“I get satisfaction of three kinds. One is creating something, one is being paid for it and one is the feeling that I haven’t just been sitting on my ass all afternoon.” – William F. Buckley, Jr.
The problem with weaving is it can be very sedentary. I’m working on trying to get out for a walk/run in the mornings before I get started each day. So far I’m not!!!!
Loom in the basement in Maryland
I have been very busy in “my studio”. Some of you may know the story, but I’ll recap a bit. I was a calligrapher for 20 years in the DC area. Ten of those I made a real living working as a sub artist for Bakers’ Studio and it was some of the most enjoyable years of my working life. I left there to go back to school and then ended up having to bail on that dream to handle some family matters, then my mother got ill and then Dave lost his job in the telecom industry and I went back to work in the corporate world to help out with healthcare benefits and such. All that transpired over about 10 years. In the course of that, my co-worker’s mother, an award winning textile artist, was wanting to sell one of her looms. I had an early dream in my life to be a weaver and after much thought (a year or more) Dave supported me to purchase this loom. It was a complete package with all manner of goodies, and free one-on-one lessons from the artist. Then Dave accepted a job in California, then he got sick, and Oh Boy! The loom got warped and packed for the move, but I had no idea what to do with it. Weaving is the easy part, it’s getting to the weaving step that seems, and feels, complicated. After a year of treatment, back and forth to Arkansas, I was walking into my local yarn shop and they had a small rigid heddle (knitter’s loom) in the window. I jumped to take a class and Dave bought it for me last Christmas. After a few months of sheer fun and thinking I needed to get a job to support “my habit”, Dave encouraged me to “just weave”. So this past year has been my year. I feel a bit like I’ve been on a paid sabbatical to research or write. It has been amazing all that I have done and the new friends I have made. Many of you have bought some of my early efforts and it has been incredible.
But my “studio” was a disaster. Boxes, books, calligraphy, weaving, and all manner of things piled in there. I was weaving all over the house. Everywhere but my designated studio. Many times I moved all the boxes out to another room in an effort to begin sorting out, made some progress here and there, and then someone would come to visit or stay a while and all the boxes would get shoved back in. Not to mention digging through them from time to time looking for something I knew I had! Oh what a nightmare. But I just kept creating and Dave was very tolerant. I finally moved my laptop up into the studio and cleared a little space for it on my desk. I figured I would be forced to tackle it if I was having to sit in it all day!
All the while, taking classes, buying yarn, making things.
Then Dave suggested I get some grid wall for my studio, like I bought to use for shows. You don’t have to ask me twice! Great idea. Off we went and the gal there helped us save a lot of money in how we would use it, knowing what I do and my plans for it. Dave and I put it up and it we will do a little more soon. As I was sitting at my baby wolf loom I kept looking at the big one (the one I bought and brought across the country), a 12 harness, 42″ loom, a Macomber, and I was thinking, “I can tackle this now. I know what to do.” And so I pulled it out from the wall and began to inspect what was warped on it almost 4 years ago! I found a website that focuses on this loom and was looking at wonderful photos. I was able to put it all together from those (“Oh! That’s in my closet somewhere!”) and fire that baby up! Dave was so happy. I threaded it and made two small “lap blankets” with what was already warped on it and what I was able to find in my growing stash of fiber.
Firing up the Macomber! Finally!
I’ve been taking photos all along to share with you and eventually my website when I get it sorted out. (Another thing I haven’t done yet!) But you can see, it’s coming along and I am having a great time creating my new life, back in the arts.
I have orders to fill, gifts to make and I’m still exploring things like rugs, and double weave (weaving to separate pieces of fabric at the same time). Finding out what I like to do, what people enjoy buying, and honing in on some basic products. The possibilities are endless, but I am not, so I keep playing around with the things I think I will enjoy doing and the things I would buy personally. This is one journey I am truly enjoying.
There is still much to do to be fully organized, but the boxes are dwindling and the organization is going in. It’s just one of the small bedrooms and so no matter what I do it will get messy and then organized as I move into projects. But that part is fine with me. Being able to find more and more has been such a relief! The joy on Dave’s face when he comes home and up the stairs to my little hideout, seeing me working, is worth all the patience and effort to get to this point.
Dave continues to do well. He is very happy. He jokes around with me a lot, compliments my projects, and asks me to make things for gifts from time to time. Our children are thriving and our son is thinking of going to graduate school. One of the top 10 schools for his interest is in California, so needless to say, I’m very supportive of that! We will see them over the holidays and I am looking forward to it.
I still miss Kip when I come home after long days and have been getting my canine fix with Zoe, the lab next door. She is incredibly accommodating! I got to babysit her over the Thanksgiving holiday and she was a great companion. I’m Auntie Lori who spoils her rotten and she eats it up.
Thanks Ladies! (Gail is a beautiful potter that I lived and apprenticed under for two years when I was 20. And Lynne was my first real “art teacher” when I moved to the DC area in 1981. She believes art ability is a natural or acquired ability. I had never had an art teacher who believed that it could be acquired, that there was something to know. I learned much from them both.)
First of all Lori, this is SO well written! So it proves to me that you have it in you to organize the whole shebang! Which, of course, you are doing. I loved reading it and seeing what you are doing AND the changing pictures in the post. What an able woman you are!
So happy you have followed your passion. It makes for happy living!
With love