Weaving to live…

What a process. My thoughts have been all over the show as I weaved and listened to the instruction videos. I love fibres and that is my “go to” for soothing and making meaning, so this was so comforting and engaging.

I find weaving to be very tangible as I weave threads in and out, touching the fabric. It is a calming, rhythmic movement, and it becomes an intentional movement of the hand as it calls for presence of mind.

The weaving also calls for reflection of my life, of the fabric and the way the weave comes together.

Choosing my frame: I decided to go with a frame loom. That was just what I wanted to work with.

The Warp: I realized that the warp gives me the boundaries to work within, it creates a safe space: the solidity of it and the “predictability”. In my life story I have always had some ‘warp’ to guide me, to build my own life story around: that is my frame of reference, my values, my heritage, culture and family. And the warp connects my weave, it holds it together even if there are mistakes, or odd pieces in there.

The Weave: the warp is giving me the guidelines to work within, and my thoughts flow easily. Making use of the different textiles and wool I sought out, it created a sense of enjoyment! I found this to be very calming and meditative as my thoughts followed my fingers, the textures, the patterns/relationship between the warp and the weave.

We have an upcoming local beanie and fibre art exhibition in May 2024 and I hope to make use of weaving with some of the primary school children I support as an art therapist. Today, I was able to engage with a young girl who are struggling and we started a weave with cardboard: she was so excited and engaged straight away. Something we can build on for future conversations.

I discovered various ways to weave, and it just reminds me how there are various experiences we live through as it weaves through our days.

I share three weaves I worked on during this workshop. There is more

work in progress…