Dorthy: Handwoven textile
Dorthy wanted to be a fun, joyful, and elegant piece of wearable art . She already had the bright pink and orange warp strings from her sister Bell, so we decided to add an elegant almost neutral yarn for her warp, and allow hints of the pink and orange to show to show through.
I have to admit, when I started to work on Dorthy I was in a hurry, I felt like I just needed to get her finished so that I could move onto the next thing. While often when I'm rushed the scarves protest loudly, by breaking threads, or getting tangled, it seemed that Dorthy knew that I couldn't handle that type of fight at the moment, and instead just kept repeating, slow down, breath, enjoy, slow down, breath, enjoy. She reminded me, that I was the one making my deadlines, so nothing bad was going to happen if I didn't meet it. She also kindly reminded I weave because I love the process, and I was rushing through the process, missing everything that it had to give me.
Dorthy is named after my grandmother. Dorthy wasn't quick to tell me her name, instead she took me on a journey. She first reminded of wonderfully tall, and colorful flowers, but none of them seemed right. She then brought sounds of laughter ringing in my ears. And she kindly reminded of aging, and with this, the thoughts of taking pleassure in each small moment. And then whispered Dorthy. My grandmother is always joyful, laughter and tears of happiness flow from her at a rate that always amazes me. It is as though in her life each and every moment is it's own, not caring the baggage of the last. And because of this she is able to find the laughter, and be incredibly thankful in each moment. And I feel that is the point that Dorthy was trying to bring me back to while I was creating her.
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1 comment:
That was a beautiful story (and scarf) Amber! Especially when you mentioned laughter - Aunt Dot always comes to mind. :)
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