some final mini stuff

well, today is the last day of the exhibit. on a total high note, the show recently won a 2010 salt lake city weekly arty award for best sculpture/mixed media exhibition!

a couple good links:

• salt lake art center’s contemporary master’s blog
• lots of photos posted by mastahanky on flickr

fixes
to follow my previous whine about how i didn’t construct the obstacles in a manner to survive the clumsy feet of the masses, i’ve been meaning to post photos of the fixes and adjustments that super-fab artist, salt lake art center preparator and friend jared steffensen (who also won a 2010 arty!) did for my golf hole in mid august. i’ve wanted to collaborate with jared ever since i first stumbled in to his poor yorick studio years ago, so i’m thrilled with this unexpected collaboration of sorts. thanks, jared!!!

details of a mini green

i’ve been completely remiss in posting these detail shots. these were taken right before the vip opening reception, before the masses attacked. 🙂

contemporary masters vip reception @ the salt lake art center

the vinyl  information on the floor in front of each hole:

FINALLY DONE!!! —->

piecer, painter, golf hole maker

lisa is the official “painter of the sides”:

all my carpets

nothing like laying on wool carpets wearing blue jeans in 90+ degree sun:

about two-fifths done…

my little sister jillian’s dog, rico, hanging out with the sky + grass strips:

another view:

close-up of the herringbone rug:

hemstitching and cleavage

for those paying attention, this post is a dead giveaway that i am blogging with old information… catching up with myself, as it were.

here is a great photo of shilo’s cleavage as she hemstiches the plaid sky in preparation to take it off the loom (i also hemstitch at the beginning of each piece, right after it goes on the loom):

for some reason, hemstiching in red is one of my favorite parts of the whole process… something compelling about how neatly it binds the edges. i like edges in general. i’d like to experiment with more edge and binding techniques, but for this project, since the edges will be hidden, there’s really no point.

why red? with the colors i use, the contrast appeals to me. it reminds me of blood, flowers, molten lava, berries, arteries. shocking and good and necessary.

plaid sky

i can only weave 2′ wide on my loom. most of my fairway is about 4′ wide, however, so for every section i need to weave two lengths that will be sewn together.

i’m making the second length of “sky” a plain weave plaid. it’s pretty easy to do — instead of measuring out one color of warp, i changed the color of the ends into random widths of stripes. then, when i weave in stripes of weft, viola! plaid.

stripey sky

getting some of the “sky” tee-off carpet woven. here it is on the loom:

i have three yarns wrapped on my shuttle, and i have three shuttles about that length. i’m alternating stripes randomly.

below is a close-up of plain weave and the measuring tape i pin to the side to keep track of how much length i’ve woven.

my fairway is going to be really, really big sampler

yes, i’ve been “gone” for quite a while… the super short version is that i have moved from utah to colorado. the move has taken up the bulk of my time since my last post, but i’m back on the loom and whipping carpets out once again.

i’ve decided this fairway, on one level, is best approached as a large sampler. i really like this idea… it brings to mind the samplers that women would produce for both decoration and practice, and it will also provide a somewhat linear example of weaving techniques as my fairway progresses from tee-off to hole.

in the sampler spirit, the first piece i weave has a one-color warp (all white) and will be woven in plain weave with a striped weft. below are some photos from warping the loom for this first bit of “sky” tee-off rug.

this is my hand holding the cross, which is the “X” i got from the warping board. the cross helps me keep the ends straight while i thread the reed.

i use a sley hook to pull each end through the reed, which, when i’m done with one bout (150 ends), looks like this:

you can see the next bout tied to the front beam, awaiting their turn. once the reed has been sleyed (sounds so medieval, no?), we have all the ends ready for threading the heddles. in the next photo, the sleyed ends are draped over the shafts, just kinda hanging out:

i’ll have to post a photo in the future of the rest of the warping process… never fear, i will have plenty of opportunity to take more pictures of it.