Settling Back into Home/Future Commitments

It's been a busy week, settling back home, considering some future commitments, and having lots of social engagements. Walks with friends, returning to the gym, dinners with friends have all been great, but now I am getting cranky. I know that means it is time to return to my studio work. The quiet and focus of my own work is my balancing mechanism. Tomorrow for sure. Meanwhile I will share some of this week's activities. Below is the view from Geof (standing) and Holly's (sitting right) back porch, where we enjoyed a dinner, sat by their fire pit and watched the sunset.

Enjoying sunset with friends

Mark and I went to the Hood Museum in Hanover, NH this week. They have an exhibition of Indonesian textiles up until August 31 and it is very inspiring. I plan to go back and sketch, but I wanted to have a quick look in terms of one of my future commitments, which is to demonstrate some of the textile methods used by four groups of Indonesian peoples in conjunction with an exhibit that will be mounted by the Bard Graduate Center. The Study Day Weaving Power: Meaning, Methods, and Materials of Island Southeast Asian Textiles program in which I will be involved will take place on November 6th. In the morning the curator of the exhibition, Florina H. Capistrano-Baker will walk the participants through the show. Then I will demonstrate some of the weaving processes used to make these cloths, followed by lunch, and then a trip to the MET for a presentation at the Antonio Ratti Textile Center by Christine Giuntini, textile conservator. It is going to be a wonderful day and if you are interested in participating or getting more information, please contact Rebecca Allan, Head of Education (if you click on her name it will bring you to a site with her email address).

Catalog from exhibition at Hood Museum

If you have been following my blog, you know I am into food. I was almost ecstatic to have dim sum and Korean food in Chicago, and was talking to Holly about it one day. She didn't know about dim sum, and I went on and on about how delicious it is, and how time consuming to make, and how sad that we don't have it here. Then I went home and found this ad in the newspaper for a restaurant in Burlington that is serving Sunday dim sum! Is this proof that if you ask, you will receive? Then after visiting the Hood, Mark and I went to check out Yama, which I vaguely remembered hearing about. We had their bulgoki lunch box, and I immediately went home and emailed some friends to arrange another trip to Yama and the Hood.

Hope for me in Vermont

Today we went to Chelsea (just over the mountain) for their annual Flea Market. Chelsea is a very beautiful town with two village greens. Both were full of vendors and this usually quiet small town was overflowing with people. I get overwhelmed by too much stuff and though we want/need a dresser and some chairs, and this was probably the ideal place to find them, we left empty-handed. We did see some interesting objects, including a wooden wheel chair and a sewing table that had a ruler drawn onto the surface.

Chelsea Flea Market

Wooden Wheel Chair

Detail of sewing table with ruler drawn on surface

I am reading two books lent to me by friends, both on the impending or perhaps already present collapse of the world as we know it. Sara Tucker, who has one of the most curious minds I know, and who shares her curiosity with readers on her blog, The Aggregator, lent me Sacred Demise by Carolyn Baker. Baker says there is no equivocating about it, the collapse is here. World Made by Hand, by James Howard Kunstler, lent to me by Marianne McCann, is a novel that so clearly describes the collapsed world that I have been walking around visualizing everything around me without electricity, without internet, without government. It tempted me to buy every hand tool I don't already own that was on sale at the Flea Market today. It also makes me think that being a weaver is going to be a good trade in the future. I am also thinking that using raw milk in my yogurt and cooking is not only delicious, but familiarising myself with the future. We not only got fresh milk today at Howe Farm in Tunbridge (just south of Chelsea) but we got some farm-raised meat too. This aspect of Vermont, knowing where your food is coming from, can not be beat.

I have been watching the counter on the lower-right of my blog, Neo-Counter. I am always surprised to see the numbers increase, and how many countries are represented. Sara's blog mentions 143 countries in a recent survey, WorldAtlas says there are 189 to 195 independent countries depending on your biases, and Bob Dylan says 193 on his Theme Time Radio Hour Around the World Show. I wonder how I can get hits from all 195 countries? It reminds me of family road trips where we always tried to find one liscense plate from every state. It seems to me it was always hard to find one from Vermont. Maybe it is so beautiful here, people just don't have to go anywhere else--or, I had to move here to finally log the state plate. When I logged on to write this, my count for the blog was 40 countries, and 2558 visitors. Of course, I didn't put the counter on until about a month ago, so that is really higher. Maybe that is like debating 193 or 195 countries.

When I was in Chicago I had a chance to meet Kathy O'Neal, who is helping Brother Kim with the Colloquy 2009. The information about this gathering is on the right side of this blog. It is going to be held October 12-15, 2009. Kathy and I discussed past Colloquy and what I should do as this year's presenter. I am going to do a lecture on my life as a weaver, as well as a presentation on contemporary jacquard and my use of the TC-1, and I will also do a demonstration on designing for a TC-1 using Photoshop. If you want to join us, please contact Kathy. This is a rare opportunity to gather with a small group of people obsessed with weaving and looms. I think the conversations can get quite heated about things like tying treadles or maybe how to read drafts--the kind of thing that you just can't discuss with everyone. Maybe you don't want to talk about such things, but I always love hearing how other weavers think and act.

Kathy O'Neal talking to me about Colloquy 2009