Still hanging around. Part 5

Here is number 2 in the unpopular and not so successful Cayucos Lattice series. I believe I only sold one of the small versions. Most of the rest of them have been given away to family members.

Most of them were laser cut from .75-inch thick plywood then painted with acrylic house paint. They have been initialed and dated on the front.

This one pictured here is one of my favorites and hangs in our home above the sofa.

Cayucos Lattice No. 02 | Acrylic paint on laser cut plywood | 20 x 46 in (50.8 x 116.8 cm) | January 2015

A little weft face weaving

Here is a small sample of a weft face weave I came up with. This is another learning exercise on the little 15-inch Cricket Loom. It started out with no particular idea in mind and I just started weaving and let things happen.

5/2 mercerized cotton warp and weft. 8 epi in an 8 dent heddle.

Some Bad Weaving

Most of the time we only want to show our stuff that has been successfully produced. Here is something that didn’t turn out well at all. I had some fabric that I decided to use in a hasty weaving project to see what would happen as a learning experience. I must say the final product turned out rather sorry. But I did learn what to do and what not to do the next time.

The weave structure is plain weave on the idea of rep weave with alternating rag strips and red cotton weft on a blue cotton warp. I don’t think the idea is bad just the execution.

Bad tension to start off with. The first attempt at warping the loom ended in complete disaster and I ended up trashing it and starting all over. I should have washed the cloth before cutting it into strips. I should have used a tapestry beater on the rag strips. Maybe that wouldn’t have made much of a difference because of the stiffness of the unwashed fabric.

The sett was 8 epi of 5/2 mercerized cotton in an 8 dent rigid heddle.

This is the end at the beginning of the project where I had a very difficult time spreading the warp threads evenly. The beating of the threads was too tight and uneven.

You can see in this image where there is a break in the red weft thread where one ended and the next one started. I didn’t overlap the two enough.

A crummy job of joining separate strips of rag. I should have cut the fabric in a continuous strip instead of separate strips and trying to join them while weaving.

Reworking a painting

I decided to rework one of the paintings in the Cayucos series that I didn't particularly care for and came up with this assemblage piece. I sanded the surface of the original painting to knock off as many high spots and painted over the old paint with several coats of white paint and finished off with a cream colored paint. The box is made from a yard stick. I had a can of soda water that I cut and sanded rough and cut into strips then tacked them with tiny nails over a small abstract painting. The dice are made from wood and paint.

Acrylic house paint on panel, soda pop can, wood, wire
10 x 10 x 1.5 inches (25.4 x 25.4 x 3.8 cm)
May 2023

Inspirational Reads

I discovered Mariette Rousseau-Vermette when reading and researching about weaving and couldn’t find this book at any of the libraries in my area so I decided to buy my own copy. I wanted to see more of what she created and read about her life than the limited number of images and information available on the web. Inspiring.

Introduction to the Rigid Heddle Loom

I found someone on the recommendation of a weaver friend who has this 15-inch Schacht Cricket Loom I could rent for a small sum so I picked it up and started a weaving project with some yarn my weaver friend gave me. here is the result of my two day project.

The project is more of a test/sample/learning piece than a finished usable object. I used it to mostly concentrate on achieving nice selvedges and learning how to work the rigid heddle. And just have some fun.

15-inch Schacht Cricket Rigid Heddle Loom. It comes with clamping pegs, reed hook, warping peg, 8 dent rigid heddle and an instruction booklet.

Here I have the warp wound and tied on the loom almost ready to start weaving the next day. The warp is 5/2 mercerized cotton. Single threads sleyed in the reed.

The warp threads are single 5 Purple threads and the weft is is made of 4 threads 5 Purple, Copper, Cobalt Blue, and Cranberry. Every other shot is a single strand of 5 Purple yarn. It is a plain weave patter that is weft faced.

Here is the completed weave off the loom. I started weaving in the morning and it finished by the afternoon.

I ended up with a couple of weft floats. This is the top side showing one of the weft floats.

Here is the back side showing the warp float.

I was having too much fun that I didn’t take the time to weave in the end of the weft yarns and the beginning of a new set of weft yarns. See the next picture of how I thought of doing it after the fact.

This is how I would have connected the end and beginning of weft yarns.

Here is the project after washing in the washing machine, drying, and trimming the fringe. I used various combinations of the 4 yarn colors to see what I would end up with.

Moving away from the square?

I think I may be moving away the square painting format that I have been using predominantly for a few years now. Since I don't have a lot of room in the studio that will allow me to work on larger work I'm working with small panels like tiles that can be assembled into larger works after they have been painted.

Two 11 x 14-inch cradled wood panels that will be bolted together to make an 11 x 28-inch painting. A sort of diptych.

Not sure why but…

I have a calculator app on my phone that will let me create custom calculator tools. I created the Weaving Calc 1 just for fun. Well, mostly just to see if I could do it. It might come in handy if I take up weaving again.

Here is the top part of the calculator showing the part that let's you calculate warp yarn needed for a project. You have to scroll to get to the part that let's you calculate weft yarn needs.

A Long One

Here is a long painting consisting of four 10 x 10 cradled wood panels bolted together after each panel was painted. I used six quarter inch bolts with nuts to attach each panel together. This project started out as a more realistic landscape or seascape but I didn’t like the way it was going so I started over and ended up with this abstract piece. I even changed the first abstract idea to this one midstream.

10 x 40 x 1.5 (25.4 x 101.6 x 3.8 cm) | Acrylic house paint on 4 cradled wood panels | May 2023

Panel 1

Panel 2

Panel 3

Panel 4

What will happen?

I decided to do something a bit different with the background of this one on a 10 x 10-inch panel using thinned down Behr acrylic house paint. This is just the back ground with more to come.

Weave Design

I had a cradled wood panel that was poorly constructed. The sides are not true. I had set it aside not knowing what to do with it. Then the idea came to me to use it to render a tapestry design instead of doing it on my tablet, paper, or sketching it out in a sketchbook. If this idea ever ends up as a weaving project there would be some surprises in it’s execution should it turn out.

You can see how the sides of this 10 x 10 inch panel are not true by the left and bottom right sides of the image.

Investigating Weaving. Again.

I have started to investigate the possibility of weaving yet again. This time using a rigid heddle loom. Years ago my friends and co-workers got me interested in weaving and one of them let me use a Leclerc floor loom to try it out. I enjoyed it so much that I bought a 40 inch 8 shaft AVL floor loom. It was a beautiful loom with polyester (Texsolv) heddles. It was big and took up a fair amount of space in the studio. After a number of years I decided to trade (sold to my sister in law) it in for a beautiful McSpadden mountain dulcimer. So now I’m starting to think of woven art possibilities.

I have been getting books from the library and reading articles and watching videos about rigid heddle looms. Some of the most helpful articles and videos focused on weaving with a rigid heddle loom are by Tamara Poff (Poff Studio) out of Tuscon, Arizona, Kelly Casanova (Kelly Casanova Weaving School) out of Australia, and Liz Gipson (Yarnworker) out of New Mexico.

I have also been looking at the beautiful yarns and articles on the GIST website for research and inspiration.

This is one of the best books I have found on Rigid-heddle weaving.

We’ll see what happens after all this searching.

An Ambitious Potential Weaving Idea

I have been thinking of picking up weaving again. I have been thinking of getting a ridged heddle loom on and off for the past year and a half. As I was reading articles and making discoveries this idea suddenly came to me so I decided to use a left over cradled panel to mock up the idea with paint instead of doodling it in my sketchbook or my Galaxy tablet. Here is a result.

It does appear to be ambitious having been away from weaving for quite awhile. The first thought that comes to mind is tapestry weave. However I am thinking about something else and have more research to conduct before deciding on actually doing something.

I’m calling this one “Floating Rock”. Although the dark shape in the middle appears to be black it is actually a very dark blue. I don’t know where or how this will end up but it is an idea to think about. I used Morro Rock as a motif. The paint I use does some interesting things when it is sanded and rubbed. Sometimes it will take on a slightly darker tone or change the color shade ever so slightly as with the light blue green color above the ragged blue color. If you look closely you will see a slight division in tones.

Acrylic house paint on cradled wood panel
10 x 10 x 1.5 inches (25.4 x 25.4 x 3.8 cm)
April 2023

Cayucos No. 39

I thought I was done with the Cayucos series but having been to the Central Coast recently I was inspired to do another one. And I had an extra 12 x 12 inch panel that was available.

I mostly used discarded plastic cards to spread paint with a little bit of brush work. It is signed/initialed with stamped letters on the front lower left corner and signed on the back with full signature including the title, date, and location.

Cayucos No. 39 | Abstract seascape | Latex acrylic paint on cradled wood panel | 12 x 12 x 1.5 inches (30.5 x 30.5 x 3.8 cm) | April 2023

Something Different

I bought ten 10 x 10 inch cradled wood panels intending to use them as tiles for a large work. They are not as good a quality as I had hoped they would be and weren't going to work so I am using them as individual pieces. Here is how I am using one of them.

See if you can guess what well known artist was the inspiration for this piece.

Before painting the panel with a white ground I glued some popsicle sticks to the bottom to act as baseboards. I wanted to make sure the sticks were glued wood to wood rather than wood to paint to make sure they would stick securely. I then painted the panel and sticks white.

I coated the panel portion with a gray brown color leaving the baseboards white.

After a final coat of a light tan color over the darker gray brown I masked off an area in the middle of the panel with same dimensions as the small art strip that will hang next to it to the right. The mask strip is Frog Tape delicate surface tape.

I used some of the gray brown paint on a wet piece of facial tissue to rub over the panel to darken the background. When the tape mask was pulled off the original light color appears making it look like there used to be something there. After this picture was taken I darkened the background a bit more to make the shape stand out more. I also added some nails with the heads cut off to make it look like the baseboards were nailed in place.

This picture shows a tiny gallery exhibit label I made with a piece of extra thick card stock and paint transfer. I created the text with Affinity Designer.

Here is the finished piece. Or nearly finished piece. I’m trying to figure out where to place the tile. The texts in the middle top and bottom where done with paint transfer. The bug at the lower left was drawn with graphite pencil. The long red and blue painted piece is a piece of wood. The sides that you can’t see in this image are painted yellow. It is free swinging with a single nail holding it to the panel at the top.

10 x 10 x 1.5 inches, acrylic house paint, wood, nails, and graphite.

Detail of the bug and stamped signature. I always sign my work with an actual signature as well as location and date on the back.

Detail of the tiny gallery exhibit label and one of the space texts.

Detail of the top of the painted strip showing the nail holding the piece in place. I blackened the head of the nail by heating it with a small torch and dowsing in water.

Still hanging around. Part 4

I set out doing another piece of work with this panel but decided to get rid of what I had done and created another behind the yellow line work completing it in 2016.

The four hand shadow creatures are made of painted fabric pieces backe with heavy paper and fixed or hung on the panel with small screws so they swing freely. The hand at the top is also made of painted fabric and paint transfers. The chair, iron head, and lollypop in a yellow frame are hand constructed from wood.

With the exception of the first yellow line works no one seems to want any of the others. I gave the first one I did to a family member as a gift.

Please stand behind the yellow line. III
Acrylic paint on wood panel, string, cloth, recycled soda pop can, wire, paper
22.25 x 22.25 x 3 inches (56.5 x 56.5 x 7.6 cm)
October 2016

Still hanging around. Part 3

This work was created nearly six years ago which isn’t a long time. How ever no one seems to be interested in wanting to own it.

The donut image attached to the bread slice made of wood is a paint transfer of an image I took of a glazed donut when I worked in the bakery department of a local grocery store. The bird is part of a discarded craft thing. The bread slice shape in the bird’s beak is made of laminated heavy paper. The yellow wheels were purchased from a craft store. The black base is made of wood covered with some very coarse sand paper then painted black to resemble an asphalt road. The telegraph poles are made from .5 inch thick dowels. The bread slice hangs on the wire with two eye screws. The green and blue paint wrap around the sides of the box.

This image doesn’t show the title which was added at the bottom of the frame.

The only two formal methods of communication left to contemplate.
15.25 x 22 x 3.5 inches (39 x 56 x 9 cm)
September 2018

Still hanging around. Part 2

This is one of the largest pieces I have made and it is still hanging in my home. I made it eight years ago when I had more space to work in. The panel is made of 1.5 x .5 inch wood and MDF. When the crank on the left is rotated the walking fingers hand attached to it moves back and forth. The other hands on the right side are painted on pieces of muslin fabric backed with some heavy paper. They are attached to the panel with small brads at the top so they swing freely. The small hand shadow shapes on the yellow bar were made by cutting the shapes out of newspaper. Each shape was then painted with yellow paint and adhered paint side down to the yellow bar. After the paint was dry and set I wet the surface of the shapes with water and rubbed the paper off to reveal the black type underneath.

The idea for this one and several others came while waiting at a light rail station for a train to arrive and noticing the yellow strip near the edge of the platform. A voice on the intercom would caution folks now and then to stand behind the yellow line away from the edge of the platform.

Please stand behind the yellow line. II
Acrylic paint on panel, cloth, wire, paper
24 x 33 x 1.75 inches (61 x 84 x 4.5 cm)
October 2016

Still hanging around. Part 1

I created this tryptic piece twelve years ago when we were living in West Jordan, Utah and it still hasn’t found a good home. It is one of my favorite works. The boxes (rooms) and roof top are made from some old fence slats. The baseboards of the rooms are made from popsicle sticks purchased from a craft store. The body of the snake coming out of the hole in the room at the left is made with a piece of old Christmas tree light wire I acquired some years ago. After all these years I’m still using piece of that wire. I made everything in this piece from scratch.

Guards of the panini maker levitate.
Recycled fence slats, found objects, wire, popsicle sticks, acrylic paint, staples.
13 x 15.625 x 3.375 inches (33 x 40 x 9 cm). 2012.

Playing around with relief printing

These three relief prints were nothing more than experiments. The plates were created with a material called Sintra that was white and 3mm thick and quite smooth. It could be scored and broken into sections. I used linoleum cutting tools to produced the lines. It was not as easy to work with compared to traditional linoleum or other relief printing materials. The runs on the prints were very small and I never did much with them.

With most of these I used an 1/8 inch thick felt blanket and rolling pin to press the damp paper against the inked plates

I still have a few prints lingering around in a storage box.

A not very successful clean print but a nice solid black.

Yellow, black, and white inks.

Black and yellow inks.