Metal + Wool Maker's Almanac - January

January. The first month of the year and one of the coldest in the north. I live in Northwestern Wisconsin near Lake Superior – the largest fresh water lake in the world with water temperatures that fall so cold, hypothermia can happen within minutes. Winter in Wisconsin is no joke!

As we begin the Metal + Wool Maker’s Almanac with January, it may come as no surprise that the first piece is inspired by my favorite season of the year – winter. This season of cold and white inspires, invigorates, and takes my breath away, sometimes literally. I’m in love with the shadows on the snow that appear on those frigid, sunny days, yet there is nothing like the grey value range of color on days where the sun is behind clouds and the frost is present on the trees. Winter. Sometimes my heart breaks as many can’t spare much kindness to her this time of the year, so I do my best to send out all the love that I can.

Lake Superior. I promise that inspiration lies beyond this body of water for me, but after choosing Arctic as the first color of the almanac, memories brought me to a trip to our property on the south shore in January, a place that we call The Point, and the image from that day became inspiration for the first design of this project. Line. Layer. Clean. Ice. Texture. These words are a few that describe the complexity and unpredictability of what lies within and around this body of water. She is magic. It is important to note that this will be one of the only pieces inspired by one of my favorite places on this planet, so I decided it best to begin strong and set the bar high. #Daring. I think so!

As described in the introductory post, Josef Albers’ paintings from the calendar Homage to the Square inspired the layout of this model, and January introduced the first of his squares that includes the gradation of grey colors making up the image below. For me, the colors act like layers of grey, much like the layers of ice and snow that build all winter long on the lake, inch by inch, layer by layer. Rather than use a shape as the Element of Art making up the design of this piece, Line was the clear choice and when you look at the photo of Lake Superior, you can see why. Additionally, when looking at Lake Superior from our bluff above, it often reminds me of a Rothko paining, and when taking a photo from the edge, I almost always refer the photos as my ‘Lake Superior Rothko’s’ – so it is fitting that his work has influenced this piece as well.

Arctic. The Pantone color is a grey green that has become the Almanac’s focused color for this design. The name is spot on, and though we are not quite ‘the arctic’ in Northern Wisconsin, for me it is all about being in the north. This color is one that often appears when viewing the lake from above – looking over what we refer to as our fresh water ocean. It is soothing, and deep. The words associated with this color from Michelle Bernhardt’s book Colorstrology are listed along with supplemental words that I think about with this design. It’s cool when everything comes together this nicely.

Smart – fashionable, modern, stylish, chic, and sharp

Social – community, pleasurable, and gather

Charismatic – alluring, magnetic, and mesmerizing

It was apparent from the start that weaving would be the fiber practice to build this piece. Layers and line work well with a weaving practice. A weft faced weave is the horizontal yarn that is woven into the vertical lines, or the warp threads attached to the loom, and by making a design with this method, I am able to use additional colors to develop the layers, texture, and movement of this piece. Linen, cotton, and wool bring distinctive textures and line quality to add interest while building the layers. For fringe work on neckpieces such as this, I’m drawn to linen fiber because it works well to finish, having clean and neat, long fibers – linen offers structure. Finally, hand pounded sterling silver pieces are cascading down the body of the weaving – shimmering and adding an additional layer as its finale.

Peace. Love. Make.

Metal + Wool Maker's Almanac 2023

Welcome to the introductory entry of the Metal + Wool Maker’s Almanac – we will learn together where this leads, but my hope is that it is a time of renewal, discovery, and, of course, making! A new year is always a time of anticipation for me - a time to reflect about the past year along with setting intentions for what is to come. This first newsletter, journal, blog, I’m not sure what to call it quite yet; let’s just say that this first writing is an outline of the almanac and my intentions to share with you over the next 12 months.

It is unfathomable to me that 3 years ago it was 2020, a year so full of hope. I was turning 50, and my goal was to ‘make it count’, so to speak. I was planning to travel to my 50th state, Idaho, on my birthday and had many other ideas to dream big! We were off to a great start, travel began in early February to the south, crossing off the other 3 states that somehow were missed in years past – Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana did not disappoint and a much-needed visit with some of my dearest friends in North Carolina turned out to be an absolute treasure. Additionally, we cheered on many friends and family at the 47th annual Birkebeiner Ski race at the end of February and had a weekend in Madison that brought us home on March 10. On this trip I distinctively remember grabbing a few hand sanitizers at the check-out at Whole Foods Market before making the journey home to our quiet life in the country, just in case as things seemed a little unsettled in the news. Then, like the rest of the world, we soon realized that many plans were about to change.

I don’t need to list every detail of this time, but I will write that mostly, my family and friends made it safely through this unthinkable time unlike millions of other families across the world; we were fortunate, and I am grateful. What didn’t make it through the pandemic as I had hoped was my creative life as I once knew it. Perhaps, therefore, I’m trying something new here. I’m longing to get back to that place where I not only find inspiration everywhere, but to also have some structure to assist turning ideas to art while sharing the process along the way. I’m longing to explore and relish every bit of this process sandwiched between the beginning and the end. I want to be #daring, my 2023 word of the year, and to make this year count as I had hoped 2020 would. Not necessarily a do over, more of a re-start.

So, here we go! What is the Maker’s Almanac exactly? Firstly, a little nod to my sister-in-law, Jacky Star, for helping come up with this idea! Since our discussion last year - so fun to say things like ‘last year’ at the beginning of a new one, don’t you agree? - this concept has morphed into a monthly making yearbook filled with inspiration, design, and projects that not only inspire me but also are intended to inspire you! My hope is that by using a model, one that I call Inspire. Design. Make., it will help me as it has in past years to turn inspiration into final pieces that are made each month across one or more areas of fiber art with a possible metal component here and there. My brand is Metal + Wool after all.

The Metal + Wool Maker’s Almanac is all about color, and to help me along the way, I went to one of the greats – Josef Albers, visual artist and educator from one of the most influential movements in art for me – The Bauhaus Movement. I purchased an Albers’ calendar for 2023 titled Homage to the Square that shares 12 of his paintings, one per month. My goal is to use the colors chosen from the paintings in this calendar to inspire the color, design, and finial pieces that I make each month. At the end of the year I will have built my own color wheel of 12 colors, along with 12 projects, that connect to each of the monthly choices. Along with the single color, there may be supplemental colors to enhance each design.

With the title of the Albers’ calendar being Homage to the Square, you can guess that the paintings represented will most likely spark shape as an overall theme, the square, but I want to note that this is not the intention of this model. I will use one or more of The Elements of Art and/or The Principles of Design to guide my work - some will include the square while others may not.

Additionally, I would like to give a name to each color of the almanac and will use Pantone colors to lead the way. In her book Colorstrology Michelle Bernhardt has taken color a little further by choosing a Pantone color for each day of the year. Michelle gives meaning to each color using words and feelings to further the impact, think if it like birthday horoscope, adding a little more interest to each day.

Finally, fiber art has a variety of disciplines to choose from such as weaving, stitching, dyeing, and knitting. Though the techniques may vary, one thing that will not is a devotion to sustainability with this project. The intention is to use fiber from my stash, and as you can see from the studio photo, I have a lot of it! If a different color is needed and not available, dyeing the fiber using nature’s colors is an option. If a color or fiber just isn’t working, I will look for a second hand option, or as a last choice - shop local. The desire for making art from the materials that I have on hand is very important to me - my plan is to be transparent if something is needed to purchase along the way.

As we approach the end of January, 2023, look for the first installment of the Metal + Wool Maker’s Almanac newsletter to be ready for publication. My goal is to end each month with a new color, design, and final piece to share on this space and, if interested, a newsletter to send directly to you.

Thank you for reading…more to come tomorrow!

Peace. Love. Make.

Lake Superior • Quince & Co. Scarves, Etc. 7

Designing is an exciting experience, especially when you’re fortunate enough to have one of your designs published by a company! I’m honored to be a part of the Scarves, Etc. 7, 2018 collection from Quince & Co. This was my first time submitting a design for a company, and to be chosen by one of my favorites, is a dream come true. So, for this second journal entry, I decided it would be relevant to share the making of this design and how it all came together.

Lake Superior is a design that I’ve been working on for quite some time. I began this idea while working from a pattern that I knit a few of years back; I was intrigued by the foundation of the piece but found that many aspects were not quite right for me. Over time, and many completed cowls later, I found a balance between size and shape, and, once the idea was submitted to Quince, made the final edits to for the overall inspiration and design. My work is simple, and the Lake Superior cowl is a cumulation of everything that I love in a knitwear design from an easy knitting technique to its structured shape. 

Firstly, the inspiration. To those of you who know me, it should come as no surprise that my first design on the market is named and inspired by the place that inspires me the most. I am fortunate to live and work near Lake Superior and have spent countless hours of my life combing the shores for rocks and driftwood, swimming in its cold, crisp waters, photographing and admiring sunrises + sunsets, and ferrying to Madeline Island, but mostly, I can sit for hours looking and steadily admiring this fresh water ocean. The shape of Lake Superior often finds its way into my designs, and I find myself striving to alter the form in new ways and to use new materials. It’s a place to be respected and a place to be protected, and with each visit, I find that it brings forth new ideas for my work. 

Therefore, on a crisp October day, after teaching fibers at the University of Wisconsin – Superior, I crossed the Blatnik Bridge from Superior to Duluth and found myself walking along the lake walk near sunset. I immediately began snapping photos of the sunset as I walked – the colors were too lovely to not try to capture. As with every Lake Superior sunset, a different color story, design, reflection, and inspiration was displayed in front of me, and I continued to enjoy the view keeping a swift pace to stay warm as the chilly wind swirled around me. The images from that sunset walk remained on my camera roll for another month before finding its place as the front runner for the making of the Lake Superior cowl.

Next, when Quince made its request for submissions on Instagram, I visited a local yarn shop that carried Quince & Co. yarn to see what colors they had to offer and was fortunate to find three colors that represented the colors from that photograph I had captured on that walk along the lake. Slate for the deep dark blue of the lake, Kittywake for the grey reaching the surface of the lake to the beginning of the sky, and Damsel for the smoky lavender of the sunset sky. They couldn’t have been a better match! So, with the approval from Quince to use the colors for the design in the ever-so-soft Puffin Chunky yarn, I began to draft the pattern.

Originally, the cowl had a different shape to the bottom, and after submitting the design, I began brainstorming ways to make it a bit more interesting. I started thinking of a sharper angle to the piece, and when Quince suggested the same idea after accepting the design for the book, it sealed the deal – I love when this happens! Often, when I’m coming up with an idea, I think of everything that I can about the chosen inspiration and write down words that describe it. With Lake Superior, two of the words written on the page were Sharp + Clean, and these words helped define a “sharp angle” and “clean shape” to the cowl. It’s a great technique to designing, and one that I began using while taking a design class in college. Try it the next time you need a little help directing a design – it really can help!

Finally, the Lake Superior cowl needed to reflect that chilly walk along the shores of the lake. It is important to have the proper clothing when the snow flies in the cooler months of the year, and this design is a perfect layer to bring for extra warmth, under or over a jacket, while providing a clean and modern look.

Quince & Co. are masters at styling, and their yarns are at the top of my favorites list. I knew that I wouldn’t be disappointed, and when they sent me the images from the photoshoot, I was beyond proud. The model looks like she belongs in the cowl; they brought an elegance to it with the backdrop and sleeveless black dress, and the angles and poses showcase the interesting shape of the piece. I continue to be in awe every time I share a photo of the design and am honored to have been a part of this publication. Also, I wear many color versions of this cowl a couple times a week – this is a testament to my love for this piece, and if you choose to knit one for yourself, I hope that you love it too!

Welcome to Inspire • Design • Make, The Journal!

Inspire • Design • Make has been a long time in the making, and I am super excited to begin this journey with each of you! For this first entry, I thought it would be right to start at the beginning. Metal + Wool is the brand; Inspire • Design • Make, is the work behind the brand.

In the not so long ago past, I was fortunate enough to make a professional transition from being the General Manager of a natural foods store, a position that I held for over 13 years, to return to college to pursue an MA in Visual Arts. Though my career didn’t include my art training directly while working in the business world, I continued explore all areas of fiber; occasionally, through workshops, classes, and my own studio experimentation. This transition made way for possibilities, and in a rather short amount of time, I have found myself instructing at the university level, developing more workshops, teaching local classes, and finally, continuing to make my own designs.

I love design! I live for the process, appreciate the foundations of design, and enjoy making pieces from beginning to end. It occurred to me while taking a foundations class in college that, although the class was intended to be applied to graphic designers, this method could lead to something special in any discipline, including fiber work. The class included ‘steps to creativity’, and it opened my eyes to a more structured way to developing ideas, and a process of bringing an idea through to the final product. This was a key missing from my work that opened the door to a process that works for me. It was just what I needed! My name is Denise; I am a design junkie and couldn’t be happier!

So, what is this process that I speak of? How can it fit into your current design plan? For some of you, the idea may seem daunting, and indeed, this may not be for you. But, as I wrote in the preceding paragraph, this was a great discovery for me. The idea is quite simple, find and inspiration, take thoughtful steps to find ways to bring this inspiration to paper, discover ways to bring this idea from paper to sample, and finally, design the piece.

It is certainly something that has been described and done before, but it’s not something that I have seen used with fibers. Now, I use this method with knit and woven pieces – along with metalwork and all other forms of fiber that I love to explore. I have a lot of inspirations, so it’s rewarding for me to thoughtfully turn these into wearable pieces. 

As this Journal develops over the coming months, I hope to share not only my finished work, but how everything comes together. An entry may simply be about creativity, but it may also include more concrete detail such as steps in the design process, the practice of natural dyeing, a workshop or event, or it could specifically be about inspiration. I plan to include a lot about inspiration!

Thank you for reading,

Denise DeGidio