desert. It is always so amazing how quickly things can change here... for the last 2 days, the temps have not made it out of the 50s, yet just before Thanksgiving we had some days near 90. The birds outside seem to enjoy wet weather so much, increasing their usual cacophony of birdsong while they are feeding at the feeders. The studio windows have been continually streaked with rain & because of the flat roof I can hear the rain if it is coming down hard enough. The clay canales that drain the studio & garage rooftops have been continually trickling & at times gushing water. The surrounding mountains are either lost from sight when the clouds engulf them, or they are strikingly illuminated when the sun manages to peak briefly through the thick cotton of rain clouds. The Catalinas have also had brief dustings of snow on their peaks which melts quickly if the sun stays out for long.
On the Shannock frame loom, inlay 9 is finally in progress, after a bit of tweaking of the design. Inspired by Tommye's latest post, I'm including images of my designing as it progressed. I don't sketch very much for most of my tapestries because I use images that I take with my digital camera & then trace the main shapes & outlines onto vellum to use behind the warp. But, this tapestry is geometric, so I had to head for the graph paper & then to my CorelDraw.
Here, my first conception while I was still in the process of choosing the palette. I had originally envisioned it as a horizontal design...
Which I then transferred into CorelDraw & modified to come up with the final design & palette, with some of the shapes changed & the alignment now vertical...
Here the final design has been transferred to graph paper with yarns attached to their respective color areas. I can keep it near the loom to track of each shape's dimensions; since the overall size is 9" x 22" & it is such a simple design, I didn't want to waste paper & ink printing a cartoon out from my printer.
With each new tapestry, I tend to try to incorporate a tapestry technique that I have not used much before so I can push my envelope a bit & become more proficient in my weaving skills. In earth & sky, it was pick and pick-- in this tapestry it happens to be interlocking joins, which I felt it was necessary to use because of the precision of the shapes & the size of the slits that would make it difficult for me to control draw in or "bulge out". Two of the shapes are using a wool yarn that is much larger than the other wools, bamboos, & cottons, so I am weaving those in basket weave (over 2, under 2) to compensate. Although the overall design is simple, I find that the preciseness of it requires that I am very mindful of all of my joins & selvedges.
The desert has finally settled into winter... after weeks of temps near 90, just at Thanksgiving the weather turned & since then it has been very pleasant 60s & 70s during the days & 40s at night. We had a giant storm roll through a few days ago, rain all day & all night, the most we've received in over a year and hopefully more on the way with the upcoming front on its way here from Alaska!