Weaving Time Lapse

Just like story telling, weaving is process. It starts off as a tease, then slowly ever so slowly, as one weft is woven, then another and another a whole starts to emerge. I am only halfway through but like a good story I am already anticipating the end.

Still weaving stories into fabric.

I have been writing stories about nostalgia, trauma and memory but I find the act of doing is creating a new narrative. Such as the time of day I am working on this, what I am wearing, what I am thinking about- are my kiddos doing their classes, do they have enough food options, is the laundry done? Do I need to vacuum? Already one of my warps broke, does that becomes part of the story? I left the buttons on the flannel and their bulk has made it uneven, so I added some extra yarn between the layers.

Story Telling

I shared an image of my father and I a couple of posts back. It told a story about a father, daughter and a purple crab! Though I like the illustration, it is an illustration and I have been working to get off the page! I want to use my stories to talk about how reliving memories, good ones such as that one, and traumatic ones can be healing.

Quick little video of the story telling process

Loom Building

I’m really getting into the connection between The Body Remembers and the act of stitching and weaving. The fibres of the material are woven and connect warp to weft, sometimes they have gaps, other times they are tight. A piece of fabric- I now have learned is not fabric until it is removed from the loom, and is given time to relax- settled into itself.

One of my goals is to get off the page, so the past two weeks I have been taking a weaving class through the Textile Arts Center in Brooklyn NY. One thing I can say about the global pandemic is that though physically we can not connect with others, it has created an alternative learning environment.

I did not do much weaving in this class, but I absorbed what was being said and watched as our instructor demonstrated, and defined terms. She kept saying ANYTHING could be a loom.

I have had this giant wood palette for months now, my husband has tried to throw it out several times, but I kept saying no, I am going to use it for something? Long story short, I figured it out!

First off when I say giant, it was so big that we could hardly close my door when we got it into the studio, and I would not be able to stand it upright as planned, unless I made it smaller. But with a trip to the hardware store, a few supplies and couple hours of work I converted it into a rudimentary Loom.

I’m pretty excited to start working on it and weave my own stories into the warp.

The Body Remembers.

I am working on a series of short stories- memories from my childhood. I am interested in the role of memory, more specifically trauma, how it plays out in our body, how we understand ourselves and how it may impact relationships. I’m playing around with ideas for recipes to go along with them, as food also conveys very visceral feelings.

My dad had a boat, he loved to go fishing. Originally from Saskatchewan, he was a prairie boy with a hankering for travel and the open water. When I was 4 or 5 he would wake me up early to go fishing with him, before it was even light out. We lived in Maple Ridge just outside of Vancouver but still an hour + from marinas that he could launch his boat from- Ever so faint is the memory- those were in Port Moody. I am still in love with jagged coastlines, rocky coves and seaweed slicked stones. After one of our trips, back in our yard, my dad was cleaning out his boat and flushing the outboard motor, and a  wee little purple crab came tumbling off. I tried to save it and keep it as a pet.  ( Recipe idea- Fish and  Chips)

The following image is a work in Progress.

The Purple Shore Crab