In the beginning...

I have begun (barely, as you can see) the next Calendar Series tapestry.  I was determined to begin it on New Year's day, but we had just returned from the east coast late New Year's Eve, so I pretty much spent January 1st recuperating and unpacking. 

Yesterday, I went into the studio and looked at the cartoon, the maquette, and the pile of yarn sorted into the colors I'll be using for this piece. As always, my first thought was, 'I can't do that! It's too complex. I don't even remember HOW to weave!'

So I had to give myself the usual lecture: "Yes, you DO know how to weave a tapestry. You just completed two larger and equally complex tapestries. Just Do It."

I don't know why beginning is such a challenge for me, but it is. I find all kinds of other things to do when I need to begin a new tapestry, like posting on my blog and doing laundry. And sketching in my sketchbook.....

Speaking of the sketchbook, my 2012 one is almost full, with just a couple of pages yet to fill. I decided to sketch 100 faces to finish it up, a challenge I know many artists take on. These will just be sketchbook faces, so I am sketching from lots of sources; magazine images, photos, and the television, most notably. This page of the first 5 were all done with my non-dominant left hand and one of my new Stabilo markers (tho' the color was added with colored pencils.) I have 24 faces done so far, and I like the ones I do with my left hand best. They seem to have more character than my other sketches and drawings have. Wonder what that means?

I have a sick dog today, and am trying to figure out how sick (sick from eating something he shouldn't have, which now should be out of him, or sick-as-in-I-must-call-the-vet?) In the meantime, between cleaning up the results of his sickness, I am weaving. My hope is to weave three Calendar Tapestries this year, and three more next year (which will complete the 12)  and, while I am doing them, to find a venue that will exhibit them all together, along with the Seasons Tapestries. Pretty lofty goal, for someone who wasn't sure she remembered how to weave yesterday!