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
I have just finished sewing together this coat:
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…
just not this week!
Here’s the link to my show: Harcourt House announcement
Jim and I just got home from the final ‘tweeking’ of the show, and I am so happy! â€
Noreen Crone-Findlay, designer and author
Tottie Talks Crafts Blog 