Loom With A View

Posted on November 5, 2017 by Robin

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

Posted on October 29, 2017 by Robin

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

Posted on October 29, 2017 by Robin

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.

Animals at the Artery

Posted on July 20, 2017 by Robin

I worked at The Artery in Davis yesterday. The current gallery show by Susan Stoll (a member who does photography) and Nicholson Blown Glass (non-member) is fantastic.

Susan Stoll

I love how they matched the colors in the glass and the photos.

Susan Stoll-2

Susan has set the bar high for when I do my show in November.

Jenn Norpchen

As I walked through the rest of the store this sheep caught my eye. This is by a new member, gourd artist, Jenn Norpchen.

I decided to look for more sheep in the Artery. I found four artists’ sheep. Tile wall art by Eileen Hendren, photo by Deborah Lamoreux, candle by Jan Schubert, detail of painting by Marie-Therese Brown.

Then I decided that I could do a blog post about Animals in the Artery.

Horses are my other favorite animal besides sheep. Tile by Shannon Moore, detail of a pottery vessel by Marianne deBoer.

But I like dogs and cows too…

… e~~ven~~ especially politically satirical dogs. Painting (dogs) by Linda Miller, cow photo card by Jock Hamilton, dog & cat sculpture by another artist new to the Artery, Marcia Smith, painting (cow) by Phil Gross, stuffed cow by Sara Yost, and trivets by Leslie Zephyr.

There are other animals represented too.

Birds. Detail of art-quilt by Marjan Kluepfel, etching by a third new member, Laura Morton, plate by Sharon Bloom.

How about creatures in the animal world beyond mammals and birds. Not all are my favorites but they can be subjects for lovely artwork as well.

Wood by Diana Kwan, glass dragonfly by Linda Marie Bird, ceramic fish by Jeff and Jimee Taylor, octopus by Heidi Bekebrede, fish print by Chris Dewees, dragonfly pin by Anita Winthrop, and sand-dollar earrings by Janine Echabarne.

I will be adding to the Artery’s animal collection in November when I present a show at the Artery.

FullSizeRender

These are a preview of what will be in the show.

Close to Home–Post #16 The End

Posted on December 4, 2014 by Robin

Monday I took down the show. Two dedicated and fabulous friends came to help. They tagged and wrote price labels for all the pieces and sorted sold from unsold. I took out nails, patched holes, got the museum putty that held signs off the walls, and figured out how to condense this whole gallery….into the corner at the end of the room. I didn’t finish until the next day.This is some of the blankets all tagged and ready to show again.

I was able to keep a lot of pieces there. I hope a lot sell because in January it will be someone else’s turn for a show in the gallery and my things will go back out to a smaller space in the main part of the store. Here is what I did. The chenille scarves came back to the display, although baby blankets are still in the other room of the store. One wall. The other wall.Remember this?Now it’s full of wonderful comments. I like Breanna from Fair Oaks mindset, don’t you?

Thanks to everyone who came, who commented, and who bought, and supported the local sheep industry and your local weaver/farmer!!!!

Close to Home…Post #15 Left-overs

Posted on November 27, 2014 by Robin

My husband says that we are hoarders. When you’re a farmer you know that you’ll need that scrap of plywood, leftover fencing, rusty but still useable pipe, or roofing panel with only a few holes sometime, somewhere. So you keep it. What about the weaving studio? If there is warp left on the loom after finishing a project I weave it off and these pieces pile up. The Artery show gave me the incentive to finally use them.

These are several photos of Before and After felting. The process of “fulling” deserves it’s own post. Fulling transforms weaving fresh off the loom into cohesive cloth by using a controlled amount of agitation in hot soapy water. Felting happens when you take this process further. I used the washing machine and sometimes the dryer to maximize the effect of shrinking wool fabric into something much denser. (Another method is needlefelting, described in this post.) The four fabrics in this photo are the same as in the photo above it but after felting.This is another pair of before and after photos. The piece on the left is a blanket after fulling and the one on the right is the left-over piece of fabric after felting.Why felt this fabric and not use it as is or with only fulling? Felting creates a very dense stable fabric, good for a variety of projects where you don’t need (or want) the fabric to drape. Also, the fibers are so entangled that you can cut this fabric without worrying about it coming apart or fraying. I planned to use some of this fabric for pillows, but worried about staying true to the theme of locally produced fiber. I did use commercially available synthetic pillow forms (at least USA-made) for some of the pillows but for about half of them I made my own pillow forms using Suffolk wool from the Phillips Farm. I tracked down American Made Brand cotton fabric at two local quilt stores and used that for the covers and for the fabric backs of the pillows. P-4 and P-5 Fabric left over from blankets that I wove years ago.Fabric left over from the Barinaga blankets.Fabric I wove using Mom’s yarn several years ago.These pillows use fabric spun and woven by my Mom.

Friends gave me another idea to use some of this felted fabric. In fact one friend helped sew some of the pillows and another dipped into her fabric stash and did the sewing in these organizers. There are about 20 organizers and they are all different. It may be hard to tell in these photos but there are fabric pockets of different sizes in each. These two use handspun, woven fabric that Mom had basted into a jacket but never finished. After felting that fabric made 3 or 4 organizers.

The three photos above all use fabric leftover from Jacob blanket warps.

I still have left over fabric so there will be more of these to come.

Close to Home…Post #10 – Sincere Sheep

Posted on November 20, 2014 by Robin

One of the first yarns I used when weaving for Close to Home was Targhee wool sold by Sincere Sheep.

Story: Brooke Sinnes of Napa began Sincere Sheep in 2003 and focused on natural dyeing yarn sourced from local wool. Since that time she has included other lines of yarn sourced farther from home.
Sincere Sheep’s Bannock yarn is a 3-ply worsted weight yarn that features 100% Targhee wool from Montana and the Dakotas that is milled in North Carolina and spun in Maine.
The Targhee sheep is named after the Targhee National Forest near where the breed was developed beginning in the 1920’s. The goal of the U.S. Sheep Experiment Station in Idaho was to develop sheep with uniformly heavy fleshing and high quality fine wool that was adapted to rugged conditions of the Western range. Developed by crossing Rambouillet, Corriedale, and Lincoln sheep at the Experiment Station, the Targhee breed was expanded by selection of “Targhee type” ewes from large bands of range ewes crossed with Targhee rams. The flock book was closed in 1966.
Targhee sheep produce 10-12 pound fleeces with very soft, bright white fiber that measures 21-25 microns. Sincere Sheep’s Bannock yarn was named for a Targhee Native American Chief.This is one of only two yarns in this show that are not grown in Solano or Marin Counties but I included it because of the variety of colors, naturally dyed, and the quality of the yarn, and it is grown in the Pacific Northwest, which is Closer to Home than many places where wool is grown. I love the color variation in this yarn… …and the variety of designs that you can get on one warp. Sincere Sheep blankets That means that each of the blankets above was woven on the same warp threading in white yarn, but the patterns change by varying the treading and, of course, the color of the weft. Another series of blankets. And another. Sincere Sheep Targhee At the end of the warp I just wove in white instead of making it plaid and then I felted the fabric. That made great fabric for pillows.I also wove a series of blankets on a rusty red warp with a white weft

Targhee yarn is very soft and perfect for scarves as well. After the Artery show whatever items are left will be for sale on my website.

Close to Home…Post #9 – Phillips Farm

Posted on November 19, 2014 by Robin

The Phillips Farm is about a mile down the road from my place and I used their wool in the show at The Artery. Story: The Phillips family lives down the road from my farm and they raise a small flock of Suffolk sheep for lamb and meat production. For the last few years I have acquired their fleeces and used the wool in woven blankets and for felt projects.

Suffolk sheep are an English breed developed in the early 1800’s and brought to the U.S. in 1888. Suffolks are large black-faced sheep that are often used as a terminal sire for range flocks. They produce a lofty, medium grade fleece measuring 25.5 to 33 microns.

I sort the fleeces and have the softer wool spun into yarn for use in blankets and shawls. The coarser wool is carded into batts at Yolo Wool Mill in Woodland that are used for felt projects and pillows. The natural springiness and loft of Suffolk wool makes it the perfect pillow stuffing. I sent these fleece samples for testing and the result came back 29.4 microns. In the past I have used this wool for blankets but with access to a friend’s felt loom (machine for needle felting) I decided to use most of it for felt this year. The felt I made is a combination of the Suffolk wool and Jacob britch wool. I made three series of placemats (10 to 12 in each). I also made larger (door) mats and smaller (mug rug) mats.Cutting up all that felt leaves odds and ends of felt. What is better to do than to turn them into weaving projects? So I made these woven felled wall hangings… …and dryer balls. I delivered the prototypes of these to the Artery last year and found a customer who wanted to juggle with them. Here’s a short video of that.

…and dryer balls.

Close to Home…Post #8 – Fiber Confections

Posted on November 17, 2014 by Robin

I raise black and white sheep and my friend, Colleen, raises brown sheep so between us we have all the natural colors. I used some of her wool in my show at the Artery. If you’re just starting to read these posts go back to this one to read about the concept of this show.

I don’t have the sheep photo I used in the show because I borrowed the print from Colleen……but this one shows the distinctive color pattern on the face.

The story: Colleen Simon got her first sheep about 15 years ago. Since then her spinning and sheep raising hobby has evolved into a fiber business. She keeps about 20 ewes of varying shades of tan and brown and markets their wool as roving and yarn at the Davis Farmers Market. Colleen is an expert felter and creates felted hats and embellishments from her fiber. She sells her creations at the Farmers Market as well as at local festivals and Grand Hand in Napa. Lambs are sold to Superior Farms in Dixon.

Colleen’s flock is a blend of fine-wooled Romeldale, CVM, and colored Merino sheep. The Romeldale is a rare breed that was developed in California in the early 1900’s. Breeding long-wool Romney and fine-wool Rambouillet sheep resulted in a breed with heavy fleeces of very soft wool. The CVM or California Variegated Mutant is a not-so-appealing name of the colored variant of the Romeldale that has a multi-colored brown fleece and “badger-face” markings. The wool is very soft and measures 20.6 to 25 microns.

Colleen lives about a mile from me and we have shared sheep and fiber adventures for years. We make a good team because my flock grows black and white wool and hers grows brown wool so between us we have all the natural colors.Some of the beautiful shades of wool used in the shawls below.

Detail of the shawl on the left.

Detail of the show on the right. I also wove two plaid shawls that are in the show but I don’t have photos of those. The photos below are of soft CVM scarves.

Colleen took this photo of sheep in her field.

Close to Home…Post #7 – Jacob Wool

Posted on November 16, 2014 by Robin

I’ve been writing about sources of wool from Solano and Marin Counties and from Oregon, but of course I used my own wool too for the Artery show. How to choose a representative photo of my sheep? I used more than one. I can do that because it’s my show. Fanny LolaRams.

Here is the story I wrote for the show:

I developed Meridian Jacobs after my family moved to Meridian Road, north of Vacaville, in 1999 and I purchased Jacob sheep. The Jacob sheep is a rare breed that is hardy and well-adapted to low-input, sustainable farming practices. My flock of 65+ sheep grazes irrigated pasture much of the year and is supplemented with locally grown alfalfa during the winter.

The sheep provide me with unique wool and tasty lamb and are the core upon which I have built a multi-faceted business, selling fiber (from my sheep and other yarns featured in this show), teaching classes, and creating the Farm Club. Lambs for meat are sold to individuals and to Superior Farms in Dixon.

The Jacob sheep is striking in appearance with it’s spotted fleece and multiple horns. The sheep are shorn in the fall and yarn is spun at two California mills. My flock’s wool measures from 27 to 31 microns. By sorting fleeces by color and grade I produce a variety of natural shades and can use the softer fleeces for blankets and garments and coarser wool for felt items.

Meridian Jacobs evolved as I turned my passion for wool into a business.

I had a limited amount of yarn from this year because I sold so many fleeces at shearing day. Some went to Farm Club members and I used most of the rest. It is beautiful yarn. These are all throw-sized blankets.The cool thing about Jacob wool is that you get all of these natural colors without dyeing. For this blanket I used odds and ends of the yarns that were left in warp and weft. It was going to be a poncho along with the other blanket on this warp. I have a poncho that I wore in high school:Yes, I still have it because I always planned to use it for a pattern. (When I put it on it makes me look 17, right? Glasses are gone. With camera angle, you don’t see as many wrinkles. You can pretend that I bleached my hair back then.)Anyway, the fabric in the first “poncho” photo was larger than the poncho that I wanted and it looked and felt so nice as a blanket that I didn’t cut a hole in it. (Good thing–it has sold to someone and it will be shipped to Australia.) This fabric was about the right size so I did turn it into a poncho. It can be purchased at the Artery (or from me after the show). 887-4 This is a scarf from more of the left-over yarn.