The Website is Live!

Yeah, remember last year when I decided to have a website built...one with a real and official-like online shop?  It took longer than expected, but it is now finished and fully functional.  Well worth the wait, in my opinion.  Please visit, I'm very proud of it:

www.littlefooltextiles.com

Seed to Scarf IX: Finally, We Weave

After this very long warp takes a very long time to wind its tangled way through the body of the loom, these little bundles are the only knots in sight.  Time to weave!

Still-life...or self-portrait.

Seed to Scarf VIII: Wrasslin'

The knots are tied.  I begin to turn a crank, pulling the threads through the reed and heddles until they begin to wrap neatly around and around the back beam.  Suddenly, tension!  The beam isn't turning.  The threads are straining against their heddles, threatening to break.  I peer apprehensively over at the front of the loom, and am confronted with a monster tangle.  The entire 16 feet of warp threads have somehow constricted themselves into one cubic foot of pure knot.  But I won't panic: gentle tugging and the patience of a zen master are the only weapons I need to take down this beast, one inch at a time.  Meanwhile, I get to see the fruits of my labor as my painted pattern emerges from the chaos.

Love for Philadelphia

Goober tourist finds color in the city.

Mutter Museum (it's MOOter)

Phila, not Philly.  That's what my friend Nancy Blum, an amazing artist currently calling said city her home, calls it...and I think it's charming yet hardcore...just like the city itself.  This past weekend I found myself in Philadee (um, that's my addition...not so hardcore anymore) for the opening of my exhibition at the Philadelphia Art Alliance.  We are talking about large-scale weavings today, not scarves.  My work was one of three new shows opening there Thursday night.  The PAA is actually a mansion-turned-gallery, so my space, though high-ceilinged and open, had the domestic touches you would expect to see in a ridiculously huge home (two small crystal chandeliers high up by a sculpted ceiling and a vast dark wood mantle and fireplace covering an entire 20-foot wall).  Happily, my work looked perfectly comfortable (in fact, it looked great) among these luxurious trappings.  Know what else was great?  Philadelphia.  I walked all over the city in the three days I was there.  I ate a lot of good food, had some highly artistic cocktails, and saw some amazing art and architecture.  I stopped longest at the Mutter Museum (gawking, cringing, and staring in wonder at their collection of wax models of human ailments and the wall-sized cabinet of human skulls) and the Fabric Workshop and Museum (lots of gawking here, too...Nick Cave's exhibition and the video of his performance there absolutely blew me away).  I did notice, while out and about in the 40-degree weather, that everyone seemed to be dressed in shades of black and grey.  Maybe it's got something to do with those tall buildings and the lack of sunshine in the heart of the city, but I was an anomaly in my yellow coat and green Lf scarf.  The locals seemed to approve, however.  My scarf was noticed both at the PAA and the Fabric Workshop (business cards left behind at both places, of course).  Maybe Little Fool can provide big Phila with a pop (or many pops) of color some day?

Seed to Scarf VII: The Other 810 Knots

210.  211.  212.  213.  214............

How many steps are there?  Are you even weaving yet? (I know, right?!  And you, dear reader, are merely keeping up with the highlights.)  There are lots of steps from design to final scarf, and some of them, like the next two, are rather tedious operations that I have, in fact, already done once.  Remember when I tied 810 knots?  Well, those were cut off when I removed the warp from the loom to rinse out all that warp-painting dye.  Now my warp is clean and it needs to go back onto the loom so I can actually make a scarf.  What is step VII?  Retying 810 knots.  P.S. do I sound tired?  I promise I love this stuff...why else would anyone tie a total of 1,620 knots?

Seed to Scarf VI: Scrub-a-dub-dub...

Yes, those bubbles are pink.

One fool and a tub.  Painting sixteen yards of warp?  Fun.  Rinsing sixteen yards of warp for two whole days?  Not so fun.  But it must be done.  I learned the hard way that weaving a dyed warp with the dried dye still on it means every single surface area, large to minuscule, of one's entire studio will inevitably be coated with an invisible layer of dye particles...and these particles will make themselves known as soon as you lay down anything with the tiniest amount of moisture in it.  Not worth it!  Therefore the warp must be cut from the loom (I haven't even woven anything yet) and the excess dye must be rinsed and rinsed and rinsed away.  Meanwhile I am watching those sixteen yards tangle tighter and tighter every time I drain a pot full of pink water, wring out my threads (aka rat nest), and start again with a fresh pot.  The upside: the work sink in my new studio is actually a bathtub.  Wasn't making that first line up.

London Calling Little Fool

Boticca.com.  I'd rather wear a unique story.

It's true!  London called me last week.  More specifically, two of the style hunters from an online London-based marketplace called Boticca.  Boticca currently features the work of around 200 of "the very best emerging designers..."  Well, let me share their words:

Our team scours the world looking for the very best emerging designers and puts them all in one place, so that everyone can experience the joy of that rare find and discover the unique stories of these fascinating people and their pieces.

I caught Philippa's eye (aforementioned style hunter) through this blog, and just a week ago I chatted with her and Chiara (style hunter Italy) for over an hour about little fool, and how my scarves would fit so well with the curated aesthetic and "I'd rather wear a unique story" philosophy of Boticca.  What does this mean for Little Fool Handwoven Textiles?  International exposure and more direct focus toward the audience I hope to reach.  Boticca works on the same premise as Etsy (but highly refined and more exclusive and high-end...ooh, that sounds bratty).  I will have an online shop through their site, where I will tell the story of my scarves and hopefully see sales in return.  I feel very honored and flattered that these ladies reached out to me.  It is a small indication that I'm doing the right things, and I consider the complement as a payoff for all the work that goes into keeping up this blog.  A good start to 2012, I think!