Making Color

 Here are a couple of the finished pieces from my color reduction class that ended last week.  This is from Shari who is a fine arts painter.

This is Jim's, a former graphic artist.  We're given a piece of wood to carve and the rest comes from inside.  I thought their work represented them very well.

And this is my big red rooster, Mr Doodle Doo.  I want to do him again and increase the number of reductions but my attention has already been snagged by something else.

After standing on concrete for 2 1/2 hours the night before, I further punished my feet by attending Liz Moncrief's warp painting class the next day, from 9:00 to 3:30.  She sure made warp painting simple and not fussy at all.  The two colors on this are lemon yellow and aquamarine.  She showed us how to use pressure to squeeze the colors into a middle area where they blended to make a third color, in this case green.  It has a tidepool look.

We worked in teams and Heidi and I were just flying by the seat of our pants.  We chose Pagoda Red and Amber Waves for our second warp.  As Liz was mixing up the solution she commented that we were going to get a sunset.  After blending the color, I absolutely did.

This odd yarn was imported from France for Crystal Palace yarns and is 44/40/16 rayon/cotton/polyester.  I bought it from Mary Wonser last year for $1 at the guild's Weftover Sale and I no idea what possessed me to buy or dye it.  It loved dye, was an absolute sponge!  The dye struck instantly.  There was no negotiating with this warp!

As if I hadn't punished my feet enough, I went to Earth Day.  Ian had been there all day setting up and volunteering in the March for Science booth.  I came with my friend Joanie just for the march.  On remarkably short notice, we had a turnout of close to a thousand people, lots of kids and families.  Marching through town we had further support as the cars drove by, honking and drivers calling out their support.  Boy, were my dogs barking.

Joanie and I came at 2:30, the last half hour of Earth Day.  We were sporting our Team Campbell t-shirts at the March for Science booth.  The main Team Campbell was in Washington DC with subgroups in Boston, San Francisco and Bend.  Team Campbell was organized by Jim Behnke, editor for Neil Campbell, author of Campbell's Biology and also Ian's brother, which is how there came to be a March for Science and Team Campbell in Bend.

I was wearing my knitted wool headband that says "science" on both sides and itched like mad.  What a terrible idea!  Our "scientist" was Dr Chaput, professor of infectious diseases and anatomy and physiology, and she was great sport, answering random questions off the cuff.

I rinsed out the warps this morning and hung them over the ladder to drip dry, hoping to beat the rain.  They look pretty shriveled and pathetic at this stage.

They only look marginally better here, half dry, hanging in the guest shower.  I'm pleased with the tidepool and sunset colors.  The splotchy purple and gold is even uglier in real life.  I cannot imagine it being any less ugly after woven and I absolutely don't know what to say about The Coat of Many Colors on the right. Several weavers have assured me that the most disappointing painted warp often is the happiest result when woven.  I realize as I look at this that I have eight scarves to weave which sounds like an awful lot to me.