April Showers? No April Flowers!

Here in SC we have finally seen spring – see in March we had a wave of heat that made one think that we went straight from winter to summer.  That also means the pollen count went through the roof since everything opened at once.  It’s been a beautiful month – and can be appreciated if one can handle the pollen without sneezing!

Start with the wisteria in tree form and the Carolina jasmine in the back… Petunias Sedum Marigolds Coral Bark Japanese Maple and the azalea that was planted to remind us of our Shih Tzu, Kahnie While we only started the April showers this week, we’re already enjoying May’s flowers!

Colors on our Walk in SC

I have seen many colors this month for Sue at Life Looms Large, but I decided this time to give you what is growing here locally while I walked Shadow and Raven this morning.  You can tell things are looking up here if I can find color just any ol’ place!  What a great thing on the first day of Spring (and a high of 75!)

Little flowers can be found like these in the cemetery…. Here are the violas at Raven’s feet…the vinca is about five times bigger….Daffodils may be found in plenty on a sunny corner… Here’s a star magnolia showing off with another set of daffs And then here are the tassels starting on the maple tree with the Bradford pear in bloom behind and a unidentified bush starting to bloom in yellow. It’s not forsythia, because that starts with blooms before the leaves like this… Oh I want to share one more.  This guy wasn’t on our walk – thankfully – can you imagine 180 pounds of bird dogs on the end of leashes with him around????  He was actually in a parking lot near a back road I take on my way home from work.  Don’t worry I’m sure he knows the way home… 

February Colors in South Carolina

I had decided to not include my color pictures from South Carolina for Life Looms Large, because at first it was mostly more snow and I had the San Diego pictures that I hoped would make you smile.  But then despite the snow, we had a sign of spring….A week later there was still snow in the mountains…. And ice from the water that runs off the ground….   But then 30 miles away, I found these…. While a bit confused, spring is making a showing…..  Hang in there – if we’re seeing it, you should be soon!

February Colors in San Diego

Sue from Life Looms Large asked for color combinations from nature for February.  I thought I would share a few days I had in San Diego and dedicate to all those who are still looking at snow and grey and cold!  May it cheer you up!

November Color

Life Looms Large put out a suggestion of showing the color for different regions of the US and even the world.  I loved her idea and have been looking at different color combos in nature.  Here in South Carolina, we have many of the colors one would expect for the fall…  I also looked for those one would not expect.  I am surprised by cool colors in the fall… the red hat ladies would love this, but I didn’t expect it in nature! the Chinese tallow always puts as many colors together as possible! deep purple of the sweet gum with burgundy, yellow, green and red then the pale yellow with the red of the coral bark japanese maple And then here is the confused… azalea… ornamental cherry tree…. the morning glory… One last of Lake Jocassee

still small voice

It began simple enough. Take the pinwheel window, find a pleasing portion of the pattern and try out some colors. It even became a great puzzle and how I LOVE puzzles - how many colors did I need? where are they involved in the transparency? which colors are better to overlap and which should not?

I wasn't real pleased with the software I've got available to me. I think something new will be on my after Christmas shopping list. Suggestions are always welcome!

I played with a rectangle and a square that was taken out of the original window. But then I was compelled to look at reinserting it. I had a list of contrasts between the window and the inserted rectangle - B&W vs color, opaque vs transparent, rough vs smooth, low vs high epi, "leading" vs no "leading" around the blocks... The list went on and on. I even was looking at limiting myself to my little loom and creating the leading by sewing the woven pieces of glass together.

Then last Friday, I spent the day quietly meditating. The intravert in me thrives on those moments and it's a luxury to take a whole day. There were many things to pass through my mind. I fought hard to not dwell on new color combinations, but to spend time elsewhere. In the end, I succeeded in staying on task and I was rewarded with a moment where the weaving concept changed.

The window is full of groups of threes. That can only be seen in the whole window. So now there are three vertical rectangles each a third of the width of the window. By themselves they are interesting, but together they have meaning and place. I'm excited to see where it goes.

Fiber Glass?

My weaving thoughts keep turning to transparency - which was one of the drivers for the color blending sampler. I wanted to see what could be done with colors. Now I'm at a point of seeing what I can try in transparency. I thought about simple geometrics - maybe even just dropping some squares on the floor to see where they land. Everyday - at least twice a day - I look through a stained glass window I made a few years ago. It attempts to mimic the pinwheel tile pattern in that room. The "twist" I put on the pattern was to make various sizes of the pattern that intersected. As I started working, the studio artist quickly pointed out that the glass would shatter if I stayed that way. So the design then morphed into three layers that decreased in size and later, each layer was placed at different angles like a spinning pinwheel.

What I love about glass is how light brings the piece to life. With the layers of glass, I have the bonus of seeing light change each layer's texture individually and combined. It's one of those things that I discovered after the window was installed and the sun rose the next day.

Now I am sensible enough to know I am not in a position to recreate these glass patterns in my tapestry weaving. (That challenge is for another decade! ;-)) But the pattern begs me to ask - what if these were plain blocks of glass - and what if the blocks were different colors? What effect would the layers bring?

So I've headed back to my CAD package I used to design the window and updated it to how the window really turned out. Now to play with some colors...