Can one ever have too many looms?-

Here is my afternoon project...putting together a four harness Fireside upright tapestry loom.   I am sure it will be easier than it was taking it apart!    It moved from a third story studio in Venice to my studio yesterday.  To get it down three flights in Venice plus through our very thin front door required almost complete dis-assembly.    It's not often one of these looms goes on the market.... and well let's be honest...can one ever have too many looms?  Plus it came with the coolest bench - no assembly required!


Evening Update:  just had a glass of wine.  Loom is together in about a sixth of the time it took to take apart...well as together as it will be for now...all I need is three strong macho men to upright this upright tapestry loom.   Once upright, it should fit nicely into the corner and rest while I order new rigging and freshen up the wood and clean the steel.  Sounds like cleaning a boat...   I hope what they say about boats is not the same about this loom...meaning the happiest day in a boat owner's life is the day he buys the boat and the day he sells it...

Rita's Adventures in Words and Weft

Rita's Excellent Adventure told in tapestry is going live!

Last year, I submitted, for my tapestry group, an exhibit proposal for a children's story illustrated in tapestry to HGA for a community exhibit as part of Convergence Long Beach 2012.   We hadn't heard anything so I figured ah well, perhaps the proposal was a bit too vague.  At the time of the proposal, the story was not written, the hero was not selected nor the tapestries conceptualized.  All we knew was that we would have 18 tapestries (woven by six tapestry artists) framed on plexi which needed to be hung sequentially since it told a story. Later a common palette of yarns was selected, a hero selected, the story written (by me) and tapestries begun.

So what a surprise a few weeks ago to hear from a gallery in Long Beach interested in showing our story about Rita, a sand crab that goes on a quest for the best plankton in Santa Monica Bay. Once the story had been written and converted to verse, there turned out to be 20 tapestries in all.  So, needless to say, our group had slowed down a bit since that's a lot of tapestries to weave for six people.  And over time the excitement wanes.  But with that phone call, our focus snapped came back and 19 of the 20 tapestries are completed and ready for finishing.  By the end of June, they all should be ready to hang.

Pictured is the last tapestry in process...page 19; where a Father on the beach challenges his young son to a race to the surf against Rita, our heroine.