Ugh… the other night I had a horrible dream in which I got lost and couldn’t find my way home. I got more and more upset, and then, whew, a gentle guide showed up and reminded me that when a dream has gone wrong, for goodness sake, WAKE UP!
So, I did and I felt really comforted by going and gazing at this Woven Woman from my mixed media series: Oracle of Stillness. She is “The Guide Who is Just Where She is Needed”.
There are times when we are dreaming and also times when we are awake when we feel lost and distressed. Thank goodness for the Guides who show up to clear the path for us!
Joy is one of the great connectors of the Universe.
It can burst into a moment that launches the heart skyward, or it can slide in on a silent wave that somehow appears in the midst of suffering and sorrow and leaves a person riding a wave that lifts them when only a moment before, there was oppression, misery and despair.
Joy is a bridge that brings together paradoxes and stitches the Great Mystery and Beauty into a patchwork that says: YES to awe and to life.
When Joy burst into my life, I felt compelled to create this mixed media Woven Woman for the Oracle of Stillness series: “An Uprising of Joy”.
If you look closely at the feathers on the edges of her wings, you will see hundreds of tiny brass safety pins, which I adore as they are charming little bits of amazement that hold things together. And on each of the tiny safety pins, there are seed beads as a metaphor for how Joy seeds new life in us.
May Joy unfold in your life, too!
‘An Uprising of Joy’ is one of 3 of my mixed media tapestries from the “Oracle of Stillness” series that are part of the fundraising Christmas/Celebration of Joy show at Harcourt House: Artorama
We have brought all the mixed media Woven Women tapestries of the “Oracle of Stillness” series home from #harcourthousegallery and our house feels like home again.
Not that it is easy to hang 50 tapestries in one small living room!
But it is lovely to be among all of them again.
My husband and I missed them when they were off in the gallery.
Today’s Woven Woman is “Sanctuary”.
I hope that your home is a sacred sanctuary that brings you healing, joy, respite, renewal and all good things.
Today is the final day of the exhibition of ‘Oracle of Stillness: Weaving Coherence in the Chaos’ at Harcourt House Gallery in Edmonton, AB. If you are in YEG, do step over to the gallery, as they have done such an exquisite job of lighting the show that the Woven Women fairly dance on the walls.
I offer my most enormous gratitude to Darren Kooyman, Jacek Malec, Marija Nikolajev and the Board members of Harcourt House- it is such an honor to have been invited to exhibit at Harcourt House and I am eternally grateful for all the hard work that you have done to create and sustain such a wonderful centre for the arts in Edmonton!
The last Woven Woman that I wove for the series of the Oracle of Stillness is: “The Mysterious and the Magical Have a Way of Waiting Patiently to Reveal the Astonishing”.
She announced herself in a dream and I had to wake up to be sure to write down the correct words in the right order, as she was very clear that that was essential.
And, it was fascinating to feel that she was the final piece- the 50th one…. I knew that I would be weaving 50 Oracles of Stillness, and was intrigued by how that unfolded.
She was very clear about exactly what I needed to do to make her fully true and accurate to her raison d’etre.
There wasn’t enough room in the gallery for all 50 of the mixed media Woven Women Oracles of Stillness to be in the exhibition, but I will get all 50 of them uploaded here on: www.tottietalkscrafts.com
I was invited by a group of 7 contemplative writers to join them at Harcourt House Gallery as they gathered to immerse themselves in ‘The Oracle of Stillness: Weaving Coherence in the Chaos’ and then write about it.
I was feeling very sick and didn’t think I could make it, but I knew that I would regret it forever if I didn’t go.
And, oh my word! It was so powerful…. The energy in the gallery of kindness, respect, honesty, presence, integrity, healing and wholeness was like a tsunami of YES… this is the way the world should be!
I am in awe of the insights of this marvelous group of women sages and seers. To say that it was powerful is an understatement.
It was the perfect way to draw the exhibition to a close.
The show ends on Saturday November 22, so if you are in Edmonton, do step into the gallery- you can feel the magic of the writers circle still, I am sure.
By the way, I took one of my looms along to weave words as the other writers wrote. Magical.
Thank you to Marija Nikolajev and Theresa Belter for the photographs.
I love our 5 year old next door neighbour so much!
The doorbell just rang- He needed to tell us that he had shot his Nerf into the air and hit our roof and was sorry and could he have the nerf bullets back next spring when we clean the gutters?
And, he was freezing and could he please stay in the studio for awhile to warm up?
His Mum said ‘No… we can warm up at home’.
‘But I like it here’. (Aww)
We chatted a bit and then I gave our neighbor/friend back a plant that she had given me when it was tiny and it has now gotten too big for the shelf.
We laughed about trying to get rid of clutter, and the wee boy announced solemnly that Miss Noreen has a LOT OF CLUTTER.
Which I agreed to and then folded up with laughter as his Mum tried to shush his discussion of too much clutter and herd him out the door at the same time.
It was wonderful and I am still laughing. (But Mum, you SAID we have to get rid of our clutter!)
Which brings me to today’s mixed media Woven Woman from the Oracle of Stillness:
“The Songs of Motherhood: Love, Celebration, Laments, Loss, Learning, Essence” and how on earth did I forget to add “LAUGHTER” to her naming?
She hereby will be blessed with the addition of one of life’s greatest gifts: “LAUGHTER”.
Sometimes, when our bodies are challenged, the best place to dance is in our dreams.
This mixed media Woven Woman tapestry, “The Dance” is part of the Oracle of Stillness: Weaving Coherence in the Chaos series.
I twisted wire to make the armature for “The Dance” and freeform wove the beads to shape her into that moment of stillness that sparks the moment between the movements.
It is the Pause, Breathe, Begin Again that nurtures and heals.
The questions: “What would happen if I did this? How can I make this/that work?” are, for me, the key to living a fascinating, intriguing life that is stuffed full of creativity.
This mixed media Woven Woman from my Oracle of Stillness series, is named: “Curiosity as a Healing Art”.
I wove her face and the narrow bands, made some lace, beaded her body, fused some glass and painted some images, and my husband welded her steel armature to embody these questions about living with curiosity and imagination and how they heal all manner of things in wholeness and harmony.
Long ago and far away, when my sister and I were little, our family lived in a small prairie town that was safe enough for children to be free range.
On Thursday evenings, my sister and I would walk to choir practice and then home again in the dark.
The stars were incredible! The Milky Way poured across the sky like a gigantic silk scarf that felt close enough to touch.
Sometimes we stood in awe and stared up at the Northern lights.
Always, always, we made wishes on the stars that sparkled, just out of reach.
This mixed media Woven Woman is partly a sense memory of those magical times with my sister, and partly a celebration of Sacred Geometry.
Her name is: “Every Star Invites a Wish”.
Please feel free to make wishes upon her- whether it’s for wellness, peace, calm, clarity, serenity, kindness, wisdom, abundance, or any and all good things for yourself and for everyone, everywhere, may all your lovely wishes come true.
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…. ❤
Tottie Talks Crafts Blog 