Archive for year: 2007

I’m working on materials for a class I’m going to be teaching in Fort Worth next weekend, and also eventually for the classes I’ll be teaching in Santa Monica this August.

I teach beginning and advanced tablet weaving by starting with a simple sampler that teaches a variety of techniques, from simple checks and stripes to Egyptian diagonals and doubleface, moving on into brocade. I have several of these little samplers, but they’re small… usually I do them with something like 10/2 cotton, so the ribbon is about half an inch wide.

I decided to give it a try, weaving the sampler with macrame cord – so that I can hold it up and point to it, and an entire room full of people can see what I’m talking about. It was….. an experience. Weaving with macrame cord is tough; I definitely can’t recommend it as a delightful experience. But, it had the desired effect – the sampler is at this uber-magnified scale.

more photos

This still has quite a ways to go, but I’m happy with how it’s progressing. I’ve sewn together the strips; now, I need to dye it (Aztec Gold), and then line and assemble the pouch.

I really, really like the knots and birds.

The name part is a little… intense. You can certainly read it from across the room. I may do some beadwork around the edges or something, to lighten this up a little. It should be better once it’s gold, too.

It’ll have a strap, eventually – I’m considering a strapwork design, or maybe an Egyptian Diagonals design. I’ve been having some serious fun with that stuff.

Dallas Asian Festival

Photo from: http://www.gdaacc.com

I’m going to be demonstrating silk reeling all day Saturday at the Dallas Asian Festival. If you’re in Dallas this weekend and want to come by and see, it’s free (although I’m not certain about whether they’ve arranged for free visitor parking – there may be a parking fee) at the City Hall Plaza downtown. The Festival is open 11 AM – 5 PM. I’ll be near the Children’s Activities and the Crow Collection booth.

My partner Chris enters sweepstakes. He has had some FABULOUS wins – and some amusing experiences with sweepstakes. So far, he’s won trips for both of us to Las Vegas, then to L.A. for the Grammys, and an amazing cruise to the Mexican Riviera, plus lots of interesting stuff like a high-performance computer board, $500 worth of groceries, a couple of iPods, a DVD player… LOTS of cool stuff.

Most recently, he’s won a trip to New York City to see the NYC premiere of Spiderman 3.

We leave tomorrow.

We’ll be in Manhattan from Sunday afternoon through Tuesday mid-day. We’re staying at the Westin Times Square, and being taken by limo to the premiere Monday evening in Astoria. We’re both very excited.

My one “must see” sericulture-related stop, is a visit to Habu Textiles. Chris wants to see a couple of unusual shops, and spend some time walking and subwaying through the city.

If you have any suggestions on things that we should look up, please let me know! We’re much more interested in out-of-the-ordinary, ethnic, lots-of-character type things, not so much in planned tours, big-box retail, etc.

I’m working on some new photography for www.wormspit.com

These are ultra-close images of little tiny silkworms. If you don’t like caterpillars don’t click here