Pictureing us!

Here we are as viewed from space!!!

350 event

350 is a new topic of issue. I read the webpage and started looking for more information about Earth 350. It appears that the best atmosphere balance with Carbon Dioxide balance is 350 parts per million (ppm) in the atmosphere. We are currently at 388 ppm. It is part of the reason why our world is heating up. We need to work hard to encourage everyone to produce less carbon dioxide. That means burn fewer carbon. Fewer fires, less use of gas, etc.

One of the things being done, is creating events where people can get together and spread the word. Today, I went out to LA and got together with a bunch of other people who created a large picture of an eagle that was visible from space. As soon as the picture comes back and is available, I will add it to this page. In the meanwhile, I have attached a couple of the pictures that I took during the event.

This first picture was taken during the initial start of the project. These people are laying out solar warming frames that were placed on the ground. The frames have two sides a black side and a white side. The white side will be easily seen from space and provides the frame. The black side was warmed by being visible to the sun. That warmed up the surface so that it was warm for people to lie on these frames and keep them from blowing away by the wind.

This next picture shows us all lying down on the ground. You can tell that we are a large group of people lying down over a huge

area. Obviously they would have loved to have had a couple of thousand people there to better fill in the space. As was, we had 150 to 200 people. Given the heavy rain that we had the day before, I am glad that we had the number of people that did show.

Finally, here is a picture of my wife lying on the ground. As usual, by seeing her sitting out there with all the people trying to create the picture, I was definitely "seeing red"

Also, what do you do with a collection of people who have been lying on the ground for an hour? Well, we started doing Yoga!

Paper Art!

One of the best things about visiting San Francisco and Berkeley in particular is the exposure to new and interesting art.

When walking through the art program area in UC Berkeley art area I spotted these interesting pieces.

I found all these interesting art pieces provide different appearances. They were all made out of paper pieces. I guess you can call these recycle-able art.

I like these pieces. Each one has a very different appearance than anything else i have seen.

In addition to the paper work, we interviewed the Egyptian research museum on campus at UC Berkeley.

The work there is also very interesting.

I talked with a person there who was putting together a facial mask from an egyptian mask. It had been originally put together with fiber material. The ancient linen material was falling apart and being put together with materials that will hold it together. I had a really nice chat with the worker there.

Traveling and Learning

I can't believe it, but today we found an old wooden covered bridge. The bridge is still in use. We drove over it and ate at the diner we found on the other side of the bridge. We had a great breakfast there! Then we went to a another small town over near the place we are staying.

At the small town called Millerton we found a person blowing glass. It's called Gilmar glass. We watched them blow glass and talked to them about the process. They were making glass pumpkins while they were blowing the glass.

We ordered a pumpkin and got to choose our color and watch the whole process. This picture is the glassblower working on our glass pumpkin.

We also found a place selling knitting

materials. She had some beautiful bamboo material. She was also having a sale! I bought so much of her bamboo material that she sold the bamboo at 50% off!!! What a deal!

We found a place with really great tea for sale. We will have to come back tomorrow with our son so he can pick his favorite.

We ate lunch at the diner in Millerton.

It clearly has been a fun vacation getting ready for the wedding tomorrow. We are certainly getting ready for the event tomorrow!

The Tallis for the Lonia and Eitan wedding!

It's time to get ready for the wedding!!

Watch for this tallis. Eitan will be wearing it when he is married.

I am so honored that they are willing to accept my work on this beautiful tallis and the chuppah under which they will be married. It was very quite an exciting process. I'll have more pictures once the wedding done!

It has been too long.

I have been to busy with SHINDIG and getting ready for the start of school. Regardless, Here I am blogging again. Right now I have two major things in process.

First, I started working on a new jacket.

As you can see, it is still in work, but I have gotten to work on a Chuppah that is soon needed. The arms will have look like the one on the left. The clip or pin will be on the upper right. I wove the red lines to give it an interesting appearance. Also, the material is a blend of rayon and wool so it is warm, but it also has a shiny synthetic so the jacket gives a great appearance. I also have to finish the neck. I decided that the current appearance will be a little bit more coarse that I want it to be. I also have decided that it needs to be lined. So... Lining is just as soon as I have time.

The other project that

is taking my time is the chuppah on which I am working. I have started weaving the chuppah. It is wide enough that I have decided to double weave it. The pictures added here only show half of the final appearance. It is going to be like an orange sum at the center and the darker red/orange color fading into the appearance all the way around.and above and below. I took these pictures as I started weaving. I have also added pictures of the detailed areas so that the pattern is more visible.

The pattern will give the appearance have a thickness to make the material warm if used on a bed or as a throw that keeps one warm in the winter. As I have been weaving, I have decided that it will also need an added edge for strength and color. I will have to weave the edge separately once I have completed the chuppah. I have decided that that should be woven after the banner that I am working on.

More pictures will be coming once I have made more completion.

The Ventura Fair!

This past weekend I sent to the fair! As usual, I spent four hours weaving at the Guild fair show. It is always fun meeting people and letting them know that people still weave. Anyway,I turned in three things and received two first prizes and one second price. It was pretty good to do that well.

The three things I submitted were one of the fire pieces, one of the jean's bags, and my recent tallis made of think silk.

Linda came with me. We had lunch there at the fair. After I had spent the afternoon weaving and talking to people, we went and played bingo. It was fun. I think we may have gotten more money from playing bingo than I did getting my 1st place awards.

Berkeley Kite Challenge!

Here we were in Berkeley helping our son find a new place to live and what a surprise. It's kite day!

What beautiful kites. We found a house with surprising little trouble and then we went down to the beach. Here we watched all the beautiful kites.

We walked past the marina with a beautiful view of San Francisco. Then we watched all the kites. The kites were all beautiful and this whole experience was amazingly relaxed.

We can certainly use a few more relaxed days like these!!!

Bags!!!

Well, after a great deal of work, I have completed a large number of bags. I have integrated a collection of items that I am hoping a number of people will want to buy. In addition to this first picture of bags, I also took pictures that give a better look at individual items.

If you are wearing a blue jeans and want a bag that foes with it, here is the solution you need.

I have finished the Tallis!

The atturah was hand made by a woman. Her grand daughter will soon be bat mitzvah. I wove the cloth and sewed her atturah onto the the tallis. We will soon tie the tzitzi and then it will be done. I must admit her hand work is excellent. It really provides a beautiful piece for there grand daughter.

A Shiny Black Evening Jacket.

You have to see this in the evening! I made a black evening jacket with a shiny silver fine thread in the black. It sparkles out beautifully and makes a great evening jacket. Given the cool evenings here in Southern California, this it he perfect thing to wear. It is unfortunately that the colors don't show as well as they could. The picture was taken in the studio with much to much sun shining into the room.

A nearby fire!

Hard to believe that there was a fire so near to our area. While I was weaving this afternoon, I noticed the white and black clouds of a fire through our window.

I went out to the parking area and shot this picture of the fire. It is on the other side of the 101 and up into the hills on the other side. I sure help the knock it down right away without any problems. The good news is that there was not a heavy wind.

A new Tallis!

Working on a new tallis. I have finished the weaving, but I still have the corners and atturah. I think it is going to be pretty. It is a blend of light and dark blue patterns with gold edges. Once I have put the corners on tomorrow I will contact the person who is making the atturah. Eventually, I will put the whole thing together.

What a great wedding!

What a great wedding! The whole weekend was fun and I must admit that I was really glad to see that the chuppah fit perfectly and really worked out well. The flowers that were integrated into the chuppah frame makes the whole thing look just wonderful!

I must also admit that it was really fun to see all the kids get together. Weddings also increase the family size. So here they are all the next generation of our families. Now we are waiting for the birth of the next generation. Though we still need some of the kids to finish school and then more weddings.

It's great fun watching the family grow!

We are closing in on the wedding.

As I write this, we are getting closer to the wedding. It is scheduled for this afternoon. The preparation events are over and now we are sleeping in and waiting for things to catch up. Friday was the betrothing of the husband and wife.

Yesterday was the blending of families. It took all day and two dinners to get all the people coming from all over to meet each other, eat together and get to start to know each other.

The hot dogs and burgers was out near the site where the wedding will be today. I have to admit that for me the best thing was seeing all the kids getting together. With my sisters two boys, with my two boys, and with my brothers four girls, it is great for them to all get together again. They have not had a chance to all sit together for almost 10 years. They have been together in groups, but not all together for a long time. I have not been able to get pictures of the whole group yet. Tomorrow after the wedding there will have to be a picture of all the cousins and their wives. The numbers are growing. Right now, we are relaxing, sleeping late and getting ready for the wedding this afternoon.

Last night we were at a museum. It was a great place for everyone to get together and as usual, there was some fiber material available there. There was one thing there that I took a picture of, was this tallis. It was made of cotton and the pattern is simple but pretty. I was surprised that it was put into the museum there.

The work is good, and I like the patterns on the corners. As usual, no matter where I am, or where I am, I can always find interesting fiber work.

Now it is time to go get breakfast! I am also getting eager to see the chuppah. If I get good pictures, I will update the blog tomorrow.

The Bags are done!

Today I finished my blue jeans bags. I took a bunch of old blue jeans, cut the jeans into strips and wove the strips into new heavy cloth. I then make bags out of the heavy blue jean cloth.

Let me know if you like these. They are going to go on sale at the gallery tomorrow! I'll definitely let you know how rapidly they sell.

Actually, building them was a lot of fun. The weaving went pretty rapidly, and putting them together was also a lot of fun.

I hope they go to someone that wants to wear them with jeans!

What a great visit to the dying place!

Yesterday I went with the Designing Weavers group to the Newtons Yarn in Aneheim, California.

It is really

cool to see the huge

equipment to produce large volumes of material. This first picture is of the spinning and joining thread machine. This device brings in spools of single rayon, wool, and synthetic silver and blends it all together. Then once this collection is spun together, it goes in either a collection dyer or into a blended dyer.

This second picture is of the dyer for multiple color dying. In this device the long spools of material can be lowered into the dyer one color at a time. Then the whole spools go into a high speed spinner where the dye is cleaned out of the threads. After that process, the thread goes into a dryer to be stored for sale.

This last picture is of a collection of different material that has been dyed and dryed. The collection of beautiful colors was really nice to see.

It is really nice to see the whole process. I have to admit that after seeing all the work done there, I had no problem with going back to the sales area and buying up quite a collection of material to use.

I'll try to identify work that I made things using Newtons material.

Hear go the jeans!

I have been saving my blue jeans and waiting for an opportunity to try doing something with them. Here I am! As you can see, I have been cutting the jeans into strips of big threads. I am planning to turn all these strips of thread into something interesting.

Here they are, four blue jeans stripped into nice threads that can be used to develop cloth that I can use to produce some clothing items. Right now, I am a little uncertain about how the cloth will look and how it will work when I start sewing it together into a jacket or skirt.

Well, I started weaving. The material is producing an interesting material. I can't wait to see how much I can produce! At least I have started weaving. It is interesting to see how it comes out.

I will keep you in touch now that I am weaving. As I make more of this material I'll take a few more pictures.

Old Leclerc

What fun! I received from a librarian in Philadelphia a Catalog from Leclerc. I have not yet figured out when it was printed, but it is identified as number 172A. I am really excited about the contents that are listed within it. The basic designs and sizes of the Leclerc equipment is still similar. Of course there are no computerized looms. But MIRA loom, the FANNY loom and the NILUS looms look familiar, though I think that all the new versions are version two not version one.The most interesting extras are the Occupational Therapy versions and the Bed Patients Loom Rack. These two items indicate that weaving in your bed or weaving even if you are using a wheelchair is supported. I don't think I have seen these items in the current catalog.

I think it is really cool that people saw weaving as a good way to maintain your physical ability by weaving. activating your arms and legs by weaving is something that we weavers know only too well.

I will have to copy some of he pictures in this catalog and share it with you all in the near future. Meanwhile, I am trying to figure out the age of the catalog. If anyone knows the date for the publication of the catalog 172A, please let me know.

The other recent excitement was the opening for the show in the SCIART gallery. An old friend and her husband came to the show. I really had a great evening. Here are a couple of pictures of some of the item in the show. If you get a chance during the next month, I encourage everyone to dropping by the show in old town camarillo. Besides, I have a piece showing there!

An interested woven piece at the Bed and Breakfast.

We stayed at a very nice bed and breakfast in Philadelphia. We stayed in their Blueberry room. Everything in the room was either blue or blue tinted. On one wall was this interesting blue handwoven rug that had been hung on the wall. It was double woven, and as I am a little interested in fiber work, you can see that i had to take a picture and share it with everyone. I don't know who made this, and I was unable to find out when and where it was made. The owner did not remember.

It does provide a nice model for anyone thinking about a double weave project.

As usual, fiber is everywhere.

I may be stuck in bed but I can still blog!!

I may be stuck in bed, but I can still BLOG!! Besides, I have the pictures that my wife was able to take for me while we traveled and I have wanted to share some of them with everyone. The trip to the east had a number of important tasks. First was to pick up our son who completed his post baccalaureate program. The other critical this was to go to the sites of my mother's grave and my wife's father's grave. They died last year within a couple of weeks of each other and we needed to place the stones on their graves. Here are the pictures of the two grave stones. My wife took these two pictures. I guess that I will have to go there again so that I can stand at the place of their graves.

It is interesting to see the stones in place. It is a finalization of one thing, but also a beginning of the next part of our lives. My wife and I now look forward to new actions, new progress and new future. Even as we were saying farewell to our parents, we were bringing our son back to California with us so that he can start his Doctorial program at Berkeley.

The circle of life!!

Want to know how to mess up a vacation?

I have never ruined a vacation quite a badly as I have this one. Here I am lying on a bed looking at the ceiling and waiting for my back to stop aching. At least I have been able to work on updating my blog! I picked up a traveling bag and it killed me! I dropped to the floor, crawled into my car and my wife and son finished packing up the back of the car. We have then driven down to Florida. We were supposed to take a couple of more days seeing things before we made it this far. But with me lying on my back waiting for my back to stop hurting and waiting for it to feed better the worm weather here in florida seems to be the right place to be. Right now we have Monday morning flights to california, and the big question is wether of not I will be healthy enough or not to get in the plane and fly home.

Oh well!

Great trip to DC!!

What a great stay in DC, and what trip can you take without a picture of the reflection pool from the Lincoln Memorial. Even if the reflection pool is dry and being cleaned in preparation of the summer time when the visitors will all be visiting!!! We also visited many of the museums.Some of them were more exciting than others. I really enjoyed the new Museum of American Indians. One of the most exciting exhibitions was a collection of woven work by an american indian. The entire museum had an enormous collection of work by all different american indian art work both day to day activity and a large collection of material for religious activities. This picture is of some recent art work by an american indian doing really interesting recycling materials. I really enjoyed his work.

We also went to a number of museums with both Eastern areas and from art from all over the world. All of these museums also had large numbers of fiber related work.

These interesting collection came from the museums near the Castle. These two pictures are just a small collection of all the Fiber art I found in the museums. It is really nice that so many people are producing fiber art.

We went to the american collection of Bonsai trees.

Some of these are 100 to 200 years old.

This beautiful bonsai was trained since 1625. It was donated to the United states.

They have been store in one place and the collection is outstanding.

We spent several hours just walking through this beautiful park and enjoying all the bonsai.

Also it turns out that this is where the old columns from the capital are stored. When the expanded the c

apital, they moved the columns here and stored them. An interesting place to see them.