Of Deep Darkness and Deep Joy

The last nine months have been a bit of a struggle, with health scares and bereavement.  I have become way behind on both practice and writing, and a month ago it all seemed very dire and beyond hope of repair.  Various things have contributed to the upturn that I am now experiencing, and being back in the studio, and back at the loom is the source of great relief and joy.  The illness I have causes chronic fatigue, and that is just one of the things that I am having to learn to manage and work round.  My energy levels have risen lately, and my brain is functioning better (although I might not have said that earlier today, the way I was struggling with basic geometry!). Today I began a new largish tapestry, after making a few more small ones as Talismans for the research project. This latest one will be part of that, as well as using up the excess warp above Shrine. It is based on the small one I made while in Folkestone, and one made earlier this year:-

It will be about 40cm square, and have woven-in copper wire where the small one has turquoise nettle yarn.  It is a woven map of The Nine Stones at Winterbourne Abbas, where Pillar will be placed to mark the missing tenth stone, as shown in the second talisman here.

It is so good to be feeling enthusiastic and inspired - like myself again. I am proud of the fact that I have not given up; stubbornness can be a good attribute!

Lawks! What a Time Has Passed

Shrine Maquette 2 in progress….

The original Shrine, which was lost, stolen, or strayed in 2018.  

I had to decide whether I really wanted to remake it - and perhaps the passage of time helped with that - but I still want to make a full size version, and remaking the maquette offered an opportunity to do things slightly differently; move the ‘seam’ to inside the cleft, add more texture etc. Life rather got in the way - The Great Pestilence, redundancy, family health problems, and so forth - but after a break from the PhD until last November I am back in the zone, enjoying weaving (and writing, surprisingly).  

One of the better distractions was sailing in my little boat, ‘Sparrow’, which I am about to resume after the winter break (and some fettling).  Warps of a different kind!

I Gave a Lecture....

https://youtu.be/Z9r9oYqKgPg

For the Friends of Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park. 

Memorial Pillar: First* Panel

*actually the fifth in the design, but it’s all a bit arbitrary.  It’s certainly the first to be woven.

I’m not sure why it looks wonky - it’s not - must have been the angle I held the iPad at.  The original tiny panel is blu-tacked to the reed bar for colour reference.  The enlarged panel photo hangs over the cloth beam.  

There will a lot of ressaut added after weaving to soften some of the edges, and add the detail shown up in the enlargement.

There’s wool, silk, linen, acrylic, and nettle in the mixes - which I have narrowed down to 19 basic ones, with extra threads added in or substituted as required; all the sampling whilst in Folkestone stood me in good stead to shorten the ‘palette process’ as I call it.

I’m enjoying it tremendously!  Even more so as, having loaned the Ashford loom to a friend yesterday, I have more space in the studio, and had a good tidy up this morning, making it an even more pleasurable Happy Place.  It is pouring with rain, and due to do so for the rest of today and all daylight hours tomorrow; good weaving and writing weather!

Untangling: A Parable

Once upon a time there was a weaver - let’s call her FrouFrou.  People often commented that she must be very patient, being a weaver, but she wasn’t really.  One day, FrouFrou bought some delicious, smooth, shiny silk yarn for her latest project.  This yarn, as many do, came in a skein.  FrouFrou knew, as do all weavers, and many knitters (and her Nannan before her, when all yarn came in skeins), that skeins must be wound into balls before you can use the yarn.  Horrid tanglements ensue if this rule is forgotten.  Nevertheless, because FrouFrou was excited about her latest project, and because the yarn was lovely, and because she was impatient (see above), FrouFrou hung the skein over the end of the loom, and started taking lengths from it as required...

It tangled.  

A lot.

Project over, the mare’s nest was put aside in a box. Yesterday, FrouFrou needed the yarn for another project, and decided that the Great Untangling must commence...

It took two hours of slow, patient (despite note above) winding and unknotting, but in the end, FrouFrou had a properly wound cheese of silk, still shiny, smooth and delicious.  

And the silk goes into a weft with other yarns, and the new project continues. 

 

The meaning of this parable?

Doing something properly in the beginning will save time in the long run, but, even if mistakes are made, wrong decisions taken, and tanglements ensue, with patient, loving attention, individual beauty and order can be restored, and then become part of a group that work together to make something new.

As Kiki Dee so wisely put it:-

"I will untangle myself

So that I can be

Loving and Free"

‘Weaving Against the Wound’

There were some issues uploading the last post - it was actually written on October 31st, and more progress has been made since then:-

The improvised warping board (as I can’t use the warping mill at WD at present) and chained warp - linen from Weavers Bazaar.

Tied on, waste weft and double half hitches.

Aphraminta Splodge inspecting the large scale print from which I traced the design lines for the first panel; it will hang near the loom for colour reference. I upped the contrast and saturation before printing to make the areas easier to delineate.  I am fortunate to have a very good printing company nearby (Lollipop Chichester, formerly ProCopy) who have done a lot for me over the years.  They have established a very good system for no contact for the time being; they also give a lollipop with each order collected!  I’m saving mine for when I’ve woven an inch all across.  

The woven colouring will be more subtle.  Now to stitch the cartoon to the waste weft and make a start.  

Weaving is my creative protest against the wounds in the world, and my affirmation of, and prayer for good order. Let the reader understand.

Wot Did & Wot Doing

June was the month for Registration Presentations, and then I needed to make swift progress in completing ‘Nefesh’ and ‘Neshamah’ ready for an exhibition I at the Brewery Tap Project Space in Folkestone at the end of September.  

Next up is the writing of my Literature Review, so I have been away from the loom.  Until yesterday.  A bereavement during the week (coming after several this year) meant that I simply could not immerse myself in writing theoretically about grief and loss for a little while, and need to ‘weave it out’.   While invigilating the exhibition I had time to do some sampling for ‘Memorial Pillar (for Diana)’, the maquette of which was part of what I was showing.  I had realised that I would not have time (with chaplaincy work and a LitRev to do) to make the next three shrines before our next exhibition at the end of January, so decided to go with ‘Pillar’ instead.

I wound the warp yesterday evening, and today is loom dressing; sleying the reed with a soundtrack of ‘70s Genesis. The finished piece will be 97cm high, woven sideways, so, at my usual sett (4epc, woven over doubles) that is 388 ends.  I’ve wound a warp long enough to do two of the shrines on afterwards (and yes, there will be a lot of retying to do between cutting off this one and resuming).

There is something about weaving and preparing to weave that both soothes, and embodies hope for the future, so it is a good activity in the face of loss - which is one of the contentions of my thesis after all.