Something eventually always comes loose and hangs one long and shortens another. Then when one has worn out the heddle the glue often pulls away part of the wood. Unless, it is really cheap glue and then one ends up at square one with a long and short heddles when the glue doesn’t hold over time.

The weather is odd. It is either beautiful, sunny, and freezing cold or warm, dreary and way too wet. The daffodils and Jonquils are out. My crocuses aren’t, but everyone else’s seems to be. The Camellias’ are blooming just in time to be browned by the rain. I wonder why we even try to grow them in Oregon. The downstairs part of the studio is/ was absolutely frozen and the the upstairs where I spend most of my time will be too warm. I want to lay out in the sun and read, but my fingers are too frozen to turn the pages. When the sun does shine and heat up the Daphne Odorata the smell is incredible as it gently wafts into the studio. Made a nasty discovery yesterday. The fasteners on the windows in the stairwell are in the middle and I am too short to reach them. Should be an interesting summer!

I am starting to think about my piece for the ATA small format show. I am beginning to collect the images. I want it to be about paradoxes. Perhaps, the paradox of the Alpha and the Omega a feeble attempt to weave what has been going on in my life lately and the thought processes that they engender. There is always the paradox of aging and youth as the body changes, fascinating to watch and examine, but difficult at times to live with. I am not sure whether it’s a paradox or an oxymoron-good and evil, old and young, fire and ice. The paradoxes involved in food and diabetes, Insulin and glucose

I keep going back to fragmented puzzles and puzzle pieces that aren’t really there. They remind me of quilting stitches-there, but not there. A combination of Coleridge’s Xandu and Stephen Cranes black rider.

Life is full of little discoveries such as coming home and finding out my neighbour can really play the delta blues on his guitar sitting in his front yard. Evoking memories of Asa sitting on the patio playing the guitar when he was a kid, or that the neighbour doesn’t mind Chene chasing his cats that are twice Chene’s size, or someone else also enjoys the opera. Another discovery I counted 7 different colours of violets on my 8 block walk to my better bones and balance class.

Discovered that Wry/Rya has taken to sleeping under pillows on the couch to hide from Chene. Can’t say that I blame him. I am about ready to lose Chene’s orange bone, especially if I have to throw it one more time, but first it needs a trip through the dishwasher. Discovered this morning while trying to sleep that he is still chasing flying geese and airplanes.
Cheers for now!

 
 

2 Comments

  1. J. Austin - on February 26, 2010 at 8:43 pm

    It is what it is, which is GORGEOUS! And you are very very welcome for the thread donations from my Mom's stash. It's wonderful to see her live on through her threads in your work.



  2. K Spoering on February 24, 2010 at 12:50 pm

    Congratulations on getting the Enchanted Pathways piece done! I still have about 3" to go… but I think I'll make it (barely, but that will be just enough, I guess.)