Flaming

The pace of production that I've wanted for a long time to achieve appears finally to be close at hand.  Turns out it depends on a number of factors meshing cooperatively and steadily; not sure why I'm feeling so surprised about that, and I'm certainly aware of a place in my mind that reminds me more than I like that it could all go to hell in a handbasket at any moment.  I try -- mostly successfully -- to pay no attention to that dismal outlook.

On Thursday I delivered to Raven Rocks Gallery at Greenbank Farm two new scarves -- the first of four in the "Flame" series.

The warp is a rough, earthy hand-dyed silk noil; the one on the left (#1) is woven with a doubled strand of very fine hand-dyed silk noil and has a crunchy substantive hand.  The weft for the righthand one (#2) is a fine tencel, so the pattern, when the light hits it just right, shimmers in and out of view.  I like that.  Last evening I went to the First Friday gallery walk at the Farm, and enjoyed seeing people's reaction to them.  Also enjoyed seeing how the colors glow under the strong, angled gallery lighting.  I took the above picture in my studio with my digital camera; I'm hoping to get Michael Stadler to shoot these and some other recent work before long.

Here's the warp and the next scarf in process -- it's already about two-thirds done.  The weft is a fine black wool wrapped with an even finer red metallic strand.  The pattern is quite subtle, and the glitter of the metallic will help to accentuate it.  I think.

Yes, it's hard to see the pattern; trust me, it's there.  One repeat stretches for eleven inches, so the 72-inch (approximately) scarf won't have many iterations.  The fourth and final one will be woven with a bright red tencel -- I'm looking forward to seeing the end of this warp.  The next one will be a break from my norm -- a creamy bamboo warp which will be woven with a tone-on-tone series of weft yarns.  

Off to the house to make a dessert for dinner with friends.  Tomorrow, if it quits raining, I'll work in  my vegetable garden and spend some time (rain or not) on the couch with a cat and a book.  Bliss indeed.