34 Days Until Halloween!!!!!

The spun paper from Therese arrived this week, and she safely received the momigami I sent.  I haven't had a chance to sew with this yet, and don't foresee an opportunity until sometime next week.  Very busy at the homestead:  hustling to finish halloween decor for the lawn, preparing shibori samples for Monday's class (as if I really need any more...), passports photos to take, clothes shopping for the helper monkey, and trying, trying, trying to finish part six of A Mended History.  Oh, and course proposals for Continuing Education.  All I know is that cheap Thai Unryu shreds when you try to spin it too fine (I'll have to try a wider gauge next time).

Happy Harvest Moon!

Yesterday we hosted a Chuseok party (kind of Korean Thanksgiving, timed to coincide with the harvest moon).  Above is the requisite spread of too much food.  It was great seeing everyone, but I'm exhausted after two days of cooking.  Now I have to get back to my real work:  finish the A Mended History piece, submit course proposals, meet some exhibition deadlines, make momigami for Therese, and push forward with the Endangered Studies curriculum.  Oh, and I came across this interesting tidbit yesterday (from Wikipedia):

Historically and according to popular belief, Chuseok originates from gabae (hangul:가배). Gabae started during the reign of the third king of the kingdom of Silla (57 BC - AD 935), when it was a month-long weaving contest between two teams.^[2][3] Come the day of Gabae, the team that had woven more cloth had won and was treated to a feast by the losing team. 

So, yes...us weavers really are at the center of everything.

45 days until Halloween

Part six is indeed taking a very long time to mend.  A few more pieces of momigami since last time.  Worked on some sample stuff for class, too (which seems never-ending).  Also spent a couple of hours on Michelle's Halloween costume.  And three new books have arrived!

Chasing Paper

I had a brief burst of medicine-induced energy yesterday morning, and the results proved fruitful.  There was a piece of joomchi dried around a shishigatani squash (above & below).

Also, I've long suspected that joomchi had an improved ductility over paper...and my experiment confirmed that hunch.  I prefer to keep the specifics close to the vest for now, but take a look at the picture below:

You'll notice that even though the outside dimensions of the sheet remain fairly consistent, there is a great deal of slack material in the center...nearly 3" in height!!  This shows ductility.  The problem is that unless dried on a form, the joomchi can't hold up its own weight.

I also (not pictured) turned a sheet of joomchi into momigami.  It has the drape and feel of chamois.  Softer than a bag full of bunnies.  And on that note...I need about two yards of medium gauge paper thread...anyone interested in trading some for a sheet or two of joomchi momigami?

Under the weather, but not under water

An end of summer cold (which seems to be an annual thing for me) has made me lethargic. Teaching felting for five hours in a 90 degree room last night probably didn't help.  Nonetheless, I was able to prepare the joomchi for part six, and wanted to post a couple of photos showing how aggressive the fissures are in this final part.  This will definitely take many days to mend.

Stretch Armstrong

It's been one of those weeks when the professional, social, and domestic all vie for attention.  Nonetheless, mission accomplished on all fronts.  Friday evening saw me at an opening at Wine Spot/Art Spot for a small show featuring some former and current students.  Saturday was devoted entirely to an end-of-summer yard clean-up, which included a slash & burn of the garden.  Sadly, the garden really didn't perform well this season for a number of reasons.  Next season we'll limit food production to only two beds, and use the other two for growing dyestuff...including another round of indigo.  Sunday, I carded a half pound of wool for tonight's class, and spent the afternoon in the studio.

Speaking of which...part five of A Mended History in Six Parts is finally complete.  It took the better part of three days to mend.  In fact, I think I may even put in a little more time on one section of it after I do part six.  However, I anticipate that part six will take all of a week or more, so it may be awhile before I get back to it.

Slowpoke

Part four of A Mended History in Six Parts took a big chunk out of today, but it's done.  Two more to go.

After three years I finally pulled the microSD card out of an old phone, and transferred the images to my computer.  These shots are from an installation I did using joomchi.  Unfortunately, I wasn't quick enough to get any photos before the action started.  Nonetheless, the piece functioned correctly, and was destroyed by the end of the opening reception.

Signal:Received

Part three of A Mended History in Six Parts is done, and part four is nearly complete.  However, problems with my wrist have slowed me down.

I managed to get some OK-quality shots of my work from the faculty show, but what a chore.  These things are difficult enough to document in ideal conditions (the weave structures play havoc with the camera lens...especially at a distance), but the incandescents in the gallery are waaaaayyyyyy too orange.

Even with my white balance pushed all the way to the blue most of the images are on the warm side.

And other shots just pushed too bright.  It's definitely a finesse game.  There's just no beating the option of shooting this type of work in full daylight.  Although, even that doesn't solve the issue of the weave structures throwing the image out of focus at a distance.