Sunday, June 7, 2009

Making Seeds of Hope

My greatest desire in life is to find a craft focused community in which to settle.
There, I've said it!

I have been dreaming of visiting Asheville for over a year and am so very excited about this trip I am beside myself.

In preparation, I am making a bunch of lavender sachets from my woven recycled cashmere and bamboo cloth (with Thai silk for the backing) to offer as seeds of hope that North Carolina will house the community I am searching for.

As soon as I decided to create these as travel favors, all of my resistance to sewing dissolved. I pulled out my sewing machine, cut out 5" Thai silk squares, and began sewing a label onto each square.


Keep in mind that I am semi sewing challenged, but I had a blast.


After 49 years of weaving, it is still with a certain amount of reluctance that I take scissors to handwoven cloth even though I designed and wove this cloth to cut into sachets. I had been weaving for 20 years before I could cut up anything I had woven (and for 10 of those 20 years I was actively trying to cut).


Today I pin and sew---more pictures to follow.

5 comments:

Peg in South Carolina said...

You are going to move........AGAIN?!!! I do hope you find what you are looking for in Asheville. It is really a neat town.

Cate Rose said...

Oh Bonnie, I'm envious of your trip to Asheville. I've wanted to go there for eons. Soak up some of the juice for me and send it down from Seattle when you return!

Lou said...

I've read about Paducah, KY working to create an arts and crafts community. They even have an Artist Relocation Program. I am not affiliated nor have I ever been to Paducah, but have read about their program. They have a website about it at
http://paducaharts.com/about_the_program.php

While trying to find a description of it I came across this newspaper article: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09126/962757-37.stm - Article entitled Paducah, Ky gets new life as an arts and crafts mecca.

Don't know if this will post with links.

Margreet said...

Bonnie,
About cutting in handwoven, we had a Bolivian weaver giving a presentation here in Holland a few months ago and she told us that they see a warp as a baby in the womb, when the warp is woven the baby is born, so you do not cut into the cloth. Interesting thought.

Exciting to be making a trip to Asheville, good luck!

Bonnie said...

This is the most interesting assortment of comments I have ever received. Peg, when I moved last year, I knew it was not a permanent move. I had given myself a 5 year plan to find the place where I wanted to settle (4 years to go). I have been wanting to check out Asheville for a couple of years, so my trip is fulfilling a long held dream. Connie, I will soak up lots of juice! Lou, I had never heard about Paducah. Thanks! It is most interesting and I will certainly check it out in my quest for a home. Magreet, perhaps I been under a Bolivian influence the first 20 years of weaving. Now if I am weaving a piece that I design to cut up, I think of it more as a Tibetan sand painting. I will never forget the first time I witnessed the meticulous work of the monks and then watched as they scattered the sand to the winds.
Thanks for your comments!