Cold & Glut

It's time to order more paper.  I'm down to my last few sheets of Thai Unryu...unfortunately, my regular source has reduced their color selection and doubled prices...so some of my "go-to" colors are no longer an option.  Plus I need to get paper ordered for the upcoming glut of joomchi workshops.  I ordered late last year in anticipation of only teaching one...but I'm already up to three, and it's only the end of January.  It's a nice problem to have, and I hope to add at least one more.

Doing some advanced prep this weekend for the aforementioned joomchi workshops, I tore down the hanji I got from Paper Connection.  It costs a bit more than the Unryu, so the students will only get a half sheet of each color. Of course, I need to order more of that too.

I took the time on Saturday to rinse the rest of the shibori joomchi (after unbinding too soon in a fog).  Some kept a decent amount of pattern, but most lost the delineation of the bindings.  The surfaces look a little worse for wear too...but I see many of these finding a future home.

Dropsy

Did a lot of dyed joomchi this week, using up all of my pre-made sheets that I had laying around.  The results were great...nice strong colors...good pattern definition...lots of fun textures.  It was easy enough to do:  just bind the softened joomchi like one would for shibori, apply the dye directly, dry, and...

...that's where I screwed up.  I forgot to rinse the excess dye before I untied them.  But they have to be rinsed to avoid giving off dangerous particulate matter, so I washed a few sheets after dinner today (below).  The result is a major loss of definition in the patterns.  The turquoise did fairly well, but the red bled profusely.  I haven't rinsed any of the black yet.

They're not a total wash (pun)...I'm sure they will be used somewhere along the line.  In the meantime, I'll need to run a new batch this week so I have some with good pattern definition and they retain those awesome textures.

And

No, my 5 year old does not have glasses.  Those are for me and my old eyes.  More than two weeks since the last update, but I've been simultaneously fighting a cold and starting the Spring semester.

Things are off to a good start, but plenty of prep work for my class at Kent State.  I've had to prepare several new demonstrations since it's a repeat pattern only class...but the upside is that I will have six new repeat samples by the end of the semester.

I also spun off three fat skeins of turquoise/white yarn this week.  I wish I could have kept the spinning wheel longer, but I have a student that needs it.  Definitely have to get one of my own.  I'll just add that to the list right after the submarine and cyborg velociraptor.

There are still seats available for both of my Endangered Studies classes offered by CIA's Continuing Ed program (actually, nearly all of the seats...).  If you've been waiting to take a felt-making or tapestry weaving class, this is your chance.

And it looks like I'll be doing a two day joomchi workshop at the Morgan in late July.  And they've invited me to participate in a show this year.  And there's something big in the works for Spring 2015.  And...

Welcome to the (solar) new year.

It may be a new year, but the old workload is still in place.  In fact, I'm even farther behind after the seasonal activities.  I definitely need to come up with a new strategy for next time...the winter break is just far too short for extracurricular goings-on.

Nevertheless, 2014 will be a banner year for workshops, etcetera.  I'll be offering a pair of 8 week workshops through CIA's Continuing Ed program...Felt-making on Wednesday evenings and Tapestry/Stump Weaving on Thursday evenings.  There will also be a one day Joomchi workshop for educators as part of their B.A.S.I.C. program.  Check out their webpage here for more info.

Also, there is the Joomchi lecture and two-day workshop offered by Textile Art Alliance (here) at the Cleveland Museum of Art in late June.

At the end of May I'll be off to Korea to see the family and squeeze in a little bit of research.

There are a couple of other workshops in the planning stage, but nothing has been confirmed yet.  If there are any requests for specific Continuing Ed offerings in the Fall, please let me know...I'm always happy to take suggestions.

Back to work for me.  The office work has to be finished before I can turn my attention back to the studio.  Happy New Year!