Projects

So, my mind has been willing, and my body sometimes. I've reorganized my rooms so I can work with paper easily and not have to put things away at night in my sleeping area, (i.e. shoved the futon to the side,) and most of my weaving/sawing/dye-plan area in the smaller . (Not many weaving blogs will include pics of a badly-made futon, so this could be a World's First? The lump is not a Weiner dog, but a leg pillow Mom made for Dad that's been most comfortable.)

I had so much warp left from the Small Pieces Exhibition piece, I'm making a bag fabric. But then I already told you that. My niece is making steady progress on hers, but her draw-in became so great she asked me to weave a few colors to bring back the width to somewhat-normal. But the kid is patient, and amazingly easy-going when she concentrates on a project; quite different from how she behaves with family/relatives socially. I'm glad, because I only knew the quite-intolerable side of her.

I've been using postcard-sized collages as a form of therapy, a time for mindful concentration. I don't worry about themes or colors or outcomes, but just do it to quiet my mind. But the more I collage, the greater my preference for simpler, less-cluttered, should I say the "Japanesy" look. And yet I love receiving complex, layered work from Connie Rose. So, is this going to be another of my "I love it that way when others do it well, but I prefer to do mine this way" thing? I'm going to try making the more layered look a bit more.

I noticed I've grown more open to experimentation and making "ugly" work recently; I owe it to trying things on paper where the "damage" is less threatening than on the loom. On the other hand, I look at my collages, and non-work weaving, more often and slowly, and don't rush them for the sake of finishing; this I owe to Ronette's drawing class and my work-weaving.

The large violet silk is among gazillions Mom brought back from Laharya; this one she hates with a passion and we tried to tone it down by de-dyinig but not to her satisfaction so I'm thinking of putting in shibori stitching and dipping it into watered-down dark blue several times.

And then there is the "cubism" thing to practice. No time to waste; no time to worry about the heat. And no time to pick on Mom.

One last thing I thought of is, I am in Japan now, in the summer for the first time in 19 years! I am insane not to potter around collecting colors and images. So I shall use my tiny camera more conscientiously as it is always in my bag when I go out.

* * * * *

If you'd like a therapy-collage postcard, please email me with your address as I'm running out of folks I can bother. They have nothing to do with weaving, but the material is 100% Japanese-sourced, most from free brochures and adverts, some from newspapers and product packaging.