Current yarn, and a guided tour

 Ages ago, I offered to do a guided tour of my art materials, after showing you the drawer for the goldwork set aside for the moment, and here it comes. One thing I noticed very quickly was that it's in three of my four rooms, and that there's more than I realized, maybe that isn't such a surprise.  But this is after the Great Winnowing.

Anyway, here's the current yarn output, with cardboard rolls ready to ply

Here, in the kitchen, under the counter, is the area for dyeing and papermaking tools

In a nice old oak dresser in the living room, are the tools for paper piecing

And some of the fabrics useful for piecing

 

Under the coffee table, left, the raw material for spinning, on the right, tools for plying

Upstairs in the guest room, in the drawers under the bed, materials for crewel, knitting and weaving. In the rightmost drawer, on the bottom left corner, is a handspun ball of llama yarn from Bolivia, which cheers me when I look at my own spinning.  The llama yarn is much more rough and artisanal and irregular in twist, and full of bits of grass and debris, than mine, and it's okay.

And in the walk in closet in that room, old artworks, image transfers and paintings, waiting for places in future artist books or other ideas yet to be had

And paper, including some with image transfers in place, for origami and artist book making

Handmade paper waiting for new homes in books or frames

And a taboret for knitting and crocheting tools

Tools for weaving, painting, in containers, and stamping in the tin box, see also the rigid heddle loom stored there, with the heddle to the left, drawing board against the wall

Supplies for stitching, goldwork, silk embroidery

This also made me realize how many arts and crafts I tend to get involved in. Bottom right of that last picture is a small printing press for postcard size printmaking.

This is as small as I seem to be able to get my supplies.  I have a compact set of materials and tools for every craft, easy to find when I'm ready to use them.  This is one big advantage to having done the Great Winnowing.  I can find stuff, wheee!  On the shelves above these containers are frames and other materials a bit dull for pictures, but ready for when I am.

I should explain that these are all part of my exhibiting life.  I've had solo exhibits in all of these media at different times, and had works juried into group shows, too, so it's pretty serious to me.  It looks pretty humble when you see the origins of the works, though!  The rigid heddle loom is on longterm loan from the Princeton Embroiderers' Guild, to whom it was donated, with the understanding that if anyone wants to try it, I'll hand it over. No takers up to now, though.

I'm leaning back to stitching and to piecing, and I think I'll have to sort of organize my time to fit them in.  That Robe of Many Colors is still waiting for me.