I’ve just finished a new 6th Sense One of a kind art doll: ‘The Love of Trees’.
She’s 16 inches/42cm tall.
I sculpted the face then cast and painted it.
She’s a combination of weaving and knitting.
Above the trees is a mylar mirror.
Like all the other ‘6th Sense’ art dolls, she has 6 Canadian pennies that are a metaphor for coming to our senses, common sense, and the 6th Sense, which is actually a combination of intuition, inspiration, imagination and integrity.
I have been working on new handwoven one of a kind art dolls.
They are a somewhat different approach to my Woven Women Mixed Media pieces.
Earlier this summer, I read a wonderful book, called: A Monk in the Beehive.
The author spoke about humanity needing to come to our senses, and to connect with our sixth sense, which is wisdom, intuition, peacefulness and integrity towards the planet.
This moved me deeply, and I have been thinking about it a lot.
This is how I have woven these thoughts together- in the first 3 of a series of ‘6th Sense’ Woven Women.
Each one is totally one of a kind.
I wove them as contemplations on wisdom, compassion, kindness, peace and peace making, connection, and a longing to care for the planet.
As I created each one, I would hold thoughts of wellness, integrity, and all the other attributes that I mentioned previously.
Weaving is a meditation in motion, and there is love in every stitch.
There is joy and tenderness in the making of the ‘6th Sense’ art dolls.
They are all approximately 17 inches tall and they can either stand and lean on a shelf, or be hung from the woven hanging loop on the back of the head.
Each one has 6 pennies- six cents- to represent the Sixth Sense, in all it’s manifestations.
I wove each of the 6th Sense Woven Women Art Dolls on many different looms, using a wide variety of techiques.
Here’s a video of ‘6th Sense- Intuition’, ‘6th Sense- Deep Peace’ and
‘6th Sense- Listening to The Voice of Wisdom’:
Photos:
‘6th Sense- INTUITION’:
‘6th Sense- Deep Peace’
‘6th Sense- Listening to The Voice of Wisdom’
If you are interested in purchasing a ‘Woven Women- 6th Sense’ One of a Kind Art Doll,
please contact me
For the last few months, I have been working on a very large mixed media tapestry in my series of ‘Woven Women’.
This one is called: ‘Essence’.
Woven Woman (Essence) by Noreen Crone-Findlay (c)
She’s over 6 feet tall, and has about 2 feet of warp strands hanging below the lower edge, so she’s about 8 feet tall in total.
I used many different looms to weave her…. beginning with my ‘Story Loom’ (designed by Susan Barret Merrill of
Weaving a Life LINK)
“Essence” on the Story Loom (c) Noreen Crone-Findlay
I also used: A rigid heddle loom, a narrow band weaving loom, peg loom, weaving sticks, Star Loom, tatting and wire work.
I posted links to 3 videos that I made about various looms and techniques I used in weaving ‘Woven Woman: Essence” here: LINK
And, made a video so you can see her a little more clearly:
Happy Weaving, and here’s to Essence, however it reveals itself (or in this case: Herself).
This is the latest in my series of Woven Women mixed media tapestries: “The Stories We Tell”.
copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay http://www.tottietalkscrafts.com
Here’s the video that explains it:
I wove the center galaxy section on a 15 inch peg loom from Dewberry Ridge looms. The dragonflies and star were also woven on looms that I designed for Dewberry Ridge.
I wove the words on my double slotted rigid heddle.
I worked the hand in Teneriffe lace and lucet cords.
It’s 20 inches/50 cm wide and 21 inches/52.5 cm tall.
It took more than 8 weeks of intensive weaving for me to complete this piece.
Yesterday, a dear friend helped me to hang some of my ‘Woven Women’ tapestries at the Blue Chair Cafe in Edmonton AB.
They will be hanging at the Blue Chair for the months of September and October 2014.
I took a small video after the show was hung….
One of my most favorite prayers is Dame Julian of Norwich’s …
“And All Shall Be Well, and All Shall Be Well, and All Manner of Things Shall Be Well….”
This prayer is a mantra that I repeat to myself through thick and thin, through the darkest nights and hardest moments- we all have them, and they are transformed into a wellspring of compassion, but, oh my, how incredibly challenging it can be at times to navigate them.
Thank you, Dame Julian, for these words to live by…..
I love weaving words, and have done many woven homages to Dame Julian.
But, this is the first time I have woven her prayer in tapestry-
copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay http://www.crone-findlay.com
copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay http://www.crone-findlay.com
copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay http://www.crone-findlay.com
She is approximately 36 inches tall.
I wove the central tapestry panel on my Mirrix 8 inch tapestry loom at 6 epi.
The side and back panels were woven on my 4 harness floor loom at 12 epi.
On her face, there are bits of sea glass, fragments of pottery and seashells, as well as driftwood.
The story, The Seven Ravens, by the Brothers Grimm inspired me to weave a tapestry.
I have been working on it for more than 5 months, and I am thrilled to have finally (!!!) finished it!!!!
While I was weaving it, I tried to remember to take progress pics, so I could make a little video showing how it grew.
I wasn’t very good at remembering to do that, so the pics really lurch and skip, but c’est la vie- sometimes, we lurch, don’t we?
And, now, thank goodness, it’s finally done!!!! yay!!! done done done!
copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay http://www.tottietalkscrafts.com
And, here is the little video showing how it grew:
I am now delighted to be warping up for a new tapestry- yay!
Three sisters of the heart- tapestry/mixed media pieces that I wove and fabricated this summer:
copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay http://www.tottietalkscrafts.com
On the left: Woven Women- Asking for Miracles 36 inches tall
Center: Woven Women- Edith’s Song (no regrets) 31 inches tall
On the right: Woven Women- Small Bird Sang and All Was Forgiven 36 inches tall
Woven on my Mirrix tapestry looms (16 inch wide loom and 8 inch wide loom).
Night and day for the last couple of weeks, I have been weaving up a storm, finishing Part 3 of Rebecca Mezoff’s online tapestry workshop.
And, I have just finished: Woven Women- Asking For Miracles, which is built around the sampler that I wove for Part 3:
copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay http://www.tottietalkscrafts.com
The dragon ship on her chest is based on images in the Bayeux tapestries, and the tree of life is based on a fragment of the Overhogdal tapestry fragments that I saw in the Viking exhibition at the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria, BC in July.
The Overhogdal tapestry was woven with a linen background, with the figures outlined in soumak and the colors filled in with colored weft in a kind of brocade technique.
The imagery in these tapestries is just so marvelous that I find them really inspiring and love sketching elements from them.
For her head dress, bodice construction, cuffs and hem, I used narrow bands that I wove on my double slotted Swedish rigid heddle loom.
Her head, hands, shoulder medalions, and feet are plywood.
I drew, cut out and burned and painted all the wooden elements.
copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay http://www.tottietalkscrafts.com
Her earrings are made from beads, vintage buttons and reproductions of Viking coins that I bought in the Museum gift shop.
copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay http://www.tottietalkscrafts.com
copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay http://www.tottietalkscrafts.com
‘Asking for Miracles’ was woven on my 16 inch Mirrix tapestry loom and is about 36 inches tall.
And, that title?
Well…. there are a lot of things happening these days that could use some miraculous energy to set them to rights…
you know, the wars, the devastations that are being wrought on so many levels and in so many ways on our precious little planet.
As I weave, I often meditate on sending out peaceful, healing energy…. the stuff that miracles are made of, after all, so to be honest, I think that when I am doing this, I am asking for miracles…..
and may your life be full of miracles of healing, wholeness, wonderfulness in every way!
Miracles.
Yes, please.
When we went on holidays in July, I took along 4 small looms- My Norwegian Cradle loom, my 8 inch Mirrix tapestry loom, my wee copper pipe loom and my tiny peg loom.
I warped up my Norwegian Cradle loom with fine cotton to weave a narrow band, using my Swedish double slotted rigid heddle.
The heddle is actually too wide for the Cradle loom, but oddly enough, this worked well in a quirky way.
I wove and wove and wove and wove as we drove for many, many days, with the Norwegian Cradle loom in my lap:
copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay http://www.tottietalkscrafts.com
The cotton thread in the narrow band is in the same colors that I was using to weave the sampler for Part 2 of the online tapestry course offered by Rebecca Mezoff.
I knew that I wanted to have narrow bands as part of the figure that I was weaving, using the sampler as the body.
And here she is: Her name is:
“Small Bird Sang and All Was Forgiven”.
copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay http://www.tottietalkscrafts.com
Her body is the sampler that includes the techniques that were covered in Part Two of the course.
I wove her arms separately, using techniques from Part 2 as well.
I have included driftwood from our beachcombing at the ocean, as well as found objects.
Her hands, head, feet and the archway panel are cut from Baltic birch plywood. (Lovely stuff!)
copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay http://www.tottietalkscrafts.com
I burned the features with a wood burning tool, and then painted and embellished with encaustic.
She is 36 inches/90 cm tall.
copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay http://www.tottietalkscrafts.com
I wove her body first, then re-warped the loom and wove the arms separately.
copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay http://www.tottietalkscrafts.com
Her body and arms were woven on my 8 inch Mirrix tapestry loom, which I also took along on holidays, as it’s a fabulous little traveling loom.
Noreen Crone-Findlay, designer and author
Tottie Talks Crafts Blog 