WEAVING PEACE AT JEANETTE RANKEN PEACE CENTER

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.