A VIRTUAL HOLIDAY GREETING

WOVEN PEACE IN 16 LANGUAGES

I was so excited about making this woven mosaic that I put it up on Facebook before I put it on the blog. I was already asked to explain what I mean by "peace in 16 languages". It is so much easier to demonstrate, but it is almost Christmas and I must be asleep before Santa arrives.

Briefly, the image above shows the stripes horizontal, the way they were woven. The image below is the way I displayed the weaving on Facebook (the way I think the image looks better, but I think it makes the whole concept more abstract). The whole thing is a number code---A= 1 row of weaving, and Z=26 rows of weaving. Over 60 people participated in weaving the four (each 3 yards long) banners, and every person selected their own favorite colors to "spell out" the word for peace 19 languages. (although there are only 16 represented in the image) Peace in English is the green one in the upper right corner. I hope that answers the question. The actual banners are still on display (until January 2) at Butterfly Herbs in Missoula, Montana. You would think that I had taken some pictures of the display. It's not over yet.  In fact, I will be setting up the loom to weave another banner soon. (open to all would-be weavers)

ANNOUNCING!

WEAVING PEACE WEAVING TOGETHER

First Friday December 7 through January 2

Butterfly Herbs , 232 N. Higgins Ave, Missoula

Bonnie Tarses presents the results of an Artist in Residence Program sponsored by the Killdeer Artisans Guild and the Hangin’ Art Gallery in Arlee. 

The Project: To weave a series of Peace Banners to be flown from the sides of the stage at the 8^th Annual Peace Festival held at The Garden Of One Thousand Buddhas in September.      

                Bonnie set up her loom in the middle of the Hangin’ Art Gallery and invited anyone who could count to 3 and could reach the treadles to sit down and weave. During the 3 weeks, over 60 people ranging in age from 6 years to 78 shared in weaving the banners. 

 

What makes these banners so unique is Bonnie’s technique of ascribing a number and color to each letter of the alphabet, so the actual word PEACE is “written” in woven bands of color. Initially, the plan was to weave peace in English, Salish and Tibetan, but as more and more people arrived to weave, 14 more languages were offered: Burmese; Japanese; Hebrew; Hindi; Hawaiian; Quechua; Swedish; Italian; Portuguese; Mongolian; Gaelic; Thai; Mandarin;  and Farsi. Images of the weavers will also be on display.

Bonnie will be weaving additional Peace Banners in her Missoula studio during the month of December. Contact: bonnie@bonnietarses.com  to join in WEAVING PEACE

RE-- THINKING, VAMPING, VOLVING, ORGANIZING, ADJUSTING

It's been a while, and it will be more of a while as I circulate through my "RE" phase. I have had much to ponder as I shuffle through the shifting scenarios of the past month. I am not gone yet, and I hope to have words and images before ,I was going to say "before the snow flies", but that already happened last week.  

AT THE PEACE FESTIVAL

The 8th Annual Peace Festival at the Garden of One Thousand Buddhas was a lovely event. This was my first time there. It always seemed to happen at a time when I was away (at least the 2 previous ones). We arrived early as people were setting up.


My dear friend Rosemary ably assists me in getting the PEACE panels ready to hang. You can see that it is pretty smokey, but it didn't hamper everyone's enthusiasm for the day.


Jacob got the banners flying!

And just as the festivities began, I discovered that my camera's image card was still in my computer back in town. I got this one shot and then---no memory.



Alas there are no pictures to really show how lovely everything was.


Throughout the day and into the night, the banners continued to dance in what thankfully was a breeze. I am told that winds come up suddenly in this valley and have been known to carry off the whole stage and many an unsuspecting tent.



I've been searching to find some more pictures of the festival, but you'll have to go to the Ewam Facebook page.
The banners came home after the festival to say hello to Gary. I will be taking one panel with me when I go to John C Campbell Folk School in a couple of days.


When I return, I will tell you the plans for the banners. Stay tuned.

After Weaving Peace

I've been back home for almost a week. For the first few days, I draped the panels over fences.
Played dress-up

But most of all I have been looking, contemplating, and remembering all the wonderful moments captured in bands of color.
When I first began Weaving Peace, I thought I would be weaving the word PEACE in three languages: ENGLISH; SALISH; and TIBETAN. Soon after I began, an old friend currently living in China stopped by and presented me with PEACE in MANDARIN. Then a cross country bicycler from Thailand gave PEACE in Thai. Who could have guessed that PEACE in SWEDISH, DANISH, and NORWEGIAN are the same? At least that is what the group of Swedish tourists told me.

Other languages followed: ITALIAN, PORTUGUESE, GAELIC, HINDI, QUECHUA, RUSSIAN, HAWAIIAN, JAPANESE, and HEBREW. And then the month was over....

Weaving Peace in Arlee--a Fabulous Finish

Words cannot describe yesterday—the last day of weaving.

Kids from Nkwusm (The Salish Language Immersion School) showed up en mass. I got so caught up in moment, I didn’t get images of all of them. But they wove Peace in Salish in the Medicine Wheel colors.

This is what they wove!

Judy (President of the Killdeer Artisans Guild) showed up and wove.

And Karen, another Killdeer member, sat down to weave.


And then Chris (one of the original master craftspeople) of the Garden of One Thousand Buddhas decided to try her hand at the loom.

And then Panel #5 was complete!


Tomorrow I will show you completed panels as I prepare to take them up to the Garden of One Thousand Buddhas on Monday.

Weaving Peace in Arlee--next to last day

They were lining up to weave today---busy busy. Several folks ended up having to leave without getting a chance to weave.


I was so tired last night I didn't post this until the morning of the last day. Here it is, the last morning. I am packing up my clothes and food and heading off to the Hangin' Art Gallery for the last weaving day. I will have lots to report on this full moon day (but it will probably show up on Saturday when I have a chance to catch my breath)

Weaving Peace in Arlee--middle week 4

It's hard to believe it is almost over---just 2 more weaving days to go.

A Whole Lot A Weavin' Going On

Weaving Peace in Arlee--beginning week 4

Week 4 began with an exciting array of new weavers adding their intention of Peace to banner #5


The latest language added today is French---PAIX


While outside the sanctuary of weaving, art and pastry--- smoke from the fires transforms the day.

Weaving Peace in Arlee--ending week three

Everything seems to been slowing down and speeding up at the same time. I recovered some images lost in my camera, and then I forgot to take pictures during the opening of the new show that opened on Saturday.
Here are just a few of the weavers that stopped by to cap off the week.


At the opening, I moved my loom to the front by the fireplace.

And had the pleasure of cutting off panel 4!


As I enter the last week, I feel certain I can get another panel done. It is going to be a busy week.

Salish Peace

I went off to weave and left my image card in the computer. I snapped pics merrily, and now they are trapped in the camera until I can retrieve the chord that plugs into my camera with USB port to the computer. But there were some juicy pics I can't wait to show you. Meanwhile enjoy this colorful rendition of PEACE

Weaving Peace in Arlee--day3--week 3--(although it is the morning of day 4)

No new weavers today, but here is what I wove.

I decided to weave the Salish word for Peace in the Medicine Wheel colors, but shift the colors around. Same colors, same numbers, different color sequence.


Different effect....

Weaving Peace in Arlee--day 2, week 3, panel 4

Here is the Salish word for Peace woven in Medicine Wheel colors.

Oops, I forgot to show you my very favorite part of weaving.... cutting off the warp


And my second favorite part: getting the first glimpse at what has been woven.

And another favorite part is taking an arty image of what has been woven.

And my not so secret passion of converting woven images into (I'm not sure what to call it), but I can't seem to stop.

Weaving Peace in Arlee--beginnings--week 3--new warp

Peace in Gaelic as given to me by Malcolm: Siochain (shee-uck-awn)
When I looked up Peace in other languages, I was surprised to find huge lists on various sites. I also discovered that each site has different spellings, so I decided to just used the languages and spellings that people bring to me here as I am weaving.

Here is the recipe/draft/code in case you are inclined to weave/bead/quilt/embroider---
19 of #1, 9 of #2, 15 of #3, 3 of #6, 8 of #5, 1 of #7, 9 of #2, 14 of #4.

You get to pick the colors #1-#7 with #1 being your favorite.


With a new week comes a brand new warp pre-wound from Saori in Japan through Saori Santa Cruz. I decided to stick with the same un-mercerized cotton for continuity. I don't have any un-mercerized cotton of that weight in my stash at home.

Two beautiful weavers came to inaugurate the new warp today. You may notice that the background of the gallery has changed. Over the weekend, the old show came down and a new one was installed. I got to participate and it was loads of fun. The opening of the new show is this Saturday. I will continue weaving through it all (grin)


I couldn't resist mirror-imaging Gaelic Peace.

Weaving Peace in Arlee--ending week two

No time for words, but you get the drift (grin). The week ended with a bang, and it will take a couple of post to fill in, but now I am racing off to begin week three.

Weaving Peace in Arlee--day 9-- Second Panel Complete

Here is the end result of a very active international day of weaving.

I slowed down the weaving yesterday awaiting the arrival of a new warp (which arrived at 4:30 this afternoon). Well, so much for measuring---since I didn't know how long the warp was to begin with. I just kind of guessed what I hoped was halfway. I was only a yard off. (grin) The new warp is about 20 yds long, so there will not be a problem with too short.


Remember, there are no mistakes.


That is what I reminded these two beautiful weavers. Weaver below has a Brazilian mother who gave me the Portuguese word for peace, PAZ, so now paz is woven in.

And then a crowd of Swedish folks arrived on the scene bringing the Swedish word for peace, FRED.

Each day has brought so many unimagined blessings and surprises. I am brimming with gratitude.