This is “Gratitude for the Bees”-
May the Sun and the Moon and the Goddess of the Bees always lead us safely home. đ„°
đ My blessing for all who travel.
She is one of the Woven Women mixed media weavings in my series ‘The Oracle of Stillness’, currently on exhibition at Harcourt House in Edmonton AB.
Completing the âOracle of Stillnessâ series of mixed media weavings has signalled some deep changes in our home.
This taken the form of a complete shift about of furniture and re-configuring how we use our spaces. Feng Shui in action!
This shape shifting has made us feel much happier with our little home as it feels more alive and cleaner and cozier and ready to receive the new work that is deliciously emerging for us… lots happening with new inspiration, but more about that later.
The decisions around âwhat do we let go ofâ and âwhat do we use in new waysâ andâwhat do we need to bring in?â has stirred all kinds of musings and dreaming about what âHOMEâ is and how deeply the concept of âHomeâ reaches down into our many levels of mind and also into our dream universes.
This Woven Woman from the âOracle of Stillnessâ series, âFinding the Way Homeâ is one of the âGrandmotherâs Coatâ series, and is also a compendium of fleeting images from many dreams that I have had about the power of âhomeâ.
My wish is: May everyone, everywhere find peace and healing in their homes
May everyone everywhere have safe harbor in their homes
May everyone everywhere feel heard and seen in their homes
May everyone everywhere feel welcome in their homes
May everyone everywhere feel restful repose and have sweet dreams in their homes
Whatever âHOMEâ means to you, may you find your way home to that…
Iâm posting all the images from the Oracle of Stillness here to www.tottietalkscrafts.com
Iâve been working with my dreams for more than 55 years. I began learning how to do that back in University, with my Drawing professor, who was a strong advocate for working with dreams. He encouraged his students to learn techniques like Senoi dreamwork and to make it part of their daily practice. I am so grateful to him, as I have worked with my dreams in an immersive process ever since then.
The Woven Woman mixed media figure that I am sharing today from the Oracle of Stillness series is:
“The Dreamer”.
Sheâs a gentle dream guide that shows up regularly in my dreams, offering wisdom, protection and guidance.
Perhaps there is a âDream Guideâ that shows up in your dreams?
If there is, then do drawings, write down the dream, watch for co-incidences and synchronicities in your life. It will make your life so much more delicious!
âThe Dreamerâ is one of the âGrandmotherâs Coatâ series that emerged from a dream, carrying all kinds of meaning and information. Follow your dreams!
Iâm posting all the images here on www.tottietalkscrafts.com
For decades Iâve 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: âMay this dream never come true for anyone, anytime, anywhere!â.
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.
Hereâs 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 donât have ancestral connections- my ancestors are from Ireland, England & Scotland, so itâs 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!
Iâm working on posting all the images from The Oracle of Stillness here to www.tottietalkscrafts.com
This is âTapping into the Sourceâ from my Oracle of Stillness-Weaving Coherence in the Chaos series of Woven Women.
Her gift is to âFly High, Dive Deep, Wings Wide, Heart Balanced at the Still Pointâ.
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.
Hereâs what I do, and you are most welcome to join me:
Hands to heart, breathing easily, gently.
Say âYesâ 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:
âThisâ âTooâ âAndâ âNowâ in any order.
Acknowledge the things that terrify, dismay and horrify you as if they are waves on a monitor screen….
Keep repeating: âYesâ âThisâ âTooâ âAndâ âNowâ 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: âYesâ âThisâ âTooâ âAndâ âNowâ 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. â€
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. â€
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. Â
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…. â€
The word, “ENOUGH” is a word of power….
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.
I have been working so hard in my studio for the last year, finishing this large body of work (some elements of the show have taken 10 years to complete!)- I call it ‘The Oracle of Stillness- Weaving Coherence in the Chaos’.
It’s a collection of 50 mixed media Woven Women based on dreams, meditation, sacred geometry, connection to the Feminine Divine and synchronicities in response to navigating intense health issues, grief, parodoxical uprisings of joy- all in the midst of extraordinary chaos in the world around us.
The techniques that I have focused on to create the Oracle of Stillness Woven Women are: small loom weaving, tatting and other lace making techniques, crochet, beading, wire work, painting and more. I designed armatures for the pieces and my husband welded them for me for almost all the pieces.
The exhibition opens on October 17th and my Beloved husband, mentor, guide and dearest life friend and partner Jim Findlay will be playing gorgeous music with his wonderful Trio for the Opening.
If you are in Edmonton on the 17th of Oct, please join us at Harcourt House Here’s a link to the show: https://harcourthouse.ab.ca/noreen-crone-findlay-2/
Last week, my beloved, precious sister in law (sister of my heart) died.
While she was navigating the medical system, I was tatting many many little butterflies, as a way of meditating/prayers of the hands and sending her love…
I love tatting butterflies and then I give them to people as a way of saying thank you to them for their presence.
I thought that she might like to have a bunch of the little butterflies to give to people who have been with her on the journey, but she said that no, she no longer was able to receive physical things.
Instead, she asked me to write a blessing for her that she could print out and carry with her and read it whenever she needed it.
So I wrote her this Butterfly Blessing:
Noreenie’s Butterfly Blessing for her Precious sister, Aleksa:
Dear God, Goddess, All That Is,
All That is Sweet and Tender, and Ever Renewing,
Ever Blooming,
Ever Returning to Source…..
May the gentle ease, the balm and loving touch
of Your Presence
lift the suffering from our Aleksa….
May she be filled with
the lightest of lightest of knowingness
and like the Butterfly
may she rest easily
in the loving
Breath of the Divine.
with all my love
Noreenie
Filed under butterflies, grief, personal stuff, tatting
Tatting is one of my most favorite things- I never leave the house without a little tin or pouch that has tatting shuttles, thread, a tiny hook and tiny scissors in it.
I have been busy in the woodworking room again⊠carving more Goddess and Hedgehog tatting shuttles.
Until the end of the year, I will be reducing the price of the Goddess shuttles to $39 + shipping and the Hedgehogs to $25 + shipping.
Please message me if you are interested.
Here are some helpful videos about my Goddess Tatting shuttles:
This video shows how to wind thread onto the Goddess Tatting shuttles:https://youtu.be/94vbtAd9THg
This video shows how to weave with the Goddess tatting shuttles:https://www.instagram.com/p/CN5RZ5_JZPM/
This video shows how to add a cord so you can wear the Goddess tatting shuttle as a necklace:https://www.instagram.com/p/CN2ppKup68P/
How to tat a necklace cord:https://www.instagram.com/p/CN8AV6HJAW2/
Filed under carving wood, lace making, tatting, tutorial & how to, video tutorial
Noreen Crone-Findlay, designer and author
Tottie Talks Crafts Blog 