Art on the Walls

By the Light of the Moon Weave, Wove, Wove

Art on the Walls

I taught a workshop at Walking Mountains Science Center last week, and when I inquired whether they had any paper (I stressed that it could be their trash) they gave me a lovely old topographic map of the state of Colorado. This is paired with an old book page featuring a wooden ship. I like the thought of this big ship sailing through the mountains of my landlocked state!

Paper Weavings on My Wall, #2, #3, #4, #6, #7

I grew up in a house with art on the walls. My mother loved supporting her artist friends by purchasing and commissioning their work and even hiring some of them to teach after school workshops for me and my friends.

We had a weaving hanging in our living room by one of my father’s cousins, Mary Buskirk, who lived in Monterey, California. It was a very non-traditional weaving – there were branches and holes in it – and that is why I liked it.

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A couple of weeks ago, I had a lovely drive through the mountains of southwestern Colorado when I taught a workshop at the Durango Arts Center. I stopped at the hardware store in Ouray and picked up this sandpaper for the workshop. I couldn’t stop thinking about integrating it into a weaving. Here you see it with a batiked Thai paper that I got from the arts center gift shop (they had an exquisite selection of these batiked papers that I’d never seen).

Can you see the brush strokes in the persimmon juice dyed paper? This coating (and a subsequent smoking process) makes the paper waterproof. It is used in Japan to coat umbrellas and stencil paper. Skilled artisans have cut intricate stencils for centuries to be used to print patterns on fabric and paper. Here it is woven with a marbled paper that I’ve had in my drawers for so long that I no longer recall who made it (my sincere apologies to the maker)!

And finally, I employed an odd weaving technique, cutting 12 slits between the “numbers on the clock” and weaving vertical strips in and out of them. The papers are a bit mundane and nastaglic: a tabbed divider and a sheet of notebook paper.

Each of the weavings I’ve made so far fit perfectly into readymade 10″ x 8″ frames (or those matted for this size).

Don’t forget to leave a comment if you want to be entered into the drawing to win a copy of Playing With Paper! The lucky winner will be chosen at random tomorrow and he or she will be named in Friday’s blog post.