Rug #7 Work in Progress

Rug # 7 is the result of a blend of techniques used in the Red, White & Blue rug (#5) and the Water Lily Collaboration (#6) and the use of a warmer color pallet. As you may recall the RW&B rug was a rather rigid pattern repeat where we tightly controlled the length and order of the three colors of rag strips. It was also the first rug in which all of the strips were shorter than the width of the rug (ie, no full width horizontal stripes. We retained the short strip approach for the Water Lily rug, but totally abandoned any pattern, in favor of a "hand-painted" abstract tapestry approach.

With our latest collaborative effort we reintroduced the repetitive pattern offered by looped rag strips, but adopted a much more laid back approach to length and order of colored strips. A somewhat longer length of red rag is followed by a shorter length of light or mid-toned rag, followed by a dark toned rag, followed by a light or mid-toned rag. That sequence is then joined with others to form a continuous length of rag ready for weaving.

The result is largely a hit & miss abstract with pools of color and lines of movement. Lots of room for exploration in subsequent endeavors. We'll have to see what direction the rag bag points us next time around - sort of like reading tea leaves.

Mini Rugs & more

Many things going on:

• To help promote the new weaving class, I down-sized the Kentucky Mountain Pattern Rug from Rag Rug Weaving Handbook (Meany & Pfaff) and wove it on one of ACA's 8" looms. I'm quite pleased with the outcome. One of the best pieces I've woven to date, and the pattern is fully reversible.

• To keep my stream monitoring certification up to date, I spent 4 hours yesterday with friends counting bugs that live in Hollow Creek. I saw this amazing spider having lunch. Catching the young girls playing (unaware) on a log in the background was sort of surreal and way creepy - straight out of a scifi horror movie. Cue the soundtrack from Psycho. Scree, scree, scree...

• HB & Me saw Julie & Julia at the Saturday Matinee. Really sweet movie with some deeper sub-stories about the importance of setting and achieving goals, becoming one with your muse and blogging faithfully. As one of my favorite George Harrison lyrics says, "If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there." I'm not exactly sure where I'm going, but I'm pretty sure this is the right road.

• I'll be weaving in public this Saturday at ACA during their Arts Alive Festivities from 11 to 2. I need to decide what to work on while I'm there. It will be a great opportunity to catch the attention of a few prospective students for the new class.

New Weaving Class at ACA

I can hardly believe it. I'm going to be teaching a weaving class at the Aiken Center for the Arts!

The ACA staff and I both had a great time this summer introducing weaving to the Summer Art Camp kids. The kids couldn't get enough of it - Can I just do one more, please? We couldn't give them enough of it.

We thought there might also be some adults in the community that would enjoy the opportunity to learn to weave and decided to set up a class. We made our decision too late to get the information published in the latest class schedule, but we'll be distributing a class description something like the following to help get the word out.

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Intro to Weaving (#7647)

Have you every thought you might enjoy weaving, but were put off by the initial sticker shock of buying a loom or uncertainty about what kind of loom would be right for you? Take our looms for a test drive and find out if you like weaving enough to take the plunge. You'll learn all the basic information and techniques needed to go from a weaving draft (pattern) to finished fabric. You'll set up one of our 4 harness table looms and weave small projects of your own. We'll go over the various types of looms and which are best suited to your interests and budget.

• No prior knowledge of weaving is required.
• All "learning" supplies are provided (BYO silk/cashmere & hi-end yarns).
• 4 Thursdays, October 1, 8, 22 & 29 (6:30 to 8:30), $90
• Class size is currently limited to 4 students.

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We're actively seeking additional (used or donated) 4 harness table (or small floor) looms. If you have a loom or know of one that's collecting dust, please send me an email.

If you have any interest in learning to weave or dusting off dormant weaving inclinations, call the ACA (803-641-9094) and register for Class #7647.

Hope to see you in October.

Two Water Lilies

We worked collaboratively, each with our own vision of what a Monet water lily should be and ended up with something remarkably close to one of the original works. I'm impressed with our results and very grateful to have been a part of such a magical process. Thank you all.