Weaving Peace in Arlee--day 4

At long last, Donna sits down at the loom for the first time. She assures me it won't be the last.


The day proceeded with a variety of weavers of all ages.



I made a little video of Grace weaving, but I haven't had much luck getting video onto my blog. I will give it another try later.

And the biggest miracle is that 3 yards of weaving was completed. It is cut off the loom, but I still am only able to put 5 images on a blog post. I know folks insist that I can do more than 5, and I do see that others on blogger do.

Stay tuned for the first view of the first banner. Hey, don't ask me how they are going to hang. I will cross that bridge---well, later.

Weaving Peace in Arlee--day 3

Blog Time is a wonderful thing (grin)


I think I have already mentioned that my posts are a day behind the actual weaving since I do not have wifi where I am staying. I get to the Hangin Art Gallery early before the weaving begins and post what happened yesterday.

Here is lovely Rachel---a weaving natural!


She sat down at the loom and just took off.

It was hard to get her to stop (grin)


Please click over to Curious Weaver to see some fascinating Saori

Weaving Peace in Arlee--day 2

I am actually posting this on day 3, but I don't have internet access where I am staying, so I have to wait until I get back to Hangin Art in the morning before I can post the images from the day before.

Linda did not hesitate to sit down and weave, and Karl watches.

Before long, Karl was unable to resist.

Even skilled weavers like Heather enjoyed weaving peace. If YOU were here, I know I would have trouble getting you to give someone else a turn.

Weaving Peace in Arlee--day 1

Today, after much preparation, my new Saori loom is up and running at the Hangin Art Gallery in Arlee. My plan is to share the weaving process with as many people as possible as I weave the word PEACE (in my woven words technique) in English, Salish, and Tibetan. The finished piece(s) will become peace banners for the upcoming Peace Festival held at the Garden of One Thousand Buddhas (just 4 miles or so down the road from here)

The Saori loom comes with a black warp already wound, so I decided to "spell" out the words in horizontal stripes. Above is the word Peace spelled out in Salish in the Medicine Wheel colors.

I keep saying, "If you can count to 4 and reach the peddles, I can teach you to weave in 3 minutes". And here I am doing that very thing.



Yes, it really is that easy.


By George, she's got it!

Now take a step back and let the weaving happen.

THE MANY SHADES OF PEACE

Above: THE MANY SHADES OF PEACE
An assemblage of wrappings spelling out the word PEACE in English, Salish, and Tibetan. WEAVING PEACE is an ongoing project I will be doing in August at the Hangin Art Gallery and Coffee House in Arlee. Anyone who can make it to Hangin Art during my residency (August 4- 31, call for hours) is invited to add their colors.


Salish word for PEACE in 4 different color selections (above) and Tibetan (below)


And English below....

I have posted these pictures on my Facebook page: Weaving Peace-Weaving Together, but I haven't figured out how to link back to this blog.

GENEROSITY

Talking Threads is a system of assigning a color and number to go with every letter of the alphabet. The number code is constant. The letter “A” = 1, “B” is 2, C is 3 and so on down to “Z” which is 26. To spell GENEROSITY (pictured above): G=7, E=5, N=14, E=5, R=18, O=15, S=19, I=9, T=20, and Y=25. There are 9 different letters, which means there are 9 different colors. The color selections were made by me and 5 of my friends. Each bar is cut out of a piece of matte board randomly 1” or ½” wide and the length is trimmed after the bamboo yarn is wrapped around the bars. The process is quite meditative, and the quality of the word seems to enter through the hands as what looks like a miniature quilt takes shape. The wrapped bars are templates for possible future weavings, but they are also complete as artifacts of contemplation.

I don't think that I have ever actually explained the process on my blog, but in the spirit of "generosity" it seems like the right thing at this time. How the work is displayed is shown in the second and third images of the post if you click here.

New Camera, New House, New Class, New Show

But not necessarily in that order!


First let me mention my upcoming class at John C Campbell Folk School. The class runs from Sunday September 16th- Saturday September 22nd and is called Color Horoscope Weaving---the Ultimate Color Experience. (INTERESTINGLY AS I AM WRITING THIS, I SEE A DOUBLE RAINBOW OUT THE WINDOW!) This will surely not be the last time I mention the class, however. I have been trying to figure out a way to put the class in my sidebar, but I memory of how to do that escapes me today. I will have a run at it tomorrow.

Unfortunately my new camera arrived AFTER I went up to see how the Poetry Wall was settling in. My friend Marti took a wonderful picture of the piece, but I haven't been able to capture the image. Our computers are not speaking to one another. But I did want to show you the reason I decided to get a new camera. Notice the attractive green line on the left side of the image below. I was able to crop it out in the image above.


When I get a great image, I will include the statement that accompanies the piece.

Below are TALKING THREADS ---more on that later as well.


Now to a view of my new place. I am still surrounded by boxes yet to be unpacked, but the good and bad news is there is lots of room.

So not only do I have a green line, but the whole lighting thing was off. The new camera, a Nikon Coolpix 7100, has many more bells and whistles (and an on-line manual which I have yet to begin to study), but I charged up the battery, popped in my old memory card and snapped the pic below. The purple blanket under Gary is just so I can slide him around easily until I settle on the perfect placement. Gary and Grace are now very close although you will notice each has a separate room (grin)... Also the good and bad news is there is plenty of room for more looms