Last Fall, we began the World History of Textile Arts Classes by using simple wooden spindles to make yarn from wool fleece. Dawn W. asked about the work of the the Fates or Moirai: Clotho, the spinner, Lachesis, the measurer, and Atropos, the one who wields the scissors that cuts the thread of life for each human.
These three female gods, who control the Fate of humans, are referred to in literature from the Iliad to Shakespeare and into modern literature. It is not by accident that they are presented as a team, an atelier or a vävstuge, where many hands make light the work.
Through out history, the making of cloth has been a communal act, and the people who gathered to make thread, and weave it into cloth, shared knowledge and power.
When we gathered earlier this month for our first Plop-down and Make Something Sunday there was such a quality of joy and strength in the air. I am already looking forward to our next gathering. It will be on Sunday, August 14th 5-7pm. Bring a snack to share and something to work on.
Beauty grows in the midst of a community of makers. In book 4 of The Odyssey by Homer, Helen gives Telemachus (Odysseus’s son) a robe “made from her own hand.” We must assume she dosnt’t mean all alone. She might use her golden spindle to make the threads (dyed a rare purple by someone else) but most the warp and weft would have been spun by many hands. Spinning and weaving can be complicated, but they don’t need to be difficult.
In the Weaving Studio, I have a wide range of tools for textile experimenting: frame looms, rigid heddle looms, a floor loom, two table looms, spindles, spinning wheels, shuttles, shed sticks, bobbins, needles, tools for winding yarn into balls, tools for unwinding balls of yarn- a remarkable collection. Most of the equipment in the Tool Library was purchased or acquired specifically for beginners!
Members who have attended a workshop or arranged for a tutorial can reserve a loom to use during Open Studio Hours.
Lets get together often to spin and weave (or knit, crochet, mend, tat, etc) we are more powerful together!
June
Wonderful. It’s on my calendar. You’ve created a terrific community. Thank you.
Pat