Corporate workshops and other worthwhile fun

Things are moving a little slowly right now. I am in between one busy season and another. This time next week, things will be hopping again. For now, I started taking my watercolor class again today. I have a project planned and it is a fiber still life. I have probably posted the picture I intend to use, but will attach it to this e-mail, so you can see it.
Yesterday, I did a fiber demonstration at Innsbrook for the corporate folks there. It seems the Cultural Arts Center at Glen Allen is offering corporate workshops. This is an opportunity for artists to come in for an hour or two and give "duck and punch" art/craft sessions. It helps refresh and revive personnel at seminars, and can be used for team building. I had a great time at
"The Place". Food was catered by Expressions. They actually sponsored the event and the food was wonderful!!!
The Cultural Arts Center at Glen Allen is really good about community outreach and very open to ideas about class offerings. They are good people.
In addition to visual art, they are very supportive of the performing arts, and the performances I have been to there, were worth every penny spent!
Thanks for inviting me CACaGA!
Cherri

Who is Lysle?

Hi.
I want to say that I spend most days completely immersed in weaving, felting, fiber art, and tallit. It's my job, and I produce it, teach about it, study it, learn it, and build my websites about it, so when I am with a friend from outside that, in an environment outside it, I can be dense.
A friend of mine, from completely outside my professional world, commented on having visited my blog, and asked who Lysle is. I was completely blank. I have been married for 20 years, and live in the country, fairly isolated from a large circle of friends, so I usually can flip through my memory bank, and figure these things out. Well, Marvin asked about Lysle (mentioned in my last entry), and I was still thinking about the kids at church, and the realm in which I know Marvin, and then I jumped over to the blog, and have been chronicling my tallit deadlines, and just couldn't come up with an answer.
When I re-visited my blog, there was Lysle, with a lovely superwash merino warp on him, so I must explain.
I own a swedish loom called a Lyllstina. Like some other weavers I know, I shortened that to Lilly, and thought I would be quite content to call my little swedish girl lilly. Not so. Turns out that I have never named a loom before, and this one just became more of a male persona, so I named it Lysle. The "i" sound is a long vowel and the 's' is silent, so it rhymes with crocodile. That's who Lysle is. I do weave tallitot on Lysle, but right now, I am weaving a piece of cloth that I am embroidering on as I weave. Just enjoying some few days of freedom before the schedule begins to 'log jam' this fall.
Will write more later.
Cherri

Life after commissions

MMMMMMM, I am sooooo chillin'. I spent 2 days just working out the kinks from working so hard this summer. This afternoon, I looked at Lysle, and he still had a little warp on him, so I decided to throw good money after bad and weave off the waste. Who cares that there isn't enough warp to actually make anything. Well, perhaps a yard of fabric, but what to do with that?
Doesn't matter that it's fairly expensive suprerwash merino either. Because in fact, we weave because we can..... Am I right?
It's like when I'm knitting. I'm not making a thing but busy hands. If something results, it probably wasn't due to a conscious effort.

Oh, here are pics of the waste. It's not lovely, but it feels good, and maybe one day it will be a part of some pieced work. Well, Lysle awaits.

The calm after the storm

AAAAHHHHH, It's quiet. The loom is still, and the stress level reduced to a lull for a classic type A. All the commissions are filled, and I can finally take care of some of the day to day things. Housekeeping is #1 on my list. Both literally and figuratively. My home has needed my attention for 2 months, and now is the time. Similarly, my websites have needed updating, my advertising has fallen to nil, etc.
Yesterday was spent finally putting together the essentials for the residency this fall. I'm working in 2 Richmond City Schools to share my love of the fiber arts with a core group of 1st graders. Hooray! We will have a kick-off at the local children's museum, and then 6 weeks of working in the school system with those kids, and their teachers. We will have a teacher's workshop where the teachers will make some felt jewelry. I am really looking forward to this;0)
And those of you who know me, know I love this age group. It's the same age kids I work with at church.

If you are looking for any of my classes, yahoo has an event based site, here: http://upcoming.yahoo.com that lists events by geographical area. My events are listed under maidensweaver. You actually have to join the group, and then click on "my friend's events". I try to keep it current.

I have someone looking for a daytime, weekday spinning class out here in Goochland. If you are interested, please let me know and I will put something together. Right now, I still need 2 more people to offer the class. It would be a 2 hour class, once a week for about 8 weeks.

I gotta go. Oh, I forgot to mention, I am adding some links to the "links" section of this blog. Check out the Lady of the Loom, OK?
Cherri

complete!

Voila' It's done! Now, to rush to the Post office....Oh, I guess I need to calm down enough to install the tzit-zit.
Here are the pics.
C

more pics of W. tallit

Additional pics of the W. tallit.

W. tallit

Still striving on this tallit. It is past deadline, and I will have to "overnight" it today. Here are a few pics of it in progress yesterday, as I discovered that it was unable to be completed over the weekend, which meant re-measuring the warp,and starting over. A very auspicious time for fresh starts?
C

Pics of the W. tallit

As you know, every weaving project brings us face to face with different challenges. This tallit is supposed to be woven already, and today, I find there is now way I can do it on the current warp....The solution? Remeasure all the warp, re-dress the loom, and weave an entirely new tallit! Good thing I love what I do, huh?
Well, the warp is measured, wound onto the loom, and in the process of being pulled through the heddles. Ahem....you know how long that takes, and the heddles are tightly stretched texsolve heddles..... Why me oh Lord?
Well, here are the pics of the flawed tallit. I gotta get back to the loom.
Cherri

The wait....... and the W. tallit

Ohhhhh, this is the most excruciating time. The tallit was delivered and signed for at 2:18 pm today, and I haven't yet heard anything. Hopefully, I will get an e-mail telling me that it is exactly as they envisioned it. Or better yet, that I have exceeded expectations.......

And I am half way through the W. tallit. It is supposed to go in the mail tomorrow. I haven't even had time to shoot pics on that one. It's a natural white colored base tallit, with burgundy, navy and eggplant stripes, with the zig zag pattern.

It's beautiful. The client asked for it to be a little shorter than some of the others, so I assume she is petite. As a result, I have woven the tallit in 2 differnt weights. The central 2/3 of the tallit are woven in a lighter than lace weight yarn, while the ends are woven in a true lace weight. . This way, it has the wonderful weight of a nice merino tallit, but also has that light drapey feel, even though it is a little shorter than some tallitot. It also means it won't bunch up as much at the neck when she pleats it, or when it scrunches up. Clients don't usually know about these little details, but they make all the difference in whether they are satisfied, or delighted.

I aim for delight!

Well, it's late, and I have to weave that tallit relatively early in the morning. I hope to shoot pics of it before I ship it, but don't know that time will allow it. Have a good night, and I'll let you know when I hear from the most recent tallit recipient.

Cherri

Next tallit - W

Now that the G. tallit is done, I'm on to the next. The W. tallit must be completed today, or tomorrow. I have to ship it out for a Sat. or Mond. delivery. This will be fast and furious, so I will probably just post the pics at the end of each day. There is not a lot of custom work associated with this tallit, so it should be very quick.
Talk later.
C

AHHHHH, Last post on G. tallit

Here are the finished pics of the G. Tallit.
You can see the Beracha on the atarah, the corner reinforcers, the shamash in the tzit-zit, and the silk lined bag and kippot.
This is handspun, and handwoven! What an honor it is to weave this holy garment.
Is there a Beracha for completing the making of a tallit?
cherri

atarah being sewn on

Ok, down to the last little bit. Here I am sewing the atarah onto the tallit. I have only to deal with the fringes.
Were I a vain woman, i couldn't send this pic. It's awful, but it's about my work, not my blinding good looks...hahaha!
C.

kippah and bag

tallit with bag

So far, the bag and tallit are complete. I need to sew the kippah to the lining, and sew the atarah on. Hopefully, I will get this in the mail by 3. This looks great!
C.

corner reinforcers

The corner reinforcers are attached, and now, on to the atarah.
C.

kippah photos

Here are pics of the kippah. I still need to sew in the lining. The corner reinforcers are next, than the atarah.
c

just pics

tallit pics.....finally it's off the loom!!!

Here is the long awaited G. tallit. I removed it from the loom about an hour ago. I still need to wet finish it, clip the kippah from it, cut and assemble the kippah, attach the atarah to the tallit, and sew the lining into the tallit bag.
Let's see, tonight I will wet finish, finish the bag, and must leave the rest to tomorrow, when.....hopefully the tallit is dry.
Then I can cut the kippah and assemble it.
It must be shipped by 3 pm tomorrow. I really need to get this done in time.
I will be uploading more later into the evening.
C

kippah

Here is a picture of the kippah, still attached to the tallit as both have just been removed from the loom.
I will be uploading the tallit pics in a minute.
C

tallit bag

I'm down to the last 24 hours on this tallit set. So there will probably be a flurry of pics and posts. Here is the first today.
This is the tallit bag in the making. I'm wondering if I should leave the fringe, or make the bag without the fringe. The size is flexible right now also, as I won't know the exact size that's correct, until I get the tallit off the loom, and see how bulky it is to fold.
I will post later.
Cherri

almost completed the atarah

Hi,
I am almost finished the atarah. Then I will finish weaving the tallit, and sew the atarah, corner reinforcers, and the tallit bag.
Tomorrow, I will do the bag and finishe all embroidery. Monday finish weaving, and make the kippah and assemble everything.
Tues. I ship. Check back.
Cherri