Raven Rocks Studio

Crossed a little bit of water on a ferry and drove for a little bit as well to arrive at Raven Rocks Studio on Widbey Island in Washington.  I finally got to meet Windwalker nad his lovely wife Mary Jo, both amazing artists but also amazing people.  Elena had already had the pleasure of meeting them so finally it was my turn!  What follows are some pictures from the lovely afternoon. 



Raven Rock Studio





Windkwalker doing what he loves to do best.  I can sure relate to that! Pam, a Mirrix Lom customer, standing in back and and Anne, a weaver sho has her work for sale at Raven Rock Studio.  Her work is absolutely gorgeous.  I showed her how to put beads on a weft thread in order to weave them into her scarves.



That’s Mary Jo on the left and Lynn (she works at Raven Rocks and also has artwork there) in the middle. .



That’s a copy of the current issue of Beadwork turned to my tapestry/bead cuff article.



Weaving talk!







Elena working hard on her new beaded bracelet design.

 

Oh Whidbey

Check out Claudia’s blog for pictures of our tapestry demonstration on Whidbey Island! http://mirrixlooms.blogspot.com/

Mirrix West!

Tonight, a little after midnight (ah, already delayed flights) Ms. President-of-Mirrix Claudia Chase lands in Seattle. We will be working (more Friday videos!), having a tapestry demonstration at Raven Rocks Gallery on Whidbey Island and then heading down to Salem, OR for the NW Tapestry Guilds’ Conference! We hope to see lots of you at one or both of these events! There is no better way to experience the Mirrix Loom than in person.

Slowing working on my beaded bracelet. I love how it’s turning out, just wish there were more hoursin the day!

Going West

Leaving for Seattle in a couple of hours.  Bye bye to the beautiful lilacs that have just finally come out.  

Maia will take care of the studio.

Butter and Noodle will certainly take over the chair in the sun with the lovely smell of lilacs behind.

The beautiful tree (have no idea what it is) with the canoes.

More beautiful lilacs.  They will be gone when I return.

Bear is finally out and about and part of the house not just hiding in our bedroom.

See some of you in Washington, some of you in Oregon.  I can’t wait.  Here we come Elena!!!

Bear and Noodle

The boys are finally feeling comfortable around here.  Took a while because they really missed Julie, the woman who rescued them.  They are finally warming up to me.  It was worth the wait.  What sweet teenage boys they are.  I am starting to understand their personalities  Bear (the grey one) is very verbal. He yells until he gets what he wants.  Noodle hangs back more and watches.  If you want to get Bear’s attention, just pet Noodle.  He goes nut because he wants the attention.  So he jumps on Noodle and covers him so that you have to pet Bear.

I left for a couple of days and Bear was so mad at me.  I have to leave again in a few days for ten days.  I can’t imagine what a state he will be in when I return.  Julie says she will visit regularly.

So here is the picture I just took of the two new boys:

Noodle is on top.

You can’t see it, but Bear has double front paws.

Thank you Elena

For winning that pendant (http://awordfromelena.blogspot.com/) and inspiring me to weave these two tapestry pendants.  Well, it was your idea, after all.

Yesterday, I warped up a sixteen inch loom (could have been a smaller loom, but one with a shedding device) which happened to be sitting empty on my work table.  I used an 18 dent spring and some C-Lon beading cord.  I made the piece about 24 warps wide.  I used 100% hand-dyed silk for one and 100% commercial rayon floss for the second one.  There are no hard fast rules for this piece except maybe to make sure you use fairly thin warp and fine weft so that this piece is a miniature and not just a small tapestry.

I finished the two piece by folding over the ends and backing them with ultra-suede.  I then trimmed them with beads.  I filled each piece with a penny for weight and good luck.  Lastly, I sewed a circle of beads for hanging.

I think these pieces would do best on a piece of rattail or a thin strand of leather.  A complicated necklace would take away from the pendant.  A simple beaded necklace would also work.

Silk tapestry

Rayon floss tapestry

Compare the two!

I threw on a silk cord, but I think I can do better than this.

Tapestry Pendents

On Thursday my husband won a drawing at Cole Gallery in Edmonds, WA and got this beautiful tree charm (pictured) by Jennifer Phillips. The necklace got me thinking about small-scale art and, in particular, small scale tapestry. It is something I have not done much experimentation with but it seems to be very in vogue lately (Especially with fantastic tapestry artists such as Kathe Todd-Hooker weaving small scale tapestries). 

It gave me an idea… woven pendents. Teeny tiny mini tapestries finished with beads and strung on silver or cord or leather. I talked to Claudia about this and she’s already started experimenting. The possibilities are endless and it would be a great project for beginners and experts alike. 

What do you think? 

Picture of Claudia doing Beads, Baubles and Jewels episode

There are am after ten minutes of filming or maybe before the ten minutes of filming.  

Okay, so it’s rainy and I just wanted to post something.  Tried to post this photo before but it didn’t work.  Now back to the rain and the fact that my husband plans to force march me up a nearby mountain in the rain because he thinks that sounds like fun.  I will be so proud of myself if I come down in one piece.

www.mirrixlooms.com

Beaded Cuff Bracelet finished

As I promised, I finished the beaded cuff bracelet today.  Not so pleased with the results.  Pleased with the pattern itself and how it should have turned out, but because I made it too long (did not realize that the 3/4 inch cuff is five beads shorter than the one inch cuff (go figure!).  I did remove four three or four rows of beads, but it was still a couple of rows too long.  I wasn’t able to remove those rows because it was becoming a tangled mess.  The result is I did not stretch the piece on top of the cuff and it is bunched up i places.  Also, the interface between the ultra-suede and the bead piece at the ends is a little floppy and a tiny bit of thread shows.  These pieces really need to be perfect, and I could never sell this one although I could wear it and no one would notice the mistakes that to me are glaring.

There is no sun today (might as well be living in Seattle, where I hear there is sun today) so I had to use my ott light to take the picture.  Wasn’t bright enough.  But it’s going to be cloudy and rainy for four days so I will not have an opportunity to take a picture with real sunlight until Wednesday.

The bracelet, imperfect as it is:

See the ripples in the middle there .. . . really annoying.

Looks better at this angle although because of the light not a great picture. www.mirrixlooms.com

Split-Loom Bracelet: The splits

The first split in my split-loom bracelet is done. Next I will start weaving up in three columns (which, by the way, is super easy with the shedding device). You can see how I have three different threads going at once. It’s very easy and I think the end effect of negative space between each column will be really nice. I hope to play with this idea of negative space more in my next piece but what’s great about this one is it’s perfect for a beginner but is a little more interesting (to weave and to wear) than a solid bracelet.