Initially, I was going to write a post about one of the old notebooks from my stash. However, I feel like I need to stop and write about the woman who gave me this notebook, Ms. Ida Grae. At the end of 2020, when everything was still shut down, a person contacted our guild asking if anyone would like a free storage unit full of weaving stuff. It was kicked around, and somehow, I was asked if I was interested. To which I responded "heck yeah!" Looking back, I was probably the only one willing to rent a U-Haul drive it 20 miles to meet with a random person during lockdown, but hey, I never said I was completely sane. First, this stash could’ve set me up for being a weaving teacher instantly because of how many looms were inside this storage unit. There were seven Gilmore floor looms, four were narrow (24-36”) floor looms, two of them were 8-shaft 45” floor looms (one being a double warp beam which I tried to hang on to but failed), and one 4-shaft 72” wide loom (which was sold to a lady who wanted it for weaving Frank Lloyd Wright-style pieces). There was also one LeClerc 4-shaft floor loom, that was missing something, so I posted it as free and a lovely lady from the Philippines, who moved to San Francisco, took it. She told me that she weaves with a group of other Filipinos and they specialize in traditional Philippine cloth. She described a pattern using circles that they would weave because the circles looked like whirlwinds to the gods, thus making the evil gods would assume there was already mischief happening and ignore the men at sea. Lastly, there was the 4-shaft countermarche that I regrettably threw away because I couldn’t quickly put it together and I had no idea the value of it until just recently. After the floor looms there were also six steel table looms, two rigid heddle looms, and some tapestry looms. Here are some links if you are curious about Binakol cloth. Next was the massive number of boxes full of yarn. There were well over a hundred boxes, and they had all been sitting in this storage unit for 30 years. Looking through the boxes, I kept finding sand over all the yarn. Later, I found out the sand was clothing moths eggs. So basically, there were so many moths that there was an entire layer of eggs coating her beautifully hand-dyed wool yarns. Luckily, some yarns survived. Obviously, none of the wool did, but I quickly learned what was wool, cotton, silk, or linen. The cotton and linen weren’t bothered at all. And the silk would be fine if it wasn’t in the same container as the wool. I say all of that to lead up to how I ended up learning about Ida Grae of Mill Valley, Ca. Starting with her stash I learned she loved weaving and enjoyed making eccentric modern art. Like the wall hangings I found below. The pattern and muted colors suggest modern crisp lines, but her method is unusual because she uses inch wide clear plastic strips as her pattern warp. She also enjoyed unique clothing, both ethnic and artistic. I found several awesome garment pieces that I've kept for when I have a gallery to showcase them. And it seems I had only a small fraction of her garments since her son-in-law stated they took most of the garment boxes out of the storage unit already. She also had a studio in the hills of Mill Valley, because of the several flyers I found referring to the classes available. It looked beautiful with all the trees and foliage surrounding the big open windows with looms everywhere. I also found a cute flag that would be a fun piece for her studio. After that I looked up her books; Dressing the Loom (published in 1953) and Nature's Colors: Dyes from plants (published in 1974). You can find the book about dressing the loom on the arizona.edu website look under Grae. It looks like a helpful book for getting started with weaving, and considering she was an avid teacher I bet she used it in her classroom as well. The Nature's Colors book isn't on the arizona website but I was able to find myself a copy of it. The book cover talks about how it is the first book specific to North American dyestuffs. In the acknowledgements Ida Grea thanks Dr. Elizabeth McClintock, the director of botany at California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco for consulting and critiquing the book. She also lists a few other doctors in her thank-you so I wonder if she was a confident and avid learner. The book cover also states that she taught dyeing, spinning, and primitive weaving at the College of Marin and was formerly the president of Designer Craftsmen of California. Which I can't find anything about but I'm assuming it was some kind of group of artisans who pooled together for art exhibitions and sales in the area, maybe like the American Craft Council. Then about a year later when I was reading through Shuttle Spindle and Dyepot I came across a two page layout of Ida Grae's interview with Suzan Kaplan in the Fall 1974 issue. It must have been a promotion for the Nature's Colors book because the issue came out a few months before the official release of the book. From listening to people she also taught at the Mendocino Art Center which looks like a very popular arts workshop space, that I should probably check out sometime considering it is only about an hour from my house. Sadly, that is the little bit I know of Ida Grae and her rather large mark on the weaving community here in the north bay. I’m sure I’ll keep learning more about her as I continue my weaving path. It’s wonderful to have a glimpse at such a prominent weaver in this area. It almost makes my dreams of hand weaving seem possible.
I wonder what her background was. Did she go to college? Did she have a fine arts background of some kind? How did she learn to teach? What made her so interested in natural dyes? Did she ever run into Dorothy Liebes? (That last one is solely because one of my favorite goof off websites is Dorothy Liebes' online library.) There are a lot of questions I have about Ida Grae and her blessing to me of a complete weaving studio, I only hope sharing her legacy is a decent enough thank you.
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Coupeville is on Whidbey Island, north of Seattle, WA, in the picturesque Puget Sound. While attending the workshop, I stayed at the Coupeville Inn. The inn is on the low end of accommodations for retired or vacationing weavers, but I enjoyed it. The atmosphere felt like a laid-back Pacific Northwest hotel, and they allowed dogs. The biggest thing was that their breakfast was not what I expected. They provide a cold breakfast bar, so think toast, fruit, yogurt, bagels, instant oats, etc. It surprised me because whenever a place says they have breakfast, I assume it is bacon and eggs. I mean, it is America (Ha!). Even though they didn't have the traditional American fare, I ate plenty every morning and found out I love canned peaches for breakfast. Having brought my dog, I did lots of walks around town. My favorite was to the end of the pier, where there's a museum and, in the back, picnic tables to sit and enjoy the view of Oak Harbor, across the inlet, and Camano Island, in the distance. We also found a quaint path along the water line. From the Town Park Pavilion along Front Street all the way over to Captain Coupe's Park, which has beach access. But if you walk over to Captain Coupe’s Park, beware of the smelly water treatment plant. Walking around the neighborhood is also fun, especially if you love seeing deer. Surprisingly, the deer are tame and stroll through the town all day. But all I could think of was how a few years ago, in Ohio, there was an over-population of deer, which led to several instances of deer getting spooked and running through patio windows, or my favorite, through a restaurant’s front window while people were inside eating. Hopefully, that doesn't happen in Coupeville. It seems like these deer are the town's pets. So, let's hope they stay so well behaved. There is also a yarn library right around the corner from Weaver's School if you want to exchange some yarn bits with the locals. Oh! And there is a Yarn truck that drives around and Madelyn had the woman come to the studio on Thursday for a school yard treat.
The school is at Madelyn van der Hoogt’s home and is a visual amusement park for textile enthusiast. One example is the embroidery work over the kitchen sink. It was fun to look at every time I went in there. Parts of the piece were either left unfinished or had different colored thread in a motif. It's as though the imperfections made it that much more engaging. At the Weaver's School when you first walk in you see the classroom area with tables, books, and a wall of woven samples you can pick up and interrogate. There were also a few tables dedicated to items for sale from the Eugene Textile Center in Eugene, since Suzie was helping with the class. As a craft book nerd, I admired all of Madelyn van der Hoogt's weaving books, and the old binders filled with vintage goodies like old newsletters & samples & a weaver’s treadling notes from the 50's era. Next to the classroom is the huge weaving studio, practically every weaver’s dream playground. Madelyn van der Hoogt’s method of teaching block weaves is to have several looms warped with different block structures. Then, the student can go to each loom and weave a sample and see how that structure weaves at the loom while being taught in the classroom that the placement of the block of structure creates the design. I think this method is ingenious. It takes a lot of looms and a lot of warps, but it allows the student to see what is happening and make their own sample book with references to "The complete book of Drafting for Handweavers" by Madelyn van der Hoogt. Madelyn van der Hoogt doesn’t need an introduction if you have been weaving for a decent amount of time. She has been in the published weaving community for a long while. She was editor of Weaver’s and then Handwoven magazine. She published several books and inserts about blocks and weaving techniques and has run the Weaver’s School for the last 33 years, and she has the 'Ask Madelyn' section online with Handwoven magazine. It was great to listen to her 'about me' speech at the beginning of class. It starts off in a bland Los Angeles home, goes to exciting Oaxaca, then to self-sufficient Missouri, and finally to cozy Washington. Being with her in person is a special treat. One, because of her empathetic, adaptable, and excellent sense of humor. And two, because of her ability to answer any weaving question instantly, which sometimes is too fast for my new-ish weaving brain, ha! Suzie Liles, the founder of Eugene Textiles Center, was also there to help manage 14 students working on about 30 different looms. She's been weaving for a long time and realized at some point that in order to keep weaving and pay bills, she needed to start a yarn store. Now, that yarn store has become the main yarn store for the west coast. They host international trips, invite artists to teach workshops, and they have their own Fiber in the Forest festival every spring. Suzie is a succinct woman of few words, but those few words matter. I was having an issue with weaving on the draw loom, and she said to try such and such, saw that I knew what she meant and left for a bit, which is exactly how I learn. Say something, let me play with it, then come back and see if it worked. She easily provided simple solutions to what I thought were complex issues. I went to Weaver's School to learn about draw looms since I fell in love with one at the 2022 Convergence in Knoxville. Madelyn was demonstrating the new Glamakra draw loom attachment. However, I never met her when I went over to the demonstration loom. Eventually, I contacted Madelyn through Weaver's School to find out how to go about learning draw looms. That's when I found out the Weaver's School has three types of draw looms. So, I instantly signed up for Weaving 2! Since I signed up for the class solely for the sake of playing on a draw loom, I had no idea that I would be learning block theory all week. Luckily, block theory and draw looms go hand in hand, making the classroom work the perfect refresher before I worked on the loom. Madelyn was very helpful in explaining the mechanics of the draw loom and its weaving possibilities. She even has me almost thinking about purchasing one. Oh, bother. The schedule during the workshop is to show up early morning, and weave until about 10 a.m. From 10 a.m. until noon, Madelyn van der Hoogt gives a lecture on profile drafts and unit weaves. Then it’s lunchtime, with most people bringing their lunch and using the small kitchen. Around 1 p.m. we all migrate towards the studio space for weaving until you want to leave. Some people left around 4:30 p.m., while others stayed until the last call at around 5:30 p.m. I stayed Thursday night because I wanted enough time on Friday to see what was in the old weaving folders. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Weaver’s School with Madelyn van der Hoogt. The setting was welcoming, with the Pacific Northwest waterfront and places for a dog to be free. The instructors were eloquent, and the other students were fun to work with. Now I’m home with three drawloom samples and an unnecessary need to find out how to get a draw loom. Wednesday was the Redwood Guild of Fiber Arts, RGFA, meeting featuring Jennie Hawkey's experience in Italy. Thursday, was meant for working on my icon design for the impending drawloom class. Instead I was distracted by a free lecture hosted through the Craft Industry Alliance. The emotions that lecture brought up were surprisingly discouraging. However, I kept searching, eventually finding a podcast that brought back a sense of joy and new desire to engage more with social media.
On Thursday, after walking Ollie and cleaning up the yard, I sat down for a free Webinar through Craft Industry Alliance. It was a design workshop on Photoshop shortcuts presented by Sarah Watts. She seemed very knowledgeable and excited about Photoshop (and she provides a 10-week Photoshop class I would be very interested when it starts again next August). However, my brain did a negativity dump during her presentation. She was so sure of herself and excited. Then, when she listed her background and accomplishments, it deflated my sense of self worth. So, being ridiculous, I googled how to stop being jealous. And I got a very poignant response. Jealousy, more precisely envy, stems from a feeling of lack in your life. Well, right now, I have lost a lot. My fur babies have passed, my Husband left, I buried a family member, I don't have a secure income, I could go on, but I don't need a pity party. I stated all these because currently I am in a place with a lot of loss. Thus, envy is probably going to be around for a bit. The article also mentioned re-framing the jealousy as being able to share their joy. Understand everyone has their trials, and life is generally hard. When you see someone bursting with joy, look at it as though there is still joy in the world, and they happen to be sharing some with you. After that, I was still dinking around their website and found a podcast with the lady who created Crafty Chicka. It was about her path to becoming a successful craft designer and writer. After internalizing the thought of being happy for others, the podcast gave me hope and joy that there are people who can make a living doing what they love.
And that brings me to her second takeaway, community through social media. My generation took on MySpace, Facebook, and yadda yadda, a million other platforms, for sharing stories and socializing electronically. For some reason, I haven't immersed myself in these electronic communications, but I've always wished I could. Honestly, I barely do emails or telephones. My brain becomes absorbed with whatever is physically in front of me, and an electronic interface never captures my full attention. But Crafty Chicka brought up how it becomes a sense of community and place to share ideas on a global scale. Ha, Sheila has been encouraging me to join the larger community. She always encourages me to email or call the person, which in my mind is intimidating. But it's how you engage and become part of a community. I would have been a lot more social had the internet and social media not taken hold, but it has, and it has brought so many more people together. So when faced with something you cannot change, and it isn't hurting anyone, I suppose you join it. I wonder if I should create a challenge to be more engaged online. Alas, maybe in a few months when I've had more time to heal. To sum it up. There have been a lot of community-inspiring events the last few days, between sharing time with my local guild members and joining in on webinars and podcasts to further my craft. I believe I'm setting up for a more connected and joyful experience in my future. Life is tough. But that's why we lean on each other and, when possible, share in each other's joys. Cheers, -Val The last couple of days I've been getting excited about the workshop at The Weaver's School in Coupeville, WA. Last year I asked Madelyn if she would teach the drawloom and she agreed. So now my mind is exploding with all things drawloom. The history of drawlooms, the countermache loom with a drawloom extension, the types of drawlooms etc. In fact I got way ahead of myself, for that reason, I decided to just focus on creating an image that I could weave on the drawloom if there is time.
I decided to work on some of the challenge problems provided at the end of the chapter regarding pentagons and the Golden Ratio. The first one I tried was to create a Golden Rule (see picture below) with the length of the Golden Rectangle being the length of my middle finger. It turned out really interesting, the slant was perfect for my hand and the rectangle at the bottom (the Golden Rectangle) was exactly where my knuckles lay. When I sketched in some fingers it didn't look half bad, and it was solely because I followed the golden rule (not that golden rule, though I try to follow that too, this is a geometrical golden rule). The next exercise was to draw a star using a circle with a diameter greater than 2 inches. From the circle I made a pentagon and then I used the Golden Cut to bisect the pentagon's sides and used that to find the inner part of the star. I haven't decided on an icon to create for my upcoming class at the Weaver's School but I'm on a good path. Tomorrow I'll look at a Celtic design book I rented from the library. It has a quick and easy method for drawing Celtic knotwork. Then I'll combine these two and see where I go.
Lastly, I've found this amazing website called 'The Art of Process', I look at it as the Universal Patterns book expanded. Her current project is looking at the structures of sea life and creating geometric drawings based on what she sees. I dream of going to one of her workshops someday. Heck even joining her tutorials would be amazing, all in good time. First I need to play with a drawloom! With everything in my life going topsy turvy it's good to get out of the house and enjoy some nature. In fact after just 24 hours of owning a car, after a month without one, I drove about 40 miles north to Yorty Creek which is a branch of Lake Sonoma. It was a beautiful walk along the edge of the lake, though the footpath slowly petered out so I think it was only about a miles hike. But thanks to my ability to find inspiring fall colors it still took us over an hour to walk it. My favorite color to spot when out on a nature walk is purple. In normal everyday I'm not the biggest fan of purple, mostly because of its history, but when I find it out in nature it's a blast to see what it is paired with. That was a wonderful walk that helped me connect with nature. Something drastically needed since my accident, plus I found a few color palettes to think about.
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Author: Vader
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