Irish Dreamcatcher

My friend Rita recently went to Ireland. For her bon voyage, I urged her to bring one of my Dreamcatcher necklaces - one I made a few years ago that nobody seemed interested in.  I used the Irish colors in the design. Rita liked it and wanted to buy it - I told her it would make me very happy to think that somebody in Ireland would receive it. Maybe you will find the right person and the right moment, I suggested. You could give it away - pay it forward. Rita promised me she would let me know if anybody noticed it or commented. 

Well, Rita returned with a wonderful story. She was on a tour of Trinity College with folk singer Frances Black.  Frances had been admiring the necklace that Rita chose to wear for the occasion. When  Frances complimented her on the necklace, they had a chat about Dreamcatchers - "They are for catching your dreams!" Frances knew. When Frances turned to speak to someone else, Rita quietly removed the necklace and soon caught Frances' attention. "This is for you!" With those wonderful Irish eyes shining she gratefully accepted. She then gave two CD's to Rita - a cultural exchange. Frances wrote me a note on one.

Frances Black on YouTube

Frances Black Website

Frances Black Facebook

The Moon in the Morning Free Download

If the world were sensible we would have 13 months in the year of 28 days each. Think about it. In that case, we would have to work in an extra day annually plus the leap year discrepancy every fourth year. What better time to do this than smack in the middle of the year. And smack in the middle is the first week in July. To celebrate, the novel is a free download July 2-6.

Here is a passage from the Moon in the Morning:

“Oh, this is probably silly, but it’s just that if we divided the year by thirteen – the number of days I mean - 365 divided by thirteen, the answer is 28 days, remainder one. Like February. Weird.”
“You did that in your head?”
Jean shrugged. “Yeah….”
“It would make knowing how many days are in a month a lot easier.”
“But what about the extra day? And the extra month?”
Bill started to write on a napkin. “If you divide 365 by 13 you get 28 and one thirteenth. That plus the extra day we add in leap years every four years to make up for the fact that it takes the sun 365 and a quarter days to rotate around the sun…”
“Whoa.”
“It isn’t that hard. If we used a thirteen month calendar, which incidentally would closely follow that moon cycle, but tried to fit it into the solar cycle, we would have thirteen months in the year but we would have to somehow average the extra day every four years for the sun and the extra day every year for the moon.”
Jean’s head started to hurt. Mary looked at Bill, puzzled.
“Hmm, I guess it isn’t that easy, is it?”
“No it is easy. Ve could have an extra day every year, like special holiday on last month, New Year’s Eve, or in middle of summer.”
“Like my birthday.”
“Sure. And den every four years duh holiday could be extra special and be two day celebration.”

Link to The Moon in the Morning at Amazon

Tribute to Alphonse Mucha Self Portrait

16" x 40" acrylic painting on wrapped canvas
by Rebecca Nebesar

As a retirement gift to my Czech-American husband I chose to paint a self-portrait in the style of 

Alphonse Mucha

(pronounced "MOO-ka") 

 one of his favorite artists, a Czech who worked in France, the USA, and Czechoslovakia. He made a name for himself in commercial art; his Sarah Bernhardt posters are well-known. His work is pretty much the definition of Art Nouveau. In this five minute video you can watch how the final painting took shape. Starting with reference images and studying Mucha's particular aesthetic, over time I was able to really connect with his style and as I painted to truly appreciate his skill in composition, his underlying use of geometry,  the agility of his flowing interrelated lines, 

and his artistic dexterity and finesse in every detail.

Link to Rick Steve's 3-minute spot on Mucha:

Prague's Art Nouveau, Mucha, and the Slav Epic

Garden District New Orleans 622

Garden District New Orleans 622

Free Download April 19 - April 20

Link to Amazon site:
The Moon in the Morning

Excerpt Book of Learning Chapter Five

"Heads turned at once toward the window, in the direction of the voice. There stood a woman. She had on a blue cape over a white dress of such a fine thread it seemed to move like water over her body. Around her neck hung a huge golden pendant in the shape of a wheel with spokes, like the wheel a captain of a ship uses to steer. She glided toward the bed arms spread wide.

“Why do you look shocked? I’m not a ghost. I am Brigit. Dost thou not recognize me? Thou summonedst me with thy flute.”

“I did?” Jean asked with wonder and awe in her voice, her mouth gaping.

“Thou most certainly didst.”

This sure is a ‘Wizard of Oz’ moment. This must be the way Dorothy felt when Glinda the Good Witch arrived in a bubble.

“Come, come now, be thou not afraid. I bite not.”

Sikee fluttered over to Brigit and alighted on her hand.

“Sikee. Good morning love. Canst thou show me thy work?”

Sikee flew like Tinker Bell over to the loopy heap on the floor.

Brigit moved soundlessly to the bed and looked down. The trailing air smelled of spring after a rain, earthy and light, delicately perfumed, but with a whiff of wet wool.

“I’m supposed to wind this up but I have no idea how. It is all such a jumbled mess. I don’t know where to begin.”

“For this hast thou summoned me. What a curious maiden thou art.” Brigit swooped her arms down, lifted the bundle from the floor and placed it carefully on the jeans quilt. Jean’s embroidery caught her eye. “Ah, I see thou hast been busy.”

“Unh huh.”

“Come, settle thyself here next to me and I will teach thee to wind.” She patted the bed. Her fingers fluttered as she spoke, beautifully casting a spell on Jean who moved mesmerized to her side. “Didst thou know this yarn can tell thy fortune?” Her face turned so close Jean could smell her breath.

Like lilacs."

Canaan Flowers Breakthrough

Weaving Cloth for Coats

From an admirer:

"I loved your woven jacket.  It seems so magical to have some yarn, weave it and then make a jacket.

Your creations are like a caterpiller that turns into a beautiful butterfly.  

I never could have imagined the yarn in anything but a sweater or scarf or something knitted or crocheted."

Long ago I wove this art piece.
I think I was telling myself I would like to weave cloth for coats ... or jackets. 

Olympic Weaving

The shuttle was my bobsled, the race was to the end of the warp!

During the Olympics, I set up a warp called Canaan Flowers from Marguerite Davison's weaving book. Because I am a novice to weaving, I chose this pattern as a stretch because it called for five treadles, something I had never done before. Following the charts as accurately as possible, it ended up that the raised part of the design emerged on the underside, like sliding blind.  Because my yarns were not high in contrast, keeping track of the pattern sequence was a bit of a challenge, like the skeleton sledders who have to have the curves memorized and in muscle memory, or the giant slalom skiers peering through the fog trying not to miss the giant slalom gates. My eyes blurred, struggling to make out the boundaries. I sometimes had to remove several rows to get back on track. By the time I arrived at the finish line of the warp, I'd figured out how to reorganize the treadlings to get the design on top. The sun shone! However this no longer mattered much, because the last length was mostly tabby.  Color and proportion became my new moguls.

"Flowers of Canaan" pattern just off the loom

close up - some "Rebecca's Tweed" yarn in the weft

BLOCKING: the white is a handspun by me BFL and Shropshire wool blend
the brown and green warp is a wonderful vintage cotton 

the shawl on the left was blocked, the one on the right was steamed

Jean Lilly

This is woven in the Jean Lilly pattern on the warp
and color variation stripes using only two yarns -
 buit it looks like more!

the dress to go with the jacket - or not!

Winter Weaving: Color Texture Order Joy

For my most recent warp 

I set up a large overshot based on a pattern called 

 Double Irish Chain 

on page 52 of Marguerite Davison.

I used a vintage cotton yarn that I inherited from a friend.

For the filling, in my effort to use up old bits 

accumulated over more than thirty years of knitting and crochet, 

I spun remnants with BFL (Blue-faced Leicester) wool fiber

 to make what I now call my "Rebecca Tweed."

 It was new for me to spin unspun fiber 

on top on plied finished yarns, but I finally got the feel.  

I also used the beautiful green mohair and mohair blend from

Grand Isle Art WorksYellow Dog Farm in Vermont, 

Evergreen Shetland weaving yarn from the Woolery in Kentucky,

 and Icelandic Lopi from The Warm Ewe in Chatham, NY bought several years ago. 

For the most part I used the vintage cotton for the dobby weave portions of the overshot.

Rebecca Tweed Yarn

Ready to go

view from under the beam showing the tie-on

just off the loom

steamed and pressed - after a bit of fulling

I planned to cut this up to make a skirt but now I will keep it as a throw!

This design used the Rebecca Tweed

it makes me think of a garden in the spring

just off the loom - using Icelandic Lopi yarn that once was bought for Mirette Doll hair - reverse side

... in its new home

front side. Piece is about 30" by 35"
I like the subtle central plaid

mini experiments at the end of the run

Winter Weaving: Theme and Variations

I had to master the basic traditional Lee's Surrender pattern from
Marguerite Porter Davison's
A Handweaver's Pattern Book

I set up the loom and got started, but I broke my wrist in June
and all weaving was put on hold.

The possibilities spread out before me but I had to wait!

Finally after 6 months I felt I have the stamina to get back to the loom,
but I could only pull the beater with my right hand.
As a discipline to really learn the pattern
I did six pretty much matching mats of the
basic traditional Lee's Surrender design.

White variations done in the Egyptian cotton 20/2
that I used on the warp

A bookmark

a border idea for a lampshade

fringed trim idea done with black wool

My favorite variation done in Cottolin 

 cottolin and vintage cotton yarn

I did the plain weave base

 alternating with the 20/2 egyptian cotton

and the heavier green and red yarns

Design sampler with reds and oranges, many different textures

This piece will be a wall hanging

Back to the drawing board...

Lee's Surrender is a very generative pattern!