tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-712328037538686162024-03-14T05:55:39.404-06:00Rebecca Mezoff, Tapestry ArtistContemporary tapestry artist, Rebecca Mezoff, waxes on about weaving, yarn, and life in the Southwestern United States...Rebecca Mezoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16138972934775842473noreply@blogger.comBlogger582125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71232803753868616.post-42545135855238701162016-07-06T17:27:00.000-06:002016-07-06T17:27:10.814-06:00Start packing. The blog has moved!I have finally completely moved my blog from Blogger to my website.<br />
You can (and should!) find it here:<br />
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<a href="http://www.rebeccamezoff.com/blog/">http://www.rebeccamezoff.com/blog/</a><br />
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My website got a nice facelift recently and as part of that, I moved the blog so everything is in one place. The content on Blogger will stay there, but it has also all been migrated to the website. New posts will only show up on the website, so come and find me there.<br />
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If you receive my blog via email, I now have email set up on the new blog. When you go there, look for the little form in the right sidebar. It look like this:<br />
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This sign-up is different than the one for my newsletter. Blog posts come several times a week. My newsletter is in the form of a letter and it shows up every other Thursday. They will both come from Mailchimp. If you're not sure whether you've signed up for my newsletter, you can do it <a href="http://rebeccamezoff.us5.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=29da44abd319389d2ab67dcf3&id=7924917efd" target="_blank">HERE</a>. Mailchimp will throw out any duplicate emails. Don't forget that you have to confirm the subscription in the email Mailchimp will send you.<br />
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I recently had someone tell me they spent a day reading through my entire blog. I started it in April 2008, so that was a real commitment. If you like getting posts in email, sign up now so you don't end up with a backlog of tapestry weaving to catch up on.<br />
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<u>Since the move, you may have missed a few recent posts. Here is the list:</u></h3>
<a href="http://www.rebeccamezoff.com/blog/2016/6/13/experiments-in-color-and-design-for-tapestry-in-vermont" target="_blank"><br /></a>
<a href="http://www.rebeccamezoff.com/blog/2016/6/13/experiments-in-color-and-design-for-tapestry-in-vermont" target="_blank">Vermont 2016, A masterclass in color and design:</a> The review of my fabulous retreat in Plymouth, VT. I can't wait to do it again!<br />
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<a href="http://www.rebeccamezoff.com/blog/2016/6/20/a-small-town-tapestry-project" target="_blank">A small-town tapestry project--Cavendish: </a>I taught a two-day beginners workshop after the retreat in Proctorsville, VT. Vermonters are real go-getters!<br />
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<a href="http://www.rebeccamezoff.com/blog/2016/6/27/weaving-tapestry-on-small-looms" target="_blank">Weaving on small looms, Hokett looms and beyond:</a> A student asked me about warping Hokett looms and since she was in my online class, I made her this video. I thought it might be useful for others also.<br />
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<a href="http://www.rebeccamezoff.com/blog/2016/7/3/commissions-weaving-for-a-client-or-learning-basic-addition-the-hard-way" target="_blank">Commissions. Weaving for a client (or learning basic addition the hard way):</a> My recent work on a large commission teaches me about the finite nature of time.<br />
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<a href="http://www.rebeccamezoff.com/blog/2016/7/3/learning-your-way-around-the-internet-and-social-media" target="_blank">The internet guide I wrote for my Mom. When you didn't grow up using the internet...</a> My Mom is amazing. And she is learning a lot about using the internet since her retirement from 35 years as a behavioral pediatrician. It seems likely that many of us could use this kind of resource page.<br />
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So head on over to the new blog home. We can have a glass of wine or sparkly water together and talk about tapestry. It looks like this.<br />
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<a href="http://www.rebeccamezoff.com/blog/">http://www.rebeccamezoff.com/blog/</a></h3>
<br />Rebecca Mezoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16138972934775842473noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71232803753868616.post-28990636514341360222016-06-16T22:55:00.000-06:002016-06-28T11:43:47.773-06:00Finding my website<span style="color: red;">UPDATE June 2016: All is well. The domain was finally transferred and you should be able to find my website at its regular URL. <a href="http://www.rebeccamezoff.com/">www.rebeccamezoff.com</a> </span><br />
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As some of you know, I have been struggling with my domain registrar for months now and have been unable to resolve the issues or move my domain to another host. I realized tonight that my website address is not working. The website is there, but my usual domain (www.rebeccamezoff.com) is no longer active for a reason that is still unknown to me. Until I can get this sorted out, please access my website with this alternate domain.<br />
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<a href="https://rebecca-mezoff.squarespace.com/">https://rebecca-mezoff.squarespace.com/</a><br />
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This particular challenge reminds me how an entire business can hinge on one little thing.<br />
The domain. It is not only the link to my website which is my calling card in the world, but it is on all printed material I put out, on my YouTube videos, and most of all, it is what the search engines have linked to for years.<br />
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Cross your fingers that I can get my domain back soon.<br />
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In the meantime, the domain linked above will always work for my website.Rebecca Mezoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16138972934775842473noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71232803753868616.post-38791932666228473142016-06-07T18:17:00.000-06:002016-06-07T18:17:15.915-06:00Vermont-- here I come!<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.701961); font-family: adobe-garamond-pro; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28.8px;">I've been planning this retreat for about a year and a half. Tomorrow I am on my way. There is still a large quantity of yarn to be shoved into suitcases and some sorting of materials to do. The most important thing is the thoughtful placement of clothing for Thursday so that I don't have to lug three massive suitcases into the hotel to search among the yarn for my clean underwear. (Don't worry, I don't keep the dirty underwear there.) </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.701961); font-family: adobe-garamond-pro; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28.8px;"><a href="http://www.rebeccamezoff.com/blog/2016/6/7/vermont-here-i-come" target="_blank">Read more ...</a></span><br />
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Unfortunately my domain is still being held hostage by my registrar so I can't offer you email sign-up on the new website. But I've posted about my trip tomorrow as well as some about my latest weaving adventures. You can find my blog now on my website <a href="http://www.rebeccamezoff.com/blog/" target="_blank">HERE</a>. I do hope in the next month I'll be able to free my domain and I sincerely hope it doesn't require Indiana Jones heroics... or a trip to Australia to bludgeon anyone at Lycos or Melbourne IT.</div>
<br />Rebecca Mezoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16138972934775842473noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71232803753868616.post-86060114280616922182016-05-31T09:09:00.000-06:002016-05-31T09:09:27.348-06:00A new home for the blogI have finally gone and done it. I have updated my website and have moved the blog to its new home. For those of you who love Blogger, I apologize. But my little digital world will run a whole lot better with the blog living on my website.<br />
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You can find it <a href="http://www.rebeccamezoff.com/blog/" target="_blank">HERE</a>.<br />
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You will be able to sign up to have new posts emailed to you soon. Currently my domain host is wrapped up in some corporate merger and I have been unable to get the necessary codes to make this happen. But it will! In the meantime, please use your favorite blog reader or just check now and then for new posts.<br />
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You'll know you've arrived at the right place when you see this:<br />
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I have had a few posts that didn't show up on Blogger already, but from now on I will only be posting to the blog on my website. Yesterday's post is about my visit to a tapestry I wove six years ago which is hanging in a college in northern Colorado. You can read it <a href="http://www.rebeccamezoff.com/blog/2016/5/30/emergence-ii-in-its-public-installation-space" target="_blank">HERE</a>.</div>
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I will leave this blog up so if you have particular posts bookmarked, you can still return to them on Blogger. All the content also exists now on my website.</div>
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Thanks for following me!</div>
<br />Rebecca Mezoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16138972934775842473noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71232803753868616.post-10787228395094056662016-05-25T15:35:00.001-06:002016-05-25T15:35:45.421-06:00Middle aged white woman in a MustangWhen you fly into Memphis very late at night, Budget may well be completely out of Kias. The agent asked me (rather skeptically I might add) if I could "drive a stick." Heck yeah, I replied. Shortly thereafter I was driving away in a 2016 Ford Mustang headed for the Mississippi Delta. I was a bit self-conscious about the car. I got a lot of looks and most of them seemed to say, "hey, what is that middle-aged white lady doing driving that Mustang?" My brother-in-law did enjoy it during the ten minutes I gave him the keys. (I held my breath the whole time.)<br />
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The photo is offered as proof that this story is true.<br />
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It was that kind of a weekend.<br />
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We went to Mississippi for a niece's high school graduation. I enjoy being part of the couch dog pile since my labrador died a few years ago. Quite literally a dog pile. There were nine dogs in the house while we were there including this little guy who was being fostered until he was old enough to find a new home. His name is Al (or Owl if you're the four-year-old from Nashville).<br />
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Family vacations being what they are, I had to make an emergency trip to Oxford which has the nearest yarn shop to the Delta. Three hours alone in the Mustang (no barking, children, or video games involved) might have had something to do with it. I came away with the yarn and a bonus trip to one of the best bookstores anywhere, Square Books.<br />
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Most of a hat was knitted over the next day, what with the barbecue by the lake and all. I did stop knitting long enough to steer a canoe around the lake.<br />
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On the return trip, the catering truck ran into our plane parked at the gate in Detroit and we got to spend a few more late-night hours waiting for another plane. I can tell you that the frozen yogurt place closes at 8:30, much to my disappointment.<br />
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We made it home in the wee hours and I am happy to be back in my studio surrounded by yarn and books and ideas and possibilities.<br />
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<br />Rebecca Mezoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16138972934775842473noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71232803753868616.post-13957503007465462102016-05-12T14:58:00.000-06:002016-05-12T14:58:47.262-06:00Fine art tapestry: found at the Denver Art Museum and your local thrift storeYou don't expect to find fine art tapestry in a thrift store. At least I don't.<br />
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But one day last winter, I happened to check my email at 9:50 on a Monday morning and had a note from a friend in Santa Fe about two tapestries by James Koehler that were spotted over the weekend at a thrift store called <i>Look What the Cat Dragged In</i>. After I got over how mortified James would have been to have his tapestries in a store with the word <i><u>cat</u></i> in the name, I looked up their website. They opened at 10. A quick call later and I owned this tapestry.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jeremy Koehler, unknown title, 1995, 60 x 60 inches, tapestry</td></tr>
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Let me back up. <a href="http://rebeccamezoff.blogspot.com/2011/03/james.html" target="_blank">James Koehler was my teacher.</a> He was a tapestry artist working in New Mexico. He taught me about craftsmanship, honed my dye skills, pushed my design skills, and pretty much made sure I never got lazy. I might have heard a few too many Broadway musicals during those years working in his studio, but I learned to be a tapestry artist. James died in March of 2011.<br />
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At the thrift shop, the people who drove over looking for those tapestries that Monday morning were disappointed. The store was in Santa Fe and I now live in northern Colorado. Another student of James bought the other tapestry and I decided that a little pilgrimage to Santa Fe was just what I needed. The next day I drove down to pick up those pieces. My sister has a deep freeze, and after wrapping the piece in plastic, it lived in and out of the freezer for a couple months. It is my policy that anything fiber that comes from a thrift store must have some moth-management before it comes into my wool-filled studio.<br />
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I rescued the piece from the freezer in February and brought it home. At some point soon it'll make a trip to a photographer, but for today, the snapshot above gives you an idea of the work.<br />
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I love the slight color shifts between shades of blue-violet. In true James fashion, he was using a large number of colors just slightly different in hue and value. Subtlety in color was one of his favorite things to play with.<br />
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Yesterday I was at the Denver Art Museum again to hear a talk by a dear friend of mine, <a href="http://navajo-indian.com/" target="_blank">DY Begay</a>. While there, I visited the sixth floor to see the <a href="http://denverartmuseum.org/exhibitions/creative-crossroads-art-tapestry" target="_blank">tapestry show </a>yet again. The piece in the collection of the Denver Art Museum by James is from the same era as the one I just bought. It is one of his Chief Blanket pieces.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">James Koehler, <i>Chief Blanket,</i> collection of the Denver Art Museum. Piece to the right is Ramona Sakiestewa.</td></tr>
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Later in the evening I sat and listened to DY Begay speak about her work as a contemporary Navajo artist working in tapestry. DY's work springs from her connection to her home, Tselani, in Arizona. Her process reflects her life as a Navajo woman, and her quiet insistence on her methods of materials collection for wool and dye inform everything she makes.<br />
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On my long drive home I thought about how both of these artists working in tapestry exert a quiet, steady influence on my own tendency to follow every little mouse trail off into corners, distracting myself from the work I would most love to do. James was a persistent anchor for years--until he was gone. I realized that I have other anchors now. DY and a few other tapestry friends remind me to follow my call to create woven art. My own practice of tapestry weaving, including designing and preparing materials, grounds my work. <b>The doing of it I mean.</b> The practice becomes its own entity over the years and it becomes one of the most important forces in the creation.<br />
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I still don't think James would be happy to have his tapestries sold in a thrift store, but I am grateful that I saw that email and they are now appreciated by two of his former students. This piece, the title of which I have not yet found, can be a reminder of where I came from and the principles that James taught me, both the ones I cling strongly to and the ones I have rejected. It will also remind me of the importance of focus and doing my own most important work every day.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jeremy Koehler, unknown title, 1995, 60 x 60 inches, tapestry</td></tr>
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If you don't know the story of James, he published an autobiography with Carol Greene before he died. You can buy a copy <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Woven-Color-Koehler-Carole-Greene/dp/1467565946/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1463068625&sr=8-1&keywords=woven+color" target="_blank">HERE</a>. When he wove this piece in the mid-90s, he was still going by the name he took as a Benedictine monk, Jeremy. a few years later he went back to his given name, James. He did these pieces in series. I don't know if other pieces of this design exist out there somewhere since this was number one. If you have one or have seen one somewhere, please let me know!<br />
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Do you have a piece made by someone who has influenced your artistic practice or your creative life in some way? I'd love to hear about it in the comments!<br />
<br />Rebecca Mezoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16138972934775842473noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71232803753868616.post-41205276540874266112016-05-02T10:03:00.000-06:002016-05-02T10:03:08.981-06:00Raining out today<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Rebecca Mezoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16138972934775842473noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71232803753868616.post-13884843548347282282016-05-01T11:21:00.000-06:002016-05-01T11:21:58.489-06:00Rookie mistakeI've been dyeing for a long time--over a decade. I use acid wool dyes, sabraset and lanaset dyes from Earth Guild and PRO Chemical and Dye. They are the same dyes, they just have different trade names. And of course the colors are slightly different. For some reason, the last time I did a lot of dyeing, I decided that I was going to start using just one company, PRO Chemical and Dye. I guess I thought it would be easier and a little cheaper to source my dye from one place and I was using <a href="http://rebeccamezoff.blogspot.com/2016/04/dyeing-in-sunshine-no-wait-snow.html" target="_blank">Deb Menz's dye books</a> and formulas for some of my experiments and she uses their dyes.<br />
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However, this led me right into this weekend's rookie mistake.<br />
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That beautiful blue yarn is made in part with Blue 2R, a dye made by Earth Guild. I have been using this lovely dye for a decade. I love it. Why would I abandon it?<br />
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I started dyeing the blues for the next tapestry late last week. As I began measuring the dyes for the first eight colors, I started to panic a little bit because the jar was almost empty. Searching through my two small boxes of dye powders, I realized there was no new jar.<br />
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No. New. Jar.<br />
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Then I remembered the aforementioned clearly delusional decision to stop using Earth Guild dyes.<br />
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I realized I had enough for the eight colors, and thought, oh great, I'm going to make it!<br />
Only to remember that I had nine more blues to go for this piece and there was no way any other dye could be substituted.<br />
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And this was all I had left.<br />
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Thankfully Earth Guild was fast. Yesterday this little box was on my doorstep and I'm off to dye the rest of the blue.<br />
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In penance I promise to continue to use Earth Guild's Blue 2R for all eternity... or at least until another delusion steps in.<br />
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Thanks Earth Guild.Rebecca Mezoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16138972934775842473noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71232803753868616.post-23137408503731720012016-04-30T12:08:00.000-06:002016-04-30T12:08:00.146-06:00Yarny things including sheep, antique knitting patterns, and bagpipesLast week I had the pleasure of hearing Franklin Habit speak at <a href="https://www.theloopyewe.com/" target="_blank">The Loopy Ewe's</a> Spring Fling. Nope, I wasn't a Flinger (how do you join that club?) and though I sat about 10 feet from Franklin which gave me plenty of time to contemplate whether hipster garb would work for me (I think not), I did not see the Yarn Harlot, my hero. I saw evidence in photographs that she was around, but I did not find her. I am pleased to say that Franklin was an excellent substitute.<br />
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Franklin was wonderful in fact. His talk was about antique knitting patterns. He promised at the beginning that he would get us interested in this particular rabbit hole of knitting lore and he almost succeeded in my case.<br />
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I did go home and buy his book, <u>It Itches</u>. It is a hilarious collection of cartoons and thoughts about knitting and definitely worth a read.<br />
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And he finished off with a lovely night cap pattern. What an enchanting evening, complete with pocket watch.<br />
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Fast forward to last weekend...<br />
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Saturdays are a good time to run errands--especially when your errands include two yarn stores, one of which is having a fleece day.<br />
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Somehow I wasn't surprised when I pulled into the parking lot of <a href="http://www.recycledlamb.com/" target="_blank">The Recycled Lamb</a> and heard a bagpipe. Bagpipes mean Scotland and Scotland means sheep and well, there weren't any sheep on the lawn of the shop, but there were goats and alpaca and plenty of sheep fleeces.<br />
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I drove down for the fleece day to find fiber for a project I want to do this summer. Alas, I have been spoiled by <a href="http://www.shuttlesspindlesandskeins.com/" target="_blank">Maggie Casey</a> and the fleeces she gets from <a href="http://rebeccamezoff.blogspot.com/2015/02/once-year-ewe-take-it-all-off.html" target="_blank">Sheep Feather's Farm</a>. Nothing I saw could compare and I'm going to have to somehow bribe either Maggie or the owner of the farm, Robin Phillips for one of those gorgeous corriedale fleeces.<br />
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The Lamb has many classrooms and they always have classes going on. This one was ready for a spinning class. I bumped into the knitting teacher from my <a href="http://rebeccamezoff.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-hardest-decisions-of-all.html" target="_blank">two-at-a-time-toe-up sock class</a> a few months ago and was happy to be able to say that I am just finishing the ribbing of my first pair of socks knit this way.<br />
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And the Lamb still had a few of Sarah Swett's <i>How to Weave a Bag on a Box.</i> If you can't get one from them, you can get them <a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/MildredEstelle?ref=search_shop_redirect" target="_blank">HERE</a>. You're welcome.<br />
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">
Yarn-y things.</h2>
<br />Rebecca Mezoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16138972934775842473noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71232803753868616.post-54167068687989972582016-04-28T11:27:00.000-06:002016-04-28T11:27:22.503-06:00To my summer workshop participantsYou're welcome.<br />
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<br />Rebecca Mezoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16138972934775842473noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71232803753868616.post-43287181323472601652016-04-26T16:00:00.000-06:002016-04-26T16:00:16.776-06:00Tapestry process. Design. Dye. Sample. Repeat.This month I'm working on a design and color palette for a commission. Since having goals and deadlines on a calendar has proved to be a good way to keep myself from frittering away days "playing with yarn", my plan is to start weaving this piece in May. Since May is pretty much tomorrow, I'm hoping to find a wrinkle in time long about Thursday.<br />
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While I wait for the client approval on the colors (let's not think about what might happen if they don't like them), I'll show you the process thus far.<br />
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After the discussions about design and approval of a preliminary cartoon, I started some sample dyeing. They loved the colors of two of my Emergence series pieces and I started with those.<br />
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Dyeing in quart jars is a favorite thing of mine. I like it because I can have 8 new colors <u>per pot</u> in just a few hours instead of eight colors in a whole day. Of course the limitation is the amount of yarn you can fit in a quart jar and with the size pieces I weave, amounts call for bigger pots.<br />
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I showed you some of my first colors in <a href="http://rebeccamezoff.blogspot.com/2016/04/dyeing-in-sunshine-no-wait-snow.html" target="_blank">THIS</a> post last week.<br />
Here are some of them skeined up waiting for the ball winder.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDXuYNo9JUjIPa91Zat_KRJbkoS-0BAshhaVM4B7LX8602zUg8U-h3-VrDFtwAjVh3iCbkvPf4BNF5To2BP-U-fUxN27lf9UN2vHRbaJcSl-LcxU8ceEhC319AMYi0-sgmS-qJSmu07A/s1600/SmallSkeins.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="427" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDXuYNo9JUjIPa91Zat_KRJbkoS-0BAshhaVM4B7LX8602zUg8U-h3-VrDFtwAjVh3iCbkvPf4BNF5To2BP-U-fUxN27lf9UN2vHRbaJcSl-LcxU8ceEhC319AMYi0-sgmS-qJSmu07A/s640/SmallSkeins.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
And after their meeting with the ball winder.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_4S3O_kBmKS3P_JAT56faAi0TSig1nRzkdYX9z-zxgpdpBgULsz_n5wM7PKxzo2lsFNDEi9hriqsBPuUf74jYJX5bvV7sC00xbbZU9md5_mIZl6A3JiewwOTWa-SFvoz4XnKIquN7sw/s1600/Dyesampleballs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_4S3O_kBmKS3P_JAT56faAi0TSig1nRzkdYX9z-zxgpdpBgULsz_n5wM7PKxzo2lsFNDEi9hriqsBPuUf74jYJX5bvV7sC00xbbZU9md5_mIZl6A3JiewwOTWa-SFvoz4XnKIquN7sw/s640/Dyesampleballs.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
After finishing all of these, I was not happy with the main color for the piece--the deep red-violet in the center above. It seemed too black. In my digging in my yarn samples I found a small ball of the original color from the earlier piece that the clients liked and remembered that one of the dye books I was using back then used a different black formula. So I altered the amount of black and tried again. Perfect.<br />
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I wove a sampler showing both of these colors for the client. It turned out so cute I wished I could keep it! The weaving to the left is for the client, the one to the right is a sample for my reference.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbmmXHdi7Ypx9OOBlXNYSApQqQdnStNkewULDl1BYpXzbcT_9FLKy-cv4JdiC4wfS5er3HNwko_P3YdXg2Q13bNFH1LUBFv2TNNSBJwikmcJ8I4ZW9pNQU4SZYUguyAEL3rgVk5ep55g/s1600/WeavingSampler.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbmmXHdi7Ypx9OOBlXNYSApQqQdnStNkewULDl1BYpXzbcT_9FLKy-cv4JdiC4wfS5er3HNwko_P3YdXg2Q13bNFH1LUBFv2TNNSBJwikmcJ8I4ZW9pNQU4SZYUguyAEL3rgVk5ep55g/s640/WeavingSampler.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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I did the finishing, admittedly while watching Anthony Bourdain's <i>Parts Unknown </i>Sunday night. Gave her a little steam, stitched her up...</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3PATUULpNYWUtkBX8hz985sanZL0mlcBvL78_WpQ74NAUI2numLFLwDxvhdARm4e6WrLNC2_VuejDNEW7Ejw6915LMmdaWqIPNIxfZ_fsvvcOF-ePvqanW9a4DQJG7yLXGZCD1G86Nw/s1600/Sewingsample.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3PATUULpNYWUtkBX8hz985sanZL0mlcBvL78_WpQ74NAUI2numLFLwDxvhdARm4e6WrLNC2_VuejDNEW7Ejw6915LMmdaWqIPNIxfZ_fsvvcOF-ePvqanW9a4DQJG7yLXGZCD1G86Nw/s640/Sewingsample.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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...and there you have it.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd0sFMYIT_xjwYpKosSLr36yWuA_mYUx-Ey0YYM8xC9PTkN4qSNW1trx-Y5OeSFEeCg3T81eJH04_eGuakHD3PzGhifHj1CHvqfqEj9KuynYNRUx2HG6VaaApSgQx3zATxf7rPjpR1HQ/s1600/ClientSample.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd0sFMYIT_xjwYpKosSLr36yWuA_mYUx-Ey0YYM8xC9PTkN4qSNW1trx-Y5OeSFEeCg3T81eJH04_eGuakHD3PzGhifHj1CHvqfqEj9KuynYNRUx2HG6VaaApSgQx3zATxf7rPjpR1HQ/s640/ClientSample.jpg" width="428" /></a></div>
The old red-violet with more black is on the bottom, the one with less black at the top.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5UWWyQrWi4_YdqVT3WpNGWft_FT9vDElDUqSNi9Q2A6yAT3cdy6SuEO-hMzYtrB5jVoiEYYjhOFMoRlws1aXlWTjAsy5AV1Xvq5GUm2mou0vBqgncy7vgyYyJsCoM9mO2P_tjQ3E1lw/s1600/ClientSampleandYarnCards.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5UWWyQrWi4_YdqVT3WpNGWft_FT9vDElDUqSNi9Q2A6yAT3cdy6SuEO-hMzYtrB5jVoiEYYjhOFMoRlws1aXlWTjAsy5AV1Xvq5GUm2mou0vBqgncy7vgyYyJsCoM9mO2P_tjQ3E1lw/s640/ClientSampleandYarnCards.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
A priority mail box was filled and I was off to the post office.<br />
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After the client sees the woven and yarn samples, we get to repeat the process. Hopefully this time with full quantities of yarn.Rebecca Mezoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16138972934775842473noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71232803753868616.post-58638900855736097112016-04-25T19:56:00.001-06:002016-04-25T19:56:21.612-06:00That moment when you know you know what you knowEver had that moment when you knew you nailed it? When you had the skill, understood what was happening, anticipated results, made it work?<br />
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What does it mean to say you're a professional anyway? I don't know if the answer is the same in every profession. Probably not.<br />
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When I was an occupational therapist I pretty much knew that if I could manage to keep a head injured combative man from punching me, transfer a 150 pound quadriplegic by myself, and not break down in tears when I had to clock out and still had two hours of paperwork to do at the rehab hospital all in the same day, I was a professional... or at least had done it long enough to avoid the tears part.<br />
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Later in my career when I got smarter and left rehab, I did things like help moms learn to facilitate movement in their low-tone babies, teach calming techniques to grandmothers of drug-exposed infants who screamed all day long (those women are going to heaven, no questions asked), and get an autistic kid to follow a one-step command with a smile (!!!). Professional.<br />
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But what does it mean when you work in your studio which is in your house and you wear your home pants* most of the time and some days you feel that if you don't at least get to the grocery store so you can chat up the employees (always pick your checker carefully on those days) you might go a little crazy. I think being a professional artist has many definitions. I saw it just a moment ago when I went out to the <strike>garage</strike> dye studio to give the yarn on the stove a poke and knew just by the feel of it that it would come to temperature in about 40 minutes, that the dye was taking up evenly, and that it was going to be a perfect hand-dye.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc05_KBPDI-MjOPX3Lg4-SLUGoT1mIBYDuxFkPPMMsK_7qxibZCT9QUaGfsOPwc47IHkr5FyJphHfhxq4UduFSOACRmred2nriiT_B7it9RBmXCoLy-Zpd6CC8TjQT9HAm2CZgil1DRg/s1600/Dyeing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc05_KBPDI-MjOPX3Lg4-SLUGoT1mIBYDuxFkPPMMsK_7qxibZCT9QUaGfsOPwc47IHkr5FyJphHfhxq4UduFSOACRmred2nriiT_B7it9RBmXCoLy-Zpd6CC8TjQT9HAm2CZgil1DRg/s400/Dyeing.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
I get the same feeling at the loom fairly often. It is just something in your gut that knows that that curve isn't going to look right unless you add one more sequence or take the corner off that step or change that color in the weft bundle for one bit of hot pink. The fingers that know I've missed a warp thread and have started to take the pick out lest I cause a float before my brain recognizes what I'm doing.<br />
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Is that just the definition of practice? Or is there some way to actually quantify what a professional in the field of art is?<br />
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I'm not really sure that I should be calling myself a professional here... after all, we haven't decided on a definition and didn't your conservative Christian elementary school teach you not to toot your own horn like mind did? But I feel pretty good about using the word today. Even if I am wearing my home pants.*<br />
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*home pants. What you call the yoga pants that are really just a half step up from pajamas because it isn't right to wear pajamas all the time.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhewwPbEKVCrGI9Rihcgy5BuXzEbtdjRNMRqPcTJYq1PwVzoTie2BSg-LijdPsO-emDT63bQ8MWo6gVgy2RmpM3tCz_35xKwc_Sbc0JxBvEhfxhisH3F2FMLWQTHNOOyoCdQjzZ0h7Nsg/s1600/Hands.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="584" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhewwPbEKVCrGI9Rihcgy5BuXzEbtdjRNMRqPcTJYq1PwVzoTie2BSg-LijdPsO-emDT63bQ8MWo6gVgy2RmpM3tCz_35xKwc_Sbc0JxBvEhfxhisH3F2FMLWQTHNOOyoCdQjzZ0h7Nsg/s640/Hands.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />Rebecca Mezoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16138972934775842473noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71232803753868616.post-54381666031651658722016-04-21T11:07:00.000-06:002016-04-21T11:07:57.393-06:00Dyeing in the sunshine, NO WAIT!... snow<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsl8GdFFtws7hxkJK_xQXae0BcBIFQhHtd3ehDpxa-BdQILsOfXPWO-2_mr9ktFE0CvFgdlki21dbTJSgYOEL6HCp6lAKg_7KUONIcTKhmJ-8gER2BKJVJGotXmOmDzLmEGVrRAfmx6Q/s1600/SunSnowDyeJArsINsta.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsl8GdFFtws7hxkJK_xQXae0BcBIFQhHtd3ehDpxa-BdQILsOfXPWO-2_mr9ktFE0CvFgdlki21dbTJSgYOEL6HCp6lAKg_7KUONIcTKhmJ-8gER2BKJVJGotXmOmDzLmEGVrRAfmx6Q/s640/SunSnowDyeJArsINsta.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Oh Colorado in April. How we do love your sense of humor.</div>
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One day I'm dyeing a pink gradation in 70-degree sunshine. The next, I'm cooling my jars in the snow.</div>
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I am deep into the dye sampling for a new project. I've spent the last week finalizing the design and talking to the clients about colors... and frankly, reassuring them that I would dye beautiful colors since my computer graphic skills are admittedly poor. The mock-up looked a little like I used spray-paint on the side of a train car perhaps while high on acid. (Don't worry Mom, I just made that up. I've never spray-painted a train car.)</div>
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I really love doing the dye sampling. I can test out 8 colors per pot which makes me feel rich at the end of the day. It takes forever to set those pots up, but all those colors are done at once. Unfortunately I can only dye about 30g in a quart jar so the amounts for the full tapestry will have to be done one pot at a time.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgBGrMn8ohKVO2xjVaW-3Tj1tgNjPtqA3bgzQUW3iw2MBONwDRHnmTkv1mR0NoigaG1c_CCbnkD1Yz3VwyrVBAl2cZ1JueJA6SHnTqOWu4DnBLB8ZZ7P1ivE3iuqvZJUAMZUOwKj_lZw/s1600/PinkJarGradation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgBGrMn8ohKVO2xjVaW-3Tj1tgNjPtqA3bgzQUW3iw2MBONwDRHnmTkv1mR0NoigaG1c_CCbnkD1Yz3VwyrVBAl2cZ1JueJA6SHnTqOWu4DnBLB8ZZ7P1ivE3iuqvZJUAMZUOwKj_lZw/s640/PinkJarGradation.jpg" width="428" /></a></div>
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And here are the adorable little skeins. This gradation was one I had done before but it has been awhile, so I wanted to make sure I still liked the colors. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhes0PCUTBP-qjvKMdxEJoK0szW2MzJ5rmKN4n0FHYfwsvfhD1YqET-ThNhG-0b9gmLMJs18mIVQL8tJJ3EmTmqy5tY4iVWHAhIfkLVIaxgZM05P1-9tTzsot78mipvtyAt9tCvIluNfA/s1600/Pinkswithpins.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhes0PCUTBP-qjvKMdxEJoK0szW2MzJ5rmKN4n0FHYfwsvfhD1YqET-ThNhG-0b9gmLMJs18mIVQL8tJJ3EmTmqy5tY4iVWHAhIfkLVIaxgZM05P1-9tTzsot78mipvtyAt9tCvIluNfA/s640/Pinkswithpins.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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For this project I'm going to need to do some sampling to send to the client for final color approval (see spray-painting on acid above), so having small samples was necessary anyway. This one came out great on the first try. No modifications (that never happens).</div>
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One of my <a href="https://www.instagram.com/rebeccamezofftapestry/" target="_blank">Instagram</a> followers asked me about dye sample books. I use three different dye sample resources. The first is my own books created as I dye. Every time I do a dye run I write down the formula for each color on a piece of card stock and put a piece of the yarn next to it. Simple, but effective.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwRtBUCyUmUET8gr5h3eAAwD-ifY1XuEWgJlWF-0rjIXgz0Fkm4ilpvyuODd0W2QgKIRINQMV2YoQm53HC98NezoWdwp0WFcfqHghVveYum2t29xTz5bDXN2oVbktEH2VeU2k2HAHlIQ/s1600/DyeBook.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwRtBUCyUmUET8gr5h3eAAwD-ifY1XuEWgJlWF-0rjIXgz0Fkm4ilpvyuODd0W2QgKIRINQMV2YoQm53HC98NezoWdwp0WFcfqHghVveYum2t29xTz5bDXN2oVbktEH2VeU2k2HAHlIQ/s640/DyeBook.jpg" width="514" /></a></div>
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I have two other books. One is by Ginny Phillips. I love this book and have used it heavily for a long time. Ginny is no longer selling these books and I doubt you'd be able to find one anywhere. I now keep mine in a locked fire safe, so don't think you're going to find it!</div>
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The other resource which you can access is by Deb Menz and Sara Lamb. They produce a set of dye sample books which you can find on Deb's <a href="http://www.debmenz.com/Books_and_Videos" target="_blank">website</a>. They are called Color by Number. Yes, they seem expensive at first glance, but think about the time it takes to dye hundreds and hundreds of colors and then loop each piece of yarn through holes on card stock printed with the formulas. Just doing the initial research for these books makes it incredible that they even exist. This is a priceless resource if you are a dyer. The only other way to get this information is to dye all these colors yourself. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe52LjtSmdxL8aL0PZN2HuHY7ZrgLRW6umfen-MpTrzH9Fjggea3o9A99CMR8w-lLFZV3-BevKHV9VLTnX_Bvimwu81EquAazpIapGLYD49-TjTGtA1I3XLUvhL4eOGoT-3D67Cq3pFw/s1600/DebMenzColorbyNumber1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe52LjtSmdxL8aL0PZN2HuHY7ZrgLRW6umfen-MpTrzH9Fjggea3o9A99CMR8w-lLFZV3-BevKHV9VLTnX_Bvimwu81EquAazpIapGLYD49-TjTGtA1I3XLUvhL4eOGoT-3D67Cq3pFw/s640/DebMenzColorbyNumber1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-fhQHHbMXr31zMsE-pSQukEdbcIup49Rg-Hx8_RPkGFS8JX1NAj7xNC1Kn2R8udf2G3clQtpyNH4dr5I1SnDt6CtpifRXH-BuMejLQEiMV071fX5h3fnPuO9WvQlyWrsfIVKPL0u8xQ/s1600/DebMenzColorByNumber2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-fhQHHbMXr31zMsE-pSQukEdbcIup49Rg-Hx8_RPkGFS8JX1NAj7xNC1Kn2R8udf2G3clQtpyNH4dr5I1SnDt6CtpifRXH-BuMejLQEiMV071fX5h3fnPuO9WvQlyWrsfIVKPL0u8xQ/s640/DebMenzColorByNumber2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Oh, and in case you were still worried about my <a href="http://rebeccamezoff.blogspot.com/2016/04/be-prepared.html" target="_blank">tax day fun</a>, it turned out okay. Well, the bottom line wasn't fun, but the taxes did get done and submitted on time. Whew.</div>
<br />Rebecca Mezoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16138972934775842473noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71232803753868616.post-26816364070578394062016-04-18T08:38:00.000-06:002016-04-28T12:15:31.971-06:00Be prepared!Obviously I never qualified to be a boy scout, but my father was one and I grew up with this motto running through the back of my head.<br />
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It means that I carry tire chains in my car in the winter.<br />
I have back-up water treatment and a warm jacket in my backpack when in the mountains.<br />
When on my way to a meeting that might cause anxiety (or boredom) of any kind, I grab my knitting.<br />
And my carry-on bag always has an extra pair of underwear, a drop spindle, and a good book. You never know when an overnight at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport is in the cards.<br />
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Be prepared.<br />
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This tendency also means that I like to have my taxes done not hours, not days, but weeks ahead of time. I just feel better having the last year all buttoned up and put to bed.<br />
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You might imagine I was less than thrilled to get an email from my accountant at 7:43 this morning, the very day taxes are due, asking for the password to my Quickbooks account. She has been particularly difficult to get ahold of and I have an appointment in an hour (!) to sign the return. I'm afraid I'm zero for two in the accountant category in our new city. I'm tempted to go back to the CPA I had in Santa Fe.<br />
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Some people pull stuff off marvelously at the last minute. I'm keeping an open mind... sort of.<br />
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After I survive the most anxiety-producing meeting of the year (I would bring knitting but she only scheduled me 15 minutes, so what would be the point?), I'm back to working on my dye samples.<br />
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This commission is due in the fall. I am going to be prepared.<br />
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As for the accountant, I'm reasonably sure it'll work out. I do suspect without an extension it is a wee bit late to find a new one for the 2015 tax year though. </div>
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<span style="color: red;">UPDATE: </span>For those of you who have expressed concern about my struggles with business accounting, it worked out okay. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to jail and the CPA pulled through at the last minute. The consolation was that she charged me less than half of what the guy did last year and he was not a CPA.</div>
<br />Rebecca Mezoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16138972934775842473noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71232803753868616.post-66978865513038031542016-04-17T17:51:00.000-06:002016-04-17T17:51:33.389-06:00Dye sample books. Just do it.I have enough yarn for another big tapestry.<br />
I know this because I just spent all afternoon organizing it and making dye reference cards.<br />
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Let me back up.<br />
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I finished a big piece a few weeks ago. I know there are many of you waiting to see a photo of it, but you'll have to wait a little longer. I'm still doing the finishing and then it has to take a trip to a very busy photographer.<br />
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In the meantime I'm busy dyeing samples for the next piece. I have to make room in the studio for the new set of yarn and so it was time to pack up the yarn from the Lifeline piece. It had migrated into every corner. I gathered it all together and organized it, thanking myself for taking the time to write the dye formula on every ball as I was winding them last year. This will allow me to use this yarn for another piece. There is plenty! (honestly, maybe two pieces. big ones.)<br />
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Had I not written the formulas on every ball, I might not be able to tell which gradation they went with and would be much less likely to use the yarn in another piece despite all the work that went into dyeing it. Odd balls without the rest of the set quickly make their way to tapestry workshops to be used by students. Not a bad outcome, but why not use all these great gradations again?<br />
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It ended up being 90 colors plus another handful of accent colors pulled off the shelf.<br />
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Ninety colors is the number I dyed for that piece.<br />
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<u>Ninety</u>.<br />
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Each color is dyed in its own pot and each pot takes several hours start to finish. As I was making the color cards I started fantasizing about how wonderful it would be to just order a truckload of yarn from Weavers Bazaar all dyed up and ready to weave. But I fear my process would be missing something vital if I didn't dye my own yarn. For whatever reason, it is what I do.<br />
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As a dyer, one of the most important resources you can create for yourself is a file of yarn samples with the dye formulas used to get them. Sometimes it can take many days of sampling in jars to come up with the colors I really want. To have to repeat that work again because I didn't take a few hours to cut pieces of the yarn and write down the formulas would be silly.<br />
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So the afternoon found me on the floor of the studio cataloging the yarn for my sample books.<br />
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I make a set of cards for each dye project which is usually for a for a tapestry, though sometimes for a workshop I'm teaching. I simply write the formula and depth of shade next to a hole punched on cardstock and put a generous piece of that yarn through the hole. These cards go in a three-ring binder. These binders along with the dye sample books of Ginny Phillips and Deb Menz/Sara Lamb are indispensable resources when planning colors for a new tapestry.<br />
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I'm in the middle of dye sampling for a new piece. Stay tuned for more photos of those gradations.<br />
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Now the question is, where am I going to store this yarn until I am ready to do a piece in these colors again? My yarn shelf is almost full. I suspect the student workshop yarn is going to get relegated to boxes. Sssshhhh, they'll never know.<br />
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<br />Rebecca Mezoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16138972934775842473noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71232803753868616.post-18730587517527984892016-04-13T09:00:00.000-06:002016-04-13T09:00:07.321-06:00Breaking News: Tapestry artist thwarts hoarding nature to discover priceless drawingOkay, so the drawing wasn't really priceless, just fervently searched for.<br />
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Let me back up a little bit.<br />
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I am currently working on a commission and the client really loves a couple of my Emergence series pieces and wants some elements from them in her piece. As you can imagine, designing the new piece with those elements is far easier if you have the original drawings.<br />
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That was where I thought my "save everything" nature would help me out. The problem? When you save everything, there is so much stuff that it is hard to find what is really important.<br />
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I knew where the dye formulas were. I had them in hand in about a minute. Score!<br />
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Next I went downstairs to look for the full-sized cartoons. I knew that I hadn't thrown them out, though I was sorely tempted, when I packed up my Santa Fe studio. I also knew they were in a couple long skinny boxes. Found and found. Two minutes for both the paper line drawing and the acetate upside down weaving copy.<br />
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But what I really needed was the smaller original drawings. The ones I could copy and modify for the new work. The new piece is about twenty percent larger than the piece I am sourcing the large forms from, so I needed the originals so that I could reposition pieces of the puzzle and then let FedEx Office do the work of the full-size cartoon.<br />
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Searched my one flat-file shelf downstairs. Found some cool stuff I had forgotten about, but no Emergence drawings. I put on some shoes and crawled under the stairs where we have some boxes full of things we'll "never need"... after climbing under tubs of stored yarn and sifting through the empty boxes (stored for the next inevitable move), I realized the drawings weren't going to surface.<br />
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At that point I gave up. I sat down to re-create the new cartoon from scratch.<br />
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But wait! The term "flat file" jogged something in the back of my brain. I remembered an old plastic file box that was shoved in the back of my closet that had received some papers in the Santa Fe move. After moving a good quantity of spinning fiber, I opened the box and right in the middle was a lovely file labeled "Emergence series". Bingo. The drawing I needed was at the back of that file.<br />
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Maybe that hoarding nature isn't so bad. What I really need is organization... and a flat file?<br />
I'm off to draw a cartoon. Dyeing by the end of the week if the client likes it!Rebecca Mezoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16138972934775842473noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71232803753868616.post-44156481655413827472016-04-11T17:19:00.000-06:002016-04-11T17:19:57.089-06:00Teaching an old art form in an inner city Detroit alternative high school... whoot!Last week I went to Detroit for two purposes. The first is a secret. The second was a day teaching weaving in an alternative high school. My cousin, Mrs. McNeece, is the art teacher there.<br />
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From fairly "short" TSA lines at Denver International Airport, I jumped right into my cousin's car at Detroit Wayne-County and she motioned to the box of 94 cardboard looms in the back seat and said, "Start warping."<br />
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We did finish warping all of those looms that evening and they were ready to go for her five sections of art the next day.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wagon of looms</td></tr>
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And who is going to turn down an invitation to be a guest artist in a room full of teenagers for a whole day?<br />
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Now to be honest, I'm not the best with teenagers. They move quickly, their behavior is erratic, and they are big. But this lot turned out to be rather enchanting. These kids have been sent to this alternative high school for extra help and support. And many of them are thriving here.<br />
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My cousin's husband warned me that morning that I might learn some new swear words. I didn't, but there were a few phrases that definitely needed some translation. For example Duane's, "That shit lows [low key] is hard." I am pretty sure that he meant both that it was hard to do the weaving and that he nailed it. He made one of the best weavings of the day, so we're going with that interpretation.<br />
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This is Randall. By the last hour of the day, I was a little fried. This had little to do with the kids and more with a whole day of trying to navigate a new and frankly rather feisty environment. Randall jumped into this weaving project with gusto. Despite the chaos that was last period, he figured out that over-under pattern in short order.<br />
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Many of these kids have some motor planning issues and none of them had done any weaving before. I was really impressed at how almost all of them jumped into the project. A few of them even filled their looms in the hour.<br />
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And the hero of it all was their art teacher, Molly McNeece. She pushes these kids every day. She teaches them responsibility and how to follow through. She also teaches them about art and that they too can be successful at making things. That knowledge translates to other things in their lives. She often has graduates come back and tell her that her insistence that they do their work was the thing that got them to (and through!) college. That folks, is the definition of success. It does not come without a price. These teachers don't get many breaks and usually when they do, they use them to help whatever kid is in crisis that day. We won't even mention what they are paid, but believe me, it should be at least doubled. Mrs. McNeece's room is a place they can be successful and the kids gravitate to it.<br />
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And while I was in Detroit, I spent some marvelous time with my oldest friend. We met in preschool, were college roommates, and still like each other all these decades later.<br />
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I also got to snuggle with a couple Rottweilers and hang out with my marvelous cousins, goofiness and all.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Top left clockwise: Me and Tulip; breakfast at sunrise cafe with Molly and Ella; the amazing Bill, master of the double nose-flute; clay faces made by Molly's students; me teaching weaving; center: CJ, the big-hearted beagle.</td></tr>
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This is the only hint you're going to get about my first reason for the trip.</div>
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<a href="http://www.mollymcneece.com/" target="_blank">Molly McNeece</a> is an illustrator who just published her second book. The first was an amazing digital book called <a href="http://www.mollymcneece.com/surviving_the_zombie_apocalypse" target="_blank">Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse</a> which she created with her husband, Alex McNeece. If you have an iPad or iPhone, you're going to want to get this book. It is sort of a choose-your-own adventure zombie romp and the illustrations are amazing. (Also, it is currently priced at $1.99.) It is so cleverly done. Make sure to look for the extra hidden illustrations. Her new book is <i>Joshua and Jasmine go to Kindergarten,</i> published by Nelson publishing. It will be released any day now. Make sure to visit Molly's website <a href="http://www.mollymcneece.com/" target="_blank">HERE</a>.</div>
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<i>"Yo! McNeece!"</i>Rebecca Mezoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16138972934775842473noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71232803753868616.post-21375021799913469642016-04-04T15:17:00.000-06:002016-04-04T15:17:51.808-06:00People who knit at breakfastI was at YarnFest in Loveland, Colorado this week. I just pulled out my camera and downloaded my photos only to find I took only a few. But you're in luck because I did apparently take more with my cell phone.<br />
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This happens at a conference. I am so focused on making sure that my teaching materials are prepared and that I haven't forgotten something important (like that connector cord from the Mac computer to the digital projector... most important piece of equipment ever).<br />
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I was thrilled to be teaching at a venue that was just down the highway a bit from my home and studio. Interweave did a great job putting this on.<br />
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I did a lot of prep for this conference... including <a href="http://rebeccamezoff.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-cutest-little-loom-you-ever-did-see.html" target="_blank">making looms</a>.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kathe Todd-Hooker has instructions for this loom in her book, Tapestry 101.</td></tr>
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And warping many looms for the Tapestry Answers class...<br />
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Putting together exercises and packing it all into the car...<br />
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There is the arrival and finding the teaching room...<br />
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And the unpacking of all the stuff early the next morning before the students arrive. And then welcoming everyone to a fun-filled day of tapestry experiences.<br />
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Ten points if you can tell me who my surprise student was in the Color class (I was secretly thrilled and a little terrified)... of course the points aren't redeemable for anything, but we like to get points here in America.<br />
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I only had time for one quick run through the vendor hall, and the most shocking thing is that I purchased nothing. I dare say had I felt a little less pressed for time, that shawl pattern and a few skeins of yak would have come home with me.<br />
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This particular hotel had a manger's reception each night. I did manage to sit long enough to have a glass of wine before heading to the Yarn Along on Friday.<br />
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I did get to hear Clara Parkes speak on Saturday night and that was marvelous. I stayed up a little too late one night reading her new book, <u>Knitlandia</u>. It starts in Taos, NM and how could I not keep reading?<br />
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I did a wee bit of knitting at breakfast one day. There were people with knitting and crocheting and spinning wheels everywhere. These were my people... People Who Knit At Breakfast.<br />
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I met a few new instructors and many new fiber enthusiasts. I had time to talk to some editors from Interweave and catch up with a few old friends.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rebecca Mezoff, <i>Emergence IV</i></td></tr>
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<br />Rebecca Mezoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16138972934775842473noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71232803753868616.post-4504025219941482842016-03-23T15:26:00.000-06:002016-03-23T18:34:50.262-06:00The cutest little loom you ever did seeI'm teaching one of my favorite classes at <a href="http://www.interweaveyarnfest.com/" target="_blank">YarnFest</a> next week. It is an introductory class called <i>Tapestry Answers</i> and it is all about why you might want to be a tapestry weaver. The class includes being able to try out a wide variety of tapestry looms. I've been wanting to add some different looms to my stash for students to try for a long time and so yesterday I made a trip to a couple hardware stores for the parts.<br />
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I was inspired by a recent post by Tommye Scanlin on her Tapestry Share blog where she built a tiny galvanized pipe loom.<br />
And before that I was inspired by seeing Sarah Swett's little pipe loom in a workshop and her subsequent posts about looms on her blog.<br />
And before Sarah Swett introduced me to the tiny pipe looms, I read about all manner of looms in Kathe Todd-Hooker's books <u>So Warped</u> and <u>Tapestry 101</u>.<br />
And I would dare bet that all three of these tapestry artists got a lot of their information straight from Archie Brennan.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw1BJGLL3_0o0dCZH7wB1tu4sE927tphkpKpUcMsta2dAaYDzOYN4NAVYoZ6YIX1VXJpdDBdLEIFP5lpCBBUKDCdi6QLBAEGQjqF46oago_22az0YhTac4HkS0bumzMnP6NvZY4B5vdA/s1600/SarahGalvanizedpipe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw1BJGLL3_0o0dCZH7wB1tu4sE927tphkpKpUcMsta2dAaYDzOYN4NAVYoZ6YIX1VXJpdDBdLEIFP5lpCBBUKDCdi6QLBAEGQjqF46oago_22az0YhTac4HkS0bumzMnP6NvZY4B5vdA/s640/SarahGalvanizedpipe.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sarah Swett weaving on a small galvanized pipe loom she made</td></tr>
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I have been influenced by all four of these sources and the links to their work are below.<br />
To paraphrase something Archie says in his DVD series, hardware stores stock looms! You just have to know how to put the parts together.<br />
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Yesterday I set out with the intention of getting parts for two looms: a very simple copper pipe loom, and a tiny galvanized pipe loom.<br />
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I have been asking about 1/4 inch galavanized pipe at hardware stores here in Fort Collins for at least six months and not found it. But after seeing the photos on Tommye's post, I had a better idea of what I was looking for. The first hardware store had the copper pipe and elbow joints, but they didn't have the steel pipe I wanted.<br />
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The second store had a row of dusty boxes labeled <b>1/4" nipple</b>... and that was what I was after. I bought almost their entire stock and judging by the layer of dust on these parts, they aren't restocking. For a complete list of parts, see the Tapestry Share blog post linked below.<br />
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All the steel parts were in the shopping cart. I'd already bought the copper at the last store. All I needed was threaded rod. In case you hate wandering around a big box store pushing a gargantuan cart as much as I do, look in the vicinity of the hardware first. The big orange box had the rod I needed for both looms as well as wing nuts and hex nuts.<br />
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The galvanized pipe loom was pricier than I thought it would be. The copper pipe loom parts were definitely cheaper and I even bought the special locking corner joints so I don't have to solder. I'll give you a price comparison when I get the second loom done.<br />
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This is what two looms look like when you're hunting in the hardware store.<br />
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<b><u>Links to make your own pipe loom:</u></b><br />
<a href="http://tapestryshare.blogspot.com/2016/03/a-small-galvanized-pipe-loom-with-nods.html" target="_blank">Tapestry Share post by Tommye Scanlin</a><br />
<a href="http://www.afieldguidetoneedlework.com/blog/galvanized-pipe-looms" target="_blank">Sarah Swett's post about pipe looms on her blog, A Field Guide to Needlework</a><br />
<a href="http://betweenandetc.com/tapestry-books-available-from-fine-fiber-press/" target="_blank">Kathe Todd-Hooker's website:</a> Tapestry 101 has a great description of how to make a copper pipe loom and So Warped shows you how to warp a million kinds of tapestry looms.<br />
<a href="http://www.brennan-maffei.com/Loom.htm" target="_blank">And Archie Brennan's legendary loom plans can be found on his website.</a><br />
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The galvanized pipe loom goes together in a snap. I spent much longer shopping than assembling it.<br />
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I'd put that second loom together right now, but I have about a foot of snow to shovel first.<br />
Yesterday I put the little loom pictured at the top of the post together on the back deck in the sunshine in a T-shirt.<br />
This morning, this is what I woke up to. Welcome to spring!<br />
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I am pretty sure the garbage man is not going to pick up our recycling today. I am off to find the sidewalk that is under that drift. The daffodils are going to have to fend for themselves.<br />
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P.S. I still have spots in my color class at YarnFest. Live close enough to Colorado to come and hang out with me?<a href="http://www.rebeccamezoff.com/workshops" target="_blank"> I'd love to see you. </a><br />
P.P.S. I thought my Tapestry Answers class that I am using these looms for was full, but it turns out it isn't. You can still get in. <a href="http://www.interweaveyarnfest.com/" target="_blank">HERE</a><br />
<br />Rebecca Mezoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16138972934775842473noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71232803753868616.post-32032855428555079412016-03-21T10:19:00.000-06:002016-03-21T10:19:10.950-06:00When what you make doesn't feel so great.I've been thinking about finishing today. Perhaps that is because I just cut a big piece off the loom last night and it feels pretty good to have the weaving part of it done.<br />
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This Ira Glass quote turned into a 2 minute video came across my desktop today and I thought I should share it with you. Ira talks about what happens when you begin. How when you start making things and you're learning a new skill, what you make isn't that good. It is easy to get discouraged and give up. But people don't fail because they aren't good at something. They fail because they stop trying.<br />
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So if you're weaving your first set of tapestries and you aren't all that happy with what is coming off your loom, keep trying! Give yourself some credit for working at it. The practice will pay off. Notice what you love about the piece even if it is something as small as a specific color or yarn choice. Notice that thing you like and write it down. Use that bit of information in the next iteration.<br />
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And then start again. Because you'll only get better by practicing.<br />
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(Please click the link below the image. Blogger doesn't allow photos to link.)<br />
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<a href="https://vimeo.com/24715531" target="_blank">https://vimeo.com/24715531</a></div>
<br />Rebecca Mezoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16138972934775842473noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71232803753868616.post-82540811464822208762016-03-13T18:30:00.000-06:002016-03-13T18:30:32.277-06:00El Capitan and the ludditeOkay, I am far from a luddite. I love my Apple machines very much. But I love my wooden fiber tools even more. Those wood and metal tools constitute much of the range of my post-apocalyptic survival skills.<br />
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I am committed to pushing my machines as far as I can. The iPhone 4 lasted four whole years. Apps started dropping off about a year ago. They were simply unusable and unable to be updated. Who needs Facebook on your phone anyway? It is more interesting to talk to the eccentric lady with the poodle in a bag in the post office line than scroll. But when my bank app was unable to be updated, that was the last straw. A new iPhone was in order. Fortunately when you go years beyond your last contract, it doesn't cost that much to get a new one.<br />
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The results of waiting did become apparent fairly quickly when I brought the new phone home and tried to load the information from the old one from iTunes. Because my computer is also four years old and I hadn't updated the operating system, well, ever... my MacBook couldn't talk to the new phone.<br />
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So overnight, Lion was replaced with El Capitan. That is a four generation jump in operating systems for the Mac (Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks, Yosemite, El Capitan). It has challenged my brain--remembering all the different passwords you need to update everything, hoping against hope that it all wouldn't go up in an ephemeral cloud of 0s and 1s. So far so good. A few programs are still stumping me, but I'm returning to some baseline function here. I'm just proud that I realized the initial problem was my operating system and not some unknowable electronic mystery... and that I could fix it myself.<br />
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Isn't that what we do when we create things out of fiber with wooden tools? Figure out how to do things ourselves? The electronic gadgets are fun and very useful, but I'd give them all up to keep my Schacht Ladybug spinning wheel or Harrisville Rug Loom. After all, in the apocalypse, I won't be able to charge that iPhone anyway.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Turkish spindle or iPhone? Or both?</td></tr>
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<br />Rebecca Mezoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16138972934775842473noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71232803753868616.post-69110593862628779772016-03-10T09:24:00.000-07:002016-03-10T09:24:14.942-07:00Maggie was right... knitting with handspunI have been spinning for about a year. Maggie Casey is my teacher.<br />
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If you know her, you won't be surprised to hear me say that Maggie was right. She told us from day one that we had to actually <u><b>use</b></u> our handspun, but I have been blithely ignoring her for about a year now. I have used some of it in tapestry, but when you pack the yarn into a weaving, the exact character of the yarn might not be quite as important as when you're knitting a garment.<br />
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I had some balls of handspun piling up, so I have had to institute a personal policy of no yarn store stops. A visit to one of the great yarn stores in Fort Collins is something that I am always tempted by if I'm having a rough day. But, the balls of handspun...<br />
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So I started my first project with a Malbrigo braid I spun during Spinzilla last October. That braid was hard to spin. But I didn't know it then because I was such a new spinner. I thought the drafting was supposed to be that difficult. So the yarn is dense. It is heavy. This hat is going to weigh quite a lot.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spinning this yarn last October</td></tr>
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The pattern is <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/wurm" target="_blank">Wurm</a>. It is a hat with a lot of yarn in it.<br />
Heavy it will be.<br />
I have 8 ounces of it... what to do with the rest?<br />
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I'll let you know how it comes out.<br />
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So Maggie was right. I didn't realize how dense this yarn was until I started knitting it. I think it will make a fine hat for the mostly moderate weather in this part of Colorado. But if I wanted a very warm hat with perhaps fewer hair-crushing properties, I would definitely work on a long draw or more woolen spun preparation. This yarn ended up dense because the braid was so difficult to draft. Had I knit this up before spinning ANOTHER 8 ounces of the same fiber (in red!), I would have known that.<br />
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From now on I will try to <a href="http://www.shuttlesspindlesandskeins.com/" target="_blank">listen to Maggie</a> sooner.Rebecca Mezoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16138972934775842473noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71232803753868616.post-40436966348651279572016-03-09T10:09:00.000-07:002016-03-09T15:24:15.865-07:00The land of Garrison Keillor... crankers and allI've spent the last four days in Minnesota which I affectionately think of as "the land of Garrison Keillor". I haven't seen much of the city except for the airport terminal, the Textile Center, Pizza Luce, and Bobbin House Studio. But I feel that was enough for this go-around.<br />
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I met a dog named Huey. He came with a marvelous introduction to both an Aino Kajaniemi tapestry and an Erlbacher knitting sock machine. I'd take all three home if I could. Unfortunately I took no photos of the tapestry, the dog, or the knitting machine.<br />
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My trip started with a very very close call on I-25. I was within a breath of being rear ended badly and the quick thinking of the school teacher in the car behind me (I pulled left, she pulled right) saved me that. She was rear-ended by a big truck and her day went much worse than mine did I am sure. (Little reminder that life can change in an instant... be grateful for every moment.)<br />
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I made it to Minneapolis, gave my <i><b>Sand in my Shoes</b></i> lecture, and met some fantastic fiber people. There was a three-day Color Gradation Techniques for Tapestry workshop to follow and some lovely time in the best little vacation rental I've ever seen.<a href="http://www.bobbinhousestudio.com/" target="_blank"> Bobbin House Studio</a> comes highly recommended by me and everyone else who signed the guest book.<br />
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The Textile Center completely blew me away. I've never seen such a marvelous resource just for fiber. They have a couple galleries, a big space rented by the Weaver's Guild of Minneapolis (for whom I was teaching), meeting space, classrooms, and an amazing dye lab. All of that was incredible, but it was the library that really impressed me. They have a huge collection of fiber books--bigger than I've ever seen. In case you don't believe me, here is a photo for evidence. All of those books are about fiber. All of them! And it is a circulating library. If I lived there I could have taken some of these treasures home with me to read at my leisure.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Textile Center library, Minneapolis</td></tr>
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Here are a few more photos of my Minneapolis tapestry adventure.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Textile Center of Minneapolis</td></tr>
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I bring as much yarn in as many colors as I can fit in two huge suitcases. This is especially important for classes like this where we are working on value and gradation.<br />
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We had Mirrix looms, a Glimakra, a Schacht tapestry loom, a Schacht Baby Wolf, some copper pipe looms, a picture frame loom, and a Louet table loom that made me change my mind about my "all table looms are bad for tapestry except that great one I saw in Michigan" stance. The Louet Kombo definitely holds its own in the tapestry loom department. (FYI, the Michigan loom was a Kessenich.)</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some of my samples including warp size samples, simultaneous contrast sample, vertical gradation samples, and a new thing I'm working on with four selvedge and shaped pick and pick.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kaz and Carol concentrating on their weaving</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Glimakra loom. Despite the small beams, this loom works great.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kristin's beautiful hachure piece. Isn't the blending of the orange and salmon colors lovely? Value people, value.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Just some of the colors I brought.</td></tr>
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You can find many more photos of the workshop on Robbie LaFleur's blog. Thanks for this wonderful post Robbie! <a href="http://robbielafleur.com/2016/03/09/rebecca-mezoffs-tapestry-workshop-variety-was-the-theme/">http://robbielafleur.com/2016/03/09/rebecca-mezoffs-tapestry-workshop-variety-was-the-theme/</a><br />
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I stayed at the most wonderful place, Bobbin House Studio. I loved this place. It was so comfortable and my hosts Tom and Steve taught me so much about fiber and art in Minneapolis!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.bobbinhousestudio.com/index.html" target="_blank">Bobbin House</a>, sculpture by Tom Skogstrom</td></tr>
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One of the most fascinating things I learned about from Steve Pauling was knitting machines for socks (there are a few photos on his <a href="http://www.bobbindoctor.com/" target="_blank">website</a>). One of Steve's many fiber pursuits involves repairing sewing machines. He is the best of the best at this. He also repairs sock knitting machines and is a sock machine knitting aficionado. He has an Erlbacher that he uses himself and he let me crank it. It was marvelous. What a beautiful piece of machinery. I would love to have one of these and I don't even like knitted socks that much. It was just so mesmerizing to see the little hooks do the wave around the canister.<br />
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I had no idea that there were whole groups of people called "crankers" who were into sock knitting on machines. They congregate in places with lots of sheep and fibery stuff going on. I'm fairly sure there must be such a group somewhere in Colorado given the high sheep numbers and the high population of fiber folk here. Crankers. (giggle)<br />
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I managed, once again, to maneuver this luggage through a rental car return and into the airport and then back to my own car in Denver. I have to figure out how to teach classes that don't require me to bring any materials. Ah, who am I kidding. I can't imagine teaching a tapestry class where I didn't bring at least some of my own hand-dyed gradations for students to use.<br />
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My next teaching gig is at YarnFest in Loveland, Colorado. I still have a little room in all the classes. If you're going to sign up, now is the time! I'm finishing up the samples for the Simultaneous Contrast color class this week. The yarn table is going to look even better than the one pictured above if that is any temptation at all.<br />
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More info on my website here: <a href="http://www.rebeccamezoff.com/workshops">http://www.rebeccamezoff.com/workshops</a><br />
and in a set of blog posts linked <a href="http://rebeccamezoff.blogspot.com/2016/02/getting-ready-staring-down-runway-at.html" target="_blank">HERE</a>.<br />
See you there!</div>
Rebecca Mezoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16138972934775842473noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71232803753868616.post-69564463271917100972016-03-01T17:18:00.000-07:002016-03-01T17:18:59.469-07:00Is it procrastinating if you're waiting for an electric ball winder?In my <a href="http://rebeccamezoff.blogspot.com/2016/02/procrastinate.html" target="_blank">last post</a> I talked a little about Steven Pressfield's book, <i>The War of Art,</i> and the difference between Procrastination and Resistance.<br />
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My question today is, is it procrastinating if I'm waiting to ball that pile of yarn because there is an electric ball winder on a FedEx truck somewhere headed my way? (Did you catch my use of the word ELECTRIC?!!) I have been working with one ear alert for the thunk of a package hitting the porch. You see, I have to have two suitcases of yarn ready to go for a date with a plane to Minneapolis on Thursday morning. If the ball winder was here now, the last balls could be done in a flash. But alas, FedEx tells me that its last known location was somewhere near Barnhill, Illinois which is, in fact, nowhere near my doorstep.<br />
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It will be here tomorrow. How far can I push the <strike>procrastination</strike> waiting?<br />
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Perhaps the best thing is to start with a survey of what is actually wound. My dear friend and helper was here last month making balls and it could well be that she nailed this workshop and the pile sitting beside the swift downstairs is the lot I have reserved for my YarnFest workshops the end of March.<br />
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I'm going downstairs to see...<br />
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Ugh. The pile of skeins was so big!<br />
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I really thought I had a whole collection of yarn balled up and ready for this workshop. I spent ten confused minutes wandering around the studio and house wondering where I might have left the yarn or perhaps my mind. Finally, it hit me.<br />
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I put the yarn away after the Atlanta workshop. As in, on the shelf where it belongs.<br />
Once I inventoried that stash, I only had twenty or so balls to wind. I think I'm going to make it.<br />
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Oh, and the answer to the taxes was that it took me a day longer than I'd hoped. It was 10:27 pm Monday instead of the 5 pm Sunday finish I was hoping for. I reached the point where I was spending hour after grumpy hour trying to figure out how to deal with a couple issues. Finally Emily convinced me that unsnarling the things I just don't understand about accounting was actually the accountant's job. I believe that is called wisdom (or perhaps she couldn't take one more minute of the grumpiness).<br />
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It is a Nancy's Knit Knacks electric ball winder with yardage counter. Tomorrow it will be here. Never again for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGmuxZb8qUM" target="_blank">THIS</a>:<br />
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<br />Rebecca Mezoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16138972934775842473noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71232803753868616.post-11945125099661994102016-02-28T11:26:00.000-07:002016-02-28T11:26:27.621-07:00ProcrastinateWhen is procrastination really resistance? Most of the time, I fear.<br />
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I am a big fan of Steven Pressfield's book, <a href="http://www.stevenpressfield.com/the-war-of-art/" target="_blank">The War of Art</a>. In it, he talks about the ways we prevent ourselves from making art or doing any other number of things we feel called to do in this short time on earth we are gifted.<br />
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Today, I am determined to get my taxes ready for the accountant. I have too many things to do to get ready for a trip this week to drag it out any farther. So instead of reconciling the numbers, what am I doing? Writing a blog post. I believe that is resistance right there. At least I'm resisting something that I can't possibly be expected to enjoy instead of avoiding making art.<br />
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Here is a little classic Pressfield for your Sunday:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><br />Resistance feeds on fear. We experience Resistance as fear. But fear of what?</i> </blockquote>
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<i>Fear of the consequences of following our heart. Fear of bankruptcy, fear of poverty, fear of insolvency. Fear of groveling when we try to make it on our own, and of groveling when we give up and come crawling back to where we started. Fear of being selfish, of being rotten wives or disloyal husbands; fear of failing to support our families, of sacrificing their dreams for ours. Fear of betraying our race, our 'hood, our homies. Fear of failure. Fear of being ridiculous. Fear of throwing away the education, the training, the preparation that those we love have sacrificed so much for, that we ourselves have worked our butts off for. Fear of launching into the void, of hurtling too far out there; fear of passing some point of no return, beyond which we cannot recant, cannot reverse, cannot rescind, but must live with this cocked-up choice for the rest of our lives. Fear of madness. Fear of insanity. Fear of death.</i> </blockquote>
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<i>These are serious fears. But they're not the real fear. Not the Master Fear, the Mother of all Fears that's so close to us that even when we verbalize it we don't believe it.</i> </blockquote>
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<i>Fear That We Will Succeed.*</i></blockquote>
If I don't finish my tax preparation, I risk that success, don't I? But if I never sit at the loom, I risk it even more.<br />
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I run into this resistance all the time. Every day in fact. I suspect we all do. It helps to be able to label it. I do forget, over and over again. It is a hard lesson to learn, to recognize resistance. I think that is because it is propelled so strongly by fear. Fear of not making a living. Fear that the tapestry that took a year to make is going to be complete crap, fear that my life will fly by without me paying attention. Fear that I won't be able to go back. Back to the comfort of a regular paycheck and health insurance from a job I was good at. (I can't go back, but that doesn't stop the fear or my continued license renewals. At least not yet.)<br />
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So today was a good day to pull out Pressfield. If you haven't read this book, get a copy. It might just remind you to move past the fear and do something you knew, underneath everything, you could do all along. I thought for seventeen years that I had to work in health care because that is what I trained so long to do. I wanted to be an artist, but that particular career comes with massive piles of fear, self-loathing, and resistance. Not to mention the constant question from society, "Can you really make a living making art?" My spouse frequently gets asked what I do and the next question, 99% of the time, is, "can she make a living doing that?"<br />
Seriously, that is what they want to know.<br />
The 1% who want to know what my medium is, what I am working to express, whether I am in love with the world... those are the people to get to know.<br />
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Wishing you courage for a day of creating. I'm off to finish the taxes, struggling against the resistance at every turn.<br />
Ask me tomorrow if I succeeded.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bobbin by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Bobbin-Boy-426941424134197/" target="_blank">Bobbin Boy</a>; tapestry by yours truly... see it woven in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyH2MlVVIV8" target="_blank">THIS</a> video.</td></tr>
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<i>_________________________</i><br />
*Pressfield, S. (2002). <i>The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles.</i> New York: Grand Central Publishing. (p. 142-143)<br />
<br />Rebecca Mezoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16138972934775842473noreply@blogger.com10