Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Nitty gritty....


Being an artist is not always the glam-job one hopes and dreams it will be. There are times when you just have to buckle down and do the boring parts. So I have been warping the loom for the next calendar tapestry. (I have also been designing more calendar tapestries. I now have October, June, July, and August designed and 'on the drawing board' to weave. But the design part is the fun stuff of being an artist.)


So another hard job has cropped up; going through what yarn I have, and choosing what I will need to order to weave these next four tapestries. Sometimes I have a hard time really seeing the colors accurately until they get here, so this is a real challenge for me.


In addition, I purchased a print rack and having been getting prints ready to take out to the gallery tomorrow. This involves matt cutting; one of those jobs I really view as an 'artistic chore.' In fact, I dislike matt cutting so much, it may be why I switched from watercolors to oils! Matt cutting involves too much math for my dominant right brain. It will be good to have prints at the gallery, though, because the summer tourist traffic seems to want prints this year. So it's time for me to jump into that market.

On a personal note, artists also just have those times when working at all is somewhat of a chore. I have had shingles for the past week, and all I really have wanted to do is to lie around with a dog at my feet and read a good book or watch a good movie. Now that sounds like a glam-job to me (though perhaps not very profitable)!

4 comments:

Mary said...

You sure do have a big loom! I hate warping up and hitching on, it is so tedious and I just want to get started with the new design. You're right, the designing is fun. The weaving is fun - but slow. The finishing off is tedious too. I think every job has its tedious parts, unfortunately. I hope you get better soon.

Theresa said...

Ugh, how uncomfortable. I hope this episode passes quickly. What an array of beautiful colors to chose from! It would take me forever to decide. While you may dislike the matting they certainly look great!

Julia Kelly said...

Yes- there are definitely "no fun" jobs and what I do is ignore them too long so I have a pile to get through all at once! Hope you feel better soon!

K Spoering said...

Yes, I have ignored them for awhile, too, Julia. That's why I am now having to d them all at once! Sigh...

Thanks, Teresa. I hope the prints please gallery shoppers, too! Then I can pay for that lovely yarn when I get finished choosing what I need.

Mary, my loom is a 6-foot wide Shannock. Bigger than I need for these 18" square calender tapestries, but a really nice, sturdy loom. I see on your blog, you are at the beginning of a tapestry, too.

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