I'm going to ATB8...

Those of you who are tapestry weavers probably know what "ATB8" means. For the majority of the 8 people who read this blog (who, incidentally, are related to me, and happily so), ATB8 stands for American Tapestry Biennial 8. It is the biennial juried show of the American Tapestry Alliance. I will be represented at that show with this piece.

Emergence

2009

48 X 48 inches

Hand-dyed wool tapestry

photo: Jamie Hart

The show will be at Elder Gallery in Lincoln, Nebraska from Sept 20 - Nov 15, 2010 and then the American Textile History Museum in Lowell, Massachusets from Jan 21 - May 1, 2011.

(And I just have to add, Whoo Hoo!!! I'm pretty excited about this one!)

Mirrix Experiments

One of my relatives who is very familiar with with horizontal looms, but not with small tapestry looms (okay, it was my Dad) was asking me about this new Mirrix loom that I purchased so I'd have something portable to take with me when I'm away from home. Here are a few explanatory photos.

Shedding Device

Warp is wrapped around top and bottom bar and there is a coil at the top that can be changed with different spacing.

Things I have noticed so far:

1. I have a lot of trouble bubbling correctly when the warp is vertical! This is going to take some getting used to or I'm going to have tendonitis before you can say "extensive wrist flexion for prolonged periods of time."

2. The Mirrix is a great little loom! I love the shedding device which seems to work smoothly and effectively. I purchased the Mirrix heddles and they were so easy to put on. I couldn't face the thought of making 200 heddles, so I looked at it as an investment in sanity. Of course I haven't woven much more than this, so maybe I should get back to you on how much I like this loom.

3. The new beater I bought for my foray into vertical tapestry weaving is great. Thanks to Lyn Hart for recommending it! It is the Maggie fork from Magpie Woodworks. I didn't get the weighted version yet Lyn, but probably will get one of those too! The teeth are part of a dog comb and they are smooth and strong. I really recommend this tapestry beater! If you don't believe me, ask Lyn.

4. The first piece I am doing is a design done by a 9 year old friend of mine (well, she is now 10, but she was 9 when she drew this cartoon for me--I'm a little slow at getting to this project which shouldn't really surprise anyone). The subject is a unicorn and I can't help having visions of the unicorn tapestries at the Cloisters in NYC. I sort of hope she'll let me enter it into one of the Convergence shows, but it is up to her! It is her design. What 10-year-old wouldn't want her name on a piece in a Convergence or ATA show? (I realize this probably means absolutely nothing to a 10-year-old who lives in Mississippi, but maybe a bribery trip to SEE the tapestry in Albuquerque would work.) Weaving something realistic is a significant departure from my usual weaving, so the whole thing is mostly a crap shoot anyway. I won't even talk about the fact that this piece is distracting me from the much-needed work I have to do on the body of work for the shows in Albuquerque and Germany for my Bauhaus Tapestry Project.

Bauhaus website launched...

The Bauhaus project, Interwoven Traditions: New Mexico and Bauhaus, has a new website (huge thanks to Kurt Gardella, Conni's webmaster husband!).

The link is :

www.bauhaus-tapestry-project.com

This project is a group effort between Cornelia Theimer Gardella, James Koehler, and Rebecca Mezoff (that's me!), all tapestry artists living and working in New Mexico (and Conni also in Erfurt, Germany).

I am so excited about the progress on our project in recent months. Conni has worked very hard to get the shows firmed up and find us potential teaching spots in Germany. She is also responsible for the current project description (see PDF on website) and its German translation. Please take a look at the project description as I couldn't state what we are about better than Conni did there.

We are working on publicity and still looking for financial support for the project, especially for the printing of a catalog of the works for the two shows and the opening and potential classes in Germany. Espanola Valley Fiber Arts Center is our fiscal sponsor and any monetary donations can go to them (further info about donation will be on the website soon under "supporters").

The first show is in Albuquerque at Open Space Gallery (The 2010 gallery schedule isn't up on their website yet, but our show will be running July to August) in conjunction with Convergence 2010. The second show is in Erfurt, Germany, Conni's home town, at Michaeliskirche (St. Michael's Church). The opening there is the first weekend in September, 2010.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend (in the USA--and a wonderful weekend in general elsewhere!). This picture was taken on the rim road west of the Rio Grande gorge driving north toward Colorado to have Thanksgiving with my family in the South San Juans.

Wheeler Peak and Taos, November 25, 2009.

What came in the mail today...

What came in the mail today was a new loom. Now I know that sentence makes some of you reading this cringe considering I have a healthy collection of looms already, largely thanks to my Grandpa Mezoff who gifted me all of his and my Grandma Mezoff's when they moved to Connecticut. ("Healthy" might be an understatement--there are two big floor looms and a 60 inch LeClerc tapestry loom... not counting the smaller looms my grandmother gave me and my old Rio Grande.) But current life circumstances were calling for a portable loom and my grandmother's old Macomber workshop loom just isn't technically "portable" since moving it involves considerable swearing and often bloodied knuckles. And after the workshop I took in Durango last summer at the Intermountain Weaver's Conference... and all the drooling I did over those people who just waltzed in the door and pulled their Mirrix looms out of a tote bag (as I was sucking my bloodied knuckles and struggling to keep the Macomber upright), I started considering the usefulness of a portable loom. Then there is the fact that I took a job which requires me to stay in another village one or two nights a week and a planned Christmas trip to Mississippi for two weeks--all of that added up to my own Mirrix. I got the notice that it shipped this morning. When I went to the post office, there it was... a big square box which contained my shiny new loom. Of course this has completely side tracked my work on getting a new piece on the Harrisville... which I think is going to entail some dyeing... hopefully tomorrow as the weather is beautiful again.

Speaking of dyeing, does anyone know where to get acetic acid? I have been using glacial or 56% acetic acid for my acid wool dyes, but can't get it anymore locally as the camera stores aren't selling it--the digital age and all. I really can't find any in Santa Fe or Albuquerque. Any suggestions where to look? Or have any of you used citric acid crystals and do they work as well as the acid? Thanks in advance.

The cottonwoods in the Rio Grande bosque are just gorgeous. This is my driveway.

That which relates only tangentially to weaving...

Beware: right from the outset I am going to say that I do not believe this post will relate in any direct way to tapestry weaving.  By the time I get to the end, I may find some way to slip some reference to yarn, design, or art in there, but I'm not feeling it at the moment.  You might want to stop now if you were looking for something intelligent.

What I do want to say is that I was in my lovely neighborhood Albertsons store this afternoon (okay, it wasn't my neighborhood store because my neighborhood does not contain any grocery stores at all.  There is a bar, a gas station, a winery, 7 churches, and a post office... this time of year there are fruit stands selling apples--which are fabulous by the way--but there are no grocery stores in my neighborhood), and I found THESE:

I realize this might be of no interest to most of the three of you who read this blog at least occasionally, but I was practically jumping for joy in the aisle.  When I broke out in the Hallelujah chorus (the alto line, so people didn't even recognize the tune, sadly enough), I did get some funny looks.  But you have to understand that I have celiac disease and that makes eating somewhat harder than it used to be.  Used to be I could eat just about anything (hold the olives) that I wanted.  Stomach like iron, metabolism like a 15 year old... and then I got sick and now I can't eat gluten... which is in everything except lettuce.  

But recent years have improved this state of affairs because now major companies like Betty Crocker have realized that the gluten intollerant market is full of people like me who used to be able to eat everything and now can relate endless experiences of standing besides tables of food at potlucks and parties, unable to eat anything except the carrots (hold the dip) and praying that someone brought a bottle of wine--and would you pour it quickly because you're not going to eat anything tonight... and that we'll pay just about anything to be able to eat like we used to... so a brownie mix that used to cost $2.59 now costs $7.99... and we don't flinch when reaching for it.  This is survival and we feel like we're in a potentially critical situation and have to have it.  Very smart of Betty Crocker to get on board with this.  They'll make a mint.  And the Cinnamon Chex are heaven.  I haven't eaten much from that bread/cereal group in years, but baby, I'm back!  Unfortunately now that I'm quite a few years older, my metabolism is not quite so high and I'd best be careful with those Betty Crocker "foods" lest when I tell other celiacs that I actually have celiac disease, a glance at my waistline makes them call me a liar.

Attention relatives-who-only-make-inside-out-chocolate-bundt-cakes-for-birthdays: I can have my own now.  In case you don't have it, the recipe is basically devils food chocolate cake mix (please buy the gluten free version--see photo above--lest I end up in the bathroom for the rest of my birthday), a package of Jello chocolate pudding mix, a ton of chocolate chips...  I'll be over August 5th, 2010.

Isn't this dragonfly wing pretty?  Maybe that would be a good jumping-off place for a tapestry design.  He was living in my girlfriend's house and was, this particular day, in fairly poor health on the windowsill.  I snapped his photo and let him outside where he flew off in search of whatever dragonflies eat. (Huh.  Got the word tapestry in here a few times after all.)

Taos Wool Festival 2009

I did have the privilege of attending the 2009 Taos Wool Festival.  I have to admit that the animals are my favorite.  Maybe I should be an alpaca owner... or one of those fuzzy bunnies who I thought produced angora, but now I think that is goats... and what is the bunny fiber called?

Anyway, I caught up with some old fiber friends including:

Liesel Orend--a fabulous natural dyer and tapestry weaver who taught me everything I know about natural dyeing.  I don't feel like I know much about natural dyeing as I haven't done any outside of Liesel's classes, but she assures me that I can figure it out... and she taught me well, so she is probably correct!  I'm going to test those skills soon with a natural dyeing project.  We'll see whether or not I need a consult with Leisel!

I met up with some good friends at Weaving Southwest for Rachel Brown's retrospective opening.  The opening was packed.  Here are my weaving friends Judith Mirus and Cornelia Theimer Gardella and their husbands Clarence and Kurt outside the opening.

And here is the new piece I finished.  It is called Halcyon Days and is 14 X 39 inches, hand-dyed wool tapestry.

Gold Hill and Boogers...

This morning I awoke (to a 77.6 pound dog jumping on my legs) at 8am and happily finished my most recent tapestry.  All I had to do was decide on a name, (which isn’t usually difficult but I wasn’t channeling Anni Albers today) but I did eventually come up with something acceptable, make a tag for it (which took 3 tries as I managed to fuse the first two to the towel I was using for an ironing board because BOTH ironing boards in my studio are covered with tapestry yarn), and deliver the tapestry to the gallery.  When I was done with this (and the gallery did seem pleased with 

it), I took that 77.6 pound Labrador retriever on a hike from the Taos Ski Valley… Gold Hill is my favorite TSV hike, but be forewarned if you go, every single hike from that valley with the exception of Williams Lake (which, admit it, is for tourists from the flat lands) is straight up.  Whoever built those trails did NOT believe in switchbacks.

And I must say that I kicked some hiking hiney!  9 miles, 3,000+ feet elevation gain, 5 hours… and that included the chatting time with the 70+ year old couple who were BACPACKING (!!!) and the 30-something hunter from Ohio who was sucking wind at 12,000 feet trying to get high enough to make a cell phone call to his hunting buddy who was supposed to meet him on the back side of the moon.  I realized on my way up that I was doing great… and that finally I must be in shape for backpacking season, what with the 2-3 mile walks up the mesa every day and hiking every weekend to some high-altitude destination.  Unfortunately it is now October and pretty soon the winter sloth will set in and all that sweat will be wasted on eating GF pizza (which, alas, I will have to make myself) and reading books.

 

It was a beautiful day.  I set out hoping to see the colors changing, but the high-altitude colors have done their thing… and there were a lot of sad little yellow aspen leaves on the trail.  The higher I got the windier it got until I left treeline behind and thought I was going to be blown off the ridge.  I crawled on my hands and knees to the edge of the ridge to get a look at 

Goose Lake, afraid I was going to get blown to Kansas.  The horse-riding hunter I saw 15 seconds later probably thought I was insane.  Seriously the wind was about 47 million knots—and no, I don’t know how fast a knot is although I did sail as a child… I never was good at conversions.  Still I have to ask my German friend Conni how much a Euro is every time we talk about any currency that isn’t the dollar.  Hopefully she takes pity on me and doesn’t reveal this particular intellectual flaw to her fellow citizens when I visit her lovely country next year for our Bauhaus show.

Anyway, the wind was so fierce up there that I had to first dig out the fleece hat I always have in my pack… then realized because of the over-sized craniums that Mezoffs are blessed with (which doesn't really seem to say anything about how smart we are), this particular hat doesn’t really cover my ears very well.  So I was forced to tie the bandana that I had just used for a snot rag over my head.  It was that or be deafened by the wind and probably suffer frostbite to my lovely ear lobes.  The thought of turning back never crossed my mind.  I’m a stubborn hiker babe after all and sometimes sacrifices in the realm of personal hygiene have to be made. But, alas, my nose was still running and so I was forced to practice the farmer nose blow.  I’ve never been able to do this and today was no exception.  I’m afraid my clothing came back smattered with mucus.  (I’ll wash it Mom.)  While at the top where the wind chill must have been hovering around freezing, I found globules of ice in the stone wind shelter.  I’m guessing these are the frozen boogers of the last hiker up there who undoubtedly had to use her snot rag to cover her ears also.

Gold Hill is 12,711 feet high. At the top I tried to send a text message to my girlfriend feeling for all the world like I was on the top of Everest radioing the world that I was still alive.  The wind messed up the signal, and the message, sent back in the Taos Ski Valley parking lot, lost a lot of its zing.  Tomorrow, when I’m back at my loom, my hiking hiney is going to be mighty sore!  

Weaving note:  Last night was Rachel Brown’s retrospective at Weaving Southwest.  It was so packed with people I couldn’t see the art and had to go back today to spend some time with it.  If you’re in Taos this month, stop by Weaving Southwest and see the show.  These pieces are owned by collectors and won’t be shown again any time soon.  Rachel is an inspiration.