I went, I saw, I had FUN!

The Taos Fiber Marketplace was a complete delight! The whole event was set-up so nicely, run in a very professional manner, PR was excellent and I'm ready to go back again next year!


I was invited to participate in this show and was so thrilled to be a part of it. I have wonderful memories and look forward to seeing everyone next year!

During this time at the show, and for about a week+ before, I was able to mend up from my sciatica and can weave again! I will have to change places around the studio more often to give myself a break from any one movement or position, but I'm soooo happy to be weaving again. I am continuing on a sofa throw on Doris and starting a baby blanket on The Old Structo! I'm so happy to be weaving again.

Also, I wanted to mention that, down near the bottom of my blog, near my pageviews, above my "Well...the Cat's out of the bag photo"....you can see a slide show.....check it out!

And this is what I see outside my studio windows! Have a happy spring....live every day as though it is new and every flower as the wonder of nature that it is.....I'm sending you Miles and Miles of Smiles, Cat B.

Okay, Taos...here I come!

This post comes with instructions....COME TO TAOS! This weekend, there's a lovely new event taking place and I am sooooooooo glad that I was invited to be a part of it!

Here's more instructions....LOOK FOR THIS BOOTH!

Really, look for this booth at the Taos Convention Center....it's mine and, if you can come to Taos this weekend, you will find this booth all set up and stuffed with my handwoven yardage, stoles, blankets, scarves and Raggy Cat Pin Cushions!


There is so much for going on at this event that you just can't MISS it!

Make your plans now...no, not just to see so me....though that would be FUN,

But to see the whole event:
April 20th, 21st and 22nd
Taos Fiber Marketplace
Taos Convention Center 
Friday andSaturday, 9-6 
Sunday, 9-2


Here's the link to their website:  http://www.taosfibermarketplace.com/


Okay, here MORE instructions.....if you see this face...come say "HI" ! ! ! ! !

My sciatica is getting better every day now and I'm looking forward to this event....I'll be very careful with moving boxes and setting up and will do my best to be healthy enough to weave when I get back to the studio!

I hope to see you there and, until later, I'm sending those Miles and Miles of Smiles!!!!!

I'm stopped...

This has been really difficult, but I've not been able to weave now for about a week....and when I was trying last week, the pain grew increasingly intolerable....I'm totally stopped. I've got a lovely blanket in progress on Doris and I am done with the stole order on The Old Structo, so I would love to be able to start weaving a baby blanket on it. Margaret is in the process of getting a new soft white warp dummied-on to her old green warp and I haven't even tied back on Hazle, Grace or Stanley...they just have blankets draped over their front beams....

The tulips and the daffs are busier that I am!

I have put more items into my Etsy Shop and I'm happy to say that I finally added some of my fiber art.

I don't like to whine, but I cannot even work in the garden.

Things are starting to improve, but I still have a painful time just sitting on a weaving bench.

Oh, yeah, guess, if I'm whining and moaning, I might say what I have...It is sciatica.

I've had it once before and it totally stopped me then, too. But I was being so careful about how I moved and sat during some very long hours with the stole....I thought I was doing okay.

The stole came off without a hitch. I had 16 wefts to weave in on a constantly changing order.

Here are ONE of the trays of colors.

I would weave all from the right tray, this one, then all from the left tray.


Yes, there are some wild and crazy wefts in here, but the client was fun and adventurous and we just WENT for it!

Here was the left tray.

Needless to say, the weaving went very, very slowly compared to how I can weave off a yard in an hour on some of my looms!

I weave on The Old Structo for all of my stoles, because, since it's rather a slow friend, I feel more calm and patient if I'm doing stoles on it.

I think it's okay to show here...

I'm carrying up ALL the colors on the selvedges!

I have 8 going up one side and 7 going up the other side.

I used a big craft needle to sew the threads into the fringe area prior to twisting the fringe...the few that you see there (lilac) I had to put in as I stitched the hemstitch because I would not have been able to sew them in...they would have stretched out to nothing...

I didn't get a photo of the finished stole. I decided, because I'm getting ready for a show in Taos, that I would photograph IF the buyer decided that the stole was not right for her.

They loved the stole!

But....no photo.

I try to "bloom where I'm planted", so, when weaving HAD to stop so I could heal, I decided to use the time well. I added a bunch of items to my Etsy Shop. I've got my fiber art up there, more scarves, more yardage and tons and tons of This-N-Thats. I would like to show some of my scarves here instead of in some of my pages (where I show things for sale).

This photo shows a 'batch' of my scarves...I call them Camille Scarves.

These scarves are made to give away as part of a service project that my guild has taken on.

These scarves go to chemo patients at a cancer treatment facility in Albuquerque.

I had crocheted a bunch of them and, as they lay over the back of a rocking chair on the living room, I must admit, I felt a sense of pride that I was helping in such a worthy cause.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/97536640/crochet-scarves

As I looked, I began to realize that there was over $40 in yarns there...I want to continue to contribute to this project, but decided it might be a good thing if I started making some scarves to sell, just to help me fund the ones I give away.

So, I began to look for good quality wool fibers to make the same 'version' of this scarf, but for sale.

I have priced them reeeeeeeeeeeally low, just the cost of the yarn times 2, so I can fund the other scarves. I don't know how well it will go over, but I have these crochet scarves over in my Etsy Shop, and....I'll see how they sell, if at all, but, it's worth a try, right?

Which brings me to a point where I want to mention that I've changed my blog a bit....

I have added pages that are about items for sale from this blog and in my Etsy Shop. I just want to say, that the followers of this blog are NOT the targets of a sales campaign!!! Please know that I'm just trying to offer more sources of photos and the blog seemed a purrrrrrrrfect place to do it. I can only put so many photos up on my TAFA List page, and, though I've been trying, I can't list everything in my Etsy Shop either.

I still have my loom pages, and hope to be able to post more ordinary stuff again, now that I've got my global stuff going....if you are curious about where I am, just click on "Find Me on the World Wide Web". I've had fun learning about some of these places....some are for networking, some are for showing what I do and how I do it.....FaceBook is fun...I try to add a photo everyday.

To put it simply and straight forward....

I'm not trying to get followers of this blog to buy stuff!

I've got to end this post for now as sitting in this nice soft office chair is getting painful all the way down my right leg. I have to mend before move-in at the Taos Fiber Marketplace on Thursday. The show is from April 20- 22 and here the link to their site:  http://www.taosfibermarketplace.com/

Okay, I've had a break, stood around for quite awhile, had lunch....now on to my Trick on the Trade!

PHOTO 1

THIS IS HOW I ADD COLOR TO AN OTHERWISE PLAIN WARP. I use this method if it's, like the photo, there's an all white warp, but I weaving in colors. If I did nothing, the fringe would be all white, not at all like the stole, so I add color to the fringe.

I do this WHILE I am hemstitching, so, when I'm ready to twist fringe, it's all ready to go!

See the PHOTO 1, directly above...If you don't know how to hemstitch, any stitches book will show you....or, if you are a former student, it's in the student packet that I gave every one of my students. Referring to photo to right, this shows Step 1 of hemstitching...it's the 'horizontal stitch'...parallel to the fell, purrrrrrrrrrpendicular to the warp...hee!  hee! Perform that step completely.

PHOTO 2

To see the next step...PHOTO 2. See where I lay the colored thread over where I just performed Step 1 of the hemstitch? This colored thread needs to be long enough to reach the end of the fringe in one stitch and to the end of the fringe in the next stitch.

PHOTO 3

See PHOTO 3 where I perform Step 2 of the hemstitch. This is where I do the diagonal stitch...I go right under the colored threads that's laying there. Once I finish that step, the first 1/2 of the colored thread is now trapped in the hemstitch.

PHOTO 4

Next, I do a new hemstitch, Step 1 as normal (horizontal stitch), then Step 2 (diagonal stitch) and begin to pull that stitch through just like all the others.....BUT WAIT...just before you close that last stitch of the second hemstitch....see the PHOTO 4.

Just as your about to pull that last loop through, crasp the colors threads that are laying there and PULL THEM THROUGH THAT LOOP!!!

Now you have sewn in the colored thread as you are hemstitching. You can do one thread at a time (if that's what looks right to make the fringe look like it matches the cloth of the weaving (scarf or stole) or you can add as many threads as you want. I have been known to sew in as many as 12 threads into the fringe with each hemstitch pair....they were tiny.

PHOTO 5 shows the process done and you are ready for sewing another group of colored threads into your hemstitch.

It takes 2 hemstitches (or 4 steps) to sew in each group.

I lay pre-cut lengths of my colors threads up across my warp purrrrrrpendicular to the warp) and extract what I need from one end which I hold gently to the other end of the mass of threads laying there...everything stays neat, if you do this, too.

Now, when you are doing this whole process, don't pull tightly anywhere....just pull things up NEAT, but not overly tight. You want the bridge from stitch one and stitch two to be smooth, not loopy or loose, but neat and smooth. These 'bridges' don't seem to be noticed after the fringe is twisted and the stole/scarf is washed and dried....it just all looks like it 'belongs'. I've been using this technique since I created it back in the early 80's....I'm sure it's not new, just never saw it before and made it up on my own.

I'm glad I could finish this post the way I wanted....the Advil has kicked in and the pain is just so-so. I'm going to go stand up and work on my fabric that's been accepted for exhibition at Convergence....standing up is good. I will try to help pack up the trailer tomorrow...I hope this sciatic nerve swelling has gone down more by then....wish me luck.

Until next time, I wishing you, from the bottom of my heart, Miles and Miles of Smiles, Cat B.

I'm going GLOBAL...no, I'm still not a worldly woman...

I've just joined this wonderful, beautiful site called The TAFA List...The Textile and Fiber Art List! I'll be adding pages soon, just as I am adding pages to my blog here....did you notice? Check out my new pages to the right of this post, under The Work...with a little help from my friends. I've added "AAAh...Those White-on-Whites" and "My Fun This-N-Thats"....check them out!

And, to go learn more about TAFA go to here:  http://www.tafalist.com/
I highly recommend this site to any fiber related artist who is interested in learning how to market their work. I have learned so much. And, it's great fun to click on the MAP, click through to +s and arrows to find people. I'll bet you can find me in New Mexico without much effort!

And see my profile in paaaaaaaarticular.......here I am!
http://www.tafalist.com/members/cat-brysch-creations-studio

I have had an Etsy Shop for quite a long time now and have had lots of fun with that. My Etsy Shop can be easily found by clicking here:   http://www.etsy.com/shop/CatBryschCreations

Another I joined quite some time ago is Weavolution. This is a wonderful forum to learn, share, teach...it's such a friendly place. Weavolution is at:  http://weavolution.com/

And my very own page is at:  http://weavolution.com/weaver/cat-brysch

More travels, an old dream awakes... and...going after Doris with a wrench!

I feel like I've been gone for sooooo long! I had many, many deadlines in recent months and I simply could not post in January or February! Ahhhhh!m it's nice to have a little break and have my own thoughts drifting about just because they want to drift about. It's so nice to be home and for my next "show", I'll be joining in the Las Aranas Spinners & Weavers Guild's annual members sale called "Spider's Market" in Albuquerque, NM! This is such a lovely show and is gaining popularity for shoppers even as far away as here in my Village of Magdalena!

My travels have taken me to Texas again...Kerrville, for the Texas Federations of Fiber Artists at the Inn of the Hills. This event is a regional conference and was quite nicely run, indeed. I was a vendor for just a few hours, but what a DAY! I hope they consider extended the stay of the vendors, to give us more time with interested booth visitors. These vendors were such a fun bunch of people that we had a great time just visiting and networking between "shopping times". If invited, I will definitely give it another go!

I did submit a couple of pieces for consideration for the Exhibition connected to the TFFA Conference and one was accepted!!!  What funfunfun! I don't know if you recognize it, but it's from my Desert Daze Series, warp #7 and I was so happy that they liked it!

Here I am, in the photo above, at the opening, trying to represent New Mexico with my favorite turquoise. And, yes, I tried to be a walking "billboard" of my handwoven stoles by wearing my old white workhorse stole. I'm with Rachel and sweet friends.... yes, Rachel took this photo. She is such a crowd gatherer that, when we would be wondering if she might be getting tired and ready to go home, we'd just look for the crowd and there would be our Rachel!

Here is one of several photos I took of Rachel as she visited with everyone... they seemed to always love what she was saying... I guess I'm not the only one, eh? One wonderful thing about Rachel's stories is, they are not just entertaining, they are lessons of art, of craft, often of life.

We all loved hearing her descriptions of how she created the shoe....yes, THE shoe...that is in the display case. The title of this work is "A Soul-Searching Experience". And it IS an experience to look at it!

If you would like to see a close up of this marvelous piece of art, let me know and I'll get you in touch with Rachel to buy a copy a wonderful book that's come out.

The title of the book is:
"Touching Fiber Arts"
by Carol Ikard and Jacque Smith

A close-up of the shoe is on page 77, and there are several other of Rachel's works that grace the pages of the book which is a work of art in it's own right! Check out pages 68-69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, too!

Okay, I am very honored to say that one of my works was included in the book, too, on page 39... one of my yardages from the loom I call Margaret... it was inspired by riding in the extreme of west Texas on one of our many journeys through the area. Here's a close-up...

You'll have to get the book to see the photo there....HA!

On to telling about an old dream and how it's a happenin'...I am finally weaving those blankets that I wrote about earlier. I did weave them as I wrote in the blog post "Texas Adventures".  I had photos in that blog and thank goodness because they sold SO fast that now I have none again! One sold out of my little booth in Texas at "Kids-N-Ewes & Llamas, Too!" and then the other old out of my Etsy Shop so fast that I head was spinning! I am planning on keeping the pricing the same for now to see if there's another 'flash' or if it was just the holiday shpping frenzy that fueled the sales. I have Doris and The Old Structo just about ready to begin to weave again...sofa throws on Doris and my first baby blanket in YEARS on The Old Structo. Wish me luck!

What is it you've heard me say a million times....."Success is hard work!"

Doris and....what? A WRENCH? Yes, okay, as much as we like to weave endlessly, there are times when we must stop, take the time, look over our loom 'friends' for maintenance purrrrrrrrrrposes...okay, from weavers I can hear the groaning, but...when not maintained, our looms will fail to make that puuuurrrrfect shed, will drop a treadle, or the beater bar holding that reed in comes off in your HAND....yes, this did happen to me and I was SHOCKED!

I've had this happen to me so many times over my almost 40 years in front of one loom or another ~ You are weaving along, happily, you're really in the cadence, shuttles are flying, the fell line is inching forward at a rewarding, give-me-instant-gratification kind of HIGH...when YUCK!

Now, my going after Doris with a wrench was to tighten up an "S" hook from with harness #3 hangs...it was loose and came undone, leaving me with a disadvantageously dreadful shed through which I tried to throw a poor, innocent shuttle having not noticed that there was a train wreck in that tunnel....the shuttle was entrapped in the shed in a newly formed indiscernible spider's web of 10/2 bleached white cotton.

Not a pretty sight......

Okay, so my point is, and HERE's MY TIP...take one day a month....say on the first of each month...and check all your bolts, wing nuts, pieces and parts and make sure things are snugged up tight, straight and neat and ready for the rigors you are about to put it through...and (I'm guilty of this one), when you tie-on aprons or cords need replacing, DO IT!

See you on the first of the month and until then I'm sending out happy thoughts and Miles and Miles of Smiles, Cat B.

Counting Blessings and Other Thoughts...

To anyone who might be reading this, I wish the very best of new years.... as this year of 2011 is coming to a close, I am counting the many blessings that came my way.  On a very small scale, I do this every morning, as I'm making my plans for the day, and again in the evening as I am assessing how I filled the day.  I might have cleaned out the silverware drawer or maybe I created a new fabric that has surprised me.  But, to assess a year..... this takes time!

Looking back on accomplishments is so good to do!   While it always spurs me to do better or do more.... not in a critical way...but...it amends me somehow to want to grow from each experience.  I suspect this is the essence of the human experience, yes?

How do you picture a year?  The most recent is our White Christmas....

This was a photo of our first snow...this is the little snow.  I sent this photo to our state-wide weather guy in Albuquerque and he put it on the air!  What funfunfun to see that!  It was more fun to look out my east-side studio door and have this beautiful scene.  It's especially lovely from inside my wonderfully warm studio with the stove going, the fire flickering and dancing and the music echoing throughout .....aaaaaaaaaah!  THEN we had the BIG snow on December 23rd which put us on the national news....our state has more snow than any other state in America right now.  It's such a blessing because we've been so very, very dry.  We had several feet of snow and, being raised in Texas places, it was a true wonderment to me.

Then there's the holiday celebration!

Jim took this photo and I think it's gorgeous!  I am proud to say that, this year, I had the lights up before the first of December!  I've never had my act so very together....I hope I can do it again next year!  These light will stay up until New Year's Day!

All of these are happy photos for me and they match the happiness that I seem to have found this year.  Perhaps it found me, perhaps my relentless search for it helped.  This has definitely been one of the happiest holidays I have had in many years.  I've found a way to finally set down a deep and quiet sadness that was just too heavy to continue to carry....and, in so doing, I'm giving it all up to the heavens.

God, give me the strength to change that which I can change.
God, give me the grace to accept the things that I cannot change.
God give me the wisdom to know the difference.


In these words, that we all know so well, can be found the happiness... yes, the emotional rest.... that has eluded me for so very long a time.

Everything is going well in weaving even though I haven't actually sat at a loom for about a month... holidays and well, I had an opening planned for December 23 and....well ....have you ever tried to have an opening in a snow storm?  Well, I tried, because I try very hard to do something if I say I'm going to do it... needless to say, nobody came, not a soul.  But, I got a LOT of work done and I have finally made signs that are easy to put out along Chestnut in my little village, so people can actually find me from Highway 60....those signs looked great, were easy to put in and take away, and I'm glad I'll have them ready for summer...they each had a balloon attached to aid in visibility.  Then, with Jim's help, I have a new highway sign that fits over the top of my purrrrrrrrrmanent Creations sign to add the message 'open today', also with balloons attached and it worked well, too.  For years I have wanted to have these signs for summer when I like to just have a little "Open Today" message out there for vacationers and passersby.  I must say, the most fascinating thing I learned was that, even in freezing weather, balloons will stay inflated!  Okay, it's silly, I guess, but I wondered if they would burst because the moisture in my breath would freeze, right?  Well, now I know!

But, yes, designs were completed, strategies were planned, weft thread was ordered and received, even a weaving schedule was written...it is really a good time in weaving...Stanley will be working very hard this entire January, as I only have a month to weave a very special yardage that I want to submit for consideration in HGA's Convergence Yardage Exhibit called "Longitude".  How appropriate can that name be?!?  My thoughts immediately go to latitude or weft or even freedom to plan!  Then I see that grid upon the earth, in our mind's eye anyway, and how similar the two are to the warp and weft grid in which we weavers dream... plan....work...all the time.  They both can bring such order to places that seem to have none.

Here, at right, is my "order"...
How this for a grid?


Oh, I didn't mention yet the good lessons I'm learning on Hazle.  In a previous post, I've mentioned the fabric that I wanted to weave on her for Convergence.  Well...it just hasn't worked out.  I've made several attempts, so far, and will continue to try to create what I see in my head.  I still see the 8-Harness Bronson Lace in my "Squash Blossom & Beetle" design floating on an iridescent background fabric of ever-changing colors...  I think I don't have to right 'lace weft' that I need.  I will keep trying....and I will create it some day.

I have met with a surprising success on Hazle when I wove with 2 shuttles, contrasting colors of rayon, one similar to the tencel and silk warp. The mixture of this light-as-air fabric made a heavenly light, fluid fabric.

           
The photo at left shows the work with matching weft and warp...

But, when combining a dark and light weft, with the lace weft being the dark one, a fascinating effect takes place that makes the "back" of the fabric looking just wonderful!

I wove many yards of this fabric before my show schedule started for 2011, and I only have about a 1/2 yard left!  I plan to do much more of this fabric with different colors.  And I want to pursue this concept much further!  And this fabric feels so yummy, I can "feel" it from the photo!

I have a little one-day show...or should I say a six-hour show coming up in February of 2012.  I have never gone to this show/event before.  I will be offering my yardages (and some white-on-white stoles and scarves) to fiber artists.  I have no idea how it will go, but I am hoping that some of those incredibly creative folks will be interested in adding my cloth to their artistic journeys .  They are so talented, knowledgeable, FEARLESS, they have such sophistication in what they do.

This show is in Kerrville, Texas and I can hardly wait!  I'm weaving bleached white and natural whites in cottons, cotton and silk blends, and the natural honey color of the tencel and silk with white silk weft.  I'll also be offering dark colored fabrics that would be good for resist and stamping, just as a start.  I can imagine so many possibilities and I hope they might see them, too!

I hope you are enjoyed your holidays!

I'm wishing you the happiest of A Happy New Year!

And, I hope you are enjoying your winter.... whatever it may be!



Thanks so much for reading, enrich yourself with nature's wonder, stay warm.

I'm sending Miles and Miles of Smiles,  Cat B.

It is a Structo Artcraft Loom!

Okay, I just had to post another more comments about my dear friend, The Old Structo....YES it IS a Structo!  I was in quite a long discussion about my loom over on Weavolution, because I saw that they had a group called STRUCTO.  Well, I decided to join that group and, once in, started cruising around looking at photos of everyone's looms and projects and such.  Well, I couldn't find ANY photos of a Structo like mine!

So I asked them all in a conversation and WOW, did I get a bunch of information... except part of it was that maybe I didn't have a Structo at all, and maybe it just had a Structo label on it.  I'm sure I stated the wrong dates as I was recounting seeing an old sales receipt for the sale of this Structo to the first president of the San Antonio Handweavers Guild back in the very early days....I was told that...I guess it's okay to write her name, Nancy DePew, was a dedicated weaver and valued the history old textiles and learning how to produce quality new textiles.  She was also devoted to the Witte Museum, and, I was told, she made Mary Meigs Attwater (please forgive the spelling) sit out on the porch to smoke because there 'shouldn't be any smoke in a museum'.  This old loom is steeped in Texas history and, once I cannot weave on it any longer, I hope it goes back to Texas to continue living and working, long after I'm gone from this weaving realm....

I must admit I was quite unhappy at that thought that maybe it wasn't a Structo at all, because there's been so much history with this loom and it's the strongest connection I now have with my beloved mentor from way back in the Southwest Craft Center days....and I just would have been very sad if it had turned out not to be a Structo.

I had no idea how rare these looms are...nooooooo idea at all.  But, on Weavolution, I learned from one of those knowledgeable fellow Structo members, about a lady who is an expert in old looms and has quite a huge library to do research.  I wrote to her and she says it really IS a Structo Artcraft Loom, it is VERY rare and boy am I HAPPY!  I will ask her permission to put her name on my blog because she is an incredibly important resource for all weavers and all looms EVERYWHERE and, if allowed, I want everyone to know about her and the important service that she provides!

Here's another view that I've never posted, and I'll put another one up here below.  There room for TWO sectional back beams on the Old Structo, but I never felt the need.  Also, it used to have little pegs in the holes which made it a sectional, but, after years of rolling on miles of warp, I decided to remove them (they were part of my months of refurbishing and were not antique).  Now I use the simple old paper method, it's a little strange with such a huge warp beam (which is one yard around), but it's so much easier and more efficient to wind on....I put on 40 to 50 yards at a time on there at a time which doesn't even begin to make it look loaded!

Here is another photo that I've never posted....it's a photo of all those 14 treadles that I've been dancing on since 1985.  This loom, the first manufactured loom I ever owned, has been in continuous use and is such a happy loom, too.  Before my mentor told me about it coming up for sale, it sat, sadly, unused and unloved for 30 years in a dirt floor, not-weather-proofed, OLD garage in the heart of San Antonio, Texas...so sad, what a waste of TIME, but, now it's suuuuuuuuuuuch a happy loom!

I don't know what the tie-ups were made of originally, but I chose to create a chain system that is detachable from the center, permanently attached to each lamm and to four places along the treadle and is adjustable....it works for me!

Yes, those are pieces of carpet on the bottom of  it's feet....The Old Structo has "stockings" on it's feet to avoid contact with the concrete floors of my studio....now is that love or WHAT?!?!  Well, I'd better get this thing posted and go start setting up for a Studio Tour that's taking place in my Village Saturday and Sunday.  I am sending out happy holiday cheer, hope for the future and most of all....Miles and Miles of Smiles, Cat B.