Saori !!!

I've found it... Wabi Sabi weaving!!!

As the new year approaches I've been reacquainting myself with something I learned when I was researching Wabi Sabi for my Japanese Fulbright Scholarship proposal. I've been bumping into it for the past 5 years... and finally I'm embracing it! The above scarf is my first Saori project -- woven with pure joy and freedom -- and not worrying about planning and complex weave structures. SAORI was developed by Misao Jo about 30 years ago when she was 57 year old. SA is from the Zen idea of everything having its own dignity and ORI is the Japanese word for weaving. Misao says, "It is this individuality that makes everything meaningful and the uniqueness of each thread that creates the tapestry of life."

The day after Christmas I decided that it was the perfect time to begin a new project, but for this one I didn't want to spend a lot of time planning. I wanted to weave something JUST FOR THE PURE JOY OF WEAVING!!! So I took out my trusty warping board and gathered yarns from my stash for warp -- some grey worsted weight wool, some charcoal boucle wool, some thin singles white wool and some black fine 5/2 cotton. I didn't want to measure... so I guess-timated about 6 yards picked up the grey wool and started winding... when I felt like it I stopped and changed to one of the others until I thought I'd probably have enough for a narrow scarf. It chained it off and sat down with a 10 dent reed and my threading hook and the newly wound warp and started thread in about the center - again not measuring - guess-timating! (LIBERATING!) I doubled the thinner yarns in the dents... and voila... it was 5 inches. Perfect! (But then it would have been perfect had it been 6 or 7 inches! - I didn't care - I was letting chance take care of it. It felt right - that was what was important!)

Once the reed was threaded I carried it to my 8 shaft Mighty Wolf and proceeded to thread the heddles on a straight twill on the front 4 shafts only. I dropped the cords from the threadles on either side of the center 4 treadles and threaded these four with a direct tie-up - 1st treadle to lift harness 1, 2nd treadle to lift harness 2, etc. It cleared my way to dance and play with the treadles in different combinations using both feet.

I have been spinning for about 35 years and weaving for over 32 years and I have quite a stash of handspun -- some 35 years old. When you spin your own yarn - each yarn has a story... you remember where you got the fibers, where you were when you spun it, etc., etc., etc. So I gathered together some of these really, really old - almost antique - handspuns to use as weft for my first SAORI scarf. I also included some luscious bright white alpaca roving that my oldest and dearest friend, Cathy has sent me as a surprise (with paisley fabric and some delicious rusty brown alpaca, too!)

I tied the warp to the front beam and was ready to start playing! I randomly broke of pieces of the handspun yarns that I knew who "go together(wool, alpaca, wool & mohair and the alpaca roving) ... and started to play and dance and have a blast! No stress or worries that I was treadling correctly or that the threading was correct. It didn't matter. FREEDOM! Sometimes I used plain weave treadling... sometimes twill... sometimes combinations... sometimes I started one color from one side, another from the other side, clasped them and returned... sometimes I would turn the yarn at the selvedge and return it in the same shed two or three times... sometimes I placed the roving in the shed. I did whatever I felt like doing in the moment with the amount of yarn I had broken off the ball. HOW LIBERATING!

When I had woven about 2.5 yard I cut it off the loom and tied the fringes. I washed the scarf with Pantene shampoo and cream rinse to soften it and hung it to dry. I'm really pleased with his piece and look forward to weavin the 2nd scarf on this warp of tones of whites in different handspun fibers.

I just ordered this book from the Worcester Massachusetts SAORI Center and have enjoyed reading Misao's philosophy as well as seeing the many patterns for handwoven Saori clothes that are incorporated in the back. You can order it

here

(scroll down the page to find it...)

Passages

Yesterday my father-in-law gently passed at the age of 93 - cogent to the end. A proud Swede, Hok was strong in a quiet, unassuming way. When he smiled, it made you smile, too! To hear him play his guitar while singing old folk songs, like Abdul a Bul Bul Ameer and Banks of the Ohio or his favorite Swedish songs, was pure delight. He loved to hear about his children, grand-children and great grand-children. Intelligent yet modest, Hok never intruded. He had a way of wandering away from the confusion of a party, a wedding or a graduation celebration and you could find him in a quiet place, maybe thumbing through a book he'd discovered. We'll miss the twinkle in his eye! I just couldn't let Hok slip away without some words of remembrance...

Study Group

Part of what is fun about being part of a guild is the opportunity to learn new things about your craft and to share with others. This year I have the honor of being co-president of the Fiber Guild of the Savannahs (yes, that is not a typo - savannahs are grassy plains in tropical and subtropical regions with few trees and what Savannah, GA was named for - thus the Savannahs refers to the surrounding area including the neighboring low country of South Carolina... PHEW! - I know, more information than you needed... sorry...)

In addition to our regular Fiber Guild of about 30 members, we have an active group of about half a dozen who meet twice a month to SPIN - the first Monday at downtown's Wild Fibres and the third Tuesday at Unwind in suburban Savannah. Several of us are also weavers and wanted to get a weaving group started. The idea of a study group evolved and last summer it was decided that we would set up enough warp for 6 hand towels with different weave structures and we would either move the looms from weaver to weaver or go to weave at the loom owners home to complete a hand towel from each weave structure.

My first study group towel was woven on an overshot draft warped by new weaver Anastasia on a directly tied up 4 shaft Dorset loom. I will take a photo my finished overshot towel and mount it soon.

Because I wove off the last of the warp it was my turn to thread it in a new pattern. I wanted to do a block weave on my 8 shaft loom but it is not very portable and the Dorset was open, so I designed a summer and winter striped warp that creates blocks as I weave. I ordered unmercerized 8/2 cotton from WEBS for both warp, pattern weft and tabby weft in natural, light green, dark green, dark brown and burgundy the colors of my living room, dining room, sunroom and kitchen. I have just started but have some photos to share and promise to add the finished towel soon.

I'm thankful...

I have to try to update more often. I have been busy creating... and searching for wabi sabi along the way... I'm so thankful for family and friends and having time to explore new things...

I often find it at the beach on Tybee Island... the shells that have been tossed and turned on many incoming and outgoing surfs loosing bits of themselves along the way... always fascinate me! I really am not attracted at all by the "perfect" ones... they have lots of tides to experience before I'll pick them up! And then there's beautiful historic downtown Savannah where you can find some wabi sabi images behind the storefronts!

I'm back working in the SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) galleries part-time. I love how it keeps me in touch with what's going on at this amazing art school. Since I've gotten back in the galleries mid-October... during SCAD's Savannah Film Festival we hosted several well-known personalities including Carson from Queer Eye and Hildi from Trading Spaces and John Gidding, from Curb Appeal, James Cromwell, the guy from Babe & 6 Ft Under and some producers and directors who were all very inspiring... especially John Gidding, who sat down with about 20 students after the panel discussion to ask for their ideas for a future home curb makeover. He's QUITE engaging!

SCAD also was very involved with Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Savannah while it was in town last week. I had hoped to volunteer in some way, but they were inundated with over 1800 volunteers and really wanted SKILLED laborers the most. So... I went down to watch. Fascinating to see SO many workers in blue t-shirts busy, busy, busy. Someone referred to it as organized chaos. They demolished and rebuilt a beautiful home for a young couple with a handicapped child in 106 hours working non-stop!

Another interesting SCAD connection was hearing the children's book author/illustrator Peter Brown give a slide presentation to the students and a few of us old folk last week. He was quite interesting and gave a lot of insight into the industry. My out-of-town friend Dee sent me a copy of his book, the Curious Garden which was my favorite. Thank you Dee!

I finished a sweater on large needles - 10.5 - using yarns left over from my 2010 Vancouver Olympic inspired woven haori. After finishing socks on tiny needles this was a real treat!

Where did September go???

I cannot believe that it is October 1st! We've been back in Savannah since the middle of September and despite catching up with check-ups with a variety of doctors I've been able to complete the 2nd tabi sock and I started a cardigan using my leftover yarns from the Olympic Haori I created last spring. I'm lovin' knitting with these bulky yarns and size 15 needles after knitting the socks and a summer top on finer needles.

Isn't she adorable!!!

I'm so happy to report that our grand-daughter Maja is doing very, very well and is now a healthy 8lb 3oz after her early arrival in mid-August. Maja spent the first month of her life in the NIC unit at Brigham & Womens Hospital in Boston where her moms spent every possible moment with her until she was released on September 13. We were able to finally hold her when we stopped in Boston on the 10th! Oh... it felt great to finally have her in my arms. There's nothing like a grand-baby!!! Here's beautiful Maja wearing the sweater set I made for her this summer... The hat is already getting tight, but there's growing room in the sweater and her tootsies are warm and cozy in the booties!

Here are my tabi socks... they'll be great to keep my tootsies warm this winter. Even though it never gets as cold here in the South as the frozen Northeast... it does get nippy.

Two Weeks old Today!

Baby Maja is two weeks old. Unfortunately, she hasn't been able to come home to her beautiful bedroom that moms Laura and Kim created for her. Maja has had some trouble keeping her heart rate even and the doctors have decided to keep her in the NIC unit for a bit until it regulates. How hard! The moms visit for 4-5 hours twice a day and are able to feed and bathe and take care of her, but its just not the same.

I'm itching to get back to Boston to hold her! Hopefully we'll be there in a little over a week! And hopefully she will be home by then!!!

What can be more exciting...

Saturday afternoon at about 3:52 a new bundle of joy entered our lives at Brigham Women's Hospital in Boston, Mass. Our daughter Kim and her wife, Laura had a beautiful baby girl - 6 lb 2 oz and 18 inches, which is pretty big for a baby whose due date is in 3 1/2 weeks! Unfortunately Laura had to endure the entire labor and a couple of pushes... before the doctor decided that a C-section was in order.

Laura's parents Herb and Sherri and our youngest son, Kjell joined us visiting the new addition to our families in the Neonatal unit only a couple hours after delivery. Mom Laura was still in recovery so we weren't able to see her.

We had to wait until Sunday during visitors hours (1-8pm) to find out what the new moms were naming their adorable little girl. Her name is Maja Rakel. (my-ah, raquel) She's still in the Neonatal ICU because her breathing is a little fast. The doctor's have assured the moms that it is just to be safe. The hardest part is that Laura and Kim haven't had a chance to hold their daughter yet! But Mom Laura is up and walking around and getting stronger each day. She should go home on Wed and Maja will follow a day or so after. (another really hard thing!)

We feel so blessed to have this beautiful new baby in our family -- our miracle baby!!!

Eerie summer sunset

Mammalian cloud formations - severe storms to the north and to the south of us...

I feel like a dunce sometimes...

How could I? I've been knitting since I was a little girl and today I had to frog the summer top I've been knitting of and on for over a week. The wool tabi socks (mitten-like) have been put aside in favor of a more light and airy cotton/silk blend summer top. I had accomplished about 5 inches when I discovered that I was creating a mobus!!! I had twisted the stitches at the beginning when the 272 stitches were joined together to make a circle... and instead of a simple circle I had never-ending circle! It certainly wouldn't work as a top... so it had to be unravelled. I took a deep breathe and pulled it off the circular needles and wound it back up into a ball to start anew.

SO... today I wanted to jump back on the horse and get back into it.. and I'm having trouble getting motivated. I'm second guessing myself over and over... do I have it right this time, do I have it right??? I still can't believe that I went that far before I realized my mistakes.

The baby shower for my daughter and her wife who are expecting a little girl September 8th is this weekend. Brave new world -- 2 women can have a baby if one decides to undergo the rigors of invitro fertilization! SO... I will be able to reveal what I've been working on soon...

AH... Summer!!!

What fun it is to be back at the lake! We survived a 5 day heat wave of mid to high 90 degree humid days with no air moving by taking up residence poolside under the gazebo. Thunderstorms this afternoon have brought in cooler temps. We've already had several days of great sailing.

It was especially nice was this past weekend when both daughters and their families were here to enjoy the 4th of July. Sailing, followed by ice cream for our adorable grand-daughters, swimming and a traditional hamburger, hot dogs, watermelon cookout at the gazebo.

I've been working on some small knitting projects that I can reveal later this month. Other than that I've finished four novels! Life is good!

me and Bobby Rydell

Me and Bobby Rydell - 1962-ish

We are back up on Lake Champlain in upstate New York, avoiding the 100 degree heat in Savannah and JuYeon is on her way to Washington, DC to install her pieces. You can read about the exhibit on the National Women in the Arts website... http://www.nmwa.org/exhibition/detail.asp?exhibitid=208 I can't wait to see it completed! We plan to attend the Closing Celebration in DC on September 13. Then the pieces return to SCAD Savannah for deFine Art in the Fall.

One Sunday afternoon while I was picking up some more of her drawings to trace in PhotoShop for the embroidered fiber piece, JuYeon offered use the computerized embroidery machine to embroider one of my drawings. The evening after my first meeting with JuYeon, I used my finger instead instead of the more advanced toWaucom electronic drawing pad and stylus to trace an ancient photo of Me & Bobby Rydell. JuYeon took my PhotoShop tracing and created a couple embroideries for me. I hope to make one into a pillow top and incorporate one in a tote.

The image is quite meaningful to me... I had a huge crush on Bobby Rydell when I was a teenager and even was president of his local fan club. (Didn't do much, but I still felt it was an honor!) Dad and I had a disagreement and to win back my favor my Dad arranged for me to meet Bobby Rydell! What a cool Dad!!! He had a friend in the radio business who got us tickets to a nightclub where Bobby was performing. We had a real dinner date and after the performance we went backstage and I was able meet my idol! We have 3 Poloroid photos of that event and this image was one. My brother Jeff, who is quite a talented artist painted a huge oil painting of me seemingly swooning over Bobby -- actually I blinked and was grinning so it looked like a swoon! Anyway... great memories over that image! And now I can have a memory of my involvement with JuYeon, too!

Me ironing one of the panels for JuYeon's piece during a work bee with other Fiber Guild members and some SCAD students at SCAD's Pepe Hall fiber studio.

Inspiring experience....

I haven't been weaving at all lately because I've been involved in an amazing project with Savannah College of Art and Design's (SCAD's) visiting artist, Ju Yeon Kim. My boss in the Exhibitions Dept. asked if anyone was interested in helping her and I said... I'd love to! Well, it has been an incredible experience! Getting to know Ju Yeon and have the honor of tracing about 150 of her drawings using PhotoShop has been a privilege.

Let me back up a bit... Ju Yeon had been involved with SCAD at the Savannah campus teaching here a couple years ago and again last year at the Lacoste, France campus. She was chosen to do a collaborative installation with the SCAD Fibers and Sculpture students. The finished installation will be exhibited at the Museum of Women in the Arts Museum in Washington, DC opening June 25th. (The museum will have a Closing Reception September 13.) So... the problem was a deadline rapidly approaching and students in Spring Fever mode (in love, stressed with work they had put off for other classes, and I hate to say it... for some, lack of motivation... having their work in a major museum just wasn't cutting it...) So... I offered to help and also recruited some of my Fiber Guild of the Savannahs friends to help too. Those of us who have participated look forward to doing a program for the rest of the guild when the installation returns to SCAD Savannah in the Fall. It then moves on to SCAD Atlanta and SCAD Hong Kong. Read more about the installation on SCAD's website: http://www.scad.edu/news/2010/jukeon-kim-in-between.cfm

The installation will include 2 major pieces that represent human figures that represent different phases of the human condition among them... depression, to happiness, to natural resources and pollution and ways to die. A masculine sculptural piece and a more feminine embroidered fabric piece. Visitors will be able to part the hanging panels to reach a calm meditation space at the center.

The one that I am working on is the Fiber piece... 108 strips of fabric that are each 9 foot long by about 9 inches wide. They will hang from 3 concentric circles... the outer white layer is the Future -- heavy free machine embroidery in white, beige and golden threads done by the Fiber students... the middle layer is the Present and JuYeon has drawn the figures on the white strips and colored them with paint for the students to add embellishments. I am working on the inner layer... the Past which will be on gray fabric panels stitched in white primarily with a fancy computerized embroidery machine (which JuYeon taught herself to use!) Some of the guild member are doing some embroidery on this layer using a free arm sewing machine technique and others have helped by cutting and taping the fabric panels and ironing the finished panels. My job as I mentioned was to trace Ju Yeon's drawings so that a computerized embroidery machine could read her images and embroider them on gray fabric strips.

Then there's the sculptural piece... JuYeon and the students have created 3 dimensional relief sculptures of the human images reminiscent of Rodin's Gate of Hell but the forms are much larger. They are sculpted in modeling clay that is reused after the finished form is molded and then a casting is made in an acrylic resin. This casting is then affixed to wooden panels... 6 of them that make a hexagon. The images will be painted a medium weathered gray and will be in the inside of the meditation space. Viewer will enter through an archway and be met by these forms of people and animals and plants and trees... At the top panels are attached sloping in to make a circular opening at the top. The outside of the piece is furniture grade wood.

Yesterday SCAD held a preview reception of the work to date. As today is graduation many students are going home for the summer and won't be here in Savannah the next few weeks when the finishing touches are made. I too will be leaving in a week... so my involvement is coming to an end. The illustration above is of one of the Future embroideries by the students. I also traced this image for the Past panel. I'm attaching that tracing and the drawing done by JuYeon, as well as the embroidery done in white thread on the gray panel... it is from the Historic Leaders panel which also included people such as Ghandi, Buddha, the Dalai Lama...

the original drawing...

my tracing done with PhotoShop

the embroidery of my tracing done with the computerized embroidery machine

Legacy

WInona, my dear friend Susan's mother passed away on April 25th in Charleston. Susan was one of the main reason's we decided to move to Savannah. Our children grew up together in rural central New York where Susan and some other dear friends and I met for lunch every month. We still try to have a multi-generational reunion each summer. It was at these wonderful gatherings that I would see Winona as she stayed with Susan each summer. It was Susan's stories of growing up in Savannah that gave it a sense of romance and adventure. So... it was fitting that Winona came back to Savannah be buried.

What struck me about WInona's passing was a huge sense of the legacy she left behind. Two of Susan's daughters - Pamela and Jennifer traveled together from California to be there for Gummy (their grandmother.) At the calling hours I was struck by how much they are like their mother. Jennifer talked of her excitement discovering the flowers and trees in her new backyard and Pamela talked of her children and their love of nature.

The next morning friends and family gathered at Wesley Gardens an Methodist island retreat south of downtown Savannah where Winona and her husband were caretakers for many years. I learned from the minister during the service how they cleared the brush and reclaimed the beauty of the retreat which had its history as a barrier island plantation. He talked about how you can find Winona... and God... in the wind. The whole experience epitomized wabi sabi - rustic, melancholy, slightly imperfect beauty...

After the peaceful service in the little chapel we went to the burial site at Forest Lawn near the famous Bonaventure Cemetery. I realized that one of the reasons I was here in Savannah, was to be there at that moment... representing "home" to my dear friend, Susan and her beautiful daughters. I was there to be a part of Winona's beautiful legacy. She lives on... through her daughters (Susan and her sister, Linda)... through her grandchildren and through her great-grandchildren. LEGACY!

Go to this link to see a SmileBox tribute to Winona...

http://smilebox.com/playEmail/4d5459344d5455794d5468384d7a55324e4451314f446b3d0d0a&sb=1

Ready to sail...

In about six weeks we'll be back on the boat on Lake Champlain enjoying the wind and the water and the mountains... and our wonderful friends at Treadwell Bay Marina. For those cool evenings I wanted a nautical striped sweater. My daughter Kristin surprised my with a gift certificate to my favorite LYS, WIld Fibers so I had a great start. I found some Rowan Denim cotton yarn that would be perfect. I chose the medium denim colored because I was afraid the darker navy would bleed into the natural cream colored stripes. I found the natural cotton yarn online at WEBS called Araucania Ulmo. Beautiful yarn with a crazy name!

Louisa Harding's book Modern Classics had a great pattern for my boating sweater. Wanting to put my mark on it... I decided to change the stripe pattern and the neckline and add several stitches to the width and rows to the length. The challenge was making the sleeve stripes match. Love it and I'm sure I'll be wearing it alot on those cool upstate New York nights.

This weekend we enjoyed Blessing of the Fleet in Darien, GA. Each year in April at the start of the shrimping season, Darien holds this festival. We've decided to make it a yearly trek and consider our sailboat in NY blessed, too.

a magical journey...



Free digital slideshow generated with Smilebox

Lookin good

The Fiber Guild of the Savannahs annual Show and Sale is now open during the month of April at gallery S.P.A.C.E. - Savannah's Place for Arts, Culture, and Education at 9 E. Henry Street. I must say - "It looks fantastic!" Debra Zumstein, SPACE's director, did a beautiful job organizing the movable walls to enhance the collection of fiber pieces our guild members created.

Here is an article about our show in the online Savannah newspaper...

http://savannahnow.com/do/2010-04-07/fiber-guild-savannahs-keeps-traditional-art-alive

ps. the slippers are my handspun, felted slippers with my mother's earrings as buttons

Here are some photos of the show and some of my pieces...

some of my handwoven clothing

2010 Vancouver Olympic woolen Haori

handwoven cotton/linen skirt & top

Ode to Obansan Vest of kimono fabric pieces

four handwoven scarves and a mobus

cardboard woven bags

Jacquard woven pieces from Montreal workshop