Wonderous Woolerie

Present and pre-Columbian textures.

2012-01-23T08:41:00.000-08:00

When the fabric store you have involuntarily encountered on your way, by happenstance really, is not yet open. And you jumped out of bed too early for other 'normal' people to be up and about - what is the solution - in our case the solution was to leave the car parked right outside the fabric store and then head down the street and walk along a public path way.

The Sumacs were in full bloom, beautiful pungent reds popping against greens.

At the farm.... pre-Columbian fabric pieces salvaged from Peruvian dolls. Little pieces carefully un-stitched from the dolls sold at the markets for next to nothing and lovingly patted and placed in plastic pockets to prevent too much fingering by curious fibre enthusiasts.

An old bridge along the public path with a very inviting patina of rusty bumps and all the colours, shades and shadows that come with experience and age.

More of the lovingly salvaged pre-Columbian fabric. It was lovely, quiet and serene in its pocket. Making a person wonder exactly where it came from, who had spun, woven and dyed it. And why?

Rocks outside the lambing barn, rocks with colour and nuance, enticing texture and interesting crystallization and edges.

Pre-Columbian - making me think of my tapestries, of old Norwegian tapestries, of my own ventures into different techniques needed to get this or that impression to come forth as the weft wraps itself around the warp.

And Lichen, from the rocks so full of crystals and colour, they also had freckles of softer green growths. These from afar look like little green splotches but once the eye get closer and manage to focus fabulous little volcanos turn up, and it is no longer a 'closed' patch of green, rather an entity which both covers surface and reaches for .... humidity, or whatever else it is it needs to embrace for it to fulfill its cycle of life.

Cochineal or madder - or some other dye plant showing its soft brightness on the gently twisted fibres of the hand woven cloth. I will have to rest my eyes on this for a while, I think, for the colour is soothing and inviting fitting comfortably into my view of the world.

The hardness of a paved surface, softened up by a tiny bit of green - however it did it, it .... did .....it! One short bit at a time, and now the roots are somewhere down there, working their way further towards the centre of the earth, the sole purpose of being .......is.... I don't know what, perhaps to break up some of the hard surface, to allow moisture and rain to reach other little seeds in the cracks to swell and grow into.... something magnificent and beautiful or..... just be to be.

I have gathered these photos in one post because their texture and colours seem to me to somehow belong together - binding past and present reaching into the future, they are just photos but...... they brought much fun and contemplation to the walk and to the revisiting of the trip in the photo album.

2nd visit at Harrisville and the butt end of the trip home!

2012-01-18T04:57:00.000-08:00

View of some mill buildings from the parking area in front of the local grocery store/cafe - the food was delicious, after 7 hours of driving just what we needed for replenishment before heading for the mill yarn store!

The magnificent find which Linda had done before we ever left Nova Scotia was the nearness of the Harrisville Woolen Mill to our place of destination in New Hampshire.
We did drop by on the way to the class, using all sorts of good arguments for why -
it is necessary to scout, to see what we might discover that we neeeeeeed, - desperately - to bring home with us - and so by going at the front end of the trip allowing ourselves time to digest and make sure that we were really making some good choices. Thus it was when we were done our week of learning and thinking we decided that a return visit would be in order on the way back. Just in case there were some new exciting yarns that had been either put out in the sale box or been invented whilst we were near by. Wouldn't want to miss out on anything.

In the building with the many windows in the back ground was the wool store on the ground level. Sigh, good thing I am not a nearby dweller, for ...... it was rather lovely and fuzzy in there. I found .... 6 cones of very fine organic cotton yarn, 36 kilometers in all, and I felt like a pirate, having just found the x marked treasure.
I saw in a split second my sweet Viktoria Askov Lervad loom dressed in fine cottons with intricate patterns, ah, and sigh, and ..... it hasn't happened yet, but I have the yarn and soon the time for the creative opportunity will reveal it self too.

I love old brick houses, the surface, colouring, solid feel of them. Probably reminding me of my childhood in Copenhagen, where many buildings were red brick.
The sign, The Harris Sorting and Picker House - conjuring up pictures of big fluffy clouds of wool, big fluffy clouds of dust as well, sorting the greasy fleeces into their respective groups so all could be mixed well in the picker for a smooth spinning experience and perfect weaving or knitting even later on.

And I have to admit, I did get a few savoury bunches of fibre treasure at the store, the cotton and some mohair roving + roving which I spun and gave to my daughter along with a couple of skeins of a complimentary colour =-) I was after all coming home from a Colour Theory Workshop.

Greenery along the little creek by the mill, very small chicken and hens, but there they were calling me and stubbornly clinging to their little gravelly precarious patch.

On the way home we of course needed something to sustain ourselves with as well. We were guided to this wonderful eating place where there were delicious foods for our pallets and also great enjoyment for our eyes. I had to take a photo of this 'ceiling light' - could it be called an chandelier? It was way too fun to look at, and think about who would have chosen to have had it made or who had put it together because they had a vision and needed to give it life.

A masterful crazy quilt covered a wall, old pieces of clothing put together to keep someone warm and cozy a long while ago. Quilted with funky stitches and an overall joy to look at.

And back out on the highway again, getting closer back up to the Canadian border we saw some weather here and there, well, we saw clouds which seemed to warn of coming weather.
This particular cloud was just..... so inviting to photograph, it had the straightest lines around the very flat circular bottom of its body, it looked ..... unreal, enticing, interesting.
Darkness of a deep kind at the bottom and then slowly dissolving into light and lightness on the sunny side and a lighter still slightly heavy grey on the shadow side. So many things to take in.

Critters around us keeping busy at Long Ridge Farm, NH

2012-01-14T11:02:00.000-08:00

When arriving at new places after having put your chair, your bag, your glue stick in place on the table set up for you it is time to look around.
The setting for the colour theory workshop was the lambing barn for Nancy's ewes. It had rafters and a metal roof, a very clean gravel floor and with a wall only half way up on the south side of the barn lots of air and light coming in.

And there was something else. Mr. and Mrs Robin had found the most special place to nest - a spot with a view, protected from wind and rain and .... sun - well the direct rays only, for the heat under the rafters would have been just as intense if not higher than the rest of the room during the warmest times of the day.
The babies were fairly new still. About midway through their life in the nest anyways.
The babies, or almost fledglings I suppose we could call them, could not go anywhere. Their daily movements consisted of up and down head bobbing and loud calling when really supper, lunch, or snack should have been presented to them at least three minutes ago. According to their internal clocks that is!
Mr. and Mrs. Robin on the other hand were constantly on the go. Finding worms, bugs of any kind, balancing all the tidbits in their beaks and ..... then they encountered an enormous dilemma.
There were 11 women in the barn, most with bent heads - some mumbling to themselves, others conversing with their table partners and some being quiet except for hands moving back and forth over the tables fishing in piles of colour for the right speck to place here or there on the chart at hand with the aid of their glue stick .

There was also one person standing, slightly stooped over a table or walking around quietly, our teacher Michelle Wipplinger. The Robins family had clearly not anticipated this kind of neighbourhood when they decided to set up shop just a few weeks earlier. It was distressing for them and for at least some of us glue stick and scissor wielding humans. Fortunately we did agree to take a morning break and an afternoon break outside the barn, allowing for a snack time for the youngsters and when we ate lunch it was under a beautiful big tree in the yard, far away. This way they could have almost complete privacy for about 20 minutes before we all or at least some of us rushed back to continue climbing our learning curve.
The babies survived and by the end of their five days they were big enough to sit and push and fight each other halfway out of the nest - the following week they were able to take their first flying lessons and then.... were off into the world, hunting, eating, singing, flying.

Around the barn and up along the studio and the house there were beautiful flowerbeds. And... flowerbeds can be awesomely busy places to behold too.

Th Bumblebees were especially industrious, humming and flitting all over. Makes me wonder how much nectar a flower at its peak can serve up in a day or a week, for the little busy bodies were numerous and as I said earlier, very industrious.

Then there were the ladies, the ladies who greeted us in the driveway in the morning and who loudly declared to the world that they had produced yet another natural wonder.
They were walking about freely, having a good leisurely life, nothing too strenuous, other than the daily wonder deposit.
I have a soft spot for hens, their way of doing life, their quirkiness, movements and ways to share and inform their friends and followers of what is going on in their little corner of the world.

A green bee, I have read elsewhere what kind of bee this is, but I have forgotten - one cannot retain everything I guess.

It was exciting to observe natures way of presenting us with complementary, primary and secondary colours - they are everywhere if one stops for a second or two to observe or investigate. Either 'action' will work depending on one's energy level at that moment in time.

Not only colours, but light and shadow, grey and black and white, neutrals - and creepy sensations.

This little guy really was very small, less than 5mm however, my micro button on the camera works wonderfully and so this gives me a change again, for a face to face on the screen and not in a real life eye to eye situation. Phew!

And last but not least this little ...... beetle, or fly or whatever it is, shining so beautifully red or orange amongst all the neutrals of the driveway.

It was irresistible I had to bend down and and push the trigger, well, the button - quickly before the little beauty scurried away on its own special and very private business.

And so all around us, everywhere I turned there were experiences setting off the new found knowledge from the lambing barn - whether it was about colour or neutrals, light or shadow, all of it came together so nicely.

Making a person thankful once again for having had the opportunity to participate and experience this spot and point in time.

Colour Theory - hours of focus and crossed eyes =-)

2012-01-12T16:00:00.000-08:00

a very small pad of colour chips, to become our focus and best friends over the next 5 days.

So in my life there is Linda M. She is a fellow tapestry weaver, weaver, fibre enthusiast and focused person. Every now and again she comes up with excellent ideas. Like about a year ago when she emailed me one tired afternoon and said, hm, I am thinking of going to this workshop "Michelle Wipplinger, Long Ridge Farm, NH", what do you think, would you like to come, does it sound interesting?
Ha, the thing is, when I hear enticing invitations like this, then ..... my heart jumps and I scurry to the confuser to find out more about the course, the teacher and the whole scenario.

One of our exercise books, pages and pages to fill out, I used a whole glue stick in 3 days and had to ask to borrow one from Linda, who had been smarter about the size and number of sticks she had brought than me.

And thus it was that it was late January or perhaps early February and we were already planning for all the fun we could find along the road from Nova Scotia to New Hampshire.
There is a goodly amount of fun to be had, just so you know it. Yarn stores, woolen mills, both the ones that are open and the ones that are closed for 1 hour exactly when we come through, but...... never the less we saw the little wool tufts floating about outside the entrance way.

And then we focused for days on end. Blessed be the Ott-Lights we had been asked to bring. I didn't know why, really, but once we were in the room (the birthing barn for the pregnant ewes in the spring) it became abundantly clear why this had been such a magnificent investment. No other light source would have been able to keep us on track, finding just the right hue on a small colour chip, to be able to analyze what it was that made this particular piece of fabric so vibrant and enticing to look at.
It was tiring and it was fun and hard to understand right then how much we would appreciate our hard earned new knowledge later on.

Another page, the book opened up at the hotel room at night after 8 hours of hard staring. We did rest our eyes for about 45 mins every night, sitting by the little desk in the hotel room, eating our microwaved supper on paper plates, staring directly into....... a textured very neutral very white wall. It made us laugh - all that colour all day and then.... this wall of 'nothing', which wasn't really nothing, there was the texture and the patterns there-in to contemplate instead. It is risky business to allow ones brain to rest for too long you see.

A piece of fabric from a child's jacket, a piece which Michelle had picked up on a trip to China - she had done a lot of traveling over the years, lucky for us!
All these beautiful colours blending and soothing each other to make a perfectly fabulous piece of cloth, which your eyes could rest on for hours and find new topics to think about.

And the fabric from another jacket at another table, they had been gathering a few more articles of interest and I couldn't resist the photo opportunity. I love Orange!

Then there was the blessed heat of this part of the world, New Hampshire. It was HOT and we had a fan which ran most of the time. Saving energy was not the top priority at those hot moments, although we did try to sit as still as possible to do our work. One can sit very still and drip - that was another lesson of this trip.

Playing in the paint tray, Linda was having fun and I was 'spying' on her with the camera. I am not sure if these are cup cakes, or buckets of mud for dyeing yarn or .... just that, dobs of paint and a playful hand with the paintbrush, making use of the enamel surface of the tray and the way in which it received the wetness of the water colour paints.

And finally, one of my exercises on the last day, how to make colours pop or fall into the back ground paper. It was fun, and I couldn't resist the little gizmo which allowed me to cut out maple leaves, nice and uniform in whatever colour paper I chose.
There was so much more to this workshop. It was magnificent, the inspirations, the colour discoveries - the joy and the opportunity to play all day, for although it was hard work it was essentially play - we chose to go there, and ......
It was splendid.
Pia

Spinning at the Loop

2012-01-11T06:11:00.000-08:00

The sun is shining today as is my spirit. I have a date at The Loop on Barrington Street in Halifax for Sunday March 18th to teach hand spindling again. It is always a lovely time, with up to 8 participants, goodly amounts of fibre and interesting new spindles for everyone.
What it means for me right at this moment in time is, that sometime next week I will begin to choose pieces of wood and think about the spindles I want to go to the barn and turn on the lathe, so they will be ready for this event and also......

I need to start washing fleeces soon, so they can be dyed and ready for the month of March. There are other workshops at the Loop, where dyed fibre is a necessity during that time, so I had better keep them well stocked for all sorts of texture and colour possibilities.
I am glad that I get to do this class again and hope that anyone interested in this rather twisted topic, and of course who lives at a reasonable driving distance will come and join me for three devine hours of finding the yarn/thread in your own hands/life.
Pia

Adventures under the bathroom sink!

2012-01-09T12:50:00.000-08:00

Cleaning is not my favorite occupation - I admit it - and then ..... when I don't clean for a while (I do start before the place starts to smell really badly) there can be surprises - battles of life and death which show them selves to the observant vacuum cleaner handler.

And on this day when I bend down to make sure that there were no dropped earrings in the cracks and corners before I turned on the little blue beast I got to ....stop everything and observe, just for a while.

The spider really wasn't all that big. However his long stripy Pippi Longstocking Legs were definitely an assert so he could get his supper/afternoon snack under control.
The beetle was still somewhat alive, I imagine that the spider had given him/her 'the kiss of death' before proceeding to get this delicious meal hung - as any good butcher would.

I do believe it took about 20 mins or so, perhaps 30 before the situation was completely under control. This was a very focused spider. A focused spider with excellent spinning warts. Exactly how his hoisting apparatus worked I am not sure, but he kept doing what he was doing with no hesitation and so ...... the drama continued.

There were protests of course, not of the kind that I could hear, but my eyes observed the twitching of limbs and efforts to run away on only the two front limbs.

Eventually the beetle became still, lulled into sleep, gone to the eternal beetle hunting grounds and the spider - kept busy securing his meal ticket - the size of which should secure warding off hunger for a few days.

And all the while I have been writing and looking at these photos I have had this tune in my head
"Won't you come into my corner - said the spider to the fly ......." and the rest of the words elude me but the tune is fabulous and makes me smile.
It is of course a slightly morbid subject, but in my daily observances of life, it happens all around us all the time.
This particular day I was lucky enough to have the batteries charged in the camera and it was an excellent excuse to ....... pack the vacuum cleaner back into its hiding place. It would have been really cruel to remove spider and newly caught dinner before a party could have been had.
I left them and they were gone, well the hard indigestible bits were still there, when next time I fell under the unfortunate spell making me want to waltz with the vacuum cleaner.

Norman Kennedy, August, 2011, Dartmouth

2012-01-06T15:27:00.000-08:00

Looking at a shetland fleece from Debrah Oxby, owned by Lois Perry.

Every once in a while something falls into your lap - much resembling a beautiful treasure - and last August this happened to me and my friend Elly. We are kind of twisted sisters, or warped spirits, either one would make a good description of our friendship.

The ASH group in Halifax had gotten wind of the visit of a rather special twisted and warped person in his own rights, Norman Kennedy from Scotland.

Norman Kennedy working on Cathy Greig's walking wheel, he was moving right along as soon as he had sorted out the tension and made people aware, that moving a walking wheel is not necessarily a good plan. We were thankful however that Cathy had sacrificed the balance of her beauty of a wheel.

A teacher, mentor, weaver and spinner of the past 60 years - he started at 16 - was in Nova Scotia participating in the Lunenburg Folk Festival in July, 2011.
Norman had been singing and doing music for three days straight when we met him on a grey Monday morning at the library in Dartmouth.
Elly had come up to the Valley the night before and we set out good and early for who wants to be late to something as important as meeting ...... well, I have to admit that I had no clue what we were getting into.

We brought wheels, and some fleece and carders and spindles and ..... all sorts of spinning stuff - the magnificent necessities of life when one lives precariously not on the edge but in the middle of a twister, I suppose you could say, + there was a treat bag for everyone with fleece and fibre to enjoy.

Norman's hands were knowing hands. They kept moving, precisely the way they ought to move when there is a goal to be achieved - and in this case the objective was to show how easily a walking wheel could be used.

This is my Colbeck wheel, Norman asked to use it for a demonstration wheel, I got red cheeked and proud as a pea cock and lend him the wheel.
The next question was, did I oil the wheel recently - ah, well, I just did - ah, a little bit and then...... the wheel got an oiling and greasing up experience which I don't know if it has ever had before, certainly not since, although, writing this I think I will remember how to squirt oil all over next time I sit down and start spinning on it.

And we got into lace weight yarn, using some of Elly's Blue Faced Leister fleece, now she was proud as a pea cock. I think she is spinning sock yarn these days from exactly this fleece, knitting slightly late christmas gifts = socks, socks, socks, one of Elly's favorites.
But I digress, it was lace weight, I have never in my life spun anything so fine, neither on spindle nor on the wheel, and to be honest I don't know if I ever will, although..... one should never say never, once I swore I would never weave really fine and at the moment I am at 45 epi, which is.... really fairly fine.

In any event, the day flew, Norman talked, answered questions and continuously used his hands for 6 hours, I hope he had a good nap when he got back to where he was staying over night.
It was not a spinning class as in.... I learned, A, B, C, D and E and I will use it for ...... and then comes a list of projects waiting just around the corner. It was a history lesson, a lesson in patience, in love for what you do, in staying focused and honouring fibre work at its best, when it comes from our hearts and we allow it to unfold and happen just as it wishes to.
Elly and I drove home in the pouring rain, but we were high as kites and ever so thankful for the organizers to have taken the time and made the effort to make this workshop happen.
Thank you once again, it can never be said too often, it was lovely, truly lovely.

January 2012 - welcome New Year!

2012-01-05T17:58:00.000-08:00

It is January, the beginning of a New Year, the year of 2012 and ..... there are things out there lining up already and I feel thankful and privileged that I can still lead the life I do - weaving, spinning, walking the dog, cooking good meals, making tapestries, hanging with my husband, and walking the dog in our woods and the general area where we live. Always a pleasure always an eye opener and an opportunity for thinking or watching something new.

And on this grey day there was colour galore around me, when I focused and took some good closeup looks around.

Purple and green, so beautiful together.

And Orange fungi, peeking through the new light snowflakes which had been falling most of the morning.

Wishing the world a peaceful and productive year, looking forward to writing, thinking, photographing and weaving along with everyone,
cheers, Pia

Craig Gallery Tapestry Weaving Project 2011, part #2

2011-04-01T12:53:00.000-07:00

Balls of yarn, the beginning is near. One might think that having a hand cranked ball winder rather than a nostepind makes everything happen in a second or two. However, when there are about 43 skeins of yarn one can actually watch several episodes of whatever series one favours at the moment or listen to several podcasts of one's choosing whilst turning the crank and getting all the balls lined up and ready for commencement.

First row of bricks is in. Well first I have a couple of inches woven which will be taken out when the piece comes off the loom, it steadies up the bottom line of the piece and is the removable foundation for the whole tapestry.

Weaving the first row was exciting, choosing the balls of yarn which looked like they were the ones strong enough to carry the whole piece necessitated a thorough thought-process, but once it felt right it was all pretty straight forward, wind the butterflies for each brick and also for the mortar between the bricks - the glue in the whole piece.
Then it was time to put in guide threads for the next row of bricks, which had to be contemplated for a little while before they could start their meandering around the warp threads.

I am not the precisest of persons except when I start certain pieces of tapestry, then suddenly I am in full need of guide threads and repetitious counting of warp threads, over and over again, making sure that I am at the precise intersection where I want to be.

No room for ...... seeing what will happen next ..... right at this moment the next step has to be 'just so'.

Third row of bricks is almost done, still need to put mortar along the top edge so they won't keel over in a windstorm. After that it is time to start the fourth row, but that is close to being one fluid motion now, from one row into the other, my hands and eyes have agreed on how it needs to be done so the many moments of thoughtful deliberation and hesitation have dwindled quite considerably. Which also bodes well for the 'speed' with which the tapestry can progress from now on. Not that it is a race, but when spending between 6-8 hours on each row of bricks time is still a factor which needs to be part of the equation.

Several layers later it is time to put in the arches - had I chosen to use finer yarns I could have made the arches and the bricks along the top of the arches much more carefully rounded, but..... my hand-spun yarns do have a mind of their own so I have to smile and greet each brick as it takes its own shape and shows me its own special profile and place in the weaving. At one point I thought I had to take it out again, but fortunately a break and a walk brought me back to my senses and my eyes again agreed that it was fine and just the way it ought to turn out. No big adjustments needed at this point in time after all.

After about each foot of weaving I have to move to the back of tapestry, for it is time to tuck in ends and clean up the not often seen surface. Some weavers leave all the ends, lots of them, I like to tuck them in, and cut them off so they are not in the way and don't interfere with the surface of the piece when it hangs on the wall. It is a nice time and an impatient time, for most usually I am anxious to get on with the next bit of the weaving, and yet, I know that tucking in ends is what must happen. If it is done after the piece comes off the loom it can leave undesirable marks in the weaving and.... I don't want that. So tuck I do with a big darning needle, with a small pair of scissors near by and scrunched up on a little stool between the wall and the loom.

'Artistic freedom' also plays in at this point. I had made the cartoon fairly true to the original photo I had taken of the wall, but when I got to the top part, where there was one row of 'diamonds' only and then a row or ordinary bricks it just didn't feel so right and I had to walk away again. The solution to calming down the voice that was protesting was to allow myself the joy of weaving more than one row of diamonds, I had the pleasure of adding 5 of them + the two half ones at the bottom and the top of this part and then.... all was well, my brain and my fingers could calm down. I did have a discussion (with me) about how many rows of ordinary bricks were needed at the top, one side was three rows for sure and the other kept shaking her head saying, ha, I don't think so. As the one row had been laid, we all had to agree, that ... one was enough. (and please take into account that I was born in the sign of the Gemini so...... we, myself and I have many good discussions always, on many topics!)

Finally Bispebue - Wall is on the living room wall. It got to hang here for a little while before moving to the gallery space at the Craig Gallery, Alderney Landing in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia along with all the other beautiful pieces of artwork from SEVEN, the group I exhibited with in Denmark, August 2010.

This exhibit Udveksling is up for a month and the opening took place two days ago on March 30, a beautiful spring day and night for the drive to the city (approx 120km away from here for many of the guest who came to celebrate with us)

I love weaving and seeing the colours and feeling the textures and most of all the surprise when the finished tapestries come off the loom, for ...... most often there are expressions in them which I hadn't imagined they just came forth and took shape.

Happy snowy spring day everyone!

Craig Gallery Tapestry Weaving Project 2011, part #1

2011-03-30T10:53:00.000-07:00

Initial spark - this has been smoldering behind a screen somewhere in the grey matter between my ears for years. I first saw this when I visited with my husband's cousin about 10 years ago. It is a piece of wall from a church dated back to the 11th century. It was found in 1905 under an old house being demolished and instead of just pulling it all down and loosing the story it could tell it was gently taken apart and then re-erected at the town museum in the town of Randers, where it was found.
I love the textures, the shapes, the flow of the bricks and the overall impression of this piece of wall.

In order to properly visualize the tapestry I had to make an initial cartoon. Due to the twists and turns of the brick work in the wall, I needed to clarify for myself where I wanted to go, disregarding colour, only looking at how the pattern and composition would flow, contemplating techniques and methods of weaving to facilitate how to make the piece emerge and develop on the loom.
Working on a cartoon like this does not mean that I stick to it all the way, it merely allows for an insight before the piece is begun of approximately where I would like to go.
The hurdle in tapestry weaving is that it takes a long time to weave a piece bit by bit, and since we go from bottom to top, one has to be pretty sure that the bottom part is right before getting to the top, because once there ...... the only way to make a correction further down is to take all the work out again, which is not very advisable or exciting.

Then I started spinning up a storm, visualizing yarns that would hopefully yield the texture and surface which floated around somewhere in my grey mass. I tried a few different techniques of spinning. I dyed several different wools in the same dye-bath. Since each sheep has a different fleece, just like we have different heads of hair, the different fleeces will take up colour in the same bath slightly differently. When spinning little tufts of this fleece or that, one can then make a slightly variegated yarn - this turned out to be a little too time consuming since I couldn't stop contemplating which red tuft to choose next.

So instead I spun the fleece au natural - washed but not dyed fleece and as I then proceeded to the dyebath, the overdyed yarns emerged with each their special tone and hue.
In order to save a bit of time I also made use of some wonderful tightly spun cones of wool I acquired some years ago. They are a natural white and plying two ends of these commercial singles with one end of my multi-coloured natural hand-spun yarn turned out to give a very round and beautiful yarn, just right for a good tapestry surface.

Counting on the fact that the multi-coloured skeins would each have their own face of makeup to show off when they got out of the dye bath and were woven into the tapestry was a little bit of a leap of faith, one never really knows.

The skeins folded up to be able to fit in a box before I started the ball winding. The compacted surface of each one more easily interpreted when they were tighter and not so 'stringy' so to behold.

Hay in February!

2011-03-30T07:25:00.000-07:00

Captive audience, the dog loves the barn!

It is snowing again and we were running out of hay which would mean very hungry lean ladies in the barn unless we could find a solution. And..... the man in my life did, see, he likes to talk to farmers, ask questions, exchange opinions, points of view, is genuinely interested in how other people sort out their relationship to food productions, nature etc.
Thus, when he was at the feed store a week ago he asked around and someone in there knew someone who had second cut hay for sale. Second cut is the better leafier hay for sheep, their absolute favorite, whereas horses are apt to eat a much more varied mix of grass straw and leaves.


Delicious texture and green smell!

So this past Saturday the cap came off the truck and we set out on the icy roads, with a bit of snow on the wind shield. Not too much fortunately but still, it was not a clear day.
We went a little further down the valley and met with a farmer. He is no longer keeping animals but cuts hay every year on his pastures and we were benefiting from his enjoyment of tractor driving.


Unloading at home!

As it was we loaded 50 bales of hay on the truck in 4 or 5 layers, very artistically and well balanced, it was all strapped down and then we headed home again, past the little pond where the fishermen have their little icefishing huts and past the fields where the cattle were gathering around the round hay bales seeking nourishment and energy for producing warmth in the not so friendly weather.

Fortunately it was only about a 20 minute drive to get back to the house and so the wet snow flakes were not able to make all the dry hay soggy before we managed to get it into our own barn at home.
And why am I talking about hay, well, this is the first part of the fibre and texture adventure I live every day.

Queen of the Castle, left as soon as the flash went off!

These days I am working on a tapestry which is part of our next SEVEN show. Opening day is March 30th in Dartmouth. Some of the wool used in this tapestry is wool from my own ladies in the barn or their off spring from last year and so letting the yarns and textures slide through my hands as I am working also brings me around to visualizing myself swinging many bales of hay down from the hayloft to my husband on the back of the truck, watching him arrange them safely for transportation home.

The circles in our lives are interconnected into colourful strings of fun, tiresome, inspiring beads of happiness, sweat and enjoyment. Everything depends on something else, whether we remember it every minute of every day or not. But such it is, and it is lovely to acknowledge and embrace this fact of life.

This piece was written a while back and today is actually the day of the opening of the show Udveksling/Exchange at the Craig Gallery in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. It will be fun! And by the way, the sheep are full and contend, enjoying every bale of hay we give them!

Weavers and Fabrics!

2011-02-16T11:41:00.000-08:00


Barry showing Pia dresses in beautiful colours

And so in the sometimes unsettling strangeness of a completely different world one meets a stranger whom one needs to trust and go along with. We met Barry, a young man looking for customers for his family's fabric store. We, Christina the MO, Soren and I walked up a main street in Dakar with Barry to the store, where he proceeded to show me finished garments and lots of fabrics, plenty of fabrics, piles of fabrics.


Søren in front of copious piles of fabric

Two very persistent dealers were working on my husband to get him to buy ..... anything they thought he might be willing to take off their hands. Shirts, t-shirts, bags, cloth, pants, another shirt. In the end I have to admit that I got a bit rude and told them to leave him alone. I was the one with the money and we didn't need anything for him today, it was all for me, me, me! After having said this fairly strongly in several languages (English and French) a couple of times, they backed off and left him in peace. It was strange, I had come to a place in my head where I stood very firm. I did not want to let myself or anyone in my company be 'bullied' into buying or not feeling too good about where they were. The rules of trading, buying and selling in Senegal were very different from what the three of us in the group were used to.

11 meters of fabric for an as of yet unknown project.

On the other hand though I have to acknowledge the fact that life in the part of world we were visiting is very hard and when we visit we are being viewed as someone of 'means', we may not be according to our standards here at home in North America or Europe but....... in comparison to what the majority of people have to deal with in Senegal, which is where we were fortunate enough to be, we were majorly well off. And so my mind kept tipping back and forth between slight irritation since I don't like to be pushed (as most of us don't I am sure) to buy anything and trying to calm myself down with reminders that what I was experiencing was not aimed at me personally merely I was in the midst of experiencing another person's survival technique.
This is the 11 meters of waxed cotton fabric which I went back to the ship with that day in my back pack, and as of now it is draped over my rocking chair so I can look at it anytime I want to. Eventually I will figure out what to use it for.


I was really there, am glad to have a photo for proof!

Walking back towards the square where Barry had picked us up he and I talked about fabrics, cloths and .... and we got talking about weaving and he offered to show me weavers - my ears went as long as rabbit ears, I could hardly contain myself. Unfortunately it couldn't happen just that moment since I was on my way down to the ship to go to work. Other people still had to eat although I was full and satisfied with the bliss of this day and the thoughts of the one to come.

I think that young man could wind spools with his toes!

The next morning Christina and I set off again and met up with Barry who took us on a 3 hour whirlwind tour of Dakar to experience some of this city's amazing ways of life.
We jumped in a cab which took us to an area where weaving work shops were set up along the shelter of a brick wall surrounding some kind of compound or market space.
We stopped and took photos of one small weaving business, a boss weaver, two other weavers and 3 shaft shifters!

The third weaver with his swordsman!

Yes, it was hard to believe, there were only two treadles for the tabby weave, all the 12-16 shaft patterns were being changed by hand and the shed opened up towards the plain shafts with the aid of a weaving sword! On top of this the tabby treadles were merely two stings attached to the shafts and there were sticks at the end of the strings, which as a flip flop sandal was placed between the big toe and the next toe, thus resting a pencil size stick along the bottom of the weaver's toes from one side of the foot to the other.
My heart beat so fast and my eyes couldn't get enough, it was like ....... well, it felt incredible that I should have the great fortune to actually be standing there, on a street in Dakar, Senegal, with a friend and a guide and look at these very fast, precise and diligent weavers.

We did pay the boss weaver a tip and were allowed to take photos. I used the fantastic button on my camera which allows me to film also and have done two clips of a few very short seconds of the rythm and movement involved in the mechanics of weaving in Dakar, Senegal.
In my humble opinion, AMAZING!


weaving shuttle, spool is a piece of plastic tubing

Looking at their tools I was feeling some hopes and wishes start to move about in my chest and so Barry was kind enough to inquire for me if it would be possible to purchase a weaving shuttle from the head weaver. Lo and behold, it was, I did purchase a shuttle. Barry thought it was expensive, and I suppose that he was right but I thought it over.

Bottom of shuttle, 18.5cm long x 4cm wide

I really wanted and wished to be able to take that shuttle home with me. The shuttles were hand carved and not for sale just in any corner store and it sounded like they actually could not be found in Dakar, you had to purchase them else where. Once again I was grateful for my 'fortune' in that, although it was not a very cheap shuttle (and why should it be by the way, it was hand carved and a tool in use!) it would have been much more expensive had I had to fly back to Dakar to get it after returning home across the Atlantic to Nova Scotia. So I purchased it and the man showed it to me, picked up a stick to hold the spool into place, then hesitated, picked up a spool of his fine multi-threaded red tabby cotton and put it in the shuttle.
One of these days I will weave some sort of a piece which has a little area of colour and texture coming directly from Dakar.
We walked on along the wall and around the corner came to another little street which had even more weavers set up. Some of these had wider warps than the ones we had seen first, shawl width, but the whole very simple two person loom setup was the same and the shuttles were flying and the swords were sliding up through the warp just the same too. All these impressions and the thoughts which have turned up since then are like golden treasures for me, they can be brought out to brighten up the dullest of days.
I am thankful that Barry was an observant enough salesperson and guide that he picked up on my interests and was able to show me to a corner of Dakar, which I would have never been able to find for myself or have known how to articulate an interest in. I didn't know people would have weaving businesses in the street under canapes of old sheets to keep the sun out. How was I to know, it was out of my landscape of knowledge until Barry had the kindness to show me.

Coming to Terms with Different Worlds

2011-02-13T12:06:00.000-08:00

I have been home for a while now, and I love it. I love the well known paths in the woods, over the fields, the old boards in my floors, the looms, the spinning wheels and all the activities which are my joys of life.


View from the bus

However, as I am working on new pieces, spinning, planning, creating for new work to come I always have this quiet current of new found knowledge at the back of my head. New found knowledge of all the things in life which I know nothing off, of which I think I may have a notion but really ..... that is just me taking my mouth too full.

Visiting Senegal with the Class Afloat Programme on the West Coast of Africa was ...... amazing, eye opening, and for me an earth/soul shattering experience. I loved it and hated it at the same time. Or perhaps 'hate' is too harsh a word - it just unsettled me, it made big question marks sprout and grow in my fields of fairly firm convictions and it made the foundation for other thoughts firmer and stronger.


Centre where we met and finally said good bye to our Senegalese friends

Working as a Cook's Mate on Sørlandet I had the opportunity to partake in some of the port programmes planned for the Class Afloat kids. In Dakar, Senegal the project was called West Africa Initiative For me this meant that I got to participate in several day programmes involving a visit to a Micro Finance Institute, a visit to a newly founded Eco Village and all the thoughts that follow an experience like that. In the West Africa Initiative groups of Class Afloat kids are mixed with groups of Senegalese youth from the CEFOPPPEM Centre in Dakar.


The busses!

We travelled with these kids to the seminar on Micro Financing and later to the EcoVillage.
On day one of the actual project our group was driven by cabs to a local Micro Finance Centre and the leader gave a good and thorough talk about the importance of micro finance loans for groups and the impact it can have on impoverished areas and people.
Next time the group went out we were on a bussed day trip to an EcoVillage one and a half hours out of Dakar, established 6 months earlier.

Checking to see if the road is safe to take the busses down to the village.

The original plan or hope had been to go and visit a well established EcoVillage in order to experience the impact a micro finance loan can have for a group of people having a hard time making a go of it in an area where jobs are scarce and other development opportunities are close to non existent.


New dwelling being constructed and visitors being invited in to feel the coolness

It turned out, that the Micro Finance agent had never been to the village we went to. No meetings with the SEM agent, the villagers or the government folks involved in getting this EcoVillage going had ever taken place before. The village was young, new, and although some things were in place even more were not, and most questions had not been contemplated or touched upon by neither the villagers nor the officials.
This meant that what met our eyes was the beginning of a project, the beginning of .... something which was hardly defined yet. Something which the villagers themselves along with the guidelines from the officials will have to define, visualize and make happen down the road.

In my wildest dreams I had hoped to be able to visit a full blown weaving EcoVillage, with weavers, dyers, spinners, cotton growers, you name it, I saw it in my mind's eye.

Matriac in her 80's, the mother, grand mother and aunt of many of the villagers.

Instead I/we had the amazing experience of being part of the very first meeting for all the aforementioned people, the villagers, the Micro Finance official and the Government Official, the willing participants for this particular project.

We sat on grass mats on the dry sand/soil under a big shady tree. Shoes off, officials in chairs in front of us, villagers over on the left, Class Afloat Group spread out over a good area but still within earshot to the right. All groups encouraged to give input and ask questions at any time.

Problem #1 - language - who understood what and how many?
An 18 year old Senegalese youth stood up and went over to the officials and then proceeded to translate questions and answers for about an hour - the languages spoken were Wolof, one of the Senegalese languages, French and English.


Visiting younger brother of the Matriac

The young man who took on this challenge turned out to be an excellent translator. In spite of his youth he managed to honour all the different cultures and languages gathered under the tree.
I could follow along in French and English and heard him being very precise in those two languages, and when the translations were done from Wolof to either one of the other two tongues it seemed to me that he was taking great care to translate everything, not just word by word but in such a manner that the meaning from one language to the other was carefully preserved.

As a little bit of a language nut that truly thrilled me greatly.

The men from the village sat up front of the village group, the women with the youngest kids right behind them, thus able to also give their input.

Leader of SEM institute mr. Boubacar and Soren at reception, Sorlandet

There was talk about what kind of money amounts the villagers were wishing for projects for their new little community, like new road construction and safer drinking water and talking about the money. The men were wondering why the SEM institute couldn't just give them an amount which would cover these expenses. The SEM consultant laughed and said something really loudly and fast, after which the women laughed heartily and clapped vigorously. We were of course a little puzzled since the exchange happened very quickly and so the translation didn't come until a few minutes later when the mirth had died down.
It turned out the response had been something along the lines of this: Well, and what would happen if I just happened to give you guys a hand full of money for a new road? the next thing I know, you would be out there buying another couple of cows, planning a big party to celebrate your good fortune, adding another wife or two to your family and then..... tell me then, where would the road be????

The women laughed loudly and the menfolk did smile and nod. This was not a rude joke, this was just what it is, the situation in this part of the world.
The people we were visiting are/were nomads, traveling around with their cattle, but due to grass lands declining and drying up they have had to acknowledge that perhaps settling down and staying in one place might be the better plan for them in the future. This way their children will have a greater chance of attending school and getting an education.
Micro Finance Loans are mostly given to villages, groups of people who all have business plans as individuals, but whose future success in the business world will depend on the group goal and support the village rather than just their own family.

Groups of students interviewing villagers after the meeting

When lending money to a group like this everyone parricipating is interested in paying the loans back so new loans can be obtained when the first projects are off the ground. Should project A not work as well as hoped, but project B and C go glamorously, the surplus from B and C will be used to help pay off A's deb. Cooperation is the word!

thinking about dry conditions, bug covers and growing food!

An example was given where loans were given to purchase seeds to grow feed for humans and livestock. The human grains didn't grow so well, but the mishap still was able to be used for animal feed and thus fattened up the flock more than expected. This meant more offspring to be sold off at the market and thus...... there was money to pay off all loans, not necessarily from the funds expected from the crop meant for human consumption but the surplus from the others made it possible to also take care of this and .... all were content and all things got squared away at the designated time.
The loan takers were actually very eager to make sure that these loans were paid off in time, in spite of the fact that they had been told the loans would be forgiven, given that it was inclement weather which had ruined their crop and not human failure. They were however not interested in having the loans forgiven as it was important for their personal pride that they could show they were able to take care of business themselves. Close to 98% of micro finance loans are paid off, only the small percentage of apprx 2% are not honoured. Really a very small percentage considering the hardships the loan takers sometimes have to go through to make sure their dues are paid off.
We did not get to see any projects being decided on during the hours we spent on the mat, but we followed a very fine and delicate discussion.

Staying in the shade!

The people were nomads, great herders of cattle, and they had many heads of cattle.
The cows would traditionally give 1-2 liters of milk a day, which could be processed into yogurt or cheese to feed the families or be sold at markets. An initiative had been introduced where the cows were inseminated with semen from bulls whose origins are in the milk cattle breeds, amongst others Holsteins. This means for better or for worse that the heifer offspring once mature will be able to produce for some of them up to 20 liters of milk a day. This is quite a considerable increase. Especially taken into consideration that there are no refrigeration possibilities in the village. The most well painted and newest building in the village was the little cement shed which holds the batteries, charged by solar panels on the roof, giving light to the huts and the street lamps when night falls.

Coming home for a drink at noon!

An idea was being floated around that the villagers would like to take a loan so they could develop a cheese business with their excess milk. The government dept. would support two people to partake in workshops at a dairy and cheese factory some distance away from their village facilitating understanding and knowledge of how and what is involved in safe production of cheeses and the building of the business so it can sustain the community, keep the production going and keep the villagers employed.

The shelter for the batteries, charged daily by the solar panels

As an interesting aside, one of the students asked why the cattle was not used for meat, if they had too much milk, and finding suitable pasture was problematic part of the problem would be solved, if they butchered some of the animals. My husband also suggested that just diminishing the number of animals they had might solve a lot of their headaches. What neither one knew was that...... these cattle are part of the family, the nomads will sell off a head of cattle when/if they have to, and once sold they no longer worry about what will happen to the animal, but they would never butcher their animals and eat them, the animals are part of their family, a sign of wealth, what keeps them breathing and moving each day.
My husband apologized for not having had the proper insight into his suggestion and all was well, but .... the layers and layers of unknowns which surround us when we venture into unknown territory, the sensitivities we are bound to develop if we want to be seen not as intruders but as supportive community builders are incomprehensibly many.. The quagmire a person who wants to lend a hand can end up in is quite substantial if not enough research is done into culture and tradition before trying to suggest changes. Changes which might look minor in one set of eyes can look down right insulting or catastrophic in another set of eyes.
I still think about this often as I go through my peaceful creative days. One of these days I may figure out what to do with my new found understanding of what it is to be truly human.

Home Again!

2011-01-17T09:50:00.000-08:00

I have been away and now I am home, in my house, with the looms, the dog, the budgie, the sheep in the barn and the brilliant companion of my husband, Bucephalus the horse.
So amazingly much happened while I was gone - five months in all, three in Denmark exploring weaving, visiting with family and also showing work with a group of dedicated artists and daily creators who makes up our Nova Scotian group called SEVEN (because there are 7 of us, isn't that brilliant!)

From Oct. 23 until Dec. 23 I was aboard Sørlandet a Norwegian full rigger. My husband was teaching there for 4 months with an organization called Class Afloat. It was quite an adventure, close to the hardest thing I have ever done for many different reasons.
Let it just be known that ....... I have survived the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean on a sailing ship. As the cook's mate I have cooked food for 70 people 3 times a day, in high seas and on calm waters. It is not easy to get back to cooking for two people at a time, but..... we have a large freezer and slowly and surely it is getting filled up with ...... extras!

Today we went for a walk in the woods, the dog, the man and I.

I have not taken the time to go for a walk in our little woods since we came back, left that to the aforementioned two all the time but today, although it is cold, the sun is shining and I could put on layers and layers of warm clothes and venture into the beautiful landscape of snow, frost, ice and bright, bright light. As we were walking over the fields to the woods I look about and acknowledged the amazing differences in surroundings which I have experienced recently. Some of it almost too hard to believe, never mind fully understand.

A month ago this is what his legs looked like, when he took a salt water shower aboard Sørlandet. We were preserving fresh water so we would have enough for the next port. The fresh water maker cannot be used close to land and in port due to polution. It is not cold, but about 24 degrees celcius coming straight from the Atlantic Ocean through a firehose, into a bucked with holes and voila, a shower for all to enjoy. Much appreciated by the students aboard the ship, especially on really hot days.

Today's view towards the north west of our property, cold crisp beauty.

Once upon a time, in early November, on a drive around the country outside Agadir in Morocco. Warm dry, slow and patient view. Hard putting these two views above together it is ........ something to digest slowly.

And the end of our walk in the snow covered woods. We had brought a bag of sunflower seed for our friends and they were there, waiting for us, ready to roll, oh, fly back and forth between safe branches and the big communal snack bowl hanging in the tree.

What I saw at this sea stretch!

2010-11-24T04:31:00.000-08:00

This piece was written a little over a week ago, before we got connected to the internet again, today I have a full day off and I have an internet stick with many hours on it so.... I have time and energy to share thoughts .... and experiences of 'times gone by' - it is really funny, for it seems so long ago and far away already. And far away it is, but long ago??? not really.

We have now been underway from Agadir for quite a few days, tomorrow we arrive in Dakar, Senegal, just after breakfast if all goes well.
On this trip from Agadir along the coast down south towards Senegal I have been able to cross out many items on my wish list for magnificent experiences in life.

I have seen gannet, lots of gannets close to and far from the ship. I have seen young ones and mature ones. I saw one young one way too upclose for comfort. I felt its warm body as it had just been caught on a fishing hook on a line we tow after the ship every now and again to catch a fish or two for a special treat.

This was a young and inexperienced gannet and alas he/she paid with his/her life for the curiosity which drives every youngster to try out new and interesting things, especially if it looks like it might taste good.
The young bird was sent back into the sea and although it was a good learning experience for the young people hauling the bird in I must admit that I felt rather sad at the whole situation.

There were also jaegers and skuars, skimming along the surface of the water. By the large amounts of birds in the area there must have been a whole lot of delicious sardines around, wonder if they were au natural or in tomato sauce???
There were also schools of blue finned tuna racing along the ship playing in the pressure wave the ship pushes in front of her as we move forward be it by sail or motoring along when the wind is down.
Yesterday I saw 4 flying fish skimming along. They looked exactly like birds with very rapid wing beats. It was hard to believe how far they could actually fly before they disappeared back into the waves. The wing/fin beats so fast they were like the blurry wings of a passing hummingbird.

This unfortunate flying fish should have taken better notes in navigation class, first it landed on our deck and then..... after a photo session with Soren it landed in the freezer, perhaps we will eat it one day, perhaps just look closer at it.
Today the bluefinned Tuna was back, then there was a sun fish basking in the surface of the sunshine filled ocean not too far from the boat, perhaps there were too, all I noticed was the fins sticking up and disappearing at lazy intervals.
At one point a call went out on the ship that a leather turtle was swimming by and I missed it so I wasnot a happy camper.

Later though my mood improved considerably when I spent a little while at the bow of the ship watching a very active flock of dolphins play around us. Such beauty, speed and sleekness. I hope to find time to enjoy this many more times to come on this trip.

A student told me that the dolphins we were enjoying were either Spotted Dolphins or Spinners, he wasn't sure which. I did of course not have my camera with me during these breathtaking moments, that is until this afternoon when the dolphins did me the honour of staying around even while I raced into my cabin to get my camera.

Then I did take lots of photos which were not all in focus and even tried out the filming button. I don't think I will be known as the next Jacques Cousteau though however much I wanted to experience life in and on the sea as a kid as I watched his tv programmes faithfully every week back in Denmark. A very tasty tid bit of a minute part of it is for me to take part in these days though.
Oh, I forgot to mention the humpback whale which breached far out and whose breaths we could see often again and again as we were each moving along our own paths.
All photos involving anything flying in this blog are by Soren .

Men Only Fishing Village, final stop of the day.

2010-11-24T02:46:00.000-08:00

Sometimes you come to especially beautiful and interesting places. Our last stop of the day was exactly that. Bathed in evening sun it was ......... beautiful......... peaceful ............. a very thankful way of ending a fabulous day.

Our guide took us to a small fishing village, inhabited only by men, fisher men, who many of them (according to our guide) were having a hard time fitting into normal society.

Some of them might have a second home away from this village but this is where they prefer to go and work, fish and do a lot of their lives and then when they can go home weekly or monthly and share their earnings with their families.

The boats they take out on the water to catch their fish, small wall nut shell like vessels which I for one would not feel especially comfortable in should any kind of weather change occur, and I am quite confident they don't only go out when the water is calm as a mirror.

Baby camel tracks in the sand, saw no sign of the actual animal, but tracks, yes we saw tracks.

Shells turning into sand, slowly but surely over time, looking down and seeing the shapes and nuances of colour was delightfully beautiful.

Perhaps a mother camel track, at least it was two or three times as big as the little ones. Philosophically I suppose it could have been a dad or an aunt or uncle, but...... what came to mind first was: mother and child!

There is a man out there on the rocks, helping the eye measure how tall these jumping waves really were.

And then as we headed back for the car the sun was going down. The guide trotted away in front of us and asked us to enjoy the view and give him a few minutes so he could do his sun down prayer. And we obliged, feeling the peace and beauty penetrate our skin and thoughts, it was an indescribably awesome day.

Friday, Day of Prayer, time to rest

2010-11-24T01:51:00.000-08:00

And on we drove, just in time to catch the 1 o'clock prayer session in a little village not to far away.

Our guide went to pray, apologizing for the inconvenience, which we of course assured him it wasn't.
How can one person deny another person's right to pray and meditate?

We got to sit outside a little cafe across the street from the mosque and enjoy water and Cappuchino, the kids under the trees and the birds in the trees.

Soren downed two of these most delicious coffees and I did have a taste, it was full bodied and yummy.

A universal beauty on a nearby ledge.

At the Look-out above the water reservoir

2010-11-23T13:57:00.000-08:00

The transportation of the man whose family has guarded the water reservoir for 30 years. The military has a post at the bottom of the hill by the actual dam but since the locals don't exactly trust the military to always do the right thing when it comes to protecting their water, this man's family, ie. his father for the last 30 years has been looking out for this beautiful spot and its invaluable resource.

We had the magnificent opportunity to try on scarfs, blue for men and white for women, not at all as bad as I had imagined, it actually felt good and kind of protective to be screened from the curious eyes of strangers.

this day just kept on going and going it was amazing.

No words but lots of textures on the way to the water reservoir.

2010-11-23T13:32:00.000-08:00

Getting Closer!

2010-11-23T13:13:00.000-08:00

An irrigation channel running through the landscape, providing people, animals and plants w ith much needed moisture.

Another little village complete with a mosque.

And the redness of the sand and rocks in this area, filling my eyes with lovely ideas around textures and vibrancy.

An old no longer inhabited house in the rock, when looking carefully one can see the walls of the terrace at the top of what seems like only a rocky protrusion. Behind is the new house made of cement.

Towards the Waterreservoir

2010-11-23T12:35:00.000-08:00

After the venture into the ceramics factory we continued south for a while and then turned left off the main road. This road was not quite as smooth or wide as where we had just travelled but it was paved adn there were houses along the way.

A traditional house, not too many of these are being built anymore

And then there were argan trees, and shrubbery and cacti, growing out of very fertile and very arid soil. The sun was hot and I was thankful to have both my hat and the luxury of traveling in a car where I could roll down the window at my leisure.

Keeping my window rolled down not only gave me wind in my hair but also the opportunity to click my camera every time an interesting scene rolled by. This is a nomad's home, they travel around with their animals, sheep, goats, and their wealth is in their flock.

We didn't stop to talk to them and take photos up close, our driver mentioned that they were not liking to have their privacy intruded upon. This was fine with us, neither do we =-) We just enjoyed spotting a lonesome shepherd, and sometimes seeing their land rovers come driving across the land providing aformentioned shepherd with food and water in the hot sun.

More houses, another little village which we drove past, only a dirt track leading to the houses. The magnificent Atlas Mountains in the back ground, this is where we were headed, one of the smaller bumps at the front of the mountain range in front of us that is.

Ceramics II

2010-11-09T01:56:00.000-08:00

In the workshop when the pieces have dried for a few days they get straightened and cleaned up and made ready for the first firing.

And here is a whole whack of little tajins, a traditional cooking vessel. These are of course for tourists, intended for salt and pepper vessels, not for cooking big meals for large families.

Finished pots outside the 'factory', I love the shape and colour of these pieces.

And inside gigantic decorative vases/pots, reaching to m chest. Very impressive, but one sure needs a very large house (possibly with no looms) to have room for these pieces.

ceramics I

2010-11-09T01:47:00.000-08:00

Next stop was a ceramics place where we could see some of the producion. In the yard behind the store they produced the clay. That is, they brought in a very dry clay from the Atlas Mountains near by and this man mixes it with water until it has the exact right consistency.

Square platters drying in the sun. Many square platters indeed, they were probably 6x6 inches is size.

Her is the kiln, which will hold about 800 pieces when full. since it was empty we got to go inside.

Looking down on my toes I can see the space underneath the firing room where the fire is lit which heats up the ceramics to the desired temperature.

It takes about a day to get there, a day of firing and then a day for cooling.

Chimney holes in the ceiling, looking up.
This is quite a large production spot, the first one of its kind near to Agadir.

Going south out of Agadir, through towns and rural bits

2010-11-09T01:33:00.000-08:00

Impressions of houses, people, and surroundings as we drive on looking forward to this exploratory kind of day on the road.

Colours, there are colours on most houses and if not these bright greens and purples then at least there are interesting patterns in the wall, on the doors, in the shudders by the windows. Lots to look at and try to retain.

And then we drove across a dried up river bed and ..... there were sheep grazing, ah, that made me feel very happy. At this point I didn't know that I would actually have the great fortune to see quite a few sheep on my travels around Morocco.

Brave fishermen in tiny boats

2010-11-08T14:56:00.000-08:00

Next stop was part of the port, where smaller fishermen and their boats hang out. My first reaction was to smile, there were so many small motorbikes or scooters lined up along the road. This is the preferred mode of transportation for these hard workers.

The boats are not very big, probably weighing in at a little over 1000lbs (please don't quote me on that) the men working these boats use long lining to catch their fish, and they go out three men to a boat for 3-4 days in a row, and no there are no women doing this this is a man's world.

This is where they land all the fish they catch, set bait on the next line of hooks and get ready for another bunch of days off shore.
Young mackerel, there were also boxes of sardines and fish heads and guts from a for me unknown kind of fish. It was all very interesting and stirred many thoughts in my head.

And here we are out on the little almost submerged pier, in the back ground three words which light up the hill side at night. The top word God, lower left, King and lower right, Country. The Moroccans love their king, he keeps their country of many different ethnic groups in one piece by being the top ruler of all.

When we got back ashore from this pier our guide had found a place where they were selling pieces of cooked fish and he had secured a taste for each of us, it was very fresh, very warm and very tasty indeed.

Building sturdy and large wooden fishing boats

2010-11-08T14:20:00.000-08:00

Our luck was that we met up with a very enthusiastic and knowledgeable tourist taxi driver, by the name of Mantasif. He had lived both in Germany and the States for years and had been a taxi driver in both those places too. Now he is back in Agadir and very happy to be doing what he is doing.

We set out on Friday morning at ten o'clock, giving our First Mate Kim a ride into town. We were off on a day excursion all by ourselves to celbrate that in less than a year from now we will have been married for 25 years.

The first stop was close by, we had driven past this place in the dark the previous night and wanted to see in the daylight how people worked in this particular ship yard. A lot of the wood used here comes from 'Africa' as they said, any where outside Morocco, and it is sawed into lumber and shipped still in the original shape of the tree trunk. It was amazing, they were BIG trees, not little skinny ones. Beautiful hardwoods and had I had the room and had it been permissible I would have brought quite a few pieces home in the suitcase for spindles, that is for sure.

A truck load of eucalyptus wood, harvested somewhere not too far away in Morocco. Didn't have the chance to sniff it, or rather I was too busy looking and photographing to remember to use my nose right at that point, so I don't know if the wood has the same enticing scent as the leaves and the oil of the eucalyptus tree does.

One enormous fishing boat towering above us and really it was towering, they all were, each person looking small and diminutive beside these beauties.

And so the ship yard made First Mate Kim, Soren and I very happy, wood galore, building galore, what more can one ask for at the beginning of a warm and sunny day.

Another magnificent creature which I had to photograph since she was red, anything red goes I would say or orange or ..... as long as the colour is magnificently brilliant and bright.

An irresistibly cute smaller version, and in spite of the lack of colour on this baby I could still rejoice in the perfect shape of her rib cage.

The Souk - or one of them in Agadir,

2010-11-06T11:44:00.001-07:00

We went to the market in a taxi, the driver showed us the ropes so to speak, which of course is appropriate for a bunch of people trying to be sailors, well, one of us was a sailor in our group of four on this day, the rest of us were wannabes. And in we went, with eyes as large as the round tower in Copenhagen.

Bananas galore, fresh from the tree, they looked delicious.

Then there were all the other delicacies, and me in the middle.

We entered a small spice shop, perhaps also medicinal herbs as far as if could see. We were invited to share a cup of tea with the owner

Before we left we of course did buy, some of the magnificent herbal tea and today Soren purchased a little teapot of the right kind, so we can drink this tea probably on board the ship and at home eventually.

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Getting closer to Agadir and this is where it is really cooking!

2010-11-06T11:21:00.001-07:00

One large convection oven with room for many, many trays of food to bake, roast or just stay warm. Convection ovens are quite a blessing I have discovered.

Onions, onions, onions, it is amazing how may onions can be eaten when there are close to Seventy people to feed three times a day.

Two big sinks and a bit of counter to cook on, this is a tight space, but we manage.

Getting closer to Agadir in Morocco. My balance is getting better and the ocean is incredibly beautiful, even if can be a challenge sometimes.

And perhaps this gives an idea, I was not tilting the camera for effect, it happened all by itself.

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rock of Gibraltar

2010-11-04T10:51:00.001-07:00

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Sunsets in the Mediteranian

2010-11-04T10:04:00.001-07:00

One night

And two from another night, it was spectacular, I felt my weaving brain stirring.

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Sailing from Cagliari, Sardinia.

2010-11-04T09:59:00.001-07:00

Leaving Sardinia, it is hazy but the island looked lovely as we motored past it, mountainous and mysterious.

Crew getting things done which need to be done!

Soren getting things done which need to be done = dishes, lots of dishes, they multiply when you turn your back.

Students doing what needs to be done, chocolate treats are at times a must!

A moment of peace and no engine and everyone just about had a swim in the middle of the Mediteranian.

Ready for rescuing happy swimmers!

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Sail weaving in Roskilde, Scandinavian research project

2010-10-23T00:54:00.001-07:00

So many things need to be studied in depth, why is it so, and where etc. When visiting Lejre earlier during this visit to Denmark, having my exploratory day with Anne Batzer I was also adviced that if I was truly keen on this up-right loom investigation of mine I ought to also take the time to go to the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde to visit with Anna Nørgaard and the up-right loom she is working on.

It took another couple of weeks before I had the opportunity to do this but I did get there and I sure was delighted to have taken the time to also have experienced the research and weaving spot in this museum.
Anna gets to work on this loom every day, this is her job! And right now she is close to the end of a large project which has seen her prepare the loom and weave a sail to be used for the Skuldelev boat which is under construction right now. If all goes well it will be ready for sailing sometime in 2011 or 2012. The sail is woven in strips which are 67 centimeters wide and eight lengths of 5.5 meters each are needed to make the desired size of 25 square meters for the sail.

Anna's loom had been lengthened/heightened in order to let her weave more efficiently. It takes her two hours to untie the weights and spools to lengthen the warp. Anna can weave about 10 cm (4") a day, thus it is rather important to be working efficiently when she is at the loom.
The shed/shafts can be moved down as the weaving progresses when the side beams are of this taller kind and a longer piece of weaving can then be achieved before having to go though the exercise of rolling up the cloth and lengthening the warp threads again.

Many, many spools to be gently loosened from their weight, let down and then tied off and secured again.
Using a temple to keep an even width on the piece all through the forty some meters of weaving seems to be a most brilliant idea.
The yarn is singles, the density of the warp is .... I do believe 12 ends pr centimeter and the picks I believe are woven at a density of 9 per centimeter.

Below are three photos of the information found next to the loom, click on them each individually for a closer look.

And here is Anna at work again. I was very fortunate to be able to chat with her for a little while and to watch her intently for a while longer. Observing how her hands moved on the loom, helping the warp separate when she changed the shed. The force of the metal weaving sword as she used it to beat the weft into place after positioning each new strand of weft into the ever changing shed.

My luck is that I found the article she mentioned during our conversation on the museum website about the research done for these sails. It is many pages long and due to the course my life is sailing along at at the moment I will just rejoice that I know where the article is and when I return to NS in a few months I will take the time to read this exciting research paper.

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Personal Amazing Race

2010-10-14T11:44:00.001-07:00

I am off on another adventure in a few days. An adventure which will take me way beyond anything I have ever thought of, wished for or even imagined myself doing at all, at any time of my life.
I am joining my husband on Sørlandetthe Norwegian Fullrigger which is sailing for Class Afloat his year. I will board the vessel in Cagliari, Sardinia and continue the journey from there as a volunteer cook's mate until we reach Trinidad and Tobago and return home just before Christmas.

During the days when I was trying to make the final decision whether to go on this my personal Amazing Race, I went for a walk along the beach at my mother's house, watching the waves, feeling the force of nature, embracing the smell and the wind of the ocean.

It was wild and wonderful down there on the beach and both the dog and I pulled the whirls of wind into our nostrils and ears. The dog perhaps enjoying it little less than me the human.

She didn't like it when I had to stop to think or take another few photos. Her perfect beach walk means keep on moving, away or towards home doesn't matter as long as we keep on moving.
I am intrigued by how quiet rocks and shells can seem in a photo in comparison to the wildness of the waves running over the rocks.

And then there is this, which is ........? Perhaps a clay weight for a fishing net washed up upon the beached seaweed. Whatever it was it caught my eye and looked deliciously beautiful in my wind watering eyes.

I am not sure exactly how much weaving I will accomplish on this trip other than in my head and in my notebooks but I already feel the gentle tugs of inspiration pulling at my sleeve.

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Midtsjællands Vævekreds, 25th anniversary, miniatures, chapt. 3

2010-10-12T23:52:00.001-07:00

There was a wall with 25 miniatures, expressing the joys of fibre and all we can do with it. Each piece telling its own story and expressing its own joi de vivre.

A wall with lots to look at and giving hardship should a person have to make a choice.

Nina Refsgård

Mia Marquard

Annette Møller Pedersen

Niels Riff Andersen

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Midtsjællands Vævekreds, 25th anniversary chapt. 2

2010-10-12T23:48:00.001-07:00

Tapestry piece by Hanne Kold, one of the participants I had met a week earlier at the tapestry workshop in Sorø. Colour and texture, right up my alley. Fantasy Tree. Linen and wool.

Birch trunk by Hanne Kold, this time an example of light and shadow, also involving textures in some parts. Linen and wool.

Closeup of birch trunk, to better view interesting float technique.

Tapestry by Solveig Bruun. After drawing "Anore" by Aka Høegh. Greenlandish wool on linen warp.

Tapesty by Solveig Bruun. "Birds" after drawing by Aka Høegh. Greenlandish wool on linen warp.

And now I am twisting and turning my brain, which way do I want to go with my next pieces.

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Midtsjællands Vævekreds, 25th anniversary, Domus Felix, Sept 24-Oct 3, 2010, chapt.1

2010-10-12T23:42:00.001-07:00

This weaving guild celebrated their 25th anniversary this year with a beautiful exhibit, not only showcasing weaving but lots of other fibre arts were involved too.
I spent a couple of hours meandering, looking at all the creativity displayed here, it was inspiring to say the least.

Margret Huusom, blue hat, fine wool from own sheep, hand dyed, silk fibre and beads on the flower.

Margret Huusom, red hat, fine wool from own sheep, hand dyed, silk fibre and beads in flower/blossom

Paulette Adam, free technique, wool/cashmere, linen

Woven by Lotte Dalgaard, Small jacket/shrug and pant-skirt, linen and wool crepe, clothes design by Ann Schmidt Christensen.

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Another new roof - with old knowledge

2010-10-08T01:02:00.001-07:00

It must be the season for ....... For laying new roofs. I suppose it does make sense, better get the covers tightened up before the winter weather sets in.

I have grown up with thatched roofs in my mental landscape, perhaps not exactly in the middle of Copenhagen but definitely knowing they were there in the smaller towns and villages, out and about. I saw this project being underway while visiting my mom on Reersø over the last couple of days, and I had to take the dog for a walk to investigate.

I learned lots over the 30 mins or so I spent talking to the main guy on the roof. For instance that the reeds used for thatching are wild growing, the ones he was using here were from the Turkish coast line around the Black Sea, he prefers these. In Reersø there are many old buildings with thatched roofs, some of them sporting reeds from Rumania, Ukraine - potentially other places too.

The constantly working partner of the two, using the clapper to smooth out the ends of the reeds. The trick is to be able to have as minute a portion of the side of each reed sticking out as possible, that way the roof deteriorates much slower. The clapper has a sheet of metal on the side that touches the reeds.

Using the 'needle' a metal tool which looks a lot like a horse shoe, originally used to 'sew' the rope around the bunches of reeds as they are fastened to the rafters underneath. It seems to me smaller ones of the same type are used in leather work, saddle making etc.
He is only letting a bit of air in amongst the tightly packed reeds, a modern roof thatcher uses a drill and metal line to fasten the bunches into the rafters instead of around the rafters.

Bunches of short reeds, harvested and brought to Denmark from Poland for the top part of the roof (and it has a special name but I have forgotten it) by the ever working one alongside Uwe, whom I spoke to.

Exciting textures for my weaving eye.

And Uwe's first project in '92 he thatched the historical sheep house on Reersø, and has done many of the houses in the area since then.

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New roof!

2010-10-07T09:57:00.001-07:00

Walking home I had to stop for a moment to check this out - what were they doing over there on the other side of the street.

Upon closer examination I realized they were readying themselves for the final effort of putting a new tile roof on the building.

Very systematic approach, perhaps I need to go back that way today in the sunshine and see how far they got since yesterday afternoon.

Even closer up, wonder if there is a tapestry in there somewhere!

And I did go back and ... They hadn't started laying it yet, so instead here is an older very beautiful roof.

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Tapestry workshop with Gina Hedegård Nielsen

2010-10-03T03:30:00.001-07:00

Vesterskov Væveskole in Sorø. I went for a two day tapestry weaving workshop at this school recently, well about ten days ago to be exact.
I had been to this school before, not to take a class, but had gone for a visit and walk about, perhaps seven years ago.

This wondrous private weaving school is only reachable by car. This could be a problem if it wasn't for the dedication of the people involved. When Hanne and her husband knows that you are coming by train they ask that you let them know what time you arrive at the station and ..... Benny comes down to pickup the weaving enthusiasts by car. Chatting away he took me out on the peaceful country roads, around the bend once or twice until we were at their home and place of creativity.
Hanne and Benny are beginning to slow down a bit, he is after all eighty now and Hanne is in her mid seventies I believe. She is the weaver and Benny is the handyman, loom doc and an extra set of hands when a warp needs more than Hanne's hands to be wound on.

Once upon a time they had a few sheep, and when they were done with the sheep the barn was turned into a weaving studio. At the present time there are 16 looms in the studio, all were at some stage of setup - there are two classes of eight students running at this fall. There is also Hanne's own loom, that is loom number 17 upon which she is finishing up weaving an order for a church somewhere in DK, the specifics eludes me, all I know is that her work is merticulous and beautiful. http://www.vaevestue.dk/galleri.html

And this is the tapestry weaving class I attended for two days. The theme was how to get more depth in a piece of tapestry weaving, i.e in a landscape, decisions on whether one wants to use colour only or also textures to make the piece work and have the right 'ping' and appeal to the eye. The class was taught by Gina Hedegaard Nielsen (by the black board)

The students had taken courses from Gina before and they all had brought cartoons or photos along which they wanted input/help to make the final decisions about, concerning lighting, texture colours, points which are tremendously important.

Annette's very first sampler above on topnof the warp and below at the beginning of the warp the 'improved' piece underway.

My sampler, trying out Russian weaving(grey and yellow) blending and changing colour by more or less twist added to a butterfly with black and white yarn.
Trying out Helena Hernmark techniques (orange and green) and different sumacs and floats according to an interesting Danish Tapestry weaver Grethe Balle. I can see lots of fun happening with figuring out how to applying some of these textures to a larger, beckoning surface, tapestry loom here I come.

And here we are the seven students and the grand teacher Gina after our last lesson, all packed up and on the way home.

Gina and Hanne in front of the studio door, I thought the pattern on the door completely appropriate, bird's eye pattern in wood :-)
Thank you Gina for an inspiring workshop and thank you Hanne for opening your studio doors and sharing your space, knowledge and enthusiasm.

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Swans galore

2010-10-02T22:33:00.001-07:00

Nothing like walking past Sortedamssøen at preening hour, they are so amazingly beautiful.

Other creatures seen in this blog: one coot and one sea gull.

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Bjørn Nørgaard, peaceful coots.

2010-10-01T20:35:00.001-07:00

On the last day in September I went to the National Art Museum in Copenhagen to see the exhibit, Re-modeling the World, with works created by Bjørn Nørgaard. The artist who also designed the historical tapestries for the Queen of Denmark. It was a weird, wonderful and strange experience. Some of what he has done makes me want to explore and other pieces make me wrinkle my brow and wonder ....... What is going on in this man's head. In the end I purchased a very large, heavy and beautiful catalogue about the exhibit and will be able to take my time to learn and understand a little bit better where some of his ideas come from.

After walking through the exhibit at a very leisurely pace I found the cafe and sat down in a very tall window seat, enjoyed a bottle of Ramlöse water with lemon and waited for my bowl of leek and potato soup with bacon bits.
My eyes were meandering over the landscape outside.
A coot couple ( a cute coot couple) was swimming along together and apart, diving or pushing their way in amongst the reeds which are dense along the little pond and a green legged moor-hen was enjoying life and finding treasures along the muddy edge of the water.
The water lilies had not yet withered away completely a few green leaves still floating amidst the brown stalks of the ones which had capitulated to the colder days and nights of the season.

The nettles along the path way where runners keep whizzing by (on their lunch break?) had brown spots on the leaves and the intense green they usually display in the spring and summer no longer shone as radiantly.
This is not a sad contemplation of the loss of warmer days, instead it is an expression of delight and thankfulness that I had been in a position to go and purchase myself the most gorgeous red wool sweater earlier on this day. Wearing it as I was writing this kept me warm, cozy and comfortable. I love fall weather.

But....to get back to the exploratory input of the day. I am quite infatuated by BN's installation Mickey's Opera, wondering what came first, Mickey's family or the Genetically Modified Paradise fountain which I enjoyed walking past earlier this summer in a different part of Copenhagen. I will find out one of these days.

What I came away with this day is a wish to better myself at layered story telling. I have to say that it seems to be a very strong side of Bjørn Nørgaard's. He creates pieces which have layers upon layers of messages to take note of if one chooses. It is ...... Worth exploring further and I will as this adventure continues.
Check out his website www.bjoernnoergaard.dk as far as I can see it does not come in English but exploring any of the tabs will lead you to interesting photos of his art all of which does speak its own strong visual language.

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Solsikker - sunflowers

2010-09-30T08:30:00.001-07:00

Her er jeg - this is me! Der voksede en solsikke i min have som jeg havde plantet. A sunflower grew in my garden, which I planted.

Her ser du solsikkehovedet. Her ser du alle frøene. This is the sunflower's head. You can see all the seeds.

Det her er trådene til vand i stilken. This is the inside of the stalk with the threads getting the water.

Her piller jeg frøene væk. This is me picking out the seeds.

Her har jeg pillet en masse frø ud. I have picked many seeds out.

Der er 705 præsis. There are 705 seeds precisely.

Efter en uge er den blevet mindre. After one week it has shrunk.

Hej hej. Bye bye, Jonathan

Gobelins - magnificent woven tapestries!

2010-09-29T02:51:00.001-07:00

Ok People, I am going to do it, in spite many little whistles going off in my head. I found these photos on the internet, three of the 17 tapestries at Christiansborgslot.

I think a few of them are the drawn/painted cartoons, one of the many planning stages in tapestry weaving. And also I am not sure what size they have actually uploaded in, hm perhaps I need to take photos of the postcards and post those instead.
Photographing in the big hall where these beautiful creations hang is understandably not permitted so I left my camera in the luggage box, key #54, for me to have and to hold for as long as I was in the building still admiring the tapestries.

I went for 1pm since they have a daily guided tour at this hour every day. The tour goes into the history, layers upon layers of history which the artist Bjoern Noergaard carefully has built into each piece.
Starting up the stairs to the hall there was only me and the guide. She got rather excited when I told her I was there because I do weave some myself and it is always inspiring to look at someone else's work and figuring it out or try to figure it out - sometimes there is quite a divide between those two states of mind:-)
The guide had been to the workshops where these gobelins were woven in the nineties only this summer (Les Manufactures Nationales des Gobelins et de Beauvais, Paris) and she was amazed at the technique and skill she had seen there, however, since she had to understand everything in French her tapestry knowledge had not exactly grown to grand dimensions, and thus she declined my jubilant exclamation if she would allow me to ask a bizillion questions around the weaving. She was not sure that was such a good idea, but she was willing to do the history part and in there I could ask questions, just not on the technicalities of the actual weaving of the pieces.

Three more women joined us, two with no knowledge of tapestry but instead knowledge around the creative process of creating gold rings and jewelry. The last person turned out to be another Dane living abroad, an older woman who wanted to enjoy the tapestries. She has a tapestry loom behind a door in her house and when she returns to Norway where she has lived since 1959 after here little vacation she is going to go and finish what is on the loom and get started on her next project. Wonder what size it will be ;-)

A postcard, the photographer is Adam Rzepka, and now me copying him in not too graceful a way. A depiction of history in the late Middle Ages. I wish I could haul everyone I know and a few more through there one day, listening to the stories and layers and then observing some of the techniques and in general be awed. The tapestries are all close to 4 meters tall, I guess I shouldn't take one of them home after all before I have spoken to my husband about taking out a ceiling and adding another floor to the house. Hm, and we just got a new roof, hm again, perhaps not such a good plan after all.
Below are a few links to check out further tapestry information at your leisure.
I am off for a walk in the beautiful Copenhagen sunshine spreading over this day.

http://www.ses.dk/Home/SlotteOgHaver/Slotte/ChristiansborgSlot/Gobelinerne.asp

www.dronningensgobeliner.dk

http://www.gobelintapestry.com/

Have a grand one!

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Walk to Moens Klint

2010-09-28T23:36:00.001-07:00

To the south of the island of Sjaelland in Denmark is another small and very beautiful island. This island is called Moen.
It is well known especially for it's beautiful rocky beaches and magnificent fossil finds.

We were a little bit strapped for time on this day, knowing that we had to endure the hardships of eating at a local fish restaurant in the evening. Thus we didn't walk on the beach but chose to walk along one of the paths on the top side of the cliffs.

It is far far down and very very beautiful. The above photo makes me think about how to combine light and shadow in a tapestry, I guess tapestry weaving takes up a lot of space in my head these days

Showing signs of an up-coming landslide, see the little horizontal cracks in the surface of the point.

In 2007 an enormous landslide took place here at Moen's Klint, if one follows the white shape into the ocean this is the contour of the length and width of the slide.

A lot of the slide residue has now been washed into the ocean and new little path ways have been formed by humans and animals living in this area. Plants have started growing and life moves on as normal.

Close-up of a large beech tree which slid along with the rest of it's surroundings back in 2007! It rests and crumbles peacefully on the beach. This is a closeups of the tree which can be seen on the left hand side of the little jutt out on the photo showing the width and the length of the slide above.

And finally, a few fossils, in the graveled yard of the house with the magnificent hot-tub, textures were every where to be seen. It was thrilling!

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Combination: solar panels and old bathtubs = hot tub

2010-09-28T15:00:00.001-07:00

Every now and again new possibilities arise out of a renovation which has made a person really tired. Like for instance renovating an old farm house which hasn't been look after terribly carefully for many, many years. Well, sort of not since the last millennium.

Then it is time to take the old bathtub out to fix the bathroom with two new shower heads instead of one, two sinks, nice big mirror and at the same time be aware of one's impact on the environment and one's general energy consumption.

This is when one chooses to set up solar panels which will take care both of heating the water for the double headed shower and for the new system with heat in the floors.

This is done with an insulated 1500 liter water tank in the garage which is heated up to 70 degree Celsius and meanders in pipes under all the new cement floors, keeping all toes toasty and safe from frost bite. In the middle of the tank is a smaller tank which provides the hot water for the faucets in the house.

And the old bath tub, well, it got sort of a face lift, it has a little patio around it now and it has a much better view, over the fields into the sunset. When the two people who worked so hard at the renovations need a break they take the garden hose, attach it to the solar heated tank, fill up the tub, meander across the lawn and sit in the heat of the sun, morning or evening and enjoy life.

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Opening day of Exchange in Kerteminde

2010-09-24T00:06:00.001-07:00

Opening day in Kerteminde, getting up and getting oneself organized inside and out for a few hours of SEVEN talk and enjoyment.
The weather is fairly nice, no rain around opening hour at noon.
We had decorated the bushes outside with our extra Canadian and Nova Scotian flags for this opening of Exchange.

Entry to the art store, museum and gallery.

The view when walking towards and into the gallery space.

Jane Nielsen, our contact person with the gallery had come from Aeroe to officially open the exhibit. She gave a short introduction of the group
To the visitors and talked about the importance and excitement of sharing work and thoughts across borders, and how important she felt it was that we, a Canadian group, was there to show the audience of the gallery what we do and how we do it. Then she asked me if I would be kind enough to give a more in-depth presentation of each of the artists of SEVEN.

Our welcoming buffet, grapes, white wine and pop, at a good height and easily accessible.

Taking full advantage of the opportunities the gallery had to offer. One being several plinths for exhibiting pieces up high and fairly freely and also some glass tops to protect smaller pieces of work, which worked out absolutely beautifully for Marie's Bitty Bawdies as well as for some of my felted fruits.

We found a shelf which could hold all our information + the guest book, which I hope people will see and sign during their meandering through our exhibit.

And a cosy corner was created with Kelly's poem on the dvd player and right next to it the basket I borrowed from a friend, so our big international crochet project has a home to sit in between all the times people pick it up and add some of their preferred colour or texture to the piece by crocheting their own little free spirited pattern onto what has already been scrumbled there. A note accompanies the basket and it's content explaining our hopes and wishes for the growth and progress of the piece.

And finally another view of the exhibition grounds. This is truly a beautiful spot, with good energy and gentle people around. I do hope our exhibit will be well visited and that our out-reach will be well received.

Greetings from the last member of SEVEN still in Denmark for a while.
Pia

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Opsta vaev and a weaving sword

2010-09-23T00:18:00.001-07:00

On this sunny beautiful morning, where I am once again back in Copenhagen I enjoy my morning tea with thoughts of the wonderful day I spent last week at Sagnlandet in Lejre once again.
Once upon a time 10 years ago when I turned forty my husband made me a loom, a copy of an upright loom like the ones used a thousand years ago or more in many parts of Scandinavia and Europe for weaving cloth for their clothing, blankets and even sails for their boats.
At Lejre they have several such looms and .... Some of them are in use on a regular basis which means that I could actually ask a ton of questions of the women working in this weaving workshop related to the whole process of how to effectively use this warp weighted loom and the tools for it.

I learned that .... Viking textiles often have more of a warp faced weave, that the method of setting up the loom incorporating into the warp a tabletwoven ribbon at the top of the loom really was not so prevalent in viking weaving as I had thought. Only one piece has been found from this era using this technique. Possibly it went out of style as the looms were changed, made more effective and weaving turned into production instead of one of a kind or one at a time pieces.

A very loose finger crocheted stay-stitch (sewing expression I know) to keep the warp ends organized at the bottom separating beam, which forms part of the shed and keeps the two layers apart.

A weaving sword, some have been found made of whalebone, this one is metal and weighs about 400gr. Had it been any heavier it would have been too heavy. I believe it was made by the blacksmith at the research station here in Lejre. I will have to go home and look at some of the different woods in my drop spindle workshop and figure out which tools I need to use to create a beautiful wooden weavingsword for myself when I return.
Hm, perhaps I can ask my son the wooden sword creator (for other uses mind you when he was a kid) for some advice.

And I got to weave, I got to weave. How much something can be missed without knowing it until one gets to do it again. I used this little tapestry bobbin to gently make little arches along the pick in order to make sure that there wouldn't be too much draw-in and......
I was fortunate enough that someone else came into speak to Anne while I was weaving and so I got to weave and weave, well, and in this case I probably had the opportunity to put in ten or twelve picks, nice and slow, steadily moving along.

Between each pick getting to use the weaving sword, feeling a bit odd, being a peaceful person, never having enjoyed much the use or thoughts of swords suddenly there I was having to yield this sword repeatedly again and again.
Well, I didn't suffer too much, I will learn how to yield it properly and how to enjoy it tremendously all at the same time.
Funny thing, now I am all eager to return to Canada to get this loom working again. It is all in pieces packed up right now, but I do know how to use a screwdriver for this modern version and so it shouldn't take too long before I am ready to ..... Use this magnificent loom of mine so long left unattended.
Purchased a book on the subject written by Karen-Hanne Staermose Nielsen, The Loom of Circe, the history of the warp-weighted loom and its present use. Historisk-Arkaeologisk Forsoegscenter Lejre 1999.
The actual book with photos and drawings etc is in Danish but fortunately I also did get my little eager beaver weaving hands on a copy of the English pages. Am excited to read it all, and learn.

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Sagnlandet Lejre, plant dyeing, lighting fires, peaceful fun.

2010-09-19T15:19:00.001-07:00

Last week I had the most wonderful day.
A big wish for an in debth and long day with other weavers and fibre persons came true. I went to Sagnlandet Lejre, close to Roskilde and although it wasn't planned to be a full day excursion, that is exactly what happened. I left home at 9am and was back at my sister's in the borrowed car close to 8pm.

I spent the day in the weaving house with Anne and Ida, the two women who show people many of the different processes involved in making yarn, dyeing yarn, weaving, growing dye plants, safety issues etc.
Oh, i forgot to mention that Ida last year was involved in reproducing an indigo dyed woven outfit of a perticular kind to a small museum somewhere in Spain, she brought it down there earlier this summer.

I lit this fire under one of the big 'cauldrons', the one on the left of the top photo. This dyeing facility was built about five years ago, lots of volunteer hands and a few public funds made this building possible.

Yarn and fabric indigo dyed - blue over yellow makes the most magnificent greens.

One of the dye gardens. Both Danish Goldenrod and Canadian Goldenrod was planted in this bed. Unfortunately the native Danish Goldenrod wasn't doing so well, but the Canadian variety was thriving. This is sad if one is concerned with preserving the original plants, for the woman working with the dyeplants however it was a wonderful thing since the Canadian Goldenrod yields much more dye than its Danish counterpart.

The indigo dyepot, with skeins of white and yellow yarn.

A large piece of fabric which prior to the bath in the indigo pot was rather mottled and yellowish, now after a thorough blue dip it turned most wonderfully green.

The cochenille pot being exhausted, it had yielded rather nice reds the previous day and on this day when we got the fire lit under the smaller pot the yarns slowly took the colour of old dusty rose as the water temp went up.

Wool from the previous day's cochenille pot being wrung out.

Yarns hung with lables to view and enjoy for anyone willing to stop and take a moment to ask questions and explore.

Leftover dye in madder pot.

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Sheep and their brilliance

2010-09-19T14:45:00.001-07:00

On the walk over the heather covered hills and into the beech woods many sheep were resting peacefully.

The fall was beginning to show its colours - in places the ferns had turned colours, there hadn't really been a proper frost yet but I suppose a very cool night is enough to remove all green from these delicate plants' 'cheeks'.

The sheep went on rounds, knowing exactly where the apple trees were. As a matter of fact we went over to pick an apple from a wild apple tree and when we turned away from the tree two ewes came up to us to see if we would care to share. I had not noticed the ewes anywhere near the tree when we walked over to it, but I imagine they had been hiding with spy-glasses in front of their eyes, making sure they wouldn't miss out on an applelicious opportunity.

Resting with pals in the shade.

All by her lonesome but perfectly happy!

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Spring water, fresh and delicious year round

2010-09-19T14:09:00.001-07:00

Sometimes going for a walk with an old friend is the best way to catch up and feel the good connections.

Visiting on the organic farm also meant going for walks through ancient places, close to Rebild Bakker.

This is a spring with water cool and clean running year round. Always at around 8 degrees celcius, leaving green plants in the snow and gentle mists over the landscape on especially cold winters days.
We brought cups to quench our thirst, it was lovely and fresh, and we both filled the cup again, to carry a little along with us when we started up the hill into the beech wood beside the spring.

We climbed up for a while, and all was green and yet the ground was covered with browned up whithered leaves crunching under our feet.

The colours and the shapes of the trees brought peace to my heart and head, all I had to do was breathe in the beauty.

May I add that breathing in the beauty was not exactly difficult either since our path went up quite steeply and I had to take breaks, both in walking and talking in order to focus on my breathing :-) We did sit on a log for a while enjoying the fungus growing and the rustling of leaves, and eventually we moved on again.

Heather with shiny cobwebs in morning light.

And winged creatures resting in the heather soaking up the warmth coming from the sun, no longer as intensely hot as earlier on in the year.

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Foods, and their many different faces

2010-09-17T02:59:00.001-07:00

Picking grapes, deliciously sweet little grapes. This was at my friend's in Nothern Jutland just before I left her and her family again after two lovely talkative days. I have seen many, many small greenhouses like this one on my travels around Denmark and also in Norway.

Lunch plates at some highway stop somewhere along the way in Denmark.

In Oslo at Bogstadgaard, morning snack, deliciouly light and fluffy waffle with Romme, a Norwegian soured milk product, I could swim in it, any time!

Carrot cake with cappuchino at the same place!

Food to be put away on Sorlandet, before the boat ever left Bremerhaven in Germany.

And fall feast for hornets, nothing like a juicy soft ripe pear to share!

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Learning about food in an urban setting

2010-09-17T02:48:00.001-07:00

As a kid I had the joy and pleasure for many summers in a row to have a so called 'school garden' a plot of land perhaps 3m long by 50 cm wide. This plot was part of a very large public garden system, where Mr. and Mrs. Brun, an older retired couple took care of us and taught us some of the ins and outs of food production on a smaller scale.

This sunflower is in my nephew Jonathan's garden plot. He has a plot in a different part of town than I did, but never the less, when you enter through the gate the whole idea is the same.

A couple of weeks ago Jonathan's class were all going to visit this public garden, am not sure if they all have a plot, but off we went. Two classes went, about 50 kids in all with 5 adults. We waited for first one bus, got off after about 5 stops, caught another bus for ten stops and then it was a two minute walk a day of talking about food, cooking and eating before we headed for the busses to go back at the end of the school day.

The kids had each been given a fruit, herb, root, green which they were to research and present to the whole class. My nephew Jonathan had been given the subject of ginger as his project and had to find a piece in the communal food box and then give a short presentation on the subject. As each student presented their 'food', things were added to the board by the garden teacher.

Different vegetable were picked or dug around the gardens, like this zuchini and the jerusalem artichokes

Pepper was ground

And copious amounts of other vegetable were chopped, carrots, celery, peppers, squash, garlic, leeks, onions and also a pile of herbs had been harvested and was added to the two woks which were used.

The kids had good day, they were of course eager to play rather than learn, but some learning did take place and afterwards they had an hour or so before we jumped on the public transportation and went back to the school.

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Sortedamsoen, walk, view and clean up

2010-09-16T14:58:00.001-07:00

Copenhagen, weaving in and out of trafic, getting to the other side without a crossing only a brave soul would do this :-)

Creatures in the pond - swans, coots, cormorants, plenty of them all.

And what grows in low fairlymstagnant water in a man made watersystem.

This is how it is being removed, we went by a mountain thrice this size at the other end of the pond

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Folkemuseet Looking at clothing traditions and styles

2010-09-12T22:18:00.001-07:00

A linnen shirt, an important piece of clothing to wear during your marriage ceremony, for either bride or groom or to be laid out in for your funeral wake. A long lasting strong piece of clothing. Embroidered and decorated for the celebratory occations in ones life.

Handwovens and jewelry of the finest kind covering everyone at important occations. To this day the different bunads, costumes specific to different areas in Norway are still being hand sewn with care and worn for special family occations or for celebrating May 17th, Norway's National Day.

Big and small every one gets dressed up.

Naalebinding, the precurser to knitting, how to most effectively cover yourself in wool so you can stay warm and comfortable during a long cold winter.

Embrodery finery, a short shirt top, must admit I forgot to take not of its origins, so many things I do not know about this subject, but fortunately it doesn't hinder me from relishing the patience and the craft of the traditions displayed here.

Woolen jacket, care taken to follow the latest fasions, especially the Renaissance left many traces in Norwegian costumes.

Getting ready for a big occation, the groom is waiting outside and the bride must be suitably decorated.

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Folkemuseet.

2010-09-12T22:15:00.001-07:00

Revisiting another favorite place of mine, for inspiration and peace. I love the textures and colours of the walls that I see in this place, always have enjoyed them tremendously for the precision and the style of it all. Be it a brick or a wooden building.

One of the typical buildings previously found in the country side.

And another one. The way the builders have played with the shapes and angles of the wood in different places of the building makes for a pleasant place to rest ones eyes and celebrate, colour, texture, beauty.

A window, not able to refuse myself the exciting textures and craftmanship of putting it all together, now I can look at the photo whenever I want and perhaps plan for an interesting future project.

The inside of a dwelling, from about 1650, the evidence of life moving along, the cradle swinging from the ceiling and ..... A manglebraet on the table bearing witness to the care which was taken to keep the textiles (especially the linens) smooth and shiny, one must look well groomed when going out in one's finery.

More of a closeup of the wooden mangle, the horse is the handle and the kerchief or table runner is wrapped tightly around the wooden roling pin and then after many rolls back and forth the cloth should be smooth and shiny

It seems that there is always evidence of textiles every where we look in the past - even if it is not a subject most people are excited to talk about, yet, we all want to wear clothes, now what is up with that?

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Viking clothing

2010-09-10T00:18:00.001-07:00

Another edition of the dress of Egtvedpigen from Denmark, in my not connected bliss I wonder why they are all copying what seems like the same dresses over and over again and then .....
My knowledge takes over and I remember how few textiles have survived 1000 years or more of being burried somewhere and I have to shake my head at me :-)
I am a gemini after all.

-

A wealthy person's cape reconstructed, with a tablet woven edge.

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National museet viking exhibit

2010-09-10T00:15:00.001-07:00

The importance of textiles through time makes my heart beat faster.
I realized going through Nationalmuseet in Oslo this time that in every find of viking items they have founds lots of weapons and signs of how powerful and fierce the vikings were.
What they forget to mention as loudly is how many spindle whorls and other textile related pieces have also been found, many, many, many, I rejoyce!

Miniatures showing some other parts of daily living. Textile preparation and leather work.

Spindle whorls and a warping paddle!

Start them early so they can get dressed :-)

Tablet weaving and sewing the woven pieces into clothing

Shoes, belts and buckles!

Sheep shearing and the many different sizes of scissors which were actually produced for different purposes.

Carding, and an ancient pair of viking combes, guess it was easier to set the display up with carders, although then old artifact is actually the combe :-)

Ironing board, smooth stone to flatten seams and straighten cloth. The forerunner to the much used cold mangle for preparing linnens to perfect smoothness and flatness.

I love the upright loom in the bottom right corner, feel inspiration coming on!

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Osebergskipet

2010-09-09T13:55:00.001-07:00

The two stubborn and very patient ones who uncovered the viking site in L'Anse aux Meadows in the early 1960's. When I went there in May this year, I got to speak to the grand daughter of the man who showed the Ingstads where they might be able to do some successful digging.

And the front part of Oseberg Skibet, the royal ship found in Norway with treasures galore,a good part of them textile related. How much fun would that have been to discover!

Closeup of the front end, I love the carvings, they are so precise and sharp and plain old beautiful.

Part of the treasures of this ship - cards from tablet weaving some of the warp still intackt

Balls of yarn and bowls for holding yarn balls when doing naalebinding or plying, pieces of bark weaving, possibly from wrapping mats

A beautiful niddy noddy, a few spindle whorls, and looking at this makes me very very excited. Artifacts over a thousand years old and still...... We use these methods of creation.

The boat from a different angle. It is large and beautiful and impressive and very refined and well built. Knowledge of solid craftmanship is very visible.

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Lunch with a View

2010-09-08T14:08:00.001-07:00

After our hours at the cottage carrying in a little of the supplies and struggling with the wood stove for a while we decided to call it a day and went to a place up high, Frogner Saetern and got our ourselves some eyecandy from the view and some food and a good cup of tea from the little cafeteria.

We are 435 meters above sea level

And quite enjoying the experience and the day.

Shapes and textures gallore, I am in love with all the pungent red houses

And a shot from above of the large historical farm Bogstadgaard, where once upon a time the kids and I watched Norwegian Spelsau be sheared and this time when I walked there I got to scratch the backs of two sheep (spelsau, a perticular kind of sheep developed for growing the best tapestry yarn possible) who were willing and patient enough to endure some gentle time with a person in sheep withdrawal, I guess I am missing my wooly ones at home
:-)
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A day at the cottage!

2010-09-08T14:07:00.001-07:00

-The cottage, normally about a 5 km walk in from the nearest parking lot, but I was in luck, we had been granted municipal drive-in permission since we had lots of winter supplies like propane and other fuels to carry, oh, and three batteries for the solar panels :-)

Patterns carved and painted were everey where, above is the pattern carved on the shutters.

Looking at the shapes of the door makes me delighted, the 'twill' in the way the wood has been used and then the twisted wrung door handle tickles me pink for some reason, both the looks and the feel of it.

A dinningroom chair moved outside for comfort whilst eating our morning snacks, rye bread with myseost, yes, please!

And a real Norwegian troll named Bente, we were trying to figure out what was preventing the majority of the smoke from the woodstove from exiting via the chimney, it made it hard to breathe in all the rooms in the whole cottage. I think the decision has been made to bring up a chimney expert and a wood stove person to look at this interesting challenge before winter sets in.

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Pit stop in Sweden and bus travels

2010-09-08T14:06:00.001-07:00

I left Norway on a beautiful sunny afternoon after a walk through a well known park with good friends. Had decided to travel back to Denmark via bus, not by air or boat.
I had booked my ticket in advance and got dropped off at the bus station in good time before bus departure. It was a fun easy ride, with many washroom and smoking breaks along the way.
This was the fourth or fifth stop, I hadn't needed to get up yet, but now it was time. It was a great stop to have chosen for ....

This is what I saw when instead of a smoke I took a small walk around on the paths laid out around the playground. A beautiful bird bath, I think in some kind of stone, I was so surprised and delighted to find this beauty out here at a rest stop along the highway that I didn't even touch it!

There were no birds im the bath, but plenty of sound and chipper to be heard from the surounding woodland.
By now I did have to visit this house

And once again I had to readjust some of my expectations. Oh, I thought as I stepped inside, I hadn't realized this was actually an outhouse .... Who digs the new holes when it is needed?
But couldn't really spend much more thought on that idea, since I needed to go and thus as I sat down and raised my eyes this is what I read

This was a composting toilet and the note reminded people to not dump unsuitables into then toilet since, the urine/liquids and solids were all being used for fertilizer and redistributed to Mother Nature, well, you have to excuse me but in my humble opinion that is completely brilliant since making a septic system in a rocky area way out in the boonies is just not really financially wise.
By the way when we drove out of this spot I noticed a beautiful large egg of the same material as the birdbath situated in front of a bench and there were other paths leading to what I assume now could very well have been other points of artistic beauty.
Next a little fat pony and a strong workhorse in a field rolled by and a second later the butt and back of a horse and rider far down a little country road meandered along.
Paying attention again, suddenly, the tv screen above the driver was turned on and I hear some talk in a for me incomprehensible language. It is an american movie with I think Bruce Willis and some person on a tape is doing the translations/voice over as the movie goes along, in what I think is Polish.
There are many seasonal Polish workers in Norway (and Denmark and probably Sweden too) and some of them are on the bus with me back to Copenhagen.
A surreal experience since right then I was writing the initial part of the sailing blogs, on a bus from Oslo to Copenhagen and we are on the highway in Sweden. Well, I am just saying this truly is international travels and I am loving it, even the parts I don't get at all due to language limitations on my part.
Safely in Copenhagen I got my suitcase from the storage room, realized that the rest of the group were all continuing on the bus, (the trip had been a little more than 9 hours by now) - I on the other knew that my bed was near, I sped up my steps and pulled at the rolling little suitcase and caught the #1A bus which it spite of it being almost midnight took me to my sister's abode with no hickups in very little time.
I love public transportations sytems!

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Kristiansand, Norway

2010-09-07T14:17:00.001-07:00

Walkabout in Kristiansand after the fabulously exciting and challenging sail (remember I am a weaver!) finding my land legs again.
Lots of statues of people of great importance and influence for this beautiful place.

Above: Haakan VII, his motto was Everything for Norway.

Above Christian IV founded Kristiansand in 1641

This thoughtful woman had a beautiful park by the water dedicated to her.

Camilla Collett, nee Wergeland, in Kristiansand 1813, died 1895, author and pioneer for women's rights.

Created in 1967 by Arne Vigeland, Norwegian titel 'Lek' -
English translation 'Play'

And someone sitting close to the boy playing on the bear, she on the other hand seems to have had more than enough play for the moment and has sorrowfully inverted into herself.

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On the ocean!

2010-09-06T11:00:00.001-07:00

So let me start by saying that not all time aboard a fuldrigger vessel can be considered quality time. Most of the photos of happy faces in my collection are from day three of this trip.
Day one we left the dock at 8pm and it took 4-5 hours to get to the actual ocean going through, first the little bridge, then through the very busy harbour, dry docks, loading docks, resting docks, building docks. I went to my berth when I had watched about 1.8 meters of water disappearing out of the sluse we sat in for awhile with 3 or 4 other tall ships, while this took place.
It was amazing to watch the sluse close and by wrungs at the dock side being able to observe ths speed with which the water went out. No pics of this, as it was very close to midnight.
Monday was a write-off for most people, the seas were rough. For any sailor out there, the winds were 10-20m/ second, coming from all directions. I know it wasn't a hurricane but for most of us who were not really accostumed to such continous rolling it was not easy, we got very well aquainted with the funnels up by the washrooms at the front of the ship. There were fortunately also freshwater faucets right by the funnels so for anyone unfortunate enough to have to go and sacrifice what little they eventually had inside, it really was a wonderful welcoming feeling and sight, to see the faucets and turn either one of them on.
The scheldule for a lot of people that day was stay aloft until you are cold enough to sleep if you go to your sleeping quarters. Sleep as long as possible, get up and out as fast as possible, do what has to be done, sit and watch the ocean while your bones start to chill down, if you are lucky have a conversation with someone before ......... Things start over again!

Day three though was a lot better, or .... Our ears and balance systems had gotten themselves sorted out and it was time to enjoy some crackers, fruit and even a newly baked still very warm piece of Danish pastry.
This day also saw some of the trainees climb up and untie sails so we could give the engine which had propelled us along for two days a little bit of a rest.

This is a seasoned sailor doing the other side of the mast where two trainees are harnessed and holding on for dear life. Amazing how relaxed this young Swede seem to be hanging up there in his green rain suit.

And below eageer hands were ready to help hoisting the sail in a heave and a ho, excitement reigns as everything unfolds as it should.

One beautiful sail, which perhaps doesn't seem like a lot, but when there are 8 of them up, along with the engine, trust me, it is amazing.

By berth time on the last day we were doing pretty good speed, and heeling quite a bit at times too, this chart only says 19.8 degrees but ..... I watched it fluctuate, up to 28 degrees at time = sliding around in your bed and on the floor getting from one place to the other below deck.
Still fun though, lots of fun and practice of patience, breathe in, breathe out.

Tugging away out of Bremerhaven

2010-09-06T03:17:00.001-07:00

We were wating for Mir, the Russian vessel in front of us to go out.

We needed a tug boath both fore and aft (???)

This is Mir as the darkness falls!

Sorlandet going through the first little bottle neck in the harbour

There really wasn't a lot of room on either side.

The enormous Italian vessel which had not been able to enter through the bottle neck but still had tons of visitors every day in spite of its slightly off location. People here are dedicated to what they want and do.

Passing a dry dock with a giant in for service or repair

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Funfairs and food booths in Bremerhaven

2010-09-05T23:10:00.001-07:00

Wondering if we at at the right place, but smiling and laughing all the same!
This is a labyrinth of some kind for people big and small to buy a ticket so they can go and get slightly scared if they so fancy.

Visiting hours at the boat moored behind Sorlandet

Watching the boats turn and the little bridge go up to allow exit or entry of some boat, I forget which. What I do remember is that on the day I boarded I took a cap from the hotel, to save my back and ..... Once I dug out my german brain we had a conversation in which she, the driver, revealed to me that over the 5 day period these tall ship festivals are on they have between 1.5 to 1.8 million visitors in the harbour.
This explains the copious amounts of food booths and fun booths and music and beer stands every where, and a little rain doesn't matter either, most everyone seems to be carrying an umbrella.

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First full day in Bremerhaven, Germany

2010-09-05T16:04:00.001-07:00

When I woke up the first morning in Bremerhaven the weather was alternating between pouring down in thick ropes and the sun shining through making the world glitter.

I especially loved it when I looked out the window to gage the depth of the puddles only to discover a most beautiful rainbow, a full one at that, going from approximately where I knew Sorlandet was moored to down and behind a building about a block from my hotel room.
It made me fill up with good wishes and energy for the upcoming travels around the world, well, around Europe, down to Moroco, Senegal and finally to Trinidad & Tobago, upon which Sorlandet, a Norwegian school boat is going to embark on Sept. 12, carrying along with her my husband, several other teachers and 55 eager students ranging in age from grade 11 to first year university students.

And here I am at the bow of the good ship Sorlandet.
She is quietly waiting for the next bunch of trainees to board for the trip from Bremerhaven to Kristiansand. People fulfill their dreams by purchasing tickets for a crossing with Sorlandet, where they take part in sailing the boat, and in the different workshifts found on a vessel like this. The youth coming on the long sail through Europe will not join the ship until sometime next week in Kristiansand.

And the intrepid traveler going for his life's journey at the other end of the boat - prow??? How come weaving terms are right there at the tip of my tongue when I ought to have stored some sailor language by now?

Perhaps weaving and fibrearts are afterall closer to my heart than sailing. This is one of the first sights behind the wheel which really excited me, ropes for anchors and tie-ups and what do I know, but I did get it immidiately that they were placed in this particular order for important reasons and the way they looked here the crew possibly repeat every time these ropes have been unwound, when they are resting they need to rest like this.

And here is Bremerhaven Harbour on that same day, full of ships, masts, ropes, shifting and turning, even though it felt like an impossibility to me that this could occur. Turning and moving one of these majestic vessels I mean.

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Co-habitation!

2010-09-03T11:37:00.001-07:00

Interactions abound, there are so many opportunities for ... Fast Food and Fresh Water!

A grey crow on a bathing warf on the way to Kerteminde. He/she liked rye bread a lot!

Hungry Gulls in Kerteminde, when we were there to look at the gallery we will be exhibiting at in a little more than a week.

Young gull relaxing in a fountain in Kristiansand, a good place for a freshwater drink after having travelled the salty ocean for a while.

A strandskade (Danish), Tjeld (Norwegian) and ... I don't know what in English, however he and his buddy/wife sure enjoyed and got themselves a few nice worm-snacks in this little sandy area right next to the old fortress by the bay in Kristiansand.

Around the next corner was a beautiful fountain and once again someone was taking full advantage of the fresh water opportunities, and right on top of the fountain too.

All ocean birds, well except the thirsty pigeon, happy to keep their thirst down with fresh water and also I am sure, even for the ones who are not on top of the table, keeping an eye on any other available piece of nutrition in their vicinity.
Posted from my Ipad in Oslo, Norway
Pia

Initial travels to get to Sorlandet

2010-09-02T23:02:00.001-07:00

Koebenhavns Hovedbanegaard, heading out to Randers and visiting family!

We left early in the morning on the train from Randers and after only one hour aboard it was time to change in Horsens.

We only had a wait of about 35 mins or so, just enough for a necessary run to you know where and then a few nature observations.

A Danish Solsort/blackbird, resembling closely the north american robin, only its European cousin has a song with more notes in it, thus when I first came to Canada I often wanted to whistle a continuation to the song of the Robin in my back yard. After more than 20 years I seem to have gotten used to it, but..... I do rejoice in the sound of the solsort while here in Europe.

Hamburg Hauptbahnhoff - just past lunch another half hour or so of waiting for the next train to take us to Bremen from where we jumped on a regional train which took us all the way to Bremerhaven, all in all travel time for that day amounted to about 8 hours, and it was pleasant and interesting all along, travelling by train truly is my most favorite mode of transportation.

And when I reached my room at HavenHostel in Bremerhaven (where by the way the main colour of my room was RED how lucky can one get!) some of the crews from the tall ship fleet were doing a loud envigorating walk about, right outside my windows!

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Energy efficiency

2010-09-02T22:59:00.001-07:00

Everywhere we turn here there are windmills, people are talking about getting their solar panels hooked up and ready and others have their furnaces and heating systems changed out completely to become more energy efficient.

These are just small gatherings of windmills, on the way through Germany we saw, well, I want to say hundreds in big windmill parks, but I didn't mange to count, so perhaps it suffices to say there were lots and lots in places.

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Shapes on roofs and houses in Randers

2010-09-02T00:31:00.000-07:00

Not many words ready to come out her, but, there is great feasting in my eyes when I look around and discover ... Textures and colours which make me smile.

.........................This was on the right side of the house

....................On the left side of the house

..........................Towards the back

........................And across the street, eyecandy every where I turn of the best and tastiest kind!

Focus and nitty gritty

2010-08-28T23:50:00.000-07:00

There is an Outsider Art museum in Randers callex Gaia and this is one of the artists showing behind closed dark curtains, offering people enlargement glasses before they duck behind the dark veil regardless of their age and eye status.

Pradeep Kumar lives in India and was thought to be mentally challenged. His problem however was 75% deafness which was not discovered until he was 9 years old.
This is what he started doing to challenge himself, carving sculptures out of matches and painting them with markers.
He is now a grown man holding down a top job at a financial institution.

This is the perfect kind of art to travel the world with, trust me, by now I know!

Pia
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Red Light At Night

2010-08-28T06:09:00.000-07:00

An evening stroll in Randers and the night is illuminated by beauty - I forgot to ask for the name of the artist who came up with this idea for a night fountain, but I have to say I quite enjoyed his/her work!

And an inside look as well:

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The beauty and strength of a rowing practise in Randers Harbour.

2010-08-27T23:09:00.000-07:00

Let's start out with a photo of the opposing team .... This for practical reasons since I had no intension or willingness to be the last one aboard our boat, risking a jump from the wharf to a boat leaving without me! So I took a photo of the easier option, the other team already on their way out.

Then I secured my butt in my designated spot at the bow of the boat watching everyone get the vessel ready for takeoff.

There were ten rowing strong ladies in front of me, rather eleven, since AneMarie was the coxwing(???) and not at an oar.

I had wondered how she could possibly stay warm, since I knew that I was wearing her long johns. After a while I realized that keeping the beat for the rowers and using your voice and mental power is quite adequate to keep the inner furnace warm and glowing.

....................................Beauty close by! ......................

Strong backs and continuous strain and motion for a while while the length of the track is being tried out and the athletic effort of the ladies is being tested.

.................................Art in the harbour.................

The little lady with her umbrella waiting for the fountain to start showering her with water again.

And arriving back to the wharf as the sun was going down and the moon was rising behind us, a lovely evening indeed!

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A surprise excursion through unexpected Manufactured Landscapes!

2010-08-27T11:56:00.000-07:00

Although I am boarding Sorlandet in Bremerhaven in a few days with my husband to sail to Kristiansand in Norway I have to say that I am a weaver and shepardess more, much more than a sailoress!
However when we arrived to visit family in Randers two days ago and our host AneMarie invited me to join her for a couple of hours of wind and fresh air I decided to accept and have a go at my waterlegs.

She was heading out to practise with her rowing crew in Randers Harbour, they have a friendly neighbourhood competition which they are planning to win tomorrow afternoon.
I borrowed long johns and found my warm hat in the suitcase, a sweater and a windbreaker, I was you see not manning an oar, only using the strength of one finger on my right hand to press the button on the camera.

Unexpectedly I entered into my own little part of equally horrendous and somehow still amazingly beautiful human made landscapes.

My eyes and my brain relaxed into complete observation mode after the first chock and recognition. What we were moving through was also a manufactured human landscape like the one I had watched in the two hour movie Manufactured Landscapes directed by Jennifer Baichwal.

It is not that I don't know about these things, it is just ....... I hadn't counted on the juxtaposed experiences of a pleasant evening sail (expecting green lush natural beauty) and discovering that a harbour is not only a natural entry into a lively trading community it is also a busily working commercial part of said community.

And one can choose to put on the glasses which fits one's personality, humour or political views.

When we got back to the dock I was as blue and as cold as I haven't been in quite a while, but also an amazing experience richer and full of new/other thoughts, kind of taken a bit out of my comfortable everyday life.

.....................................Bio-fuels!.....................

Till next time, Pia

Egtvedpigens reproduced clothing at Lejre Forsoegscenter.

2010-08-26T00:42:00.000-07:00

And then I travelled back in time with my nieces and one of the wonderful nephews.
We had a few hours to spare before going to lunch at my brother's house and since he and his family live not too far from Lejre where one of my favorite open air museums are situated the four of us went there for a few hours of fresh air and exploration.

We enjoyed a cygnet and his/her mom preening themselves by a little pond on the way to the ........ Textile house, yes, I was in heaven, I knew there was a house where looms and fibres were to be found and ideas around all of this is always welcomed and talks can go deep and long on this very enticing subject.

.........................Reproduction of Egtvedpigens clothing ...
She lived approx. 3.500 years ago. And her grave was found 1921 by a farmer in Egtved, Denmark. Using the tree rings, her oak coffin was dated back to the summer of appr.1370 BC.

Her top is woven from fairly heavy spun singles woven into cloth and then sewn into clothing. The edge of the top is strengthened with a neat row of stitches. Her skirt were twisted wool 'fringes' attached to a tablet woven ribbon - I do believe I have to look closer at this next time I go in to talk to the ladies.

A much finer piece of fabric sewn into another piece of clothing, delicious to touch, strenuous to contentemplate just how many ends per inch they often used, in spite of their primitive spindles and rough looms. I think this piece was perhaps somewhere around 20-30 ends, it was nice and fine and had beautiful drape.

Loom weights made and used for an experiment on the upright loom which was traditionally used by the old norse/icelanders and the vikings. I was given a loom of that kind 10 years ago when I turned forty and have never taken the time to explore this piece of equipment, however, perhaps I will feel inspired one of these days since the woman I spoke to at the textile house absolutely loves to weave on this loom and praised it highly. Now that I am calmer and more 'mature' perhaps my patience will have grown to a point where I can also embrace this experience without hesitation.
Pia
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GMO Fountain in Copenhagen

2010-08-24T23:56:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday I went for a brisk walk with my sister in the sunny warm August weather. She took me to parts known to me as a kid. However, there were parts of the known which were also unknown to me at this point in time. No place really stands still just because someone moves away. The universe is always in perpetual motion, forward, changing, developing.

A modern Mermaid sculptured from granite - the old mermaid is in ... China for the moment, had hoped she would have made it home for my visit. However, here is one of her younger cousins.

... Another very modern mermaid, this time of the gene manipulated kind ...
The walk took us to Langelinie, a part of the Copenhagen harbour much visited by my family when we were kids for Sundays walks and energy outlet.

Since then though large appartment buildings full of condominiums have been built and some of the older buildings have been renovated for similar usage. This means that art installations have also been added to the very stark and square surroundings, one of these being a fountain by Bjoern Noergaard, inspired by ...gene-manipulation... the titel:
......................................The Gene Manipulated Paradise.

These sculptures at first glance struck me as being not exactly my cup of tea but in hindsight I am quite sure I will make it for another walk down to sit and contemplate them sometime before I make it back to Canada in October.

.....................................Madonna.............................................

...................................The Pregnant Man ................................

As I am writing this I am on a train, we have just crossed over Lillebaeltsbroen and are now headed north in Jutland to our stop today in Randers. Two seconds ago as I looked out magnificent windmills were gracing the horizon pleasing my eyes at the same time as they were producing clean energy to an unknown number of electricity consumers.

And now I will enjoy the view of green trees, harvested grain fields, cosy villages and somewhat larger centres. This is a magnificent journey into the past and into the future all at the same time.
Pia

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Snails, slugs, a different kind of beauty

2010-08-21T23:48:00.000-07:00

When we were in Hoersholm at Elin Friis' homestudio on Saturday, August 14, 2010 we were really rather fortunate in many, many ways.
We got there and the weather was still dry, we go set up in a very focused short amount of time, we did have a few visitors and ...... For it was very inspiring that this place is actually situated right one the edge of an area of protected forest, Tokkekoeb Hegn.

There were well groomed pathways both for pedestrians, non motorized bikes and horses. The area covers 631 hectares and is magnificently green and luscious.

There are benches and pieceful spots to take a break from a meandering walk or a brisk trot. Lots of wildlife too.

Slugs from my childhood memories, large red and black ones, about two pinkies wide and 3-4 inches long as they were meandering along the path and much shorter when they were protecting themselves or resting somewhere safe

I am quite infatuated with the texture of these beautiful creatures. One of these days I will figure out why it is that they have sort of a saddle around the front part of their bodies and are so different along the back part, flexibility perhaps.

That is surely the case about their 'edges' which help propel them along in their search for mates, food and protection.

One of the black ones, making some kids think they are made from licorise - like my husband's brother who ate one when he was 4 or so and didn't feel too good for the rest of that day.

And last but not least we met this very busy little dung beetle who was working on his pantry project both on our way in when we passed him the first time and on our way back whe he seemed to be at a slight standstill.
As I am looking at these closeups of some of the creatures we share the surface of this planet with I also end up rejoicing at the gravel which inadvertantly show up in photos taken close to the ground, texture close to my heart!

.........................Beach rock and sand from another fresh walk. ............ Pia

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Exhibit in Hoersholm, Denmark

2010-08-16T20:39:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday we had the opportunity to exhibit in Elin Friis's private studio in Hoersholm, just North of Copenhagen. It is situated close to 30 kilometers from Copenhagen and we needed a car as opposed to public transportation to get there.

I had heard about the place but had never been to see it and so when we found the studio/house, really an old farm it was a wondereful surprise to see and feel the surroundings, not to mention the buildings themselves.

Behind those two large windows at the ground floor is the studio in which we had the pleasure to hang up our works.

One of Marilyn's beautiful felted vessels resting peacefully next to Pam's amazing copper crocheted neck piece.

Visitors intently listening to Kelly Marie's poem and watching the slidshow accompanying it. The display of a poem in this way, part listening, part watching a slide show and also having the words on a physical piece of paper in the hand seems to give people who choose to take the time to listen to the work a good experience and allows for questions and contemplation.

Another corner of this gallery, some of Marie's work displayed cosily alongside Marilyn's much admired Dragon Flies on the wall and Pam's Exchange piece had lots of space around it and looked beautiful on the wooden floor.

We had chosen to bring only a few select pieces from our exhibit to hang at the studio for this day since the car we were travelling was not large, but .... It seems to me that the size of the room and the number of pieces we had brought were an absolutely perfect match.
The cows shining on their wall and the tapestries on theirs showed clearly and eloquently.

Our information table, cards, brochures, articles and bios not to mention the guestbook displayed in the entry way.

It also has to be mentioned that when we arrived at Loejeltegaard in the morning we had time to sit down and have a tea with the gallery owner, Elin, who had so gracefully opened her gallery and personal doors to us both in Copenhagen and in now in Hoerholm.
I did not have the presence of mind to take photos during this time of tea and talk with Elin before we went to work in the studio, but .... I am able to visualize the beauty of her garden, the lushnes of the many green hues surrounding us out there on the terasse, with the dog chewing her bone and the sun working on shining its rays through a cloud cover which by the end of the day let down a deluge of wetness.

Peace, Pia

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How things develop and get our creative juices flowing

2010-08-10T14:08:00.000-07:00

Marilyn and Pam had talks about crocheting and interesting vocabulary. Pam had found a new word on the internet which precisely covers what she does when she free form crochets - it is called scrumbeling and we have been using that word for quite a few days now.

In the view of the excitement of the scrumbeling word and the fact that we are all used to using our hands creatively, the fact that Pam had brought a bunch of crochet needles and the fact that Marilyn found a yarn store where she got herself and us some interesting yarn, well, a new exchange project came to life.

We asked anyone visiting us if they would care to crochet a bit on a scrumbeling piece which Marilyn and Pam started out. We had experienced crocheters who sat down and worked away with swiftness of hand and needle, shaping and twirling along.

We had some less experienced fibre enthusiasts who still took to the challenge and kept their tongues straight in their mouths and managed to crochet a nice piece on the now very communal scrumbeling piece which grew by bits and pieces, changing colour whenever a new set of hands picked it up

The hope is that when we exhibit in VaerkstedsGalleriet in Kerteminde next month, we can leave the piece in a basket and any person coming into the gallery will fell inspired and invited to pick up the needle and choose their yarn to crochet for a while.

Whether it will end up as a cape or a cloak remains to be seen, especially since we are hoping to have the same piece going in April 2011, when we do the exhibit showcasing our works at the Craig Gallery in Dartmouth, NS, inspired by the trip which we are right in the middle of experiencing this very moment in time.

And finally the grand finale which we didn't share with you the other day when the piece about the opening was posted. We were given a bottle of champagne and after everyone had left ........ Well we opened up the bottle and ......

It kind of exploded in our faces under much laughter and hooting. Next activity on the list was to clean up the floor and then we toasted and relaxed into the joyful feeling of an opening well attended and full of positive energy.

The days keep rolling by with many new experiences, tomorrow we are heading out on yet another expedition, this time to ... A different part of the country!

Cheers, Pia

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Djed and Nhh

2010-08-08T00:51:00.000-07:00

At the opening on Thursday we were lucky enough to have at least one very keen poetry person, he also happens to be a passionate egyptologist = well versed in anything Egyptian and ancient.
He listened intently to Kelly's poem, paper in hand, and then he continued over to dwell by Marie's words. Before he left the gallery he pulled me aside and told me the following:
There were two different kinds of poetry in ancient Egypt
One is linear, taking you from one place to the next, it is called Djed
The other is rythmically rolling the words along in desciption and contemplation, it is called Nhh, there are no visible vowels in this word, you just at an e sound where you fancy, Jeppe said it sort of like Nhehe.
So what I wanted to say is that in our group of SEVEN we are fortunate to have a Djed poet, Marie and a Nhh poet Kelly, the way it has been in the past and the way it will continue to be in the future. Connections and exchanges, now and then.
Off to the gallery, Pia

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Fernisering and Opening night in Trepkasgade, Copenhagen

2010-08-07T14:30:00.001-07:00

Fourty eight hours ago we were cleaning up at the gallery after the many happy guests who had chosen to come and join us at this event had left us.

The following is perhaps not so much great litterature to read as it will hopefully be eye candy so you can see with your own eyes how delightful, fun and busy evening we had on Thursday night, August 5, 2010.

The window is decorated, examples of what our visitors can expect to feast their eyes upon when they enter the door to the magic wonderland of
Seven - a Group of Six Visual Artists and one Poet
and their take on the words: Exchange/Udveksling

The flags are up and festively waving at people walking, bicycling or driving by, gently inviting them to come and join us for a celebration of the initial exhibit of our big adventure.

We have worked on putting our best foot forward for quite a while and are hoping that we will succeed.

We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of 6pm when the guests will start to arrive.

The first guests to arrive a little early, quite a blessing since we had someone to practise welcoming salutes and art explanations on.t

And as the rooms started to fill up with smiling guests, there were flowers and bottles of wine being places in our surprised and very thankful arms.

Greetings and initial looking over the art work which had grand wall space upon which to shine.

Conversations and thoughts about the pieces, I do believe the thoughtfull looks in this photo comes from checking out three of Deborah's cows peacefully hanging alongside each other on the wall.

Discussing prices on pieces, for after the show has finished its tour in Denmark and has returned to Canada, anyone who has fallen in love with one or several of the pieces can choose to purchase it/them and have it/them shipped back to Denmark.

Business and talk time in the middle room by the sink where more flowers were being put into vases and by the table where chips and grapes, fluid and chewy ones were being thoroughly enjoyed as well as the beautiful eye candy pieces from Angela Melanson, which received many admiring glances and looks, not to mention many words of high praise.

And here we are at the end of the evening, all guests have gone home and we are feeling rather tired but also very, very happy and thankful that so many people turned up, so many questions were asked and so many conversations about art, creative expression and its necessity for a happy life had taken place.

It has taken us a few days to post this, phew, for the next morning we were a little tired since ...we were invited out for a beer after closing and didn't get any shut-eye until 02am the next morning, for me at least an amazing feat to last that long before collapsing.

Cheers, Pia

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The Fuzziness of a Summer Saturday morning

2010-07-24T07:53:00.000-07:00

This morning puppy Freia and I went for a walk, how could we not, when she asked me so sweetly to do so.
I held her leash in one hand and my new camera ready to shoot in the other hand. These little dudes grow all the way at the very edge of the ashfalt all the way down the road and all summer long their fuzzballines makes a person want to roll in them and feel the softness

We were on the hunt for......... each our preferences of texture for the eye and interest for the nose.

Then there were these textures, which I hadn't really noticed at first. The dog discovered a broken egg at the side of the road and .... then when I looked around to see where it could possibly have come from I saw the answer, about 10 meters away out towards the water on the salt grass, a nest from some duck or perhaps one of the geese living across the street. It looked abandoned and very vulnerable right there in the open.

My neighbour's very soft and inviting happy summer sheep, enjoying the freedom of plentiful pasture.

Next thing I saw was ..... a troll, a goddess, another beautiful face from Mother Nature. Cattails are such interesting plants, when their 'seedpod' explodes you never know what it will look like. And before they explode, they are smoothe, cool and collected, a perfect example of 'correctness'.

Many years ago a friend of mine wrote an article about the haptic sense, the sense which allows us to know (approximately) what something we are looking at will feel like. It isn't always giving us the right answer and surprise can be plentiful when you actually do touch something, and it is completely different from the initial expectation in your brain and fingertips.

Like when you have the opportunity to hold or touch a snake, that is a surprise.
What was alway interesting to see was how people at markets or fairs were immediately attracted to even 1 quiviut scarf in my exhibited woven pieces of many different kinds, if there was one quiviut amongst them.... it would be the first touched an the most touched.

How come two such pink beauties both can be so prickly - how come pink is so associated with sweetness and cuteness when..... in actual fact there are so many pointy parts to at least these plants!

Some Queen Anne's Lace, I often wonder what it would be like to be an elf and wander about on top of them.
This flower also reminds me of hollunderbeeren - hyldebærblomster - and their sweet smell and taste, for invigorating cooling summer drinks and warm winter comfort in snowstorms. The english name is right behind and will get here I hope before the blog is done.

It reminds me of Elderberry blossoms, there it was - the name =-)

Then there was a corn field with enticing textures. The little cool silky tufts sticking up out of the developing corn cobs, the flowering tops and all the beautiful greeness promising an abundance of yellowness, the ripe grains of the corn and the butter we must lather on the steaming hot cobs when we enjoy them in just a little while during joyful summer get-togethers or easy evening meals.

As a final note on this post I have to say, I am so happy that everything is almost ready for the big trip starting up on this coming Thursday, I could walk the walk with peace in my inner core this morning, enjoy the sun, the dog, the camera, the textures without being haunted about thoughts of what I ought to have been doing instead.
Copenhagen here I come, oh, I should say, Copenhagen and Kerteminde here we come!

Green tapestry

2010-07-14T08:58:00.000-07:00

And this then is another experiment from the Ipad. Once again I have to say that is it quite a blessing that all my weaving is done and ready to pack in the crate, the first step of the shipping takes place on Friday when the shipping company pics up the 2.3 cubic meter crate full of our (SEVEN) work. tomorrow at noon we will get together and fill up the crate and seal it.

For now though I will talk about the green tapestry which was the first one of the two I wove for the exhibits in Copenhagen, Hoersholm and Kerteminde 2010.

- first I studied the walls around my property - this is the east side of the barn wall, covered in tar shingles, some of them starting to disintegrate a bit and thus letting the old wood planks have the opportunity for peaking out.

Then I wove a small sample sample piece which helped me better decide the colour choices I needed to make.

Next there was the yarn choices to use for the 'real' thing and the cartoon to enlarge, since the angles and shapes on this perticular piece were not as 'relaxed' as for other pieces I had made.

The weaving could begin and off I went filling up the empty warp threads
This was an exciting piece since I had decided that I wanted the lower corners to be 'cut off' rather than square. The corners which I knew would dissappear were filled in with a hard stiff brown wool, which could easily be removed when the piece came off the loom and the edges were ready for braiding and tucking under.

The green piece moved along nicely. What was especially intersting for me was, that I am not really all that fond of the colour green and thus I needed extra contemplation time every now and again to make sure that this was really the way it needed to go.

Tucking under and braiding loose linen warp ends in order to create a nice and even finished edge at the top and the bottom of the piece. Weaving takes time, patience is a must :-)

The finished piece, Green Wall, 74cm x 95cm - not exactly giant, but definately large enough to have taken quite a long time to get it done with all the little steps which one has to dance in order to make it all into a whole.

And this ... Is it for now, now where is the post button?????

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Dyeing the windows!

2010-07-11T19:16:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I had this long plan in my head with specific and precise information and a gizilion photos of steaming dyepots with different wools in mind ..... but perhaps I had better look at my timerestraints, for they truly do exist these days and only do one of the dye explanations before I put up the tapestry.
The thing is ..... when I weave tapestry I like to see what the yarn wants to happen rather than being in full control of every square millimeter. As you saw on the previous post in the water colour painting the window panes, reflecting the drawn curtains inside my window did have a rather intriguing and fluent colour motion in them. This worried me a lot and I was trying to combine my knowledge of both this and that into something that would make sense in the decision making of how I wanted the windowframes to look and 'feel'.

Then suddenly what sprang into my mind was a sock yarn dye workshop which I once took from my good friend Marilyn Rand (who is bringing her fabulous silk fusion pictures, sculpture and some felted pieces to Denmark with me and the rest of SEVEN) Marilyn's workshop was on how to dye yarns yourself so you automatically knit a pattern in your socks without having 4 balls of yarn hanging out from behind 5 different needles. And then I knew .....

I have two hooks above my kitchen door from which I hang, ..... well stuff, they are a door width apart. In the living room I have two nails over the wide glasdoors into the tv-room, where usually the christmas tree lights hang to decorate the entry way in the dark season and thus I had all the tools needed for making a 29 feet skein of yarn.
I only wound about 20 rounds of 29 feet, for I had to do several skeins to be sure that I had what I wanted. I sectioned off the skein and folded the 'ends' of each section towards each other until I had almost an octopus. I had 12 or 16 arms on each octopus.
These creatures I died very yellow and once that had happened I picked out my sections to over dye with red and which sections to over dye with burgundy. I left every other 'arm' yellow since I knew that I wanted a yellow background with the red and burgundy being .... whatever they wanted to be, I hadn't quite seen it yet.

By dyeing the yarn like this I was able to put aside some of the responsibility of how these windows were supposed to look - since I would have to go with the flow of the yarn, always making sure that the yellow was the background and would cover each shape satisfactorily to separate them all from each other.

All the red squares are very square and straight to weave but the window panes were very wavy and never on a straight horizontal line. It was fun to work with two such different images in the same piece. I also had to use the beating fork extensively when I wove the whole piece with the windows in it since there were no straight lines, as opposed to the bottom part, where the wall is all red and by evenly traveling back and forth across the piece, using the beater is a grand way to keep yourself on the straight and narrow.

Every once in a while I had to move the tapestry down and roll it onto the bottom beam in order not to hurt my arms and back from reaching up + to make more room in the shed where I need to lay in the weft threads. Before each move down though I also had to get to the back of the loom to tug into safety all the little ends which appear when you tapestry weave, since one is not able to use a large shuttle as we normally do on the big floor looms. I work with nice little very handy butterflies which slide through easily.

And here we are the grand finale, I have braided under the linen warp threads so they make a nice edge and hold the tapestry together at the same time and the wide bias tape will be sewed on to the top and the bottom of the piece, so I can slide rods through them in order to hang and display the piece nicely.

In my next life I will take a photography class so I can learn how to take photos nicely and properly of my work. This is the finished tapestry hanging from two of the aforementioned hooks which helped me wind the 29 feet long skeins of yarn for the window panes. The piece is done, along with its green sibling it is ready to head to Denmark in just a couple of weeks from now and will be shown to ...... anyone who would care to come to Basal Elin Kunst or to Kerteminde to rest their eyes upon it for a little while and feel ..... exactly whatever it is that it will make the viewer feel or experience. This is my outside house wall, hope it can stir some of the same happy feelings for other people as it does for me, when I walk out to the sheep and see it, or watch the guinea cock and his little black hen meander by through these windows. They have seen a lot!

The piece measures 117cm x 95 cm it is called Red Wall, and was woven for the exhibit Exchange/Udveksling 2010 in Copenhagen, Hørsholm and Kerteminde, Denmark

The Red Tapestry

2010-07-10T04:11:00.001-07:00

The colours of the rainbow is what tickles me pink every day. Especially RED can make my heart sing so when we decided to do the Exchange/Udveksling show with SEVEN I saw the opportunity to exchange and explore some of the colours and the textures surrounding me right here on the farm. Some years ago we painted the house red with blue trim, the barn green with red trim and the shed blue with green trim. We are surrounded by our very own rainbow every day. This last tapestry which came off the loom the other week has all the red in it my heart could ever desire - and the reds came about through kilometers of plying single wools and silks together and then watching the hue and colour in each skein as they took up the dye in the dye bath - to get a better grip on the actual vision which had been humming around in my head I did this watercolour painting to help me stay focused and not forget where I was going.

Celebratory cake

2010-07-03T09:27:00.001-07:00

And I figured it out or rather Soren did and now I can blog with photos from my iPad fabulous !
Have a grand weekend everyone , stay hydrated and cool!