Wombsight
This is a tapestry piece that I began many many moons ago. It was begun with one person in mind, intended as a gift of love and energy to help navigate a very specific time in her life. As is the way with time and life, things changed and this piece was still unfinished on my tapestry frame. It is an interesting thing when weaving with energy, creating talismans of power and medicine: they always find the right home. It may (or in this case, it may not) be whom we think it is going to be, but it is always right. In finishing this piece, releasing its energy from the state of suspension in which such energies are held whilst on the loom, I realized that this particular way of working with yarn and spirit is something of which I need to do more.
It is the stylized representation of the lower half of a divine feminine figure. The womb is pictured as a seed form, representing the seed of new life we carry within. It was not designed as a fertility tapestry, but it definitely carries some of that energy.
The womb resides in the same space, is the physical equivalent of the energy of the svadisthana chakra - the second chakra, seat of emotion, creativity, relationality, and fertility.
After we had decided to invite Avery's soul to come into the world through our family, but before I became pregnant (there was an approximate 6 month gap here); I really worked to cultivate what I termed 'wombsight' : a way of perceiving the world from this generative energy center rather than from the compassionate seat of the heart or the intuitive seat of the third eye. It is a way of viewing the world that is difficult to put into words : seeing the world as your child, with all the precious love and fragile incredulity which that entails.
I hope that I captured some small aspect of the Mother Goddess archetype in this piece.
It is a cotton warp with mixed wools/synthetics/cottons for weft. Tapestry is a weft faced weave structure, so you don't see the warp at all except at top and bottom. This was woven with a definite right and wrong side: all the "bobbin changes" hang out of the back, so it is definitely designed as a wall hanging.
It is finished with plaiting of the warp threads - the plaits or braid being another centuries old evocation of the feminine and feminine magic.
It is mounted on river driftwood, one of which is in the shape of a dowsing rod and adorned with turquoise, tiger's eye, bone, and resin bead the colors of earth and amber. All the beads are reclaimed/recycled from secondhand jewelry and were energetically cleansed before use.
Unconditional : Great Competition of Weavers IBC Atlanta
Unconditional is woven as a networked twill on a parallel threading. This means that two colors, here a wine red and a variegated greens and blues, alternate (abababab) across the entirety of the warp. The wine red symbolizes a mother’s love: its constancy through the changes which life brings, its unconditional nature. It is hand dyed in tones of the same color, bringing in a monochrome element to the design and speaking to the way that a mother’s love is enacted differently for an infant, a toddler, a child, a teen, an adult as her child grows and yet the essence of it remains the same. The variegated warp contains four shades of blue and four shades of green. It moves in an ombre from mostly blues on one selvedge to mostly greens on the other selvedge. This symbolizes the way that our children change and grow, perhaps multiplying in number, while rooted in the constancy of a mother’s love. The draft itself resembles leaves, evoking the tree in the competition image itself a symbol of Mother Earth and the essence of abundant fertility that mothers embody.
This year, for the first time ever, Loom to Wrap hosted the Great Competition of Weavers live in person at IBC Atlanta. There were three components to the judging: online voting, in-person voting, and live judging! The panel of three judges was comprised of a well-respected baby wrap weaver, a long time experienced babywearer and handwovens enthusiast, and a Master weaver from the Atlanta guild. They judged the pieces based on an impartial rubric.
The above image was the official inspiration image for the competition. I drew thematic inspiration from the sweet line drawing and pulled a few colors from the logo image. Additionally, we had to include either a monochromatic and/or an ombre element in the design.
It was amazing - and slightly nerve wracking - to have my work seen and touched (and wrapped with!) by so many people! And so cool to see the diversity and craftsmanship of handwovens having a moment in the spotlight at IBC! The feedback overall from the guild's Master weaver was that she was really impressed with the artistry and craftsmanship that our little corner of the world has to offer.
Two pieces, one of which went to the competition and one which I am keeping were woven in a black lyocell weft with the full leaves pattern. The black weft really brings out the jewel tones I was going for with the dye job. The treadling sequence was a 204 repeat, which means that my feet made 204 different steps before the pattern of leaves repeated itself.
On one piece there are four visible disruptions in the pattern, left unmended in honor of the way that moments of great happiness or great tragedy, whether personal or national or global, leave an indelible mark in our lives yet do not change our lives’ dynamics of growth and love.
One sister piece was woven with a smoke grey mulberry silk weft that made for one of the most luxurious feeling piece of fabric I think I've ever touched. I love the way the light grey makes it appear almost pastel, yet still vibrant, from a distance.
The final sister piece was woven with a hand dyed long staple Egyptian Cotton weft. I pulled out one of the greens and one of the blues from the warp along with the wine red and added in an eggplant purple. For this final piece I changed up the treadling and found a fancy diamonds weave where the colors seem to nest inside one another: blue green diamonds inside wine red diamonds and wine red diamonds inside blue green diamonds.
This all EC piece is so soft, stretchy, cushy, and an absolute delight to wrap with. I think it was my personal favorite of them all, which is funny since I was not at all sure that the bright colors in the weft would work!
Draft credit to Eva Stoessl (https://evasweaving.wordpress.com/2012/02/14/8-shaft-woven-scarves-parallel-threading-networked-treadling/)
