Hello again!
This month I’ve been splitting my time between the loom and newly: the easel. I have been weaving new pieces to enter into the North Carolina State Fair next month and diving into my first soft pastel painting class. It feels good to stretch in two different directions at once, one thread by thread and the other stroke by stroke.
On the loom:
I’ve been working on Halloween hand towels and a table runner. The rhythm of weaving feels familiar and grounding. It’s the kind of slow work that makes me forget about time passing and de-stresses me from my day job shuttle throw by shuttle throw. Photo below for a little peek.
At the easel:
Soft pastels (not to be confused with oil pastels that are all the rage right now) are brand new to me, and I love how immediate and messy they are. It’s a completely different energy from weaving or even watercolor: quick, bold, colorful. My hands are always smudged and there’s pigment in places it doesn’t belong but it’s worth it. Here are two of my very first pieces from a week long class I took at the John C Campbell Folk school earlier this month along with the pastels I bought (with a coupon!). This is my third time going to the folk school and I love it more each time I go.
There’s something exciting about letting these two art styles coexist. The color choices I’m making in pastel already feel like they’re influencing what I want to weave next. I don’t know if these two crafts could be any more opposite from each other: math and planning heavy weaving to artsy and flowing soft pastels. That might be one reason why I enjoyed the class so much, it’s just so different than the types of activities that usually occupy my days.
I’ll be sharing more photos from all creative worlds as I go. For now, here are a couple of snapshots from the studio in September:
Thanks for following along with my experiments and meanderings. Handmade life is never just one thing and that’s what keeps it alive and interesting.
-Danielle
