Barbara Schutzgruber – Storyteller & Weaver

The good news is… it’s been a busy 2 weeks.
The bad news is….. it’s been a busy 2 weeks and there are only so many hours in the day!

A dear friend of 30 years passed away on her 90th birthday.  Jean was an amazing woman – a teacher, master gardener, weaver and storyteller who was always up for an adventure and road trip.  She’s the one who connected me with my very first weaving teacher – Gloria Teeter.  I’ve been helping her family inventory and organize the sale of her loom and spinning wheel, plus all the equipment that goes with them!  [The loom is still for sale so if anyone is interested in the details – send me an email.]

Last weekend I was the emcee for the Storytelling Festival at the ARK here in Ann Arbor with Donald Davis, Carol Birch, and Laura Lee Hayes performing.  The stories told on Saturday night for adults and Sunday afternoon for families were a spellbinding blend of humor, poignancy, rich language and imagery.

Plus I was working on a second felt wall hanging to submit with ‘Heron’ for the AAFG show in March at the Village Theater at Cherry Hill in Canton, MI.  I decided to do a self-portrait.  Now I struggle when it comes to sketching/drawing and being a ‘process’ artist/‘experiential’ learner … oh this was going to be an adventure!

Because I don’t ‘draw’ I take a lot of photographs and use those as my ‘jumping off’ point when it comes to design.

Here I am in the lantern tower windows of Ely Cathedral, England.

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This is the view from the floor below!

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I cropped the photo…

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…enlarged to make a 36″ x 43″ pattern.

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Take #1
I laid out Merino wool fiber, black silk chiffon fabric and then backed it with Romney wool – the only black wool in my stash.  I felted it – rubbing/rolling using soapy water.  End size is 29″ x 24″ but the Romney was too ‘hairy’ so it did not felt the way I wanted and worked it’s way from the back to the surface = oops!!  Even after giving it a ‘shave’ with an electric beard trimmer, this was not going to work…..

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…but it did give me a piece I could practice adding the facial features….

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Take #2
12″ x 18″ sample while I waited for my order of black Merino fiber to arrive.

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Third time’s the charm!!   “Daydreaming”  (29″ x 33″)