Seasons of the Finger Lakes: Sampling, But Not There Yet

 

Summer -- my favorite design and the sample that has the most errors, darn it.

Autumn -- my favorite sample so far. This photo has more blue in it than the cloth itself.

Winter, which my spouse thinks looks like summer, but I see it as cool and icy.

Again, the photo is bluer than the real cloth. 

Maybe it needs a thicker, grayer weft. 

(Note to self: Do not ask spouse's opinion if they are not weavers.)

Spring. This one is inarguably spring.

I don't know where this one fits in but I love periwinkle. 

So maybe it's bluebell season, something like that.

So. It all started on an airplane a year or two ago. I was flying from my home in Rochester, NY, to teach a workshop. Looking out the window, I could see laterally east across the Finger Lakes and the bordering hills, with the lakes stretched like blue/green ribbons north to south across the land, fading into the distance.

An aerial view of the Finger Lakes, courtesy of NASA. I figure this is fair use, because it's NASA and this blog is definitely non-profit ;o)

Canandaigua and Keuka are my favorite lakes, with Keuka having a slight edge. I have spent many happy sunlit hours swimming, boating, water-skiing, throwing sticks for dogs, making sure everybody has their life-jackets on, eating burnt marshmallows, walking on dirt roads, looking for fossils and lake glass, and generally mucking about on the shore and in the water. 

The image outside the airplane window, the memories... why not weave my impressions? I had grand visions of maybe 11 long panels as a series (because there are 11 Finger Lakes, from west to east: Conesus, Hemlock, Canadice, Honeoye, Canandaigua, Keuka, Seneca, Cayuga, Owasco, Skaneateles, and Otisco)....

For many reasons, some discussed in previous posts, including a flood in our house (ironic? I think so), that plan for 11 panels got reduced to a plan for four. 

Perhaps the four seasons? I began weaving. Long, long story short, I made errors. You understand. Still, I finished my four seasons, cut them off, serged the edges, washed and ironed them, and bravely brought them to lunch with two friends who just happen to be esteemed weavers: Susie Taylor and Ruth Manning. You can look them up, I am telling you they're GOOD.

Weavers who lunch, left to right: Susie Taylor, me, and Ruth Manning

I showed them the results and, in between bites of salad and Mandarin oranges, quickly came to realize that these are not finished pieces, definitely not ready for prime time, but good samples that give me a sense of direction and at least the beginning of a plan. They are studies, the templates for something, with more work ahead if I want to weave something special.

(The details, for those who are interested: My samples are all variations on a 32-shaft threading in four-color Echo, using 16/2 cotton in burgundy, turquoise, chartreuse, and Provence blue, with wefts in 16/2 rayon and, for the winter sample, very fine silver thread.)

And so, as always, the moral of my tale? Sample, sample, sample.

Thanks for reading!

Post script: This piece is dedicated to Australian weaver Liz Williamson, who died this week at the age of 75. I was fortunate enough to take a workshop with her at Convergence in Vancouver in 2002, which inspired me to pursue dimensional weaving. She was one of a kind -- and she was a kind teacher.