So belated-Redefining normal-again

The post that I almost finished before it became too hard and I needed to take a break. The second post is where I am now. Decided to post it anyway. Even though I never finished. TO get a better idea of what I am doing now read the second post that will go up within minutes of this one. Almost another month has gone by since this post.

“In behaviour, normal refers to a lack of significant deviation from the average” wikipedia with the editorial change to British spelling.

Since I last wrote in this blog almost 2 months ago I have managed to keep myself frantically busy-too busy often times to be doing what I really want to do.Which in my thoughts equals 3-4 blog entries in my goal  to make an entry every two weeks.  I have allowed my home schedule and accomplishments(?) to be dictated by reaction rather then action. Which usually leaves little time time for what I wish or want to be doing in my studio.It’s not as if I am sitting in a corner doing nothing, but it feels like it sometimes.

I have incredible memories from this summer and fall from traveling and teaching.

I finally got to see Canyon De Chelly and the place that weaving began-Spider Women Rock.

 

“The name chelly (or Chelley) is a Spanish borrowing of the Navajo word Tséyiʼ, which means "canyon" (literally "inside the rock" < tsé "rock" + -yiʼ "inside of, within"). The Navajo pronunciation is [tséɣiʔ]. The Spanish pronunciation of de Chelly [deˈtʃeʎi] was adapted into English, apparently through modelling after a French-like spelling pronunciation, and now English pronunciation: /dəˈʃeɪ/ də·shā′”.wikipedia

We arrived sparsely/scarcely  before sundown and between two storms. (The we, of course, is Chene, Spencer and I)We ended up driving all night to beat another storm into Utah and points north.  I spent time with old friends-not as much as I would have liked.

Explored Santa Fe again. Saw a show on depression jeweler and saw an incredible recycled jewelry show at the Wheelwright museum. It was amazing seeing the recycled materials used to create the Thunderbird jewelry of the Santo Domingo Indian Silversmiths during the depression, battery cases, celluloid from combs and brushes, old phonograph records-anything that could be cut up recycled to sell to tourist on route 66. There was also a show in conjunction with the Depression thunderbird stuff of modern recycled jewelry. It was extremely thought provoking. For the last several years in my silversmithing forays I have been playing with (and collecting)  the idea of using recycled jewelry in my pieces.

I bought a small piece of weaving from a weaver at Tec Nos Pec.The weaver is Ruth Elthie. It’s a double sided all edged finished with twining birds eye twill –6.5 inches 10 inches. I saw an incredible amount of Navajo pictorial tapestries in a room off of the Service station and small store. Thanks to Diane K. I learned a bit about British water colours and traded a future tapestry for several of her  paintings in that style of watercolour. Discovered that Susan Seuter one of my Village wool students has been making has been making woven  balls from the Shaped Tapestry book. 

On the other hand-I have painted most of new window sills, had the front porch rebuilt the porch,added rails on the steps, redone the studio door, gotten rid of the holes in the walls from the exited  failing electric heaters etc.

Wry still sits at the blocked holes and morns the loss of his play grounds and hidey holes in the walls. He seems to becoming content with banging the attic door until it opens and he can sleep in a nice warm place that  Chene can’t get into.  Still some things-yet- to be finished. Anthony Secedo our contractor  has done a wonderful job. It all just takes time and working with other peoples schedule.

The solar panels for the studio are being prepared-waiting on the engineer and then the installation. Can not believe how long that has taken to get through the paperwork. Of course, with the amount of air stagnation and fog we have had in the last month I am wondering just how productive they will be.

Understanding that there is time for doing everything in it is proper time sequence isn’t always logically for me or does it feel right. It just is the way things happen.

Weaving with Shelley has taken a slow down for the month of December. We are too began 3 days a week again in January. 

I have been doing things-many things, but not as much weaving as I thought I would be doing.  It’s time for a deep breath and another beginning.

I postponed working full time on “And He…” for a bit, because I need to finish a couple of smaller pieces first. I did start the black soumack roses on one side that needed to be.

I have the bottom  border done on a small piece of Chene.  I think that their will be 3 pieces in this series. The first is done. The bottom  border on the nw piece is rya done in silk ribbon and embroidery floss. It’s relatively easy to knot rya so that it lays down  or up, but I have arrived at the point that I want the rya fringe to lay horizontally.In order to do so I have to tie the knots around two warps rather then between two knots. When I arrive at the top I’ll the revert to the other style of soumack but tie the knots up side down so that the knots will "hang straight up(?)”

 

I had so much fun on our trip back from
Albuquerque taking pictures of odd pieces  of architecture.

Pat and I are redoing the Shaped Tapestry book-updating, adding a colour gallery , a  slightly different stronger cover, a little more on mounting,  and adding a few things. Should be to the printer by the end of the month-maybe’/hopefully.  Times change, products change and there is always what you wished you had done differently or left out or in the first time.  We are adding too the 3-d weaving section with rya, ribbon boutonne, and feather weaving. Adding a few more patterns for shaped purses and a short intro for a  kumihimo strap for the purses. It’s a lot of new layout work for Pat. The book was published in 2004, but publishing programs have changed so drastically in the intervening years that all of the layout has to be updated and put into a new program in order to interface with the new programs the printer is using.

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