winter wanes

As we enter the second half of February, I can feel winter waning. The light is changing from watery thin to vibrantly clear, and the days are lasting longer. I am looking forward to the warm, & yes, even hot days! The winters are not as harsh here as in some parts of the country, but, nonetheless, I've heard that this winter has had the coldest temperatures since the early 1980s. And, winter's mark has been felt.... many plants were quite frozen & may not recover.


My poor sunflower, which I use for natural dyeing, now wears a coat of bronze & silver instead of its usual verdant green & gold.



With the not so good usually comes some good, & for this winter it has been in the form of badly needed snow on the mountains & rain in the Tucson basin. We need so much more, but not wanting to upset the rain gods, I am thankful for what we have received so far!




I have started work on my next tapestry, cereus expectations; this is the image I am using as a guide to weave from. It is a digital photo I took last spring of our night blooming cereus cactus. I then used my graphic design software to "posterize" it for a more abstract look. I have been invited to submit it for possible inclusion in Tohono Chul Park's upcoming Night Blooming Cereus gallery exhibit. The park has hundreds of these cactus & holds an annual nighttime festival during the "Queen of the Night's" bloom time. Since the bloom cannot be predicted exactly, everyone holds their breath while waiting for the announcement that the blooming has begun! I hope to post a photo of this tapestry's progress very soon!

This year has been so busy already! At the end of January I attended a 5 day workshop, Sources of Inspiration in Tapestry, which was co-taught by Barbara Heller, Madeleine Darling-Tung, & D.Y. Begay at the Desert Weaving Workshop here in Tucson. Three phenomenal weavers, three styles of weaving, three ways of approaching design, three points of view regarding inspiration in weaving. Talk about inspiring!

In just a little over a week I will be attending another workshop at Desert Weaving Workshop, Color & Design, which is being taught by James Koehler. I am looking forward to having a great experience (& getting great photos to post!).