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| Posted By: Patricia Lukas |
| Saturday, July 30, 2011 |
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Weaving 101 I've been asked the question "how long does it take you to weave a rug?" at least a hundred times. Invariably, people respond to my answer by saying "I would think that it would take longer." My follow up is to say that the actual weaving is the creative and fun part. Before you can get there you have to set up the loom. Ok class, are you ready? Here we go!
Winding the warp (vertical threads). The sections are wound one at a time.
The warp has been wound on the back beam.
Threading each thread through each heddle.
Threading Completed!
Now we pull each thread through the dents (spaces) in the reed.
Reed threading done
Warp tied to apron on front beam.
Side view of the tied up loom.
Weaving in the header.
Header woven.
Cutting the fabric strips.
Winding fabric on the shuttle. (Are we there yet?)
WEAVING! Let the fun begin!!
One done, on to the next!
There's another loom to set up. Are you ready to try your hand?
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| Posted By: Patricia Lukas |
| Saturday, July 30, 2011 |
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Babies, Kids, Garden Bounty
A few days ago, while watering the garden, I noticed that the latch on the bluebird house had become unhooked and the door was wide open. Thankfully, no predators saw it as the brood was still in the nest. The bird cam got a fuzzy photo of mom feeding one of the babies. Needless to say, I quickly shut the door!
Last night I was in the pool and heard a sound coming from the bird house. I took this photo of one of the fledges checking out the world around him and waiting for mom to bring him dinner. We thought he might be ready to leave. This morning I started to walk down to the studio and the mom starting dive bombing me. Really! I made a mad dash back to the house. I have a feeling that the fledge we saw last night was somewhere in the vicinity and old mom was trying to keep me away. It worked!
One of two fawns hanging out in the paddock.
I picked the first zucchini and the second bowl of lettuce last week. Since then, I've picked two more bowls of lettuce, and probably ten more zucchini. We are starting to give some away....
"Red Hot Poker" (less red, more yellow) glowing in the late afternoon sun.
"Star Gazer" lily
The Perennial Garden's latest offerings.
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| Posted By: Patricia Lukas |
| Monday, July 04, 2011 |
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Independence Day On Christmas day 2008, my mother, Tom and I attended the annual reenactment of General Washington crossing the Delaware. In 1776, this offensive was a turning point in the revolutionary war. This rag tag army, led by Washington, was no match in combat against the British army, so a secret plan was designed against the British and their Hessian mercenaries. I still marvel at the courage it took to follow through on this plan. It was yet another step along the road to our Independence from a tyrannical government.
Today, I also give thanks to all of the American companies who produce goods MADE IN THE USA! I am so proud to be a part of that wonderful family. On Friday, I took my car, made in America, to pick up 676 pounds of warp yarn, made in America, and went on to pick up shipping boxes, made in America so that I could continue to produce and ship my made in America rugs!!!
America, America, GOD shed HIS grace on thee!!! |
| Posted By: Patricia Lukas |
| Sunday, July 03, 2011 |
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More Summer Color
A shot of the pickeral weed in the pond with a perennial geranium in the background. I actually took this picture while sitting in the pool on my pool chair. The zoom feature came in handy.
The perennial garden early in the morning.
The hydrangeas are especially beautiful this year.
Little frog getting a respite from the heat of the morning. The lily pads look and feel like luxurious leather.
Speaking of summer color, here's an idea for a great summer table. Use one of our rugs as a runner down the center of the table or we can weave a rug to cover the entire table. Put a piece of plexiglass on top. Instant stage for your fun table settings!
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| Posted By: Patricia Lukas |
| Thursday, June 23, 2011 |
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Early Summer Color We have no business growing hydrangeas because the deer love them. In the winter we have to fence them with deer netting because they eat the buds. Once the foliage appears in the Spring, we spray them with 'Bobbex' which is a stinky deer repellent. This is one of the blossoms from a variation called 'Endless Summer Blooms.'
The first water lily blossom
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| Posted By: Patricia Lukas |
| Tuesday, June 21, 2011 |
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Fledglings,Feathering (the nest), Fooling Around We've been observing three fledglings from the first brood of bluebirds born last month. The parents are still giving supplement feedings, but the kids are doing some foraging on their own under mom and dad's watchful eyes. It seems that the little ones are not thrilled with being out in the big world and are attempting to get back into their house. It's going to be a tight fit.
The young ones are still hanging around, but it's time to get started on the next brood. The old man is trying his best to woo her. I think he needs to work a little harder. She seems rather disinterested.
Success! The nest building began, was completed, and as of yesterday there are three eggs.
The bird cam caught these sparrows in the act. The other day I saw her gather pine needles for a nest she's building in a tree. You never know what you're going to find when you walk outside around here!
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| Posted By: Patricia Lukas |
| Wednesday, June 15, 2011 |
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Welcome To My New Diggs Tom and I went out to feed the fish and found the new guy on the block (pond) floating on his own pad. He's becoming quite comfortable with having us around and is doing his share of croaking in a somewhat tenor voice. He's giving the resident older male frog a run for his money. Wait until the female comes around. Could be a fight to the finish.
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| Posted By: Patricia Lukas |
| Saturday, June 11, 2011 |
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Pets, both domestic and wild I have been asked, on occasion, to weave a custom rug for the family pet (dog or cat) that either coordinates with a custom rug that I have woven for the family, or matches the bowl of said dog or cat. I thought it would be fun to show an example in my booth at last winter's New York Gift fair. Rather than put a stuffed animal on the rug, I asked my good friend Janie to take a photo of her and her husband's cool little dog, Whit, and email it to me. I had the photo enlarged to Whit's actual dimensions, mounted it on poster board, and then Tom and I set it up in the booth. We did it mainly for the visual effect, to bring attention to the booth. We succeeded in that it brought great conversation. There were some people that did a second take because as they approached my booth, they thought it was a real dog. Others inquired as to if it was a reproduction of our dog, which led comically to the referencing of Peter Sellers in The Pink Panther, 'does your dog bite?' At another point during the show, a woman walked by with her young daughter in tow. Upon their approach the child said to her mother, 'Mommy, I want that dog.' When they reached the end of my booth, the child realized it wasn't a real dog. She gave me an incriminating look and said 'it's only cardboard'. Real Life lessons. You can't always get what you want.
This little one is an apparent escapee from the frog egg eaters, aka, the fish in our pond, from last year's spawn. He made his appearance a couple of days ago. He doesn't need a Loominaries rug, since he has his own pad.
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| Posted By: Patricia Lukas |
| Saturday, June 04, 2011 |
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Abundant Bloomers, and Frog Courting This floribunda rose bush was a gift from my Aunt and Uncle in 1992. It is a prolific bloomer and was only slightly fazed by the hot weather over Memorial Day weekend.
This is an old rose variety in our garden. We have had it for nearly twenty years. After long cold winters, we sometimes thought it didn't survive, but after the worst the winter can give, it blossoms even more.
The peonies are in full bloom. I love bringing some in to make a bouquet.
The big guy is croaking his heart out trying to attract the lady.
So here is Ms. frog on the other side of the pond (camouflaged amongst the creeping Jenny) appearing to say "not tonight, I have a headache."
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| Posted By: Patricia Lukas |
| Wednesday, June 01, 2011 |
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Rag Rug? Really? I was told by someone that our rugs were too beautiful to be called RAG rugs. I was flattered by the compliment, but in actuality, while our rugs are not woven using rags, the technique and process is the same as those woven many years ago with the torn old clothing, towels etc. of the homeowner wishing to have a rag rug made. Last year I was asked by the curators of the Tenement Museum in New York city to weave a rug that might have been used by the early tenants of one of the apartments. The rug was installed in the Rogarshevsky apartment. I haven't seamed a rug since the purchase of our twelve foot loom more than fifteen years ago, but in keeping with the fact that most "cottage industry" weavers would not have had very wide looms, I wove this rug in three panels and hand seamed the panels together.
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| Posted By: Patricia Lukas |
| Monday, May 30, 2011 |
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Honor and Remember
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| Posted By: Patricia Lukas |
| Friday, May 27, 2011 |
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Empty Nest This is the last of the kids to fly ('fledge") the coop. I think dad is tempting him out with the rather good sized winged thing he has caught. When we didn't see any feeding activity last evening, I took my trusty step stool over to the the box and took a peek. The nest was empty. I removed it and cleaned out the box. Judging from the activity in the area today, it won't be empty for long. To be continued....
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| Posted By: Patricia Lukas |
| Wednesday, May 25, 2011 |
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Wild Kingdom Part Two Over the years, we have spotted blue birds on our property. We learned that they like areas with open fields and while we have many trees and shrubs, we also have a paddock where the previous owner kept his horses. Three years ago Tom built a blue bird house and mounted it on a pole at the corner of our pool fence on the edge of the perennial garden. Within two weeks a male and female began building a nest. The female laid four eggs, three of which hatched. Last year she laid four eggs in early May and another four in early July. This year she has laid five eggs and from the sound coming from the nest, all have survived. Last year we installed a bird cam on the fence. It took this picture of the female building her nest. Note she has a long piece of grass in her feet as well as nest building material in her mouth.
I was amazed to see her fly up to the nesting box still clutching the long grass in her feet as well as carrying more nest building material in her mouth. A woman on a mission.
I'm not sure what's happening here. It looks as though the female has lost her balance and the male has come to her rescue lifting her back on to the fence `a la superman.
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| Posted By: Patricia Lukas |
| Sunday, May 22, 2011 |
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Wild Kingdom The description of our property on our "About Us" page is not an exaggeration. We are surrounded by abundunt wildlife, some brought in by us (the fish in our pond), but the majority found their way here all by themselves. There is a large herd of deer which has expanded once again. I was here in the studio on Friday when I heard a fawn cry out. If youv'e ever heard the sound, it is akin to the bleating of a lamb. Normally it doesn't have a desperate sound, but rather a "feed me mom" tone to it. This time it was different. I looked out of the window in time to see it on our neighbors property stuck in the perennial border around their pool. It was small enough to enter in bewteen the bars of the pool fence and in an effort to get out, it went instead to the border which my neighbor had surrounded with deer netting. I came out of the studio and started pulling up the netting while its mom, who was also in a panic, snorted at me. After many attempts the fawn finally found one of the openings and escaped into the woods with momma right behind. One of the things we have learned about deer over the years is that the does tend to let their fawns "hang out" for the day while they watch them at a distance. This is when people mistakenly think that the mother has abandoned the baby. This little one spent the day in the border behind our house. I was weeding there, and she just watched me.
This one showed up a year later. It was sleeping beneath one of our crabapple trees and I took this photo at 6:30 AM. The mom showed up at 5:00 PM, gave a snort and the fawn went trotting over to nurse. The mom didn't even inquire as to what my hourly babysitting rate was.
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| Posted By: Patricia Lukas |
| Monday, May 23, 2011 |
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Color of the Year I was doing some gardening in between the rain showers. I took this photo of one of our two clematis and it reminded me of the 2011 Pantone color of the year which is Honeysuckle.
Here is one of our rag rugs that we matched to a room setting in the Wesley Hall showroom for the High Point furniture market in April. Note the various shades of Honeysuckle that were used. You might not want an entire room of it, but a touch here and there helps to brighten the space.
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| Posted By: Patricia Lukas |
| Friday, May 20, 2011 |
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Welcome to my Blog! This blog page, and indeed, my website is thanks to my wonderful web designer, Robin Rembish. Flash forward to the winter 2010 gift show. Robin came by my booth again, and this time, Tom was there. I introduced the two, and stood mesmerized by their conversation. I still had no idea what they were talking about, but they were speaking the same language! LONG story short. I now have a website that I can update whenever I want. No monthly maintenance fees, no waiting for someone to make changes that I need yesterday. I hope you will take a few minutes to check out Robin's website at www.robinswebsitestudio.com. Thanks Robin! |
