Loom With A View

I wrote two blog posts about setting up this show but then I moved on to other things. Now I'm getting to the show itself. I'm not thrilled with the photos I have taken at the Artery, but I am thrilled about the show and want to share it.                As I said in one of the previous posts this theme started with the idea of using the old windows that were around here. As you enter the gallery you see the title and the Artist's Statement. If you want to read that click here.

             This is the wall to the right...          ...and these are some of the sheep.

                                                          More sheep.

   Continuing around the gallery there is this collection of photos. I used two of these six-pane windows to display photos and give a feel for the farm. These are not for sale because they are too rotten (people have asked) but some of the photos have been matted or framed and are for sale.

            This is the Solano Colors wall and the yarns are the 2017 locally grown yarns that are on my website. Don't they take natural color beautifully? There are three examples of the natural dyestuffs--black walnuts, weeping willow leaves, and dried coreopsis flowers.

                                                                 If you look at the previous photo again you'll see that the shawls and the yarn are hanging on what looks like bamboo. I decided to use the Arundo (an invasive species that grows on our north border and had big hollow stalks like bamboo) for hanging the pieces in the show. It was in keeping with the rest of the props (stuff found on the farm), I have an infinite supply of it, I could cut it to any size, and it is free. The perfect solution! Originally I had planned to use the Arundo for weaving, but I just didn't get to it. On the morning I was to set up the show I got up early with a lot on my mind. I got out the loom that I had already warped for this and I wove this piece. It inspires me to do more because I think it is very cool.

                                                        Moving on around the room this is the next grouping. Those scarves were woven on a space-dyed warp that I dyed a few years ago and found in a box on the shelf. Do you see something hanging to the left?

                                                                  I wanted to do something interesting with the weeping willow branches after stripping the leaves for the dye pots. I tried weaving with them but I think I like this mobile best.

              The Sunflower wall is around the corner. These are rayon chenille scarves in the colors of the sunflower field that was Across the Road last summer. I didn't just stick with the yellows and oranges of the flowers but included all the colors of the fields.                                                      Here is a closer view of the flower scarves.

                                                                  In addition to the window pane photo collage, I included this piece that is not for sale. I wove this years ago when we lived and worked on our family dairy.

                                                            This close-up includes my daughter carrying milk buckets, my sheep, and our pony.             Here is another farm photo collection.

            These ponchos and ruanas use the same yarns as the Solano Colors wall, but mostly in natural sheep colors. There are also a couple of handspun Jacob pieces here.

               Close up of a ruana.

             The display in the center of the room is really panels out of my sheep trailer. I used them to hang my blankets and some scarves.

           Here is an overall view of the room...

                     ...and this is the table in the doorway when you come in.  The notebook is for visitors' comments.  I'd love to see your comments as well.

Loom With A View - More Set Up

I just wrote a blog post using Dona's photos of  "The Creative Process"  at the Artery setting up my show. Here are my photos. It was sometime in 2016 (maybe the spring?) that I found out I could have the gallery space for a show in November, 2017. That is perfect timing for any show because of the holiday buying season and even more perfect when your focus is wool. I thought for a long time about what I wanted to do. I knew that it should be different from the show in 2014, "Close to Home--Yarn with a Story". There are sixteen posts about that show, starting with this one.

      Friends (Lisa and Dona?) said "you should use those old windows that are in back". They were thinking that I could weave using the windows as weaving frames. They like that sort of thing. I like it too, but I haven't actually done much of it. My weaving is more functional than decorative--like blankets, shawls, and scarves. I admire things to hang on the wall, but my house has hardly any wall space, and in my world things that hang on the wall just get covered with dust and cobwebs. Still, one point of doing a show is to move outside what is your same-old-stuff.

I had to choose a name for the show. Loom With a View came to mind, and the theme was set.

So eventually (this photo was from May, 2017) I dug out the windows. There were probably a couple dozen in various degrees of repair disrepair. These in the photo were the best. I took that photo after I hosed off the windows, trying to not chip off any more of the glazing and paint than was already gone. I remember sending a text of the photo to my friends and asking "Do you mean these windows? The ones with the dry rot and termites?" "Yes!", they said. I spent the next several months trying to figure out how in the heck I'd use these in a show in an Art Gallery.  (There will be more in future posts about this.)

Wednesday, October 25, 2017. That date was stuck in my head. I had to be Ready. My friends showed up when the gallery opened at 9:30 and we unloaded the truck. All those white cubes were in the gallery from the previous show. The first decision to be made was which cubes to leave for my show. The Artery Display Committee needs to know how many they can use for the other store displays, but the person doing the gallery show gets first choice.

                  I wasn't really sure but narrowed it down to Not Very Many, keeping some of the larger ones.

Organizing by color.

            Half way through the day I needed to get my signs printed for the entry. My friends were going to go get lunch and I asked them to bring back a slice of pizza. They know me well. It  was touching that they brought back my favorite beverage, but saved for special stress-invoking occasions like being at the fair all day.

                                             Lunch break.

               As Dona and Mary left at 5-ish I think they wondered if I'd spend the night there.

I didn't but I did come back on the next day and the next.

        Keeping track of all the pieces in the show by my inventory number and the show number (not the same), entering pieces into the Artery computer, applying barcodes to the tags, applying bar codes to the sales list at the desk, applying sticky numbers to the wall for each piece. I could have used a chocolate milk. I finished up at about 1:30 on Friday.

            This is the display in the front window.

Here is my "Artist's Statement". I don't know if you can read it in the photo. I'll get it on my website at some point.

More photos to come now that the show is installed.

Loom With A View - The Creative Process

I have worked for over a year to prepare for my show at the Artery that is up from now through November 27. Well, maybe I didn't work for a year. I thought about it for a year. I started working on ideas, but went into full production mode only a couple of months ago and then panic mode at the start of October. Once the weaving was finished the show set-up took 2-1/2 days of work with friends helping too. This series of photos were all taken by a good friend, Dona, who has been there from the beginning giving me ideas at the start and there at the bitter end to help with set up. This is her view of the set-up day's Creative Process.

Neither of us took a photo of the completely empty space. These were taken as we unloaded the truck and emptied boxes. The theme for the show "Loom with a View" has started with old windows that were behind the garage. There will be more about that in another post. As I worried about obsessed over how to arrange this show I thought of and dismissed a variety of props from around the farm. It wasn't until the last week that I made some final decisions. The gate with the hangars on it is something another friend didn't want. The tin panels are those that we use for the State Fair display. There are other panels that came out of my sheep trailer, and there are the old window frames, with and without glass.

Without my friends there helping it would have taken twice as long. Alison, Mary, Kathleen and Dona were there all day on Wednesday, Kathleen came back to help on Thursday and I finished up with a one-person-because-its-all-in-my-head labeling and details on Friday.

Things start to go on walls and panels.

Decisions are made.

       Putting up the Solano Colors wall.

     Working on the Sunflower Wall.

I hope you'll check back for the next blog posts to see the evolution of the show and I really hope that you will go to the Artery to see it in person. I am very pleased with how it turned out.

Thanks Dona, for all these photos and for the support.