Don't envy me, visit me.
And bring yarn.
It's swell being a collage and fiber artist. After you've been making stuff for a while, people start giving you things. Vintage magazines and ephemera. Wood veneers. Airbrushes. Doll parts. Intricate computer innards. Fabric remnants. Chemistry Glass. A trashcan full of cool, vintage vacuum tubes. Mannequins(which I gave to Jamie when we moved.) You know, things.
Today, I got a hell of a thing. I am the proud and rather intimidated owner of a 6'wide by 4'deep by 5'high standing, ten-harness, weaving loom. You see, my sister Robyne's friend Liz's mother is a weaver, and she is buying a BETTER loom. Hard to believe there's a better loom, but there it is. She tried donating it to St. Anthony's church and letting them sell it at their rummage sale or on Craig's list, but, get this, because the College of Marin recently closed down its weaving class and lab, there's now a glut of big looms on the local market in Marin. The church wanted Robyne's friend Liz's mom to take the loom back. So. There was a free, enormous, complex, vintage, cherrywood loom worth thousands of dollars laying around, and because I AM that girl, they thought of me.
Despite having ripped an ankle ligament early this week trying to pet a cute corgie dog after we got back from our awesome vacation in Las Vegas and Disneyland (maybe I should have blogged about those things too...) I managed to make this happen. Hobbling about on a cane with an ankle all bruisey and puffy, I can't lift or be particularly sure footed right now, so I called Lorna, my swell housekeeper. She found a couple of day laborers and supervised the moving about of furniture from floor to floor and even into storage below our house so as to accommodate the piano-sized loom.
I reserved a rental pickup truck for today. If you need a pickup, try Enterprise first. According to Budget, Hertz, Avis, and U-Haul, pickup trucks are somewhere between rare and non-existent, but Enterprise in Berkeley had them to spare. The catch of course, was that Enterprise closes at 1:00pm on Saturday and is closed on Sunday, so to avoid being charged an extra day, we had to drive an hour up to Marin to meet Robyne's pals Chris and Mike at St. Anthony's in Novato, lift the gargantuan machine whole into the truck bed, bungee it so that it was safe for an hour on the freeway, drop it at our house with the help of a neighbor or two, and get the truck back in the space of four hours.
I have some ROCKIN' neighbors. Boris the German engineer and Steve the South African materials scientist helped us photograph, mark, and disassemble the monstrosity, move the pieces inside, and then with hours of kibbitzing and discussing, put it back together. I must take them to dinner.
Miranda was quite a trooper, very patient and self amusing. I know a certain little girl who gets to take some of her new Disney polly-pocket toys and go visit grandma tomorrow.
August 18th is but a fortnight or so hence, but I can't throw myself a birthday party this year. My ankle hurts too much. If anyone wants to just come visit, I'd so love to see you! Please come and see me and raise a birthdayish glass of juice or beer or juice-beer with me while I elevate my foot. I put some weaving books on my wishlist at amazon, and if ANY of you work large, multiharness looms, Oh please, please, pretty-please come visit! The loom is taking up enough space that I should charge it rent, so please, let's figure this sucker out so I can at least get the return of a few scarves out of this vast piece of real estate!
It's swell being a collage and fiber artist. After you've been making stuff for a while, people start giving you things. Vintage magazines and ephemera. Wood veneers. Airbrushes. Doll parts. Intricate computer innards. Fabric remnants. Chemistry Glass. A trashcan full of cool, vintage vacuum tubes. Mannequins(which I gave to Jamie when we moved.) You know, things.
Today, I got a hell of a thing. I am the proud and rather intimidated owner of a 6'wide by 4'deep by 5'high standing, ten-harness, weaving loom. You see, my sister Robyne's friend Liz's mother is a weaver, and she is buying a BETTER loom. Hard to believe there's a better loom, but there it is. She tried donating it to St. Anthony's church and letting them sell it at their rummage sale or on Craig's list, but, get this, because the College of Marin recently closed down its weaving class and lab, there's now a glut of big looms on the local market in Marin. The church wanted Robyne's friend Liz's mom to take the loom back. So. There was a free, enormous, complex, vintage, cherrywood loom worth thousands of dollars laying around, and because I AM that girl, they thought of me.
Despite having ripped an ankle ligament early this week trying to pet a cute corgie dog after we got back from our awesome vacation in Las Vegas and Disneyland (maybe I should have blogged about those things too...) I managed to make this happen. Hobbling about on a cane with an ankle all bruisey and puffy, I can't lift or be particularly sure footed right now, so I called Lorna, my swell housekeeper. She found a couple of day laborers and supervised the moving about of furniture from floor to floor and even into storage below our house so as to accommodate the piano-sized loom.
I reserved a rental pickup truck for today. If you need a pickup, try Enterprise first. According to Budget, Hertz, Avis, and U-Haul, pickup trucks are somewhere between rare and non-existent, but Enterprise in Berkeley had them to spare. The catch of course, was that Enterprise closes at 1:00pm on Saturday and is closed on Sunday, so to avoid being charged an extra day, we had to drive an hour up to Marin to meet Robyne's pals Chris and Mike at St. Anthony's in Novato, lift the gargantuan machine whole into the truck bed, bungee it so that it was safe for an hour on the freeway, drop it at our house with the help of a neighbor or two, and get the truck back in the space of four hours.
I have some ROCKIN' neighbors. Boris the German engineer and Steve the South African materials scientist helped us photograph, mark, and disassemble the monstrosity, move the pieces inside, and then with hours of kibbitzing and discussing, put it back together. I must take them to dinner.
Miranda was quite a trooper, very patient and self amusing. I know a certain little girl who gets to take some of her new Disney polly-pocket toys and go visit grandma tomorrow.
August 18th is but a fortnight or so hence, but I can't throw myself a birthday party this year. My ankle hurts too much. If anyone wants to just come visit, I'd so love to see you! Please come and see me and raise a birthdayish glass of juice or beer or juice-beer with me while I elevate my foot. I put some weaving books on my wishlist at amazon, and if ANY of you work large, multiharness looms, Oh please, please, pretty-please come visit! The loom is taking up enough space that I should charge it rent, so please, let's figure this sucker out so I can at least get the return of a few scarves out of this vast piece of real estate!