One Thread at a Time; Woven Textiles by Debbie Barrett-Jones

Just posted all my photos from my show on to my flickr account. Please click on this link to view them. One Thread at a Time; Woven Textiles by Debbie Barrett-Jones

Traveling the World with My Ribbon Wand

These photos were posted on Facebook by my friend Jessica Reusch. To make this easy on myself I will just post her post. :) 

"So, one of the best photos from our wedding day was this photo of our dear friend,Debbie Barrett-Jones, showing her unbridled enthusiasm for us. Our other dear friend, Tom Tate, made Debbie into a meme...and it's one of my new favorite things."

New Scarves to Come

Finally finished tying all 530+ knots to finish both ends of these eight new scarves.... Now off to washing, ironing, trimming, photographing, editing and posting online....but that all must wait for now. The girls and I are going to the The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and having a picnic on the lawn. Message me if you want to join. #loomweavingwednesday

Last Few Weeks of Summer with My Girls

We have had a very busy, fun and productive last few weeks of summer. Here are a few photos of my girls along with my sweet Cora making and selling more good to help raise money for her and her sister's school trip to France. She was also giving them away to people at Powell Gardens, First Friday Art Openings and just last week to a volunteer gardener at our favorite place in KCMO, Kauffman Memorial Gardens. I am going to miss my Cora Bear. She starts school on Tuesday. (Also, check out their shop and blog.)

 

Selling rainbow loom bracelets at Rockhurst High School.

And time weaving in next to me in our craft room. 

Playing around with new yarn for Cora's creations. 

I love to live, create & discover art everyday. 

We Are Going To France Designs

Bouncy house at Rockhurst High School where my husband works. 

I was about to throw away my big puffy wedding dress until......

This summer my family has been on a mission to free ourselves of lots of stuff we don't use everyday. We have donated tons of toys, clothes, kitchen stuff and some furniture. So far it has been such a wonderfully freeing experience. I was talking to my best friend last week about the experience and somehow it led to the focus of my wedding dress just hanging in my closet, taking up space, never being used. She suggested letting the my girls use it for dress-up.

So, today I did just that. Cora, 7, and Emma, 4, had fun dressing up in mom's big puffy princess wedding dress. I starting thinking how it would be sweet to see them dress up each year around our anniversary, June 29. How special would it to see them grow into it. I don't expect them at all to want to wear my dress on their special day. In fact, I have had thoughts of just donating it, but this was so special today, that I will continue to hold on to it.....a little longer. Especially after, when Cora tried it on, she said that she is going to wear this when she gets married.

I love my little ladies. Oh, and I put my woven white scarf on Emma and shawl on Cora because my dress is strapless.....just I little too "mature" for my ladies right now;)

Holy Week; Easter Sunday

This Easter I had the honor to have my Easter Woven Panels back up at Jacob's Well, along with my white Easter Shawl that I wove last year during the Saturday Night Vigil. This white shawl was apart of my seven piece Lent Shawl series. Last year during Lent I wove each week a new shawl that was placed on the cross in the Prayer Chapel. Click this LINK to see the images. During the Saturday Night Vigil I wove the all white shawl. 

This year we moved the shawls to the cross in the sanctuary. Each week of Lent I placed a shawl on the cross and during the Saturday Night Vigil that was held 7:00pm-midnight, I took a shawl off the cross every hour. Right before midnight the cross was bare, symbolizing Christ's death. And at midnight, I placed the white shawl on the cross symbolizing, He Is Risen.

I was thrilled to share the stage sanctuary with the beautiful artwork of Jannele Mastin. She made these lovely hand-cut paper cut flower strung from the ceiling. She is incredibly gifted, creative and wonderful artist. She blew my breathe away by her beautiful installation. Thank you Jannelle for all your hardwork. 

This was a special Easter Sunday as well with our first every Jacob's Well Choir lead by Ali Ebright.

Weaving this Saturday at Leedy-Voulkos Art Center

One Thread at a Time, Loom Installation.....(a few mistakes corrected. lessoned learned:)

I can breath again..... A week has gone by since my First Friday Opening at Leedy-Voulkos Art Center in Kansas City. This Leedy gives you two months with your work up.  I was scheduled for April and May. This worked out great for me because about nine months ago I had a vision of making a large piece that was connected somehow to my little loom. When crunch time came in March with only a few weeks left to create pieces, I knew I was running out of time for my loom piece. With encouragement from my husband and some close friends, I decided to put the idea on hold until May's First Friday Opening. April's First Friday went great (will post photos soon) but I knew something was still missing. That feeling was confirmation that I had to create the loom piece for next month. I had the month of April to hand-dye all my yarn and weave away 13 yards on my big loom, along with setting up 15 yards of shades of blue yarn as my background piece. (I will post more photos soon of all my pieces.)

 It took me three days to set up my loom and I made one big mistake. In all my nine years of weaving I had never set up my loom without using paper to separate my warp threads on the warp beam. I had 11 yards wound on my little loom.

I was crossing my fingers and hoping that it wouldn't make a difference but I learned quickly after weaving four inches and breaking three threads. So, I guess lessoned learned, using paper with your warp yarn really does help with creating equal tension when it is time to weave. 

Here are some photos of me fixing my mistake. 

Cutting out all the four inches I wove last week.

Unwinding all 11 yards off the back beam.

Cutting paper to be placed in between my warp yarn threads.

Re-winding my warp threads using paper this time.

Because my tension was so off, I wasted more than a 10 inches of yarn in the middle of my scarf warp. (Sorry, if this doesn't make much sense;)

Re-weaving again.

I will be weaving each week, most Saturdays during the month of May, on my loom. These times will be open gallery hours. Be checking my blog and facebook for announcements on times.