Technology Scream

March weaving by Bhakti Ziek

(whole image at top, details at bottom)

On this dreary wet frustrating day, I will start with an image of my finished weaving. I don't have a title yet, which is unusual for me since the weaving usually "tells" me its name while I am making it. For now, it is March weaving. My reading of A Path with Heart tells me that many people, when mediating, notice their mind stories are often self-aggrandizement's--and that certainly applies to me--not when I am meditating, since that is rare, but when I am weaving. I think this weaving is a very good beginning for a body of work, but perhaps it is not quite the shining, magnificent, awesome work that I saw as I was making it. Sometimes when I finish a work I have to put it away for a month or so before I can see it for what it is, rather than my expectations and judgements. This one is on my wall right now, which is a tribute to my early acceptance of it. It needs to be mounted and finished, but I have months to procrastinate on that.

So I have been fussing about the learning curve of new technology--in my case, a new scanner and a new digital camera. The camera is already not working--and the really frustrating aspect is that I purchased it from a vendor online, through Amazon, and, unbeknown to me on ordering, it came from Hong Kong. I have nothing against Hong Kong, but the warranty for the camera is not valid here in the USA--and I just feel like screaming. I am not a big consumer, so the idea of exchanges and exchanges that mean shipping overseas, is really frustrating me and ruining my day. Those of you who do shop online and through Amazon know that it also means email correspondence, no easy recourse to a living human being, and probably weeks until this gets resolved.

On Sunday I went to Montpelier to see Don't Know, We'll See: The Work of Karen Karnes by Lucy Massie Phenix, which was shown through the Green Mountain Film Festival. Both Karen and Lucy were there, which was very nice, and the movie was quite inspiring. At one point Karnes' studio (and house?) burnt and the film shows her the very next day going through hot smoldering destruction, pulling out a pot or two (the last kiln load of work survived). I could not believe that she was so cheerful--not a moment of self-pity. She says she is lucky because it was only things that were lost, it could have been much worse. So I am going to tell myself the same thing about today--it's only a tool/toy and even if the situation doesn't resolve itself to my satisfaction (and it probably will), it's only a thing.

Maybe you noticed that I have added a link on the right side of this blog where you can sign up for email notification that I have posted a new page. A friend asked me to do this, so I looked it up online (so technology does have some good to it today) and added it to my blog. This might mean that some of you who click often looking won't have to do that, and my numbers on the click counter won't grow so fast, but I am sure it will be more convenient for you, if you want that type of notification.

Kent Trip and Movie

I had a quick but wonderful visit to Kent State University to give a lecture on the history of woven figured textiles, i.e., drawloom woven, jacquard woven, and thread controller woven, and also spent time talking to students individually. The lecture was well-attended (the lecture room in the museum seats 130 and it was full), which is always gratifying. I was worried that my talk might be too basic for the fiber students, so was relieved when an art history class filed in. I was also pleased that J.R. Campbell, the new director of the School of Fashion Design and Merchandising at Kent, and his wife attended the talk. We met before at a Surface Design Conference where we were both teaching. He is an expert at digital print and engineered garments and if you click on his name it will take you to his blog where he has posted some good images. Kent is very lucky to have both J.R. and Janice Lessman-Moss on their faculty, and I can imagine that they will figure out interesting ways to have their students collaborate. Fashion and its main players are always more prominent than the designers of the cloth that is used to make the clothes. I don't know if I even knew that there was such a thing as a textile designer until my mid-30's; I just assumed that the fashion designer created the cloth they were using.

Before lecture, people looking at some woven studies by Bhakti Ziek

Visiting with Janice and her husband Al, an artist and musician (member of the Hillbilly Idols) is stimulating and reinforces my commitment to live a life focused on making things. Janice is one of those super women who is juggling many commitments at once, and doing them all well. She has built an amazing department at Kent and the exhibition downtown of jacquard work by herself and her students was definitely a highlight of my trip. She gives to the larger field by activities such as being on the board of Textile Society of America. Most importantly, she is an active practicing artist and her studio is full of inspiring work. You might own a copy of Ideas in Weaving, and have seen an image of Janice's Macomber loom, which she modified in order to create shaped weavings. Her ability to conceive of what she wants to do, and then figure out means to achieve her ideas, is staggering--and this is one of the impressive skills she manages to pass on to her students. In her studio I saw large, well-conceived, time-consuming weavings--and in the fiber department and downtown gallery I saw works by her students that showed that they too have learned to think beyond the expected and put in what ever effort is necessary to execute big, detailed projects. Below is a picture of Janice standing near a few of her new weavings, and below that a detail of her and the work.

Janice Lessman-Moss with some of her recent weavings

Janice Lessman-Moss in her studio

It is fun for me to go into a university program and talk to the students. To catch a bit of the energy of hope and exploration and ambition that is present in a good department, like the one at Kent. The facilities are very good--large well-equipped rooms for both weaving and surface design, and the equipment, which is kept in good shape, includes two TC-1 looms. Below are images of two of the seniors that I met, Katie Rothacher and Lauren Mangeri. Katie's recent jacquard in the downtown show, made with hand dyed weft, is not just ambitious, but mature and successful work; Lauren has just begun working with plastic interlaced with other yarns, and already her initial study shows the work is going to become captivating.

Katie Rothacher in her studio at Kent State University

Lauren Mangeri showing her recent TC-1 jacquard in weaving studio at Kent State University

I was only gone three days, but in the words of Dorothy, "there is no place like home." I used to be a movie fanatic, sometimes going to three different theaters in NYC on the same day to catch films playing only on that day--but that was a long time ago and now it is a rare treat to go to a movie. Julie and Julia is playing at the local Randolph movie theater, the Playhouse, so Mark and I went tonight. I didn't expect to like it (dare I admit that I don't like Meryl Streep)--but I loved the movie. I loved everything, especially all the talk about blogs and blogging--and of course all the food--and for the most part, Streep didn't annoy me. It felt so good to sit in the dark, and laugh, and be absorbed by a big screen. I came home and pulled out my copy of Child's book (13th printing from 1966) and maybe I will make that chocolate cake with almonds tomorrow.

Threading Break-Time

I am almost done setting up my TC-1 with a new warp. I was worried about redenting from the original reed (30 dents per inch) to a new one (15 dents per inch) but when I started, I realized I could stand the new reed up in the top grove of the bar that sits at the top of the reed--and everything went smoothly. I have designed some warp-backed and compound warp structures and two test files and will begin there--as soon as I tension the warp.

Threading New Reed Sitting on Top of Old One

I had the best break-time reading a travelogue of my friend Chad Alice Hagen's recent visit to England. Since i don't have a Face Book account, I couldn't read her posts there, so she kindly sent the written pages to me through email. I had one window open to her account, and another window open to google maps and I was able to follow her journey. At the end I realized I could also click on pictures of the towns and see what they looked like. Chad is a brilliant artist/feltmaker/observer of life, and I returned to dressing the loom refreshed and energized. 

Coincidentally, my friend and neighbor, Sara Tucker, who writes a wonderful weekly blog, The Aggregator, for Conde Nast Traveler, had a post today about google streets, a new feature where you can see photos of the streets, with their buildings, and actually feel like you are walking down them. So once again I was back online, looking at maps, this time exploring Boston. This feature is new and not available for all areas, so I imagine it will be quite awhile before a small town like Randolph is added. Sara's blog always introduces an interesting topic, and then takes you in many directions through links, so a small paragraph can really encompass the world. I joke with Sara that she also happens to be my own personal trainer--she not only gets me to the gym each morning (days she isn't going, I just don't seem to have the will power to go on my own) but she has been terrific at showing me how to use the machines, do exercises in the water, and recently introducing me to exercises for my abs. I think for break-time I prefer her blog and the Internet.