Apple Hill Farm Shearing Day

Our guild was invited to demonstrate fiber arts at Apple Hill Farm during their annual shearing.  So Gail, Vivian, Nora and I headed up to Banner Elk.  A gorgeous day and such a beautiful place.

This is the view from the second floor of the barn.  We set up with spindles, spinning wheels and a loom.  We also demonstrated using hand cards as well as a drum carder.

Of course we showed off our knitting prowess.

Gail is smiling but could be dangerous with these giant knitting needles.

I fell in love with Basil, we had a long heart to heart. 

Baby Goats wanted head scratches.

Another shot of Basil, so handsome.

This fellow ruled the roost.

This is Mr. Pickles, I asked him about the skateboard but he didn't feel like talking.

Preparing to shear this alpaca.

Frosty the alpaca after his haircut.

Nora and Vivian spinning away.

It was a super day, the farm is beautiful and Lee and staff are so warm and friendly.  I can't wait to go back!

Little Booboos and Big Lessons

I am working on a small tapestry sampler, loosely following the Joanne Mattera's book Navajo Techniques for Today's Weaver.  This was published in 1975 and has really good diagrams and explanations.  I have actually attempted this twice before.

There were some issues with the color.  I bought some single ply naturally dyed churro. I  thought it would be perfect but the colors were too muted.  Blah.

I tried again with some random yarns from an estate sale of a talented tapestry weaver.  Maybe a little of Martha's magic would be present.

Much better contrast as evidenced by the black and white photo below.  This is a tip learned from Tommye Scanlon.  During the class in Raleigh she had us use our phones to take pictures of yarn we were choosing for tapestry.

Very basic design concepts like value, contrast and hue are not easily understood by me.  This visual helps.

I played with meet and separate, slits, shading, wedge weave and lazy lines.  But wait...

Do you see it?  As I built the areas up separately for eccentric weft I lost track of my "overs and unders".  The two adjacent warp threads in the aqua and purple are going through the same shed.

No worries this is a play learning warp and I am going to keep playing and learning.

Tapestry Weavers South

Dear hubs and I travelled to the Yadkin Arts Council to see the Tapestry Weavers South show.

This is a three dimensional piece titled On the Trail by Nancy Garretson.

These beauties capture your eye as soon as you enter the gallery.

The Kite

A wonderful work by April Price.

This piece is by Tommye Scanlon, I love the way she captures the beauty of the flowers and leaves.

I thoroughly enjoyed the show.  I carefully looked at each piece and wished the artists were there to talk about their inspiration, design process and techniques.  My apologies to the artists and works I could not identify.  I carefully took pictures of all the information cards but they were unreadable.  It was an inspiring show and I went home and planned my next sampler.

May the Sheep Safely Graze

This day old lamb's sweet face captures my 2016 Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival experience beautifully.  How does it get better than good friends, sheep, fresh air, ice cream, fiber tools and lots of fluff!

These dudes were so handsome. 

Nora and I drove up on Friday and met up with Susan, Sallie, Peggy and Burgl for dinner. 

Saturday, I enjoyed the auction.  It was crazy fun, a wise man suggested I make a list of the items I wanted after previewing the auction items.  His best suggestion was to write down my top bid for each item.  He chuckled and said "because people lose their minds out there."

He was not kidding, some of the used, much loved items sold for bids above their new retail price.  There were bargains too.  I got three items off my list, a 12 inch Mirrix loom, an Archie Brennan

style copper pipe loom and best of all nine brass tipped tapestry looms.

I promised myself that my top bid for these lovely bobbins was $50.00.  They were part of a lot with three spindles.  Unfortunately they went for $70.00.  I turned around to see who my nemesis was and it was friend and fellow Piedmont Fiber Guild member Dawn.  Turns out she wanted the spindles and had no interest in my coveted bobbins.  Purchased them from her, so happy!

 That was the highlight of Saturday.  Sunday morning was bright and although the fairgrounds were muddy it didn't impede our progress through the vendors. 

MDSW  is an opportunity for shepherds, vendors and fiber enthusiasts to come together in one place to celebrate.  Nothing captures this as well as the Sheep to Shawl competition.  The  Spin City team won first place.  They had wonderful costumes, display and of course the shawl was beautiful.

Dawn and Christina from our guild were on this Alice in Wonderland themed winning team.

Another highlight of Sunday was a talk by Judith McKenzie on the history of wool.

Inspired by Judith, Nora, Peggy and I headed to the fleece sale.  We were only going to look.  Yeah, right.

This is a six pound Romney lamb fleece that Nora and I split.  Yikes, I said I would never process another fleece.

Until next year MDSW, may the sheep safely graze.

Tapestry, Ikat and Inspiration

The three day tapestry workshop is over, so thankful to have had this opportunity to learn from Tommye.  Today, at lunch this was the state of my tapestry.

I learned so much.  One of the problems with telling yourself you have no drawing or artistic ability at a very early age is you are never exposed to basic concepts.  Tommye took us through basics on color and how to judge light, medium and dark values.   She also covered basic design elements and principles.  Tommye does a tapestry diary every year.  Below is 2015.

It is hard to see the beauty of this in a photo.  Tommye is inspired by the things in her landscape in Georgia, black walnuts, pecans, gingko leaves and many more.

This is Mary Kirchner.  She was the class organizer and assistant.  Mary is also a  talented   artist weaver with a studio in Artspace.  Below are some shots of her  work.

Mary specializes in ikat.



Mary's ikat board with dyeing work in progress.  The yellow you see is a section of yarn taped off so it will not absorb any dye.

The yarns are dyed and numbered to be woven in a sequence to achieve outstanding and dramatic results.

Getting Schooled!

Tomorrow is my last day of a three day tapestry class with Tommye Scanlon.  It has been a delight, such a wonderful opportunity to focus on something I love.  The class is being held at Artspace.  It is such an inspiring place, being surrounded by artists studios makes me believe even more in the value of "making things".

The class is intended for beginners, which definitely is appropriate for me.  Tommye brought beautiful samples of her work.

The class is a great combination of Tommye demonstrating techniques and hands on weaving.

As you can see we are working hard and trying to absorb as much as possible.  You would think three days would be a gracious plenty but it is not. The workshop has been extremely well organized.  Tommye brought looms, yarns and booklets for each of us.   Artspace is an excellent venue.

Tomorrow a post on an inspiring tapestry artist and her studio and the ATA juried small format show.

Getting Warped

My goal for 2016 is to become a competent weaver.  My plan is to work through the book "Next Steps in Weaving".  The star of this plan is my new to me Baby Wolf.

This loom is so much less intimidating then the Leclerc.  It is smaller 28 inches versus 36 and is easier to tie up and warp.

The book and inadvertent foot shot.