Tuesday, December 1, 2009

fiber, cloth, books, dust


a little tapestry, one of a long series of landscapes. selvage irregularities are dimensional, and there's a row of glass beads. this may be the last of many tapestries, a landscape in spring. i photographed through its glass. cotton, silk, wool, quiviut, beads, some natural dyes and handspun. a simple piece, sold to someone who collects my work.

the more i work, the more it's woven into a tapestry. books currently inhabit my imagination, i often work small. that fiber legacy is always present, though. my mother's birth name was weaver. she started me sewing as a child on kleenex first, then rags when i gained some skill. finally embroidery on cotton. so now i search for my own meanings with threads, pictures, stories, paper and books. paper is spun and woven, rags are beaten into paper, or woven into cloth, cloth is worn and then shredded into paper, and sewn into books. it seems so connected. i avoid talking about the *meaning*, because it's irrelevant. the making isn't. 


shifu sampler close-up: kozo, walnut and indigo dyes, 4 epi.

6 comments:

  1. indigo and walnut are like peas in a pod.

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  2. I love the top one. It's really magical.

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  3. the meaning... people are always looking for the meaning. but they don't want to find it themselves, they want it pre packaged and delivered.how odd.

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  4. meaning searching can really really hurt. it's for the brave and foolish.

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  5. I'm so glad I enlarged the photograph of your tapestry because now I can see the beads. It's beautiful!

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  6. i started this one years ago with the beads, finished it this summer. it may be the last of a 30 year series of landscape tapestries, but the only one with beads.

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