I Don’t Do Yardage

Normally I don’t weave yardage which is then used to make other items. I generally don’t make garments (any more). I’ve never even considered entering a yardage exhibition at a conference, much less a juried fashion show. Until this year.

My yardage submission for Convergence

A month or so ago, when I was cleaning off my desk, I came across the CD of the exhibitions at Convergence ‘08 in Tampa. As I flipped through it, I got this harebrained idea that I could enter all four of the juried exhibitions at Convergence ‘10.

I already had a fashion show entry, my head piece from my collaboration with Regina Vorgang for last year’s conference in Riverside. I already had two coiled pieces for the Small Works entry, and another one in progress that I will now attempt to finish for next Monday’s deadline. I had a project on the loom that I thought I could make into a piece or pieces for the Eye Dazzlers exhibit. What I didn’t have was yardage, because I don’t do yardage. So I set out to make some.

The last time I blogged about it, the piece above was a half-formed idea going no where. At the time I had two challenges, the warp and the weft; which in weaving pretty much means nothing was working right.

The challenge of the warp involved trying to buy weaving design software, which I have since aquired, but haven’t really started using, so it actually remains a challenge.

Solving the challenge of the weft was a whole process of experimentation and discovery. I fused plastic bags into sheets using an iron. In my first attempts, I just used the iron naked on some bags and the results were very unsatisfactory. Then I thought, if there’s a way to do this, there must be a video about it on YouTube. I found a couple videos where the people were using wax paper between the iron and the bags, and they were saying you must use 8 layers of bags.

I questioned the need to make it eight layers thick. I started to experiment with the wax paper to see how few layers of plastic I could use to get something I could cut into strips and weave. I soon discovered I wasn’t going to be able to use the same piece of wax paper for very long. The wax seemed to come off on the clear dry cleaner bags and left a white haze, and at points the paper stuck to the fused plastic.

One morning I woke up thinking about the OffCenter in Albuquerque. Its a wonderful community art center I visited when I was in Abq last June. They do a lot of artwork there with reused materials. They make these increadible bags by fusing plastic with an iron. They use all kinds and colors of plastic to make a sheeting that can be sewn to make all kinds of tote bags and purses. they call them Offbags.

So I knew that what I wanted to do with the plastic was possible, and I continued to experiment. I decided to try parchment paper between the iron and the plasic and that was it. I could fuse as few or as many layers as I wanted to, and I used the same two pieces of parchment paper to fuse many, many yards of plastic at 24″ wide.

There it is on the loom. I finished weaving the yardage Monday morning at 1:00 am. I hemmed the ends and went to bed. When I got up again at 7:00, I still needed to wash and dry the piece, photograph it, prepare the 8″ x 8″ swatch, format the photos, and burn the CD for the submission package.

I’ve talked before about my adventures in photography, and I have improved. I still use my back porch, which is on the north side of the house, and doesn’t get direct sunlight until late in the afternoon. Every time I go out there with my work, backdrop fabric, camera and tripod, I am thankful I live in California.

To do my submission photos, I had to move the patio furniture. I laid out some medium grey felt I bought at Michael Levine’s downtown, arranged the yardage, and got up on a ladder to shoot. Thank you to Nicki Bair for telling me she shot her yardage from a ladder, with is laying on the floor.

Driving in the Rain

Last night Billy Crystal was on Jay Leno’s show. As he sat down, he commented about the rain, “It’s Biblical out there, Biblical!” Then he goes on to make an old, tired joke about how Californians don’t know how to drive in the rain. Really, we go five years without any rain to speak of, then we get a whole year’s worth in a week (it’s Biblical!). Exactly what kind of idiot would expect Californians to be well accustomed to driving in the rain?

I was on my way to UCLA on Wednesday for a doctor’s appointment. I got on the 101 Southbound at Valley Circle Blvd at around 1:30, and it was raining fairly hard. I merged over to the #2 lane and settled in. Traffic was light, I suspect people were putting off unnecessary trips and staying off the roads. We do that here. People stay home if it’s raining, wait it out. Why? Because we’re scared of water? No, because we can. Oh look, there’s the sun now.

I normally drive in the #1 lane, the fast lane, but I avoided it on Wednesday - because I know where I am. I know where I live, and I know what happens when it rains in Southern California. Traffic was moving along steadily at about 50-55 in the #2 lane, a little slower in the outer lanes, as it should. I had only gone about a mile when some car came up on my left in the #1 lane, going much faster than everyone else. He hit one of those puddles that tend to accumulate in the center of the freeways, and threw up a huge rooster tail of water all over my windshield, blinding me for a second. When my vision cleared, I saw him a little ahead of me, fishtailing all over his lane. He was fighting to regain control of his car, and as I passed him, he was headed toward the center divider. [point of information: there is no shoulder in the center of this freeway at this point. The concrete divider is just on the other side of the yellow line.]

I decided to move over to the #3 lane in case someone else going 65 hit a puddle and spun out. I didn’t want to get hit. Mostly I didn’t want to stand out in the rain exchanging information with some ass who doesn’t think he has to slow down.

As I went by the fishtailing car, I caught a glimpse of his license plate and it was not California. I couldn’t catch the state because the license plate holder covered the top and bottom of the plate, and well, I was watching the road. It was a plate with dark navy blue numbers and letters on a white background, separated by a little symbol. So if we look up current license plates, there’s Connecticut. It has blue numbers and letters with a dot in between; but it has a blue gradient and this one was all white. And the symbol in between the numbers and letters was irregular, like the shape of the state. New Jersey almost fits, but it has a yellowish background. It wasnt Nevada, Arizona or Utah, and it definitely was not New Mexico, or Texas. 

Hmm, this guy who obviously doesn’t know how to drive in the rain wasn’t from any of the Southwestern states, where it hardly ever rains. He wasn’t even from Oregon, Colorado or Washington – they have pictures of mountains and trees in the middle of their plates. So that leaves Minnesota, New York, and Pennsylvania fitting the description of the plate I saw. I’m pretty sure it was New York.

This Begs the question for my friends from the East, if slowing down and not speeding through standing puddles at 65 mph is not the right way to drive in the rain; what is? It leaves me to wonder what it must be like on the roads back there when it rains. Is it one big demolition derby?

It’s an issue of storm drains. Our drains are built to handle 10-12″ annual average rainfall. The thing is, we’ll go five years getting less than 10″, then we’ll get an inch of rain every hour for a week. And it gets crazy out there.

Then it goes away, the sun comes out, and we forget where our umbrellas are. Believe me, if the sun had been shining, I would have been in that #1 land, and not poking along at 65 mph, either. If Mr. New York had been in that lane on a clear day (330 of them per year), and he was going 65, he would have been cursed by the other drivers as they were forced to go around him on the right.

so, Mr. I-know-how-to-drive-in-the-rain-because-I’m-from-New-York, maybe you should learn to respect where you are. If none of the locals are doing 65 in the fast lane of a Southern California freeway, in the rain, maybe they know something you don’t.

Frustration and Rumination

plastic bags sorted on the dining room table

I’m stuck. I’m in the idea-not-formed-yet phase of designing; the not-sure-which-way-to-go-yet phase. I have the criteria for the next project: a piece of yardage to be a minimum of 18″ wide and 3 yards long, with an 8″ x 8″ touching sample, to be completed, photographed and ready for submission by February 1st. I have the basis of an idea: a piece entitled disposable/indestructible, with a yarn warp and some sort of plastic weft. OR maybe no plastic, yarn for the tabby weft and fabric strips? for the pattern weft. It will be an overshot design.

The challenges:

1) The Warp: I need design software. I should have bought it a year and a half ago. And now I’ve gotten to the point where I can no longer muddle through making my threading and treadling diagrams on Excel spreadsheets. There are three programs on the market, and the one I’ve decided to get is just not very easy to buy. I tried to buy it in person in Tampa, and that couldn’t happen. I’ve tried calling on the phone, and they don’t answer. I’ve left voice messages, and haven’t gotten a return call. I filled out an online order form, which doesn’t include a payment method. When I hit ’send now’ a new email opened up, so I typed in a message. It feels like I’m shouting into a black hole. I know people who use this software, so it must be possible to buy it – right?

2) The Weft. I have this idea to create a collage of plastic bags, then cut the collage into strips and weave it in the weft of my yardage. I tried ironing the bags to fuse them together, Like Penny Collins does. I wasn’t pleased with the results. I tried adhering them together with Gel medium, and it doesn’t look like it will hold up to being cut, wound on a shuttle, and thrown back and forth through the shed. It doesn’t look like it will even dry, actually. I should try putting my samples outside in the warm Southern California Winter, but its gotten too late for today.

For now I wait for the software people to get back to me, but I can’t wait much longer. If I can’t accomplish a purchase of the elusive program, I’ll have to choose and buy one of the other two.

For now I ruminate on the materials and methods for doing the weft. I have some more ideas to sample. I have a couple hours till the end of my work day. Ok, back to the studio, back to the dining room, I have more experiments to make.

Process and Ideas

Ah, January 3rd. The first week of January is just about my favorite time of the year. It’s a new year, the momma of all fresh starts.

This evening I am going to Santa Barbara to see Kaffee Fassett give a talk and slide presentation. There’s a trunk show and sale beforehand, and I’ll probably go early enough to ooh and ahh, and possibly buy something.

I realized recently that I’ve been a fan of this man’s work for more than 22 years, since I was just learning to knit at the Knot Garden knitting store in Sherman Oaks [17200 Ventura Blvd Ste 211, Encino, CA 91316-4091 (map)(818) 986-6642]. Before I was married and had kids; before I was a fashion design teacher, before I went back to school and became a fiber artist;  I was a fan of Kaffee Fassett’s. So this will be a great way to start off a new year.

Daryl Lancaster’s New Year’s Day blog got me thinking about my creative process. Daryl talks about warming up her creativity by doing five-minute quick collages. She learned this from Donna Kallner, who writes about creativity exercises she uses and recommends for students “who are stuck / afraid / dithering.” Check out both blogs, especially Daryl’s collages.

Reading this, I know I’m not likely to do five-minute collages. For me, these things would turn into art projects in themselves, and they present a diversion that just doesnt seem to fit into my own process.

Which begs the question, what is my creative process? First off, I never have a shortage of ideas for projects. My brain just produces them non-stop. I used to have some anxiety over the notion that I could never execute all the ideas I had. There was a moment during my volunteer years when I realized that ideas are a dime a dozen.

It was during the playground renovation project when we needed to raise a large amount of matching funds for a large grant. All kinds of people would come up to me with ideas for great fundraisers – for me to do. They weren’t willing to put in the dozens or hundreds of hours it would take to follow through on their idea. But they thought they were giving me this great gift – an idea they were willing to invest a few seconds of their time in. After that time, I accepted the fact that there are some artistic ideas I will just never have a chance to get to. And I wouldn’t want the reverse: too much time and not enough ideas.

Over the past 10 or so years I have discovered and become comfortable with my own creative process. I remember Bee Colman asking us about this one semester during her fiber arts studio class. Her question was: what is your process? Do you come up with ideas and then go out and gather materials? Or do you sit among your materials and then generate ideas?

So how do I develope ideas? They come from everywhere: a story on the radio in December 2003 became the basketry piece Our Layer in April 2007.  When the time came to do it, I went to my materials stash, pulled out and laid out stuff. I did a quick sketch to show the other members of my Eco-art group.

When I get an idea, sometimes I write a note describing it. Then I sit among my materials, pull stuff out and line it up on the table. I might write out more ideas, tape bits of yarn twisted together on paper. Plastic in the Trees I & II started as a note on my yellow pad, “graduated green warp with plastic bags weft, blooming leaf pattern.” I pulled out and lined up every cone of green yarn I had. I gathered colored plastic bags, and laid them out  by color.

Plastic in the Trees in progress

 Right now I need an idea for a piece of yardage. I got this harebrained idea to submit entries to all of the juried shows at Convergence ‘10 in Albuquerque in July. I don’t usually do yardage, so now I need to develope a project. I made a note a couple pages back in my yellow pad, ‘disposable/indestructible.” I have a dozen or so cones and balls of yarn lined up on my table. I’m in the process of finishing the prior project on the loom. There will be lots of finishing work, dying and painting will be involved. And while I’m doing that, the idea for the yardage will be cooking on the back burner. When I’m ready to do it, I’ll twist together bits of yarn and tape them to a sketchbook page. I’ll pull out materials and line them up. I’ll pour over my weaving pattern books. There will be lots and lots of math. 

So why does this matter? I think its important to know your own creative process so you can set up your work space so it works best for you, and that includes your psychic work space. For instance, I know I’ll start thinking about the next project when I’m about 3/4 done with the current one. I allow myself to take some time out to pursue it. I’ll pull out yarns and line them up at the back of the table. After a little while, the undeveloped idea fizzles out, and I turn back to the current project. This little diversion is like a creativity warm up for me. I get more motivated to finish the current project when I have the excitement of starting the new one.

Now, will I get the yardage done and photographed in time for the February 15 submission deadline? Check back here to find out.

Old Year/New Year

We’re getting ready to ring out the old year with our neighbors. I have vegetables roasting in the oven and stuffed shells baking. When they’re all ready in a few minutes, we’re going next door. We have great neighbors on both sides of us. We get together a few times a year, and tonight we’re having dinner and waiting for the New Year.

2009 was mostly a good year for me, and I’m hoping really good things will happen in 2010.  in 2009:

I turned 50 in January, almost a whole year ago.

I had my work on exhibit almost constantly throughout the year. I had some things come home from a show, and turn around the next day to go to another show. I won four awards in shows. I had a piece published in a book.

Irv turned 50 In May.

I had a great post conference workshop at the SDA conference in Kansas City, and came home and developed a line of Crocheted Wire jewelry.

I had an enlarged thyroid gland in July, an ultrasound then a needle biopsy in August. I had thyroid cancer.

Irv and I had a wonderful vacation in France in September and October.

I had my thyroid removed, had radiation, and am now on thyroid replacement medication for the rest of my life.

As of this moment I feel good, like normal. The scar still hurts a little sometimes.

I will have some work published in a book coming out next month, I won an award.

I’m going to San Francisco in two weeks for an opening of an exhibition I have work in.

I’m curating a show at La Sierra University in Riverside in February.

2009 was not bad, really. C’mon 2010! I’m ready.

Tuesday December 8
The rain has stopped, the sky is clear, and the rooftops are frosty. The grass is also frosty, the dog isn’t going to want to walk on it to pee. He’ll definitely want back in after his morning constitutional. I’ll let him.

It’s Synthroid Day 1. Today the gloves come off – and the masks and plastic and all that. I have this first-day-of-the-rest-of-my-life type feeling.

Going to France

One thing about a long trip like this, which is booked a long time in advance is that for months and months our departure date seems far away. And now the day has finally arrived. While waiting at the gate I downloaded some knitting apps for my iPhone. I have two different free row counters, a free needle inventory, and a 99 cent needle sizer. I’m going to be knitting swatches for a beginning knitting workshop I want to give.

Time to board. Time to turn off 3G, and go to airplane mode. Once we get to France, I’ll be accessing the web via wifi.

Chair shopping with a late lunch

Man, my tush hurts, and I officially do not like Panera Bread. I need a new chair for my desk. In the past year, I’ve been spending many long hours sitting at the computer, and the seat of my chair seems to have lost all of it’s cushyness. I think the pain in my tush really started last fall when I was working on the Four Seasons Crown of Colors, and sitting for many long hours at a time. Which probably means I need a new work stool also. These days I’m on the computer 2-3 full days a week, and now my tush hurts.

I had a doctor’s appointment at UCLA, actually, I had an ultrasound of my thyroid. At my check-up in July my doctor thought my thyroid was enlarged, so she sent me for the ultrasound.

Afterwards I went into Santa Monica to the Relax the Back Store to look at the really expensive ergonomically designed chairs. I was over in Santa Monica on Saturday, also looking at Herman Miller chairs at Design Withih Reach. At RtB I looked at a Humanscale chair and several Lifeform models.

So far the best one is the Lifeform with the tempurpedic foam seat. I sat in it and my tush did not hurt as it does even now, sitting on an old bench at Panera Bread (which I tried for the first time today and officially do not like) at 5th and Wilshire in Santa Monica. It’s in the former Polly’s Pies, across from the former Zucky’s, and it looks – and feels- like they kept the old carpet and benches, and put some pictures of bread on the walls. I’m sitting on a long booth type bench that runs along one wall with small tables and chairs in front of it. The cushion has died and it feels like I’m sitting in a hole.

Why I’m thumbs down on Panera Bread is this: all they’re sandwiches are pre-made, and all of them have some version of secret sauce. If you want a sandwich with no mayo, they get kinda flustered and anxiously warn you it will take 15 minutes to make a new one. I don’t like pre-made sandwiches.

Well, my meter is about to run out. It’s time to head down the California incline, up the PCH, and over Topanga to home. I may stop at Crate & Barrel to look at chairs.

When Life Intervenes

Clancy helping me and Michael hang my large piece in the living room

 The things I do rather than working every day.　

 Today was Clancy’s recheck at the vet. This meant I had to give him his sedatives at 6:30 am so he would be ready for his 9:30 am appointment.　

We have to sedate him to take him to the vet. This has been going on For years, ever since the first time he bit one of the techs who was trying to give him a shot. That was when we got the muzzle. I’ve been sedating and muzzling this 80 lb dog for 11 years now. Don’t get the wrong idea, I don’t have to carry a drugged 80 lb dog. Within the first few hours of sedation, he’ll still walk to the car. In fact, he’ll still growl, bark, and bite someone if he gets the chance.　

Sunday two weeks ago, the day after the Forth of July, Clancy got a hot spot on his hind leg. Michael had to go to the pet store to get a cone to keep him from biting himself. We were out of sedatives when I took him to the vet Monday, and I didn’t put the muzzle on him at home because he gets rather agitated when it’s on. The past few years he’s been much calmer, so I thought we’d be ok. I was so wrong.

We couldn’t get the muzzel on him in the exam room, he kept biting it. So we decided to bring him back the next day.  We went back to the waiting room to check out and get our medication. When we had gone in it was empty, but now there were other people with other pets there. One of the techs brought a pug out of the back and Clancy freaked out. Michael and I were holding him, trying not to get bit, and the receptionist came over to help us, but I had to warn her off with a loud, “don’t he bites!” Have I mentioned how much I hate this dog.

The next day we drugged him, dropped him off, and picked him up after he was treated. They had to shave his whole leg from the base of his tail to his ankle. He was passed out on the floor the rest of the day, as he is today. It was cleaning day and I explained to the cleaning crew about the vet and all. Today is cleaning day again, so I explained he had to go to the vet again. But still I’m afraid they’re going to think we always drug our dog.

Some people who know me don’t understand why I don’t like dogs, and why I don’t get all gushy over their cute little dogs. I may seem hard hearted, harsh. I used to like dogs, I used to like big dogs, but living with Clancy has taken all of the romance out of the canine species for me. its not just the aggressiveness toward other dogs, which renders him impossible to take out in public; nor the ticks, nor the dog hair all over the house, and its not just the stealing paper and eating it. The digging in the trash and eating tampons, that alone could turn me off from ever having another dog.

But when you have the whole package, when you add to it the biting, the whole ‘man’s best friend’ image is just blown. I can’t put Fontline on him, or remove a tick from him without having to be careful not to get bit. You can’t hold his collar, even gently, to keep him still – he’ll whip his head around and bite your hand. We’ve been ready to put him down several times over the years, and we couldn’t do it. I’ve had conversations with the vet, and when it came down to it, it means killing a healthy dog. She warned me that if I ever bring him in and tell her to put him down (because he bites), it can’t be retracted. She also warned me the biting will not get better as he gets older.

Our decision a few years ago was to let him live out his life, because I couldn’t bring myself to tell the vet to destroy the dog. I fear the day is coming soon when we’re going to have to do it. His back legs both have arthritis. He already can’t jump up into my minivan. We had to get the redwood steps that came with the spa and put them up to the side door of the van for him to get in and out. He doesn’t go into the garage anymore because the two steps up to the house are too hard for him to climb.

When the day comes Clancy can’t get up by himself, we won’t be able to help him. He most likely won’t let us put our arms and hands around his ribcage or under his hips to help him up, its exactly the kind of situation where he bites. He’s 12 now. He’s on pain meds all the time, and the pain seems to be getting worse. He hobbles sometimes. I don’t think he’ll see 13. And I know the decision will fall to me, ultimately the final word will be mine. (My husband and I have been married for 21 1/2 years now, these things I know). I hate this dog, he’s been nothing but trouble; and it’s still going to break my heart when I have to make the final decision.

I am never, ever having another dog.

Farewell to Kansas City

Wednesday, June 3, 2009; Goodbye to Kansas City
Today my workshop ended, and I am off to Albuquerque now. I was so caught up in my work that I didn’t take any pictures during the last three days. I also realized on Sunday that as I was blogging about the conference, I had not given any comments on the speakers or the ideas they were addressing in their talks. I’ll have to deal with that later.
The Free Form Crochet workshop was great. Tracy Krumm is a wonderful artist and she gave a good workshop. I realized some things about how I like to work. I like to make things, I like structure. I don’t want to paint and I don’t want to dye. I’m not interested in mixing chemicals and liquids. With the crochet I have been most interested in learning how to use the stitches to make sculptural forms. I stuck with the surplus materials I brought; I didn’t sample Tracy’s materials. She had some wonderful and interesting things, but in my gut I knew I’m not interested in new materials. I’m not going to buy new materials for my work. I am interested in going to the electronics surplus yard in Sun Valley when I get home to stock up on wire.
I became enamored with the crochet stitches, and the building of a form and that’s all I wanted to do. Some people feel they must try a little of everything in a workshop, but I go with what attracts me most on the day. I also didn’t sample the stiffeners or Patinas. But I saw the process, I have the supply list, I can return to it in the future. I just wanted to keep crocheting, making the stitches. This workshop was a chance for me to take some time to try something that’s been on my mind. For a while now I haven’t wanted to deviate from my weaving and basketry work, I wanted to focus and not be all over the map. But its summer now, I’m not working on anything specific; it might be a good time for a little deviation.
And then something shifted. I picked a net produce bag out of my stash today and started a coil with it, thinking I would experiment with crocheting onto a coiled form. And I had no patience with it. All day I was working on a copper wire tube, gradually increasing to make of wider, and I was loving it. As I walked away from the design building, headed back to the hotel to catch my shuttle, I felt something had shifted. Crochet is faster than coiling. There are other things about it that make it a great method to work in. Will I still want to coil?
One of the best things I learned this week is to wear compression gloves to work. Tracy opened the workshop on Monday with a discussion on safety in which she talked about preventing hand & wrist problems. Her message was practice prevention and it was an a-ha! moment. My view of those gloves was always that you wear them after you already have problems, or when a doctor tells you to. I asked Smadar to stop at a drug store on the way to dinner and I got two gloves. The benefits of wearing them were immediate. My hands were not as sore as usual when I finished working that evening, and they weren’t as stiff as usual when I got up in the morning. But I may have overdone it on the plane to Albuquerque. I was working on the copper tube and my hands were hurting. I pushed through one last row, and now my hands are quite sore.
The shuttle from the hotel drove straight down Main Street, through the Crossroads Arts District and downtown Kansas City on the way to the airport. I was a little sad to be leaving knowing I won’t be back any time soon. The people of Kansas City are wonderful, and have been wonderful every time I’ve been there. But its time for a change. KCAI has hosted the conference something like five times, and we owe them a huge thanks. We owe Jason Pollen a huge thanks, as well as everyone in the SDA who makes it happen.
So, goodbye for now to Kansas City, I hope to be back again someday.