I'VE GOT THE BLUES....

Before getting to the Blues, below is the completed lampshade, which when placed over a bulb, lightens beautifully, any blue feeling one might have. This shade took quite a long time, and is woven on a wool warp with cotton and silk weft. I found the frame many years ago, and loved its unusual shape. One doesn't often see a rectangular lampshade anymore.

And now for the BLUES!

Way back in April I had been weaving a blue wool rug on my old Union #36 loom. I began, of course, thinking it was going to be lovely, although as I wove along, I started to see the 'rug' differently, and not altogether kindly. I plowed ahead, being unable to just hack it off, and when it was done, gloomily cut it off the loom.

Here it is just off the loom, and truly I thought it ugly. Mostly I did not like the warp-faced white showing up so strongly on the blue wool.

It sat until just last week, rolled up, forgotten and unfinished on the couch on the unused front porch. For some reason last week, I decided to return to this rug, and at least finish the ends.

And here it its, and I still don't like it very much. While I was tying and twisting the ends, my husband walked by and said, "That's beautiful!" My reply was, "I hate it."

I laid it out on my workshop floor and kept it in my mind, wanting somehow to make it into something that I did, in fact like.

I decided to put some fabrics and object on it that complimented its colors. I gave some thought to turning it into a wall hanging. Mmmmmmmm.....what could such a BLUE background support. I thought, perhaps the ocean. So I drew and cut out some fish templates and laid them there as well. I hunted up some beautiful Chinese silks that I had been squirreling away for years, and laid them on the rug as well.

And for several days, when I entered my workshop I saw this...and let it sit in me and peculate.

This is the hanging that was born from that prolonged thinking. The fish were assembled beforehand, each from multiple silk fabrics. After I had finished all of the fish, I laid them out on the rug and thought for another day or so.

Finally, I appliqued them to the rug. And yes, I do think it is nice now.


Some close-ups of the fish.

And though I do have lots of Blue, I don' have the BLUES anymore!