Have you ever heard Harry Belafonte singing. “We Come From the Mountains”?
If you haven’t, then please google to see him singing it with the Muppets…. it is the most enchanting song that is all about the ways in which we are all connected.
This Woven Woman from my Oracle of Stillness series is another of the Grandmother’s Coat group of mixed media weaving. Her name is, “She Speaks for the Mountains”.
She came from a dream in which I saw a majestic mountain that was clearly a Goddess.
She moved slowly, slowly and I saw that she was made up of countless tiny elements- each one completely interwoven with all the others, with all of life…. and each element needs to be tended, carefully, tenderly with tenderness. How we treat each element is reflected in all of life…
This Oracle of Stillness Woven Woman is ‘ Grandmother Owl Dreams of Waking’.
She is one of the mixed media woven pieces in the Oracle of Stillness.
In the Oracle of Stillness series, there is a sequence that is based on images that arrived in dreams.
In the first dream, I dreamt I was in a gorgeous forest and the moon was full.
I looked up and there above me, was a shimmering Being who whispered that she dreams of waking. “How would that be?” I asked her.
“Like this” and she opened her wings wide, and it was like being immersed in the Northern Lights.
“And, like this” and she opened her arms wide, and I felt embraced by loving tenderness and ferocious Maternal passion with a cascade of images that flowed by so quickly that it was staggering.
“This is my coat, my Grandmother’s Coat- WEAVE THEM!!!’
– it was like a jolt of electricity shot through me.
And, then, she opened her eyes, and said:
“I am watching and waiting and dreaming”.
Oh my word! I sat bolt upright in bed and started sketching.
I had to make a loom that is specifically for weaving the Grandmother’s Coats (I’ll be showing photos of the other Grandmother’s Coat series soon).
I actually built and re-built the loom for each of the Woven Women who have emerged from the Grandmother’s Coat dreams.
The Grandmother’s Coats are still vibrating in me, and I have a feeling that they are going to be showing up in more new ways…. We shall see what dreams unfold of them and in them!
For decades I’ve work with my dreams & use the imagery & information that comes up in dreams .
Even so, there are times that a dream gives me the heebeejeebees. I wake up with my hair standing on end & exclaim: “May this dream never come true for anyone, anytime, anywhere!”.
A dream I had this morning pointed at part of my life that is challenging (health issues) & left me feeling curdled & crumpled.
Luckily, I checked in on instagram after breakfast & found a beautifully healing variation on a Buddhist prayer that I say daily. I love that there are so many variations of it & I thank @fullywoven for posting this prayer just when I needed it most!
The mindfulness of being free from inner harm made the worried parts in me unwind- whew- what good medicine! I am grateful. Here’s the prayer:
May all beings everywhere be free from all inner and outer harm. May all beings everywhere be filled with ease and contentment. May all beings everywhere know and abide in loving kindness.
I am going to be sharing pics of a series of Woven Women mixed media weavings from my Oracle of Stillness series for a few days. The first one is: The Dream Healer.
She appeared to me in my dreams & I loved her. It took a lot of effort to get the face right.
Not long after weaving her & variations of her, I saw images of the Ukrainian Mother Goddess, Mokosh.
I was astonished- Wow! What I dreamt looked very much like the Mokosh figures.
I found this to be inspiring & fascinating. I don’t have ancestral connections- my ancestors are from Ireland, England & Scotland, so it’s another kind of connection.
And, then, closer to my ancestral home, wow-I discovered Dorset Buttons online- more beautiful wrapping techniques to explore!
Thank you to the Dream Universe for pointing me in the right direction & encouraging me to be curious about what I was dreaming.
Sweet dreams!
I’m working on posting all the images from The Oracle of Stillness here to www.tottietalkscrafts.com
This is ‘Tapping into the Source’ from my Oracle of Stillness-Weaving Coherence in the Chaos series of Woven Women.
Her gift is to ‘Fly High, Dive Deep, Wings Wide, Heart Balanced at the Still Point’.
A couple of years ago, I saw a lovely video of a father and daughter dancing a gentle, powerful hula that felt like it was calming the waves. Their harmony and balance were awe inspiring.
That evening as I was meditating, I lifted my hands and started moving them slowly, rhythmically and noticed that I was tracing the infinity symbol in the air.
I felt calm flowing in.
I have incorporated this into my meditation practice ever since, with a few additions of breath and words and visualizing colors.
Here’s what I do, and you are most welcome to join me: Hands to heart, breathing easily, gently. Say ‘Yes’ and invite your hand(s) (or finger) to draw an infinity loop in front of you, close to you. As you continue to draw the infinity loop (a comfortable sized one) add the words: “This” “Too” “And” “Now” in any order. Acknowledge the things that terrify, dismay and horrify you as if they are waves on a monitor screen…. Keep repeating: “Yes” “This” “Too” “And” “Now” in any order as you gently notice the frightening waves of any color on the screen starting to lift away from the screen and dissolve. And, now, notice that feelings of awe, soothing, calm, and awareness of the Great Mystery and the Great Beauty rise up. Breathing gently, Continue to draw the infinity loop and add the words: Keep repeating: “Yes” “This” “Too” “And” “Now” in any order as you gently notice the lovely waves of gentle color on the screen forming in response to the healing words. They might take shape. Welcome them into your heart. Repeat, often. ❤
Recently, I have been delighted to learn that the infinity symbol is used by many people who work with energy & meridians & other healing modalities. I love it. Synchronicity!
I am working on posting images of all the Oracle of Stillness figures here on Tottie Talks Crafts, so stay tuned. ❤
Living with chronic illness is mostly really the pits. But I have found that the sheesh-awfulness of it has honed my radar to notice and dive into the beautiful moments that unfold in unexpected and wonder filled ways.
For instance, one of our neighbors is the loveliest person… you can feel him quietly walking down the street with his dear little dog. He has a – hmmm- what to call it ??? a perceptible quality of lightness and contemplative presence and palpable kindness that is a joy to behold.
( My husband has this same gentle, loving, powerful presence.)
Being grateful for these lovely people (and ALL the precious ones) who carry the energy of peace inspired me to weave the Woven Woman, “Peace” .
It may look like she is alone, but if you look closely, you will see that there are actually 3 figures all interwoven…. all 3 of them are Mermaids and perhaps the 2 smaller Mermaids are the gifts that Peace brings… perhaps they embody the wish for Peace to flow like the oceans…..
Oh! This reminds me of an adorable moment yesterday… I had stepped outside to say goodbye to my daughter and grandson as they drove away from afternoon tea with us. I was chatting with our next door neighbors and we were utterly delighted when a gaggle of little kids burst out the front door, brandishing various bits and pieces of their Halloween costumes, and flew off the porch. The lead child trumpetted: Imagination for the win!!!!
And, we three adults all simultaneously put our hands on our hearts and swayed slightly and nodded: That’s what it’s all about!
About 7 years ago, I began working on 2 of the larger figures in the Oracle of Stillness: Weaving Coherence in the Chaos Woven Women by drawing a large Goddess figure in pencil on a piece of paper that was over a meter (a yard) square. I then took very heavy wire (fencing wire- probably 6 or 8 gauge) and with pliers and wire cutters, freeform shaped the ‘Patience and Perseverance Advise the Ancient Ones.
The rest of the Oracle of Stillness Woven Women evolved from her, so she is the Mother of all the pieces in the show.
I find it amusing that she was also the last of the Woven Women to be finished… I was frantically sewing the last of the tiny Goddess figures to her as my husband, Jim and our grandson, were unwrapping the other figures all around me in the gallery!
She evolved over the years… she hung in the window of my studio for several years, as I watched the shadows that she cast and tried different ideas out with her.
Then a few years later, just before Covid hit our family, I asked Jim to please weld me a heavy weight version of the large Goddess, so he took my initial drawing and carefully cut and measured and welded a version of her. He used 1/4 inch steel rod to formulate her and whew… she is hefty!
This iteration eventually became: “Flourish, Yes, Even in the Middle of All This”.
She is very dear to my heart, as our daughter, Chloe Findlay-Harder, who is a fused glass artist, taught several workshops to our family and I made the face for ‘Flourish’ in fused glass…. I have painted many layers of oil paint over the initial face to arrive at the final face. I loved our classes with Chloe and have made many elements in fused glass for the Oracle of Stillness figures. Lots of them have fused glass faces and butterflies and other elements.
Chloe’s husband, Clancy, and I had a wonderful afternoon one Sunday when our family were gathered for our weekly dinner together. Clancy and I spent a long time talking about ‘Flourish’ and how she needed to evolve. He and I circled her and shifted elements and talked about the impact of color and texture. It was a wonderful and inspiring time of deep connection…. and, shockingly, not long after, he died of a blood clot caused by the Covid virus. Needless to say, this is a piece that I will never part with.
Clancy also made me a fused glass piece that represented a loom, and I had his permission to include it in one of the Oracle of Stillness figures.
It is the rectangle at the base of “Remembering”, which is a tribute to his golden heart and beautiful presence.
Her face is fused glass as well.
“Flourish, yes even in the middle of all this” and “Patience and Perseverance Advise the Ancient Ones” both took years to complete…. I would work on them, and live with them and come back, over and over. They each are about a meter tall by a meter wide.
After I had a dream in which I discovered that the Oracle of Stillness Woven Women all needed wings, I designed and crocheted their wings and then built wire armatures to stretch and secure the wings in full expansion.
I love the shadows that they cast on the walls behind them.
They are on display at Harcourt House Gallery in Edmonton AB until the 22 of November.
These 3 figures are love songs to sing sorrow into compassion and grief into a larger love, as love opens and blossoms and transforms in unexpected, heart-rending miraculous ways…. ❤
The opening on Oct 17, 2025 at Harcourt House Gallery in Edmonton of my solo mixed media show of Woven Women Tapestries: ‘The Oracle of Stillness- Weaving Coherence in the Chaos’ was wonderful.
I made a wobbly little video after the show was hung but before the lights were set, so some of the pieces don’t show up too well….
Here is the explanation of the show:
This little video by Noreen Crone-Findlay is a glimpse of her solo show of mixed media weaving: The Oracle of Stillness: Weaving Coherence in the Chaos. This series of Woven Women tapestries were created by Noreen Crone-Findlay over many years and include many mediums: fused glass, steel rod, steel and copper wire, beading, Teneriffe lace making, Tatted lace, lace and tapestry and narrow band weaving on looms specially constructed for the show by Crone-Findlay, thread, yarn, painting on wood, painting on watercolor paper, found objects, leather work, crochet, wire work, carved Tagua nut, and carved wood. The Oracle of Stillness speaks to the heart about navigating grief, sorrow around personal loss and chronic illness, as well as the shock of living in social and cultural upheaval. Noreen Crone-Findlay works with her dreams, meditations, prayers, poetry, and deep conversation to create Woven Women who embody presence, mystery, magic, The Great Beauty and the Feminine Divine. The Oracle of Stillness Woven Women are immersive, textural, layered and complex. Each one has taken hundreds of hours to complete and invite the gaze of the viewer to listen with their hearts to find the ‘ring of truth’ and point of Stillness int the quiet of the journey ‘Home’. Noreen hopes that you will find a moment of wonder or Beauty in the Oracle of Stillness Woven Women and to follow the complex threads that lead to the very center of our Being-ness. There is love in every stitch, every molecule of each of these mixed media weavings. May they bring healing…. with love. Please go to http://www.tottietalkscrafts.com for more information
Our dear friend, Andrea Gray took photos at the opening, and oi vey, when I was captioning the pics, I spelled her name wrong! For crying out loud! I had one job to do….. sigh… my apologies… its’ GRAY not Grey….
The gallery was packed to the rafters, so it wasn’t easy for her to get the photos and I am grateful to her! ❤
Anyhow here are the pics:
Just a note… they were taken at the end of the evening and I was exhausted, so I do look mighty droopy!
I will keep working on getting photos of the individual pieces up here and on fb and ig.
Friday evening was the opening to my ‘Oracle of Stillness’ show (it was a gorgeous, magical evening!).
But then, our wee Panda Princess, who we have been nurturing through palliative care for her inoperable cancer, had to cross the Rainbow Bridge on Saturday afternoon.
We knew it was coming, but it was still incredibly hard.
Thank goodness for the love of family and the gathering we had this afternoon to support and sustain us all…..
I wanted to make something special to wear to the opening of my solo show- The Oracle of Stillness: Weaving Coherence in the Chaos.
I’ve been weaving this fabric on many different looms for about 5 years!
I worked my chops off to finish the last length of it, and then agonized over what on earth I would make with it…. a vest? a tunic? a shirt? a smock? a tabard? ack….
Finally, I settled on a coat-ish, duster-ish, big shirt-ish sort of a thing and cut out slopers and spent a whole lot of hours basting it together, trying it on, pinning new seam lines, basting them, snip snip snip
over and over and over until I was happy with the shapes:
I played around with fitting the various pieces of fabric onto the slopers
And, then eeeeeeeeeeeek I cut out the shapes! Hmmm something horrible has happened to the colors in the photo below… sorry about that!
Then -the long slow process of hand and machine stitching all the fabric components together…
I don’t like the raw edges of hand woven fabric, so I cover them with bias tape:
and hand woven narrow bands:
Every seam is sewn at least 3 and often 4 times (and of course, I zig zag stitched all the raw edges before doing anything at all).
It’s a slow and pleasant process- very meditative and contemplative.
And, of course- it has pockets! Pockets are essential!
Here’s the back:
It’s a very simple construction of an easy going and comfortable coat/duster/big shirt that I plan on wearing for years.
But first… to the opening of my show on Friday night at Harcourt House Gallery in Edmonton.
Hmmmm…. what to wear under it? Probably basic black shirt and pants, but jeans are tempting, too….
I am pretty sure that I have enough of the fabric left to cobble together a vest, too…
It reminds us to be observant- it can signal a sense of contentment, of knowingness that this place, this time, this feeling is lovely and perfect in and of itself.
AND- It can also signal a sense of dismay, of knowing that this relationship, this place, this time, this feeling is totally wrong and must end.
Both ‘enough’s are turning point moments…. One tells us to bask in the perfection of the moment, and the other insists that action must be taken. Both are profoundly healing and life affirming.
We have to move into the ‘Still point’ in our hearts and minds to process each of the ‘enough’s and then
to remember that: This Too Shall Pass. Life moves in swirls, eddies and flow… this too shall pass….
Enough….
This Woven Woman mixed media weaving feels like one of the most important pieces in my “Oracle of Stillness-Weaving Coherence in the Chaos” series.
The ‘Oracle of Stillness’ exhibition is at the Harcourt House Gallery from Oct 17- Nov 22.
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