Free Lemonade

STILL tying the new warps onto the old ones....I will admit to a certain amount of procrastination via dyeing weft...

Wanted more of a green and got this lemon yellow - could overdye with woad to really get a bold green or just make lemonade :) Think I'll hold off for now and live with it for a few days. It does get awful hot in here in the afternoons so maybe lemonade is just the ticket.

Black Hole or Sun Spot

Sitting here, tying tiny knot after tiny knot, trying to attach the new warp to the old one, I'm measuring time through an inch-by-inch buildup of thread across the breastbeam. In other words, this is slow. This is not instant gratification - press a button and go. I do feel a pressure to be faster, make more, get on the proverbial hamster wheel and run so I can really earn a living and be "professional", but at the same time, I know that is just a black hole you can disappear into and lose yourself forever. So on good days, I surround myself with a sense of awe that I am able to have this place and time to create. And to become. Whatever that may be. August's issue of American Craft contains a great quote on page 36 which is 45 years old and speaks to that debate (albeit with exclusive pronoun use) of human against machine that the studio craft movement has always engaged in and even at times seen as its raison d'etre:

Today the craftsman is expressing for all men the dilemma of man in a mechanized civilization. He is affirming that man has prevailed not by his physical strength, but by his calculation in weakness...not because he could win, but because he could lose and not perish, because he could suffer and still not only be, but continue to be, in a state of becoming."

Amen.

Family HeirLooms

Sometime in the 70's, my mother needlepointed this rocking chair seat cover. I've always admired its bargello pattern, color and handiwork. So when it came time to decide what to cover my grandmother's old rocker with, which is now in my studio, I could think of no better option than one of her daughter's personal needlepoint creations. So with a little input on color selection and repeat pattern design from her daughter, this lovely flame stitch emerged. I can't wait to get the chair redone now. Thanks Mom! A little inspiration to keep me going while I tie on my next warp...