Projects – Page 2 – Weave Story

Michigan League of Handweavers Biennial Fiber Show

June 30, 2014/3 Comments/in award, garments, Projects /by bschutzgruber

I spent a lovely summer afternoon in Holland, Michigan for the last day of the Michigan League of Handweavers Biennial Fiber Show – complete with refreshments, awards ceremony and Ann Keister’s comments on jurying the show as well as a PowerPoint presentation of her work.

Surround Sound Vest won 3rd place in the Functional Fiber category and besides being presented with a lovely woven & beaded ribbon…. I got $75 in prize money too!!

It was nice to see ‘Surround Sound Vest’ and my ‘Green Man’ tapestry, as well as all the other fabulous fiber works of art displayed so beautifully. Hats off to everyone at MLH who worked so hard to put 80 items on display!!

The Great Tapestry of Scotland

June 1, 2014/0 Comments/in embroidery, Interesting stuff, tapestry /by bschutzgruber

While visiting Aberdeen, Scotland this spring I was able to see an amazing tapestry exhibit – The Great Tapestry of Scotland. This tapestry is composed of 163 hand embroidered panels, each 1 metre square, depicting the history of Scotland… from the Ice Age to the beginning of the 21st Century.

The project was initiated by author Alexander McCall Smith, historian Alistair Moffat and artist Andrew Crummy. Dorie Wilkie coordinated over 1,000 volunteer stitchers, of all ages and abilities, from every part of Scotland, who put in over 65,000 hours to hand stitch 300 miles of wool thread onto Scottish linen to create the world’s longest tapestry – 143 metres/156 yards.

Andrew Crummy’s design work is amazing – as you can see from the details found in the different sections on the opening panel. (Color distortions are due to my camera and no flash allowed in the exhibit.)

As he designed the main images for the panels – he also left sections open so that each group of stitchers could add their own individual touches to truly make this one of the biggest community arts projects ever to take place in Scotland. Many of the stitch groups signed the bottom right corner of their panel.

In the middle of the exhibit – I watched local stitchers work on a panel, inspired by this project, depicting the city of Aberdeen

and was able to actually touch samples of the linen and the stitch work used.

The Great Tapestry of Scotland website has detailed information, background and history of the project, samples of the embroidery stitches used, a fabulous slide show of all the panels, plus an audio file telling the story of the making of the tapestry…. which I’ve been able to listen to while watching the slide show by having both windows open!

The exhibit it currently in Paisley (that panel was stitched at the town’s Thread Mill Museum by former mill girls) until June 8th. It will continue to tour Scotland through the end of November with hopes to bringing it internationally.

Surround Sound and Green Man links

May 4, 2014/2 Comments/in Projects /by bschutzgruber

Me and the computer have this love/hate relationship!

The links I used to access to the backstories of ‘Surround Sound’ and ‘Green Man’ worked just fine within the blog page…. but don’t seem to work in the email. So…. I’m trying this one more time! Fingers crossed this one works…..

Read stories behind the creation of these pieces
Surround Sound Vest

The Saga of the Green Man
part 1 – part 2 – part 3

Surround Sound and Green Man make the cut!

May 4, 2014/0 Comments/in award, garments, Interesting stuff, Projects, tapestry, weaving /by bschutzgruber

‘Surround Sound Vest’ wins FUNCTIONAL FIBER 3rd Place award!

83 pieces were entered into the Michigan League of Handweavers 18th Biennial Show.

The ‘Green Man’ tapestry was also accepted into the show.

The exhibit at the Holland Area Arts Council, 150 E. 8th Street, Holland MI 49423, runs from May 17-June 29, 2014. (Regular hours: Monday-Thursday 10am-8pm, Friday 10am-5pm, Saturday 10am-3pm)

The reception, awards ceremony and talk by juror Ann Keister (retired professor of Art & Design at Grand Valley State University) will be on Sunday, June 29, 2014 from 2-4pm.

Read stories behind the creation of these pieces
Surround Sound Vest

The Saga of the Green Man
part 1 – part 2 – part 3

Winter Blues Jacket revisited

March 20, 2014/2 Comments/in garments, Interesting stuff, Projects, weaving /by bschutzgruber

I had a little jacket, it was old as can be…
Tralala lalalala lalala
What I’d ever do with it, I just couldn’t see
Tralala lalalala lalala
So I thought a little while
And made myself a vest in the very latest style
Tralalala lalala – Tralalala lalala
Made a vest in the very latest style.
–from a Yiddish folk song

What does a fiber artist do when she realizes that she has not worn the hand-woven jacket she spent months weaving and constructing? She turns it into something else. Or even better… ends up with 2 items of clothing!!

In 2012, I created ‘Rapunzel’s Winter Blues’ jacket

when I took Michelle Moenssen’s workshop “Making a Jacket from Hand-woven Fabric”. This was fabulous learning experience, as I had never sewn a tailored jacket (i.e. suit coat) before… let alone one from hand-woven fabric. [click here for the slide show of the full process]

After 2 years… I realize I had not worn the jacket even once. My life at this point doesn’t need that style of jacket. But as any fiber artist who makes her/his own cloth for garments knows, one does not just toss away that much ‘time, sweat, and tears’; and though I do sell my woven and felted garments, this one has strong emotional ties for me so it would be like selling one of my children! So… I began to think what could the jacket transition into that I would be more likely to wear?

I decided that remove the sleeves – transforming it into a vest – would be the simplest as I had no desire at this point to completely deconstruct the jacket.

Now… what to do with the hand-woven fabric from the sleeves? Mary Sue Fenner’s ‘One-of-a-Kind Jacket Trunk Show’ at the March 2014 AAFG meeting inspired me to make a second garment using lightweight commercial wool and the hand-woven fabric as accent panels creating this ‘Two for the Price of One’ vest.

(pattern – Simplicity 2341)

I’m happy to say that both vests will be on the runway at AAFG’s Fiber Feast on April 5, 2014.

The song begins with an overcoat becoming a jacket – jacket to vest – vest to tie – tie to button – button to nothing – nothing to song and Simms Talback’s 1999 picture book Joseph Had a Little Overcoat is a Caldecott Metal winner so who knows… over the years to come this hand-woven fabric may continue to be re-imaged and transformed, giving it renewed life and rebirth. Tralala lalalala lalala…..

The Saga of the Green Man comes to an end

February 4, 2014/0 Comments/in Projects, tapestry, weaving /by bschutzgruber

The weaving completed, I cut the Green Man off the loom on January 13, 2014
…only 1 year later than planned.

Now the finishing work began: all the warp threads knotted and secured, the long gap in the center forehead leaf sewn shut, clean up the back (weave in/sink the weft ends), plus there was a lot of rippling in the tapestry because my warp tension had become very uneven.

Crossing my fingers that blocking would eliminate the rippling, I put him onto the shower floor to wet down then I pinned him facedown onto a piece of foam board to block, squaring up the 4 sides. I stood him up in the bathtub to drain over night then moved the board near the floor register for the next 4 days to dry.

Once he was throughly dry, I unpinned him and turned him over. To my joy…. the blocking had eliminated the rippling = whew!!! Twill tape was sewn to the top and bottom, turned to the back and sewn down. Finished tapestry dimensions: 18″ x 18″. I used velcro to mount him onto black matboard and made a simple black frame. Final dimensions: 25″ x 25″. I packed him up and dropped him off to be juried.

The Green Man was accepted for the AAFG 2014 exhibit at the Power Center for the Performing Arts in Ann Arbor, MI. We hung the exhibit on Tuesday, February 4th and it runs through the month of February.

He is nicely positioned so he can check out everyone as they enter the theater from the lobby…. and is watching to make sure no food or drink is brought inside!

My daughter Andrea, who did the orignal painting, announced the other day, “Hey, Mom…. I’ve got an idea for our next painting/tapestry collaboration….. “

The Saga of the Green Man (pt2)

February 2, 2014/1 Comment/in Projects, tapestry, weaving /by bschutzgruber

When we last left our hero…. he was awaiting my decision:
Do I chuck all that I’ve done so far… cutting my losses (literally!)
and start over?
Or do I continue on and see what happens?

I am a ‘process’ artist rather than a ‘project’ artist which means I am more interested in the journey than I am in reaching the original destination. So of course…. my decision was to move the cartoon lower, realigning the eyes, and continued on!!

The Green Man’s features were now more square than the original design. The good thing about choosing a Green Man for my first attempt to weave a face is that a Green Man is not “human”. As long as I kept his eyes focused, the rest of his face was open to interpretation. Not wanting to redo the cartoon, I continued to follow the original, trying to keep my beating pressure the same as I had used the year before.

Once his forehead was finished…

I packed down the new weaving to match the new proportions of his lower face.

I was VERY pleased with how he came out but there was still more to do…..

The Saga of the Green Man (pt1)

February 2, 2014/2 Comments/in Projects, tapestry, weaving /by bschutzgruber

Some projects just take time. They are never going to fulfill any need I might have for instant gratification. The Green Man tapestry has been one of those.

I started this project back in August 2012. My goal at the time was to have him completed for the February 2013 Ann Arbor Fiberarts Guild annual wall hangings exhibit at the University of Michigan’s Power Center for the Performing Arts.
Click on the links to read about the process:
designing – preparing the loom – the cartoon – weaving – the face – the eyes – taking longer than anticipated.

By mid January it was clear that I would not be able to have him ready. And so it was…. the Green Man looked on as other projects, deadlines, commissions, and life events took center stage. [see the blog archives] For 9 months he patiently watched and waited.

FINALLY… 1 year after I started him, I was able to once again turn my attention to the Green Man. One of the skills I worked on during the AWSD summer school tapestry course in Carmarthen, Wales [see September 2013 blog postings] was beating/packing down the weaving. Looking at it now, I could see that yup…. my packing was pretty loose so I began to compress.

before

The result = the tapestry was now 3″ shorter!

after

Also at this point I could see that my warp tension was pretty wonky and I would not be able to easily correct this = OOPS!!! I now had major decision to make:
Do I chuck all that I’ve done so far… cutting my losses (literally!) and start over?
Or do I continue on and see what happens?

Modern Medicine and the Ancient Art of Weaving

January 5, 2014/1 Comment/in Interesting stuff, weaving /by bschutzgruber

Weaver Janet Phillips in the UK has been involved in the project to weave shoulder tendon patches. There is a short news item on the BBC website at the moment. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-25573341

“I have been doing ongoing research with this team of scientists from Oxford University for five years now developing an internal woven bandage. It has been fascinating and it is great to see the research come to the point were a bandage has actually been made and is about to be used in surgery. The project with Oxford University has been really interesting. It started when I was still living in Oxfordshire. We started weaving 1 cm square, plain weave pieces on tiny nail tapestry frames. It seemed important then to have finished edges on all four sides. Everything went quiet for three years while the scientist looked at other textile methods of producing the patches, but they finally came back to weaving because the textured surfaces helped the tendon cells to adhere to the fabric better than other textile structures.

We then spent quite a bit of time experimenting with different weaves. Plain, 4/4 twill, Satin and Sateen, Huck Lace and Leno were all tried. It was important that the patch should stretch in all directions. It seems that 4 and 4 twill has won the day. Sett also became an important issue. They ended up buying an 100 dent to the inch reed!

It has been great working with these young, energetic, and dedicated scientist on such an important project. It never ceases to amaze me how dependent all mankind is on weaving.”

Riverbend – building the studio [part 4]

December 2, 2013/0 Comments/in Interesting stuff, Projects, studio /by bschutzgruber

With the studio completely enclosed….

cold weather setting in with snow outside…

and only 40F inside…

it was time for one last weekend to complete this building project.

The trim was added to the exterior walls…

hurricane ties were attached to the roof and walls…

and trim was added to the rafters.

The interior walls went up to enclose what will be the bathroom area…

and this is the view I’ll have waking up in the morning.

In the Russian folktales, Baba Yaga lives deep in the forest in a tiny house that stands on chicken legs. Well… this may not be as unique at hers…. but it is MY ‘house in the forest’.