I taught a Frida Hansen Open Warp Transparency workshop in Philadelphia from May 10-12. I had a super group of enthused and diligent students. Can you see that the guild building behind us in this photo is painted like a textile?
I stayed with Linda Perry during the class, who took such good care of me. One morning she said, “What would you like for lunch?” Anything is fine, I truthfully answered. “Would you like a roasted beet and carrot salad with quinoa?” I could hardly believe my good luck. Her graciousness, and that of her husband Tom, made every moment easy and fun.
Linda was smitten with the Frida Hansen bird image, and she is going to make it in her own style. It will be a blue jay, woven in Delft-like shades of blue and white, surrounded by leaves in shades of pink.
Fanny Lee came from New York. She was extra committed to finishing a sample before the end of class on Sunday because she needed to break down her pipe loom for the train trip back to the city. Other students assured her she could surely just carry it on the train, but she finished her lovely Frida rose in yellows just in time.
Lars Shimabukuro wove a floral design of their own, all the while thinking of how this technique might be used in a future piece, as woven connecting pieces for an ambitious and interesting larger installation.
Lori Falbo chose to weave a part of the rose tree from Frida Hansen’s Sommernatts Drøm [Summer Night’s Dream].
Charlene Marietti designed her own flower and (extra points!) spun and dyed her own yarn for the green and gold colors. She used a bundle of two strands. Sometimes the edges of woven portions in this technique don’t lie as nicely when weaving with more than one strand. Charlene didn’t have that problem with her two thin strands. She wrote afterwards, “I’m probably a bit OCD about selvedges (not that they’re ever perfect!), but I like to make sure that when I’m weaving with more than one strand of yarn that the yarns are parallel when the bundle makes the turn—which eliminates the twist/bump that can result.” The pink blossoms were woven with two strands of Paternayan yarn, which she didn’t think worked quite as well.
A few days after class ended, Charlene finished her flower and sent a photo to our class group. She said, “The reason for two-toned borders top and bottom and the two-warp fillers: didn’t dye enough of the yarn I used for the warp so used an alternate dyed in the same dye bath and added the middle two-warp spots to pull the colors together.”
Mawussi Simmons wove a Frida rose in a pink that made my heart glad each time I passed it — so bright and vibrant. Check out her interesting weighted fork.
Angela Kalmus wove on a dark warp. We learned during the process of making the cartoon for her sample that if the warp you are looking through is dark, the cartoon really needs to be bright and light to see the lines while working. It worked well to color in the areas left unwoven with a dark marker. Her simple border of circles and squares is going to be smashing.
A whole chunk of my photos from the workshop mysteriously disappeared! It made me set new rules for my documentation during upcoming workshops – to take photos at a set time each day and make sure they are there. I don’t have any photos of Donna Ritter’s piece, which just means you’ll have to wait for her to finish her Frida rose.
More photos to come!