Counter Balance Loom

JWise Photo of the Day

Caroline Wise sitting at her Counter Balance loom having just finished warping also known as dressing, the loom.

Some months ago a very kind woman near Prescott, Arizona delivered and gave Caroline this quite old counterbalance loom for free. When it arrived no one was sure if it was complete or still worked as the woman delivering it was getting rid of it for someone else who had inherited it. The complexity or I should say, the unknowns regarding this type of loom was initially daunting for my wife. But she persisted and through some trial and error and the help via websites, YouTube videos, and the email correspondence from Bernie Goodrich, Caroline was getting closer and closer to seeing this loom make fabric once again. Seen here, Caroline has warped the loom, also known as dressing the loom, and is nearer to throwing the shuttle through the shed to make her first weave.

Balcony Experiment

JWise Photo of the Day

A bowl of magenta hued yarn being dyed with prickly pear fruit and urine by Caroline Wise

What do you get when you pee in a bucket, add the juice from the fruit of the prickly pear cactus, submerge a bunch of yarn, and let ferment for two weeks? You get an incredibly repulsive stinking bowl of magenta-colored yarn that upon being exposed to air and oxidizing turns a kind of bluish-grey. Interestingly the bucket without pee-pee the yarn turned out a shade of green. Lessons learned; (1) stir bucket more often so that chunky skin mold layer or whatever it was doesn’t form, (2) do not rinse this stench in John’s kitchen, (3) forget trying to use urine as a mordant. I hope whatever Caroline plans on knitting with this yarn ends up as a gift for someone, anyone else.

Tempe Center for the Arts

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Tempe Center for the Arts in Tempe, Arizona

The Tempe Lake broke this last evening and dried out. I took a few minutes to drive over here to see what things looked like and, well, it looked like a dry river bed, which is of course where Tempe Lake sits. One of the sections of the rubber dam failed and by this morning the majority of the water was drained; only a few shallow pools with fish flopping about remained. I really couldn’t find a good angle to take a photo of the destruction, it wasn’t nearly as apocalyptic as I’d imagined. What was nice is this relatively new building next to the dry lake that the Tempe Center for the Arts calls home.

Chucks

JWise Photo of the Day

Hand crocheted Converse black and white baby shoes made by Caroline Wise

Somebody had a baby and it wasn’t us. The lucky recipient of the stork’s efforts works with Caroline and to celebrate James’ new son and his entry into this life Caroline felt a brand new pair of hand-crocheted Converse Chucks was a fitting gift. James loved the shoes commenting he’d now have to hunt down a baby-size Ramones T-shirt to round out a perfect ensemble. A couple of years ago Caroline knitted a purple and white baby sweater with an OM on the front for a Hindu friend who had just had a daughter. Too bad we don’t know any strippers, my wife could knit up some pasties and a latex mini skirt. She’s threatened that as I grow older she’ll be knitting me woolen Depends adult diapers – the joy I have to look forward to.

Etran Finatawa at The MIM

JWise Photo of the Day

Etran Finatawa on stage at The Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, Arizona

Month after month the Musical Instrument Museum doesn’t fail to deliver a rich mix of music from around the globe. Tonight’s featured musicians from Niger are known as Etran Finatawa – click the link to watch them live. These five men perform what they call Nomad Blues. They are Tuareg and Wodaabe nomads playing traditional gourd instruments, a goatskin drum, flute along with guitar, and hand clapping. The magic of them coming to the United States and the generosity of The MIM bringing them to Phoenix was nothing less than amazing. It’s not very often that musicians emerge from one of the five poorest countries on earth to tour the world. This part of their tour primarily focused on the western U.S. with only Chicago and New York having scheduled dates west of the Mississippi.

Etran Finatawa on stage at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, Arizona

Etran Finatawa’s performance went by fast although they did play for nearly an hour before an intermission. When they came back on stage for the second half, it was during this part of the concert that Etran really got the audience going. Two of the percussionists came forward joining the other Wodaabe member for a spectacular display of dance and eye movements particular to the Wodaabe. Our peek into this culture from a remote corner of the world was our great fortune. Sadly it will likely be another couple of years before they make a return visit to America. Watch a video by clicking here to see a segment of the Werner Herzog film about the Wodaabe. And click here to watch Tuareg dancing from the Ghadames Cultural Festival.

Photos courtesy of The MIM and Jimmy C. Carrauthers of Great Leap Productions.

Into The Jar

JWise Food, Photo of the Day

Canned pasta sauce and tomato juice made from tomatoes grown by Tonopah Rob

Start with one-hundred twenty-five pounds of tomatoes and get busy. Over the previous two weeks, I boiled, sautéed, milled, chopped, and canned fifty-four quarts of tomatoey stuff. From roasted pepper tomato sauce to basil garlic marinara. I made V8-style tomato juice, too. And now after all of this work, all of the humidity from pressure canning the jars, all of the onions, carrots, bell peppers, garlic, basil, celery, and dirty pots and pans, I am finished with tomatoes for the year. This horde will last Caroline and me about two years. As winter rolls around we’ll still be enjoying the fresh tomato flavor of summer courtesy of Tonopah Rob’s Vegetable Farm.