Double Weaving Artist Makes an Impression

Stumbling upon her website I could not help myself but to be inspired by her weavings. She hand paints her warp to create a double cloth weaving. It was too good to keep to myself so I had to share with you my findings.

Enjoy Susan Neal's work!

://SusanNealWeaving.com/Site/Welcome.html

My first show

Finally I got around to up loading images from the December show. Here are a few images taken at the show. Also more images of the event can be found on this website http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=352138&id=252286270122&ref=mf

     

Realizing that I have only been weaving for about 4 months, and only owned my personal loom for about 3 I realize that I was crazy for trying to pull something professional in about two months. I had a lot of fun and learn a lot from doing the event. I will be looking for more shows to travel to this summer, and will be weaving like mad within the next few months to met deadlines. 

I am pushing professionalism like its a freight train. I just hope that there is no crash in the end. 

Once again I thank everyone who is helping me to reach my dream. It means a lot to see people care about my future and help me in anyway they can. 

Weaving brings Rwanda back to life after a genocide

The women that are coming together to weave my seem like a situation that would never come about. The women that sit side by side may have had a family member killed by the family member of another women sitting next to them. In other circumstances being in the same room may be a problem, but here they all see that they are in poverty and weaving is a way to get out of the situation.

Reading this story made me think about the deconstruction of oneself and of a community, and how they are able to pull themselves together in order to better one another. It is a touching story. One which I will think about for awhile.

Here is a link which I found the story.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/12/21/eveningnews/main6006920.shtml

My first

I must start by saying thank you boys for allowing me to be apart of such a wonderful event. I did enjoy my time talking to other venders, weavers and those in the community. Some out comes from the event of course were sold weavings and books, and talking to people of importance. Wayne (from Creative Alliance) came to my booth telling me that I should apply to be a resident in there program after MICA. I personally never thought of going to Creative Alliance after graduating only because I want to get my business going, but this is free housing... soooo just maybe I will look at them again. 

I also got to talk to Jennifer Strong!!! She was in eye view the whole time! During the show I had a cute older couple come up to me saying that the women had been eyeing the one scarf that I had just sold and she didn't want another to sell before she got one. So she bought one from me. Well, she and I started talking, and come to find out SHE WAS JENNIFER STRONG'S MOTHER! Go figure. So once she told me that I had to spill and tell her that I was in love with her daughter and knew all about her, and later that is when Jen came up to me and talked about the puppet show we had done together with one of the Squifire boys. Of course I still never told her that I admire her and want to be her. I am sure her parents told her, or maybe she heard from my own mouth when I got so excited. Eh, either way it is exciting that her mother will be wearing a piece of art that I made. 

I was a little upset that Jean never made it around to see my booth, but it was all ok I guess when Kevin came over (Jean and Kevin are the Squidfire boys, who put on the event, and whom I work with). Kevin loved my scarfs and later told me they were beautiful. I told him that I didn't weave the scarfs myself, that I had my foreign  baby weave them for me. Which is a running joke that he got a kick out of. 

When leaving I made sure that I got my hair cut from the free hair cutting people. Whom come to find out do 10-15 dollar hair cuts in general. So, now I know where I am getting my hair cut from now on! I am no longer doing it my self. I mean that day I got a free hair cut and styling for free! I made sure to give them chocolate after all was done. 

I also made sure to tell the boys that I loved them, cause I do! They are doing so much for me, and I feel like my services will never match up to what they are giving me. I know some people may have issues with the boys (of which I don't know specifics), but they really do have kind hearts and fun personalities. I can only hope that our relationship will continue to grow, and that future shows will continue to come about. In the meantime I will continue to sell my books in their store and continue to work in the store (located in Hampden). As well as reminding them to love me because I love them. Although them loving me comes natural. One more so then the other, but that is just cause gay men love me, and that is a different story all on its own.

To wrap up this event I will say it was a great learning experience, a success in selling work, and thumbs up for meeting old and new friends. Once again I can't say it enough I love you Kevin Sherry and Jean Baptiste Regnard.  

Holiday Art Mart

The time has come for my work to pay off. In a week I will be selling my weavings and books at the Holiday Art Mart (compliments to Squidfire). I have been working non-stop on my loom to have enough to fill my 10x10 space. I am excited to see the outcome of my hard work, and hopefully Jean Baptiste will invite me to another show in the future. I gotta love my Squidfire boys.

If anyone wants to travel out to the show it will be held at the DuBurns Arena at 1301 S. Ellwood Street in Canton.
I hope to see a few familur faces.

the Start of a Business

The start of a business that is right! Squidfire ( squidfire.com ), whom I had an internship with over the summer, is allowing me to be apart of Art Market, their December show. They have been so supportive with my education and helping me trying to launch this that it is greatly appreciated. 

I plan on selling woven items, ceramic pieces and blank books. I need to have all this completed before the show which is December 13th. How I am going to get that all done on top of school work, finals, and on top of having two jobs... I don't know. I guess I just like to put a lot on my plate. 

Although because I want this to be a career move I want to come up with a good company name... I've been stumped. any suggestions would be ok by me!

Wish me luck in completing and in success! As for right now Squidfire is God sent. Thank you boys for all you have done! And once again congratulations on your 5 year anniversary!

Round Two

Because I loved the Ikat project so much I want to do it again!

This time I want to fallow deconstructed buildings and mainly focus on staircases. The process that I want to use is thiox and bleach. These methods will take the color out of what is in the yarn which will fallow the deconstructing of the buildings. I will use the chunkiest yarn I can find, because thumb size yarn is way better then hair size yarn... end of story on that. No actually thicker yarn will be better because it looks more architectural. Also, I want to do an installation with it where it comes down from the ceiling, and thicker yarn will be easier to see the texture than thin yarn. 

As soon as I get things rolling I will post images. 

Also when I get the mold weaving back I will document that as well and post it. 

Day 17: a twist

The mold this time (compared to the mold that triggered the whole mold idea for this project) is demonstrating different results. I am not seeing the deep blacks that I had seen before, and the green mold still hasn't shown. I feel that the difference is due to amount of oxygen that is being put into the bag each day when I open it, and the fact that it is not getting as compressed as was the one that was in my bag. 

The colors non-the-less are still interesting. They are just taking me on a different turn. 

day 16: Discovery

I found white mold! wow, this will turn into green soon... hopefully. Along with the white color I feel like I can start to smell the mold. If that is possible? I think it smells like cheep wine? No one will smell it for me to confirm though. I wonder why?

day 15

Day 14: we have company

Totally found a moldy tomato today. I was upset at first that I had lost it and then quickly changed my opinion and found excitement in the gift that was once again given to me. 

As for the raspberries and cereal white mold was spotted on two huge clumps of cereal mutations but no red was spotted throughout the bag.  

Nice! almost no more red!

I almost want to experiment with it though... Like smashing the cereal so it becomes more guncky... It will only speed up the process of what the molding is already doing.  

Day 11: the fear of losing my mold bag

I went into the pantry closet to document my mold and couldn't find it where I usually keep it. It got me worried! I had stories popping in my head about the mold multiplying in the back of the closet and becoming a colony. Yes, I thought of this within the two seconds of misplacement. It was behind the sunflower seeds and honey, and apparently it doesn't smell bad according to my roommate. 

Day 10: Double bagged

The paranoia of smell has gotten to me. This week has been a constant reminder that I cannot smell! and with mold, apparently, being such a smelly thing I decided it would be beneficial to double bag the mold in which it is contained. Now no worries, at the moment, of my roommates complaining about the smell in our pantry  closet. 

Day 9: Chasing the UPS guy

Yes, today I chased after the UPS guy. It was way necessary! The company did not mail it on time, so for me to go after the UPS guy (after he left a note saying no one was home) had to be done. Funny really. The actual image of me after the UPS guy and then having to waive him down. YES! It is locked in my visual memory.

As for the mold... Well almost all the red is gone. Only a few reminiscence remain. More white specks though. The coming of one color to the discard of an old... or from an old?

Day 8: featuring white mold!

Ok so yes my camera is total shit! but! White specks were found today on a few squires! This is mold people! will be getting into some more exciting colors here soon. I can tell.

Day 7: RIP raspberry September 30th 2009- October 6th 2009

Black Mold! Wow

But what I don't understand is that there is no evidence that the raspberries ever excited. It is like they disintegrated. The only thing that remains of them is the red juice on the cereal. 

An unexpected color came out of my mold today. It was PURPLE! So cool. I am sad that there is still no green, but I am way excited about the purple. 
Oh and the raspberries are all mushed. I don't understand how they got so mangled. I mean they just sit in my pantry, but yes no longer holding the form of a raspberry. This gives me an idea to how the pattern sequence will go for the weaving. 

Day four and five

Okay. So sorry I was unable to post yesterdays image, but here is today's and yesterday's documentation. 

I am wow excited! I have black mold starting on the cereal and white mold on the raspberries! very faint, but none the less there!

Day three

Behold! a speck of mold! and I am only on day three... wow!

And more juice coming from the raspberries leaking onto the cereal. 

Day Two:

So some of my raspberries got a tad smashed last night when I put them away. I thing that the juice will help the cereal get soggy which will help it mold. mmmm making me hungry? 

When I went into the kitchen to document my molding process I found a note and a present from one of my roommates. I got excited thinking he baked something for me, but when I got closer I found MOLD! Must admit it had some interesting colors and texture. 

He gave me a present in a different way. (ps. notice the "Deli Fresh" on the label)

<3 thanks Dear

While on the street

So I heard today that a dear friend of mine went to the hospital a few days ago. I became worried for her right away, and tried to do what I could to make sure she got better. So I went to the store to pick a few things up for her, and while I was there I picked up my raspberries for Ikat.

I started going through my head how I would be the last one to know about her being in the hospital. I mean our friends in Italy heard about her being in the hospital way before me. It was something I thought about. 

My connection is something that could be trashed is being cherished for the better of a project. Maybe my friends in Italy are the mold?

For my Ikat project I will be following the growth of mold on raspberries and cereal. This is something that I eat everyday, but will keep a bag set aside to see the transformation of color to its properties. 

I bought red 3/2, shell 3/2 and a dusty coral 3/2 color. All are cotton and will be bleaching, thyoxing and top dyeing them the colors needed. For this process I will immerse dye them in a bath to get the colors, and will use ikat tape to resist the colors. The final piece will be 30"x40".

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