spaces available in Thurs. night weaving class

We have a weaving class starting Thurs. night at the Visual Art Center of Richmond. We meet from 6:30 - 9:00 pm and there are openings! Please join us for this 4 week session. In that time, you can learn to dress a loom, and weave off a project. We work on 8 harness Leclerc floor looms. There is a mix of new weavers (never woven before) and returning weavers, so no matter what your experience level, you will feel right at home.
Come join us.
804.353.0094
Thanks!

make a hat with a friend as a holiday gift!

Did you know you can buy a 3-4 person hat or rug felting workshop as a holiday gift? Here is how it works. You buy 3 or 4 gift hatfelting certificates for the amount of the workshop ($85.00 ea) and I print them out. You then confer with the recipients of the gifts, and book a date to take the class together. It's loads of fun. You lay out your design, and felt up your hat. Then you block and shape the hats as we all try different shapes and styles, laughing and playing together in this fun workshop. It's always a great time!
These workshops are from 10 am - 4 pm. Can be booked on a Saturday or weekday.
Dates are currently open for Dec. and Jan., for friends to gather and make hats. We do these in Goochland at my home, where we have access to all of my materials and supplies, instead of the limited supply I can bring to traveling workshops. Join me!
Here are a couple of fun hats from my workshops.

felting at Bay school - christmas tree

Here is an image of the type of felt rug we will be making at Bay school of the arts in Nov. The class was requested by some of my felting students who wanted to make a similar rug.
Hope you like it, and feel inspired to take the class. I will be leaving Richmond at 8 am, if anyone needs a ride,e-mail me.
Cherri

a few more photos

Hi, I came across another picture of the hat in the previous post. This is it's original styling. Of course, the hats get re-fashioned fairly often if they don't get sold right away. I just love to alter them, and re-shape them. Also is a picture of one of my felt wall hangings. It is called "Brookview at Night". It's a representation of teh organic farm who's website I do. It's also one of the very few signed felt pieces I've done.
Cherri

upcoming classes

I've got a very busy schedule for the end of Oct and through Nov. If you are interested in taking a class to learn to make felt hats, I have several hatfelting classes in Virginia. There is one Oct. 27, in Mathews, Va. We will be wetfelting hats from wool roving. Students will have the opportunity to make either berets, or broad brimmed hats. I am also offering that class at Crossroads Art Center on Staples Mill Rd, in Richmond In Nov. 12. Thats a Monday. We will be there from 10 am - 4 pm. The following Monday, I will be teaching rug felting at Crossroads Art Center. For either of the Crossroads classes, you need to contact me for registration. that's maidensweaver@earthlink.net

I'm teaching hatfelting at the Visual Art center of Richmond on 11/3, but that class is full, although the Cultural Art Center at Glen Allen has my hatfelting class on 11/10. It is not full yet.

Rug felting on 11/17 at Visual art center of Richmond and the last time I checked, there were 2 openings for that class if you can't get an opening at Visarts, you might still find an opening for rug felting at the Cultural Art Center at Glen Allen. The rugfelting there is on Dec. 1.

One last mention of the felting classes. I have a class in Mathews to felt a rug like my Christmas Tree rug. It is called "Oh Christmas Tree". It also had openings. You don't have to felt the Christmas tree, but it was a class put together by special request, so I will be showing how it was done.

My weaving classes at The Visual Art Center of Richmond have openings for the Nov. Session. I hope to get 3 more people in that class. It meets on Thurs. nights from 6:30 - 9:00 pm. I had an opening occur briefly for the Roseneath studio, but it was filled from the 'waiting list'. I know several of you are still looking for openings there, and I am still trying to get additional studio space there. Glen Allen has 2 openings for weavers, and we will be starting a couple of spinners there on sunday afternoons also. If you are interested in spinning lessons, e-mail me at maidensweaver@earthlink.net

The Visual Art Center of Richmond also still has openings in the spinning class for Monday nights beginning Nov. 12 and continueing through Dec. 3, i think. This class is for beginners or intermediates. We keep the classes small enough to offer very personal instruction to everyone.

I think that covers it. I think I have some pics of handfelted hats to add to this. I will see if there is anything else. Stay in touch.
Cherri

Oh, one more thing. My church does a re-enactment of Bethlehem the night Jesus was born. It's called Bethlehem Walk, and is wonderful. You can catch it in December (15,16,17 I think) on Broad St. Rd.just west of the Food Lion on the South side of Broad St. e-mail me with questions.
C.

Spinning yarns from the spinning wheel

This class started tonight at the Visual Art Center of Richmond. It is a small group - 3 students. Two people came in with their own wheels, and the third's is coming from Louet in a week or so. One student is a returning student. She is doing well with her spinning, but not finding time enough, as she is in a masters program right now. The other two are very new, but both have tried drop spindling.
As usual, the new spinners didn't feel adept at what they were doing, but both were doing quite well by the end of the class. The one with her own wheel spent some portion of class working on the center's wheel. When I got a chance, I checked out her wheel, got it going, and she switched to her own wheel, and had great success with is. I suspect both students will return with a
voracious desire to spin more.
It is fun teaching the fiber arts and my life is very fulfilled at the moment. Take care, and I'll be back.
Cherri

Gospel, Rock-a-billy, Bluegrass?

Ha,Ha,Ha! Last night I went out to a Valerie Smith and Liberty Pike band concert at The Cultural Arts Center at Glen Allen.
It was soooo funny.....fun. I went into it without a clue who this band was, but they were billed as gospel, rock-a-billy, bluegrass???? Sorry, come again?
Well, they do some pieces similar to "Down to the River to Pray" in "Oh, Brother Where Art Thou?", and Valerie Smith is the most 'high energy' musician I have ever seen. I like her singing voice, but the band has this technique of crowding the mike, and then moving back and forth closer and farther away from the mike that 'works' well, except Valerie has the vocal power of a fog horn. It just didn't seem like there was enough room in the place for little Valerie, and her BIG voice.
Then, Becky Buller, another musician in the group came to the mike, and is sounded like the sound guys turned the mike off?! What in the-----?!?
Valerie was on stage, switching off several different instruments, as are the other band members, but she is bouncing around, clogging and just pumped with energy and never missing a beat musically.
It was more than I am used to. Most concerts for me are laid back old mellow rock, or classical...even some jazz. I just wasn't ready for this rock-a-billy bluegrass stuff.
The group was definitely worthy of a much larger audience. The auditorium was only 1/3 full, and some crackpot in the middle of the auditorium wouldn't shut up making cracks about the warm up musician, so after the brief intermission, there wasn't another person sitting within 10 feet of him.
I checked out their music online, and it's much more traditional sounding than the booming and fading they did last night. And Becky has some very nice pieces also. All in all, my favorite was a piece called buzzed. Itunes has it, but if you want a sample of the song at itunes, you won't get it because the piece they chose to use as a sampling of Buzzed is just band member intros?
Oh well, they won't be back in Richmond in '07, but I definitely reccomend them if you like Blue grass. You can find out more here: http://www.valeriesmithonline.com/
Toodles for now.
I have to go to church, and then teach my Sunday afternoon weaving class.
Cherri

Gospel, Rock-a-billy, Bluegrass?

walking the nickle bridge

Ok, so I've been a Richmonder all my life. I remember when the nickle bridge was a nickel (and I say that, which all old Richmonders do). I walked across it today because I wanted to take pictures while the water was very low, and the rocks were sunbathing. I love sunbathing rocks. They are so shameless, revealing EVERYTHING!. Well, here are a couple of the nudes of the rocks in the James.

images of daily life

As you can see, I am still weaving off that warp I used for the last tallit. This is a piece of merino fabric that is embroidered as it is woven. Some of the embroidery ends are actually woven is as weft, to validate the fact that the weaving and embroidery are integral. Probably just important to me. So, in general, I am having fun. Tomorrow, back to the grind. Good thing I like 'the grind':0)
This is the green and blue scarf I took off the loom today:
Another watercolor just waiting to be painted:
Here are some pics of the beauty in my daily life and some of ongoing work now that the commission glut is over.
These are the morning glories at my parents house. It is enriching just to walk up to the door and see these beauties, but I have almost always felt that about blue morning glories.

Would you like a cuppa?

Folks, I have just discovered a wonderful treasure in Richmond. We have a delightful tearoom. My parents and I went to a quaint little victorian house on Morris St. for tea today and were pleasantly surprised. The tearoom is called Cuppa Tea.
It's owned by VMI graduate, Alan Wagner and his wife Lurline. You may order a cuppa, or 'tea'. There are a variety of selections of 'tea', including cream, luncheon, asian, or dessert. Cream is basically a scone and clotted cream, luncheon is several savory selections (sandwiches/canape), a sweet (scone), and your cuppa, asian is a dim sum plate and dessert is (ahem) as you would expect, several dessert selections and a cuppa. They have a variety of wonderful tea blends and the ambiance is fairly flawless.
Please treat yourself and visit these kind folks and if you enjoy yourself, I will be expecting an invitation to join you next.
Here is a link, so you can plan your visit: http://www.cuppateacompany.com/
Have fun!
Cherri

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