Pages

Crazy as a Loom

Monday, May 25, 2009

Studio tour

Welcome. For all of you that can't come to Kingsbury, and take a tour, here is a photo tour that is the next best thing.

Here is the back porch. I can't show you the other end of it, it's such a mess. There are bales of upsholstery selvedge, bags of loopers, jeans, etc. When I clean out here, I will take another photo!
This used to be the dining room, but now it is home to the seven foot Toika countermarche loom, and the Union Custom rug loom.


Kizzy and Miss Puss like to sit on the loom or on the bench, and watch the bird feeder outside this window.



Looking back towards the porch, this room used to have three looms in it, but I finally moved one out. It was just too crowded, and didn't feel right.
I love the old fashioned sized window panes in the back door.
This room was a paler shade of yellow, and since it is on the west side of the house, and doesn't get much sun, I painted it a buttery shade of yellow to keep it light.
The Union Custom is warped for rugs, and I am currently weaving Adirondack Lodge rugs on it.

The door on the left goes to the center hall, the other closed door is a closet under the stairs, and the open door goes to the older part of the house.
There used to be a huge grate under this rug, and the coal furnace underneath is still there. It is pretty huge, and probably won't ever get moved.


This is the door to the basement....one of these days I will go down and take pictures down there.....it is a huge space, and I can't imagine the history that it has seen.
But that's for another day.
Looking into the old pantry. When I painted it, I swore I could hear the sound of paint getting sucked up by the wood and old plaster.
This looks like a lot of fabric, but it is only a fraction of what I have stock piled.
My stash of jeans, which I need to replenish.

This is where I sew tote bags together, and blue jeans strips, and the fabric for Mimi's vintage rg rugs.
The Kalamazoo stove in the corner came with the house.......we moved it out to finish the floors, and moved it right back where it was.
This door goes back out to the enclosed porch, when I don't have fabric stacked in front of it.

This room was the old kitchen, it is a lovely place to weave in the sunshine. This is the Reed Ideal, warped for Solmate Sock rugs.
The door behind the loom goes to a storage space, that is over the outside entrance to the cellar.


And this is the old living room. The front door is noticeably shorter. I guess people were shorter when this part was built in 1790. The two smaller looms, a Schacht Baby Wolf, and a Leclerc studio loom, are usually what I use to teach basic weaving.




Here is the Union 36, right now it is warped for placemats.
The fireplace was totally inefficient, and I had a gas insert put in. I don't use it often, but it is nice to have.
The windows in this part are original. They are pretty much painted and caulked shut. I suppose that sensibility says they should be replaced, but sentiment says no.


This is the "front room" as I call it, looking back into the dining room.Pantry to the right, old kitchen in the background.

This is looking from the front room, into the hall way.

I took this photo this way, to show you what the window over the door looks like.
The staircase, with a woven stair runner.


Looking down the hall back into the dining room.

This is looking into the living room from the hall. The walls were papered a dreary gray. Now they are painted florentine clay.
To the left of the computer is an old organ we found in the barn. I put a piece of slate on it, and I use it for a check out counter.
The pellet stove was a new addition last year.

Another Union Custom loom.


And the loom by the window is a Union Special.

Looking from the living room into the kitchen.
This is my old Tappan range. It is a gem of a stove, and I wouldn't trade it for any new stove on the market.

The kitchen counter sometimes gets pretty cluttered....... the prints over the stove were gifts from my daughters.
Off the kitchen is a little bathroom, with what I call an "elf sink".



Let's go upstairs.

The upstairs hall.


The front bedroom. This is the room that is supposedly the "president's room". My husband says sarcastically....."the president of what".

I don't have a loom in every room.......but almost.

We repapered the walls to match the original paper as closely as we could.
The blue room. DH said that we HAD to have a blue room. And since he painted all the doors, all the walls, all the ceilings, all the woodwork, I thought he should have a blue room if that's what he wanted.


As you can see, this is a post and beam house. There are visible beams on all corners, and in the center of this room. That means that it is not a 2x4 construction, but rather, board on board. So there is no space to put insulation, unfortunately.
This is the bathroom, and the little door goes into the loft over the old part of the house, and to the second set of stairs.

This is the red room. Note that the floors upstairs are wide pine, unlike the pitch pine floors downstairs.


Miss Puss. Pear tree outside the window.

I have had this old metal bed for longer than I care to think about.


I bought the green dresser at a garage sale in Vermont, also years ago.

This is my favorite bedroom.




Two blue jean rugs waiting to be sewn together. You can see the final product on my web site.....at the top of the custom rug page.

The only thing I missed was the loft over the older part of the house. Maybe next time......Hope you enjoyed my house.

Thanks for stopping by.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a great place to spend time just fingering all the colorful threads and fabrics. I hope you realize what a lucky lady you are in so very many ways.

Di
The Blue Ridge Gal

J'Ollie Primitives said...

I think I have loom envy. ;)
Beautiful home, thanks for the tour!

Life Looms Large said...

A house full of looms! Fabulous!!!

So many inspiring pictures in your tour and so many beautiful things you've already made!

Thanks for sharing your studio with us!! Great tour!

Sue

Hilary said...

Such nice visitors!!!!! Thanks to all of you.
And yes, Di, I DO know how lucky I am....I treasure it, I do.

bspinner said...

What a beautiful space to have a studio in. The pictures are great.
Thanks so much for taking the time to take them and share them with us.

Karen said...

thank you for the photos, I enjoyed seeing your studio.

Lona said...

Oh my word! What a gorgeous (and clean!) house--and full of looms. Thanks for the tour!

Sharon said...

I guess I didn't realize that your studio is a business. I used to call my studio a workroom but that implies that I'm working, not playing when I go in there. Now your studio, well - that's just something in a league of it's own. Your home is lovely, BTW. You didn't tell us how *many* looms you have ;-)

Welcome to my world.

Because every thread counts

Because every thread counts