Here's a wee silk cuff (or maybe bookmark) that I recently took off my loom.  I’m not exactly sure how I’ll finish it yet (on a brass cuff or with clasp hardware?), but I knew I had to get it off the loom before my flight back to NYC from Vancouver Canada since the dressed loom wouldn’t fit in my bag.  It was the most relaxing (beach-filled!) summer in my home town and now I really feel like we’ve left our poosaster in the past (if you’re not into reading my long poosaster post, the gist is that we moved three times and endured many other stresses while moving to the USA from Canada with our infant, Sam, last year).  With lots of help from my parents I was able to pull off teaching some natural dye and print workshops this summer too!  Here is a really nice post about one by my student, Heather Apple.

Janna Maria Vallee

Here are a couple of finished objects that I'm excited about.  Above is Levenwick by Gundrun Johnson for Brooklyn Tweed, in Debbie Bliss Donagal Tweed.  I only paid $30 for 12 balls of this stuff from a yarn shop in NYC.  I bought it online and expected the colour to be atrocious and to have to over-dye it, but I love it.   For someone like me it's sometimes good to have limited colours to choose from or else everything I knit would be some version of olive, chartreuse or golden yellow. 

Below is Sam's first hand-knit reglan pullover, one of Jane Richmond's patterns, knit with merino yarn that I dyed for the FSA Yarn Club a couple years back (this one, and this one)

In other news, we have moved yet again!  This one is a keeper though, we are super happy in downtown Jersey City.  In fact I love it here.  When I go to NYC for the day I often find myself thinking, 'okay, let's get off this busy street' only to find that there is no such thing.  So, when I get off the subway in Jersey, its calmness is so welcoming and I just soak it up and thank God that I don't live in Manhattan.  I'm quite sure I wouldn't survive five years there.  Our last place was in a more remote area of Jersey City that was too far the opposite of NYC, the kind of place that really required a vehicle, so I'm glad to have found a happy medium only a few blocks from the Metro.

Here are Sam and I at the Cloisters where we visited the Unicorn Tapestries.  I was in heaven.  I'll be going back sans Sam for sure so I can really spend some time with them.  I wrote about my first impression of them here on the Mirrix blog where I'll be blogging for the next eight months.  I am a participant in their ridiculously awesome social market campaign where they send me their products (as well as some from their sponsors) and I blog for them.  So far I am over-the-moon in love with my 16" Big Sister tapestry/bead loom. 

You can follow my Mirrix posts here: http://www.mirrixlooms.com/author/janna-smfam2014/
Here I am with my new tapestry loom :) 

This installation re-contextualizes my 2010 shag dress as an Egoskeleton.  It's a play words, yes, which I pretend to shy away from but find myself going back to, hehe.

In spiritual terms the ego often refers to the over-identification with the mind and the shedding of the ego, or realizing presence, is what Hinduism refers to as enlightenment, Buddhism, the end of suffering, and some Christ followers, salvation.  This piece is about successfully shedding the ego, if only temporarily, the remains seeming not unlike an exoskeleton.

I'm really happy with this use of the shag dress.  Last year I photographed it just laying around my house and was really fond of how it looked laying face down.  The back of the weaving is interesting, so I love being able to see it too.  So, when I started brainstorming as to how I would depict the idea of the ego being shed it was obvious that this was meant to be used for it.  It's so bright and showy after all.

I'm also interested in seeing it exhibited hanging upside down from a cord, as a kind of reference to the throwing of shoes on telephone wires to commemorate victories or large life accomplishments.  Yesterday I photographed it in this way, and as per usual I favoured the detail shots.  This is one of my faves (below)

I haven't had time to take pictures of the show yet, but here's some pics that some friends took at the opening.  I also have a process video still to come.

I've begun weaving my rug for our Montreal apartment.  I thought this would be a great way to be calm about the move but it turns out I've haven't had much time to weave (surprise surprise).  The good thing though is that I've got a deadline now since I've got a weaving job coming up for which I need my loom.  Better get this rug done and off. 

I'm really loving it so far.  My selvages are not perfect, but that's the kind of imperfection I love.  I can't wait to through it on our Montreal hardwood floors and squish my feet into it.

My first tapestry.

Reinventing one self is a life-long process, as is the evolution of our perception of the world around us, including the people around us.  In this woven piece I explored reinventing one person though experimentation with silk screening on the woven piece in various ways.  As I wove each new version I recorded the words and phrases that came to me.  It was like building characters in a novel;  each time I printed and wove a new version I learned more about who this person was and what they were experiencing.  Often the processes I used dictated those experiences.

Some of the words were:

partier
acceptance
regret
savvy
mysterious
unkempt
slut