Collaborative Color Wheel

One of my weaving groups is going a collaborative project which began with the development of a communal color wheel out of scraps of paper during one of our monthly meetings.


We all brought small pieces of paper in each of the 12 colors of the color wheel and sorted them out into the 12 piles of color.  We had over 15 people there so there were a lot of scraps in a lot of different hues, shades, values and tints.

Next we broke into small groups re-arranged the colors back and forth between piles until everyone was reasonably happy that the papers were in the correct piles by hue.

Next we made quick small collages in each color. Everyone could select what ever color segment they wanted; take whatever scraps from that segment that they wanted to use and glue them however they liked.  Some colors were more popular than others and ended up having far more collages than others.

Here are the collages in each of the twelve colors of our color wheel and the resulting color wheel accomplished in less than ninety minutes.

Here is our communal color wheel of collages
with a little help from Photoshop.

I took the leftover scraps home and decided to play some more....

Here is what I came up...

Here's the color wheel based on all our leftover scraps of paper.   Brilliant!

Tie On a Warp - how much faster?

Weavers are an odd bunch,  They have odd habits, save odd bits of stuff, wear odd shoes and wonder odd things.  One thing I have often  wondered is how much faster tie-ing on a warp would be over simply starting a fresh and threading the heddles.   It is obviously faster - but by how much? This is probably not something the majority of the world has wondered about, but today I have the opportunity to check it out.

I have the end of warp I used for slap bracelets which I would like to continue to use and tie on a new warp.  The warp is on my Purrington 8 harness table loom.  I have done this before so it's no big deal. It's just a lot of knots to tie.  I would like to add another warp of the same size next to it so I can weave two slap bracelets in the same pattern at the same time.  I moved the existing warp over so in the end the entire piece will be centered in the reed.  So my existing warp is ready to tie-on.

My Purrington loom read to warp

I am going to put on the new warp first and time how long it takes.  Then I'll work on the existing warp. It should take longer since I need to go through the reed as well as the heddles.  I am interested in how much longer.  So in order to find out, I must get off the computer...

Pick Three!

Designing Weavers is having an exhibit at the Escondido Municipal Gallery to compliment the annual fiber and book art exhibit going on August 22-September 29th at the gallery.   In the past I have exhibited in the West Coast Fiber Book Art Exhibit but this year I simply ran out of time. So it's nice Designing Weavers will be able to have an exhibit along side.  

If you check out the postcard for the exhibit on the website you will notice Deanna's California Spring Sprang is on the postcard.  This was her 'exhibition' piece created during our color study of tetrads.  Congratulations Deanna! 

Anyway, this afternoon I need to select three of these nine beetles to show and get them in the mail.  They are each eight inches square mounted on aluminum.  The photo isn't the best; tough to get them all in the photo, appear square and be clear. This is the best I could do with little time, a headache and photo shop.   It's tough to pick since each is unique and each is special to me.  I'll probably select those that haven't been on a trip lately...

You'll need to check out the exhibit if you want to see which three I select.  Or wait until I go to the reception, take some photos of the exhibit and show them here. 

More about Me and My Beetles

I was interviewed by a docent, Debby Thompson about my piece in Small Expressions at the Long Beach Museum of Art.    If you would like to hear and see more about my piece, my studio and me check out the YouTube video she created based on the interview.  I think she has done a wonderful job.  What fun to have a hobby like video and to be able to combine it with a love of art to meet, interview and share  in depth insights of artists showing at the Museum.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mXiLJnYkJk

 Enjoy!

As you know I have one of my woven beetle pieces in the Small Expressions exhibit at the Long Beach Art Museum.  

In late May, I received a call from  Debby, a docent at the museum who was interested in making a video about the piece I had woven for the exhibit. Her hobby of making videos dovetails perfectly with the art and artists she has met at the museum.  She has done a number of YouTube videos about artists showing at the museum. I said, 'sure come on over'.  She spent perhaps an hour or so touring my studio and interviewing me and then went home and put together a wonderful video.

Here is the video she did about me, my studio and my beetles :  Nicki Bair: The Inspiring Weaver 

Small Expressions

Mr. & Mrs. Wallichii

One of my favorite species of beetles, the Dicranophalus wallichii wallichii beetle  is showing in the   Small Expressions exhibition being held May 10th-August 12, 2012 at the Long Beach Museum of Art in conjunction with HGA's Convergence® International Fiber Arts Conference, July 15-21, 2012. 

These two beetles, one male and one female, are flower beetles (Dicranophalus wallichii wallichii) woven in rayon and metallic sewing thread.  The title of the piece is Mr. & Mrs. Wallichii.

Long Beach Museum of Art

 This week I checked out the exhibit at the Long Beach Museum of Art and was extrememly happy with the pieces selected for the exhibit, how it was hung and how my piece looked.  Although there were not a lot of pieces in the exhibit, each piece had its own space allowing the viewer to get up and personal with it without being distracted by its neighbors.  


I always wonder about how my pieces will look in a museum setting since the light in my studios is not the best.  Although I have ott lights all over and never weave at night, sometimes it is a surprise to see how much more colorful and bright they are in a different setting. I visited the San Diego Guild on Mother's day weekend to give a talk about my work and the influence of my Mother on my work and again was surprised how much better my beetles looked under better lightening than that in my studio. 

First Quarter Recap

Christmas Balls Filled with Unwoven Thread

Taqueté Weaving Rule #25: Never re-weave unwoven thread.   

It's the end of the quarter and I spent this rainy morning filling glass Christmas balls with fiber.  The fiber is the sewing thread that I took out due to some sort of error I discovered while weaving taqueté.  Fixing mistakes is fairly simple with taqueté -put the heddles into their relaxed position, pull the threads out from each side, cut them off and start over with new thread.  I never re-weave with those threads - that would be so time consuming!  Plus, how else would I fill my empty Christmas balls?

I seemed to have been quite productive this quarter - 13 Christmas balls!    One specific beetle piece contributed at least half of the bounty.  At this rate I may have enough by December to fill an entire tree.  We shall see...