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.
Completing the “Oracle of Stillness” 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 ‘what do we let go of’ and ‘what do we use in new ways’ and’what do we need to bring in?’ has stirred all kinds of musings and dreaming about what ‘HOME’ is and how deeply the concept of ‘Home’ reaches down into our many levels of mind and also into our dream universes.
This Woven Woman from the ‘Oracle of Stillness’ series, “Finding the Way Home” is one of the ‘Grandmother’s Coat’ series, and is also a compendium of fleeting images from many dreams that I have had about the power of “home”.
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 “HOME” means to you, may you find your way home to that…
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.
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…
The last couple of years have been really intense as I have been working night and day on two new books as well as new tapestries and woven works.
One of the books is now up online available for pre-order (I’ll post links asap) and one of the series of tapestries is now in the gallery (Harcourt House Gallery in Edmonton), awaiting the opening on October 18.
This piece is from my ‘Follow the Thread’ series of mixed media weavings:” Terpsichore- Carmen’s Birds”.
Terpsichore is the muse of the dance.
This piece is definitely influenced by my husband, Jim Findlay‘s commitment to playing flamenco.
I was having trouble resolving the piece, because I knew that she needed something to lift her to completion.
Then, my friend, Carma, who sings and dances with Jim and Susan and Barb in Corazone del Flamenco gave me a beautiful little black necklace with tiny birds, and Voila! Done! The birds were exactly what Terpsichore was needing (demanding!)
For the last 6 weeks or so, I have been weaving up a storm, working on an installation for the Green Window City project in Edmonton Alberta. Link to Green Window City
I wove 7 banners ( each 5 yards long) from cut up clothing and t shirts cut into t shirt yarn (tarn and ‘Farn’- fabric strip yarn) on my Saori loom.
Tottie Talks Crafts Blog 