Healing Handcrafting

Category Archives: Miscellany and Whatnot


by Leave a comment

Hema Thríno 2~ blood mysteries in yarn & wood

Hema in ancient Greek means blood. Thríno means lament or grief.

This piece is reimagined and adapted from the original Hema Thríno pictured below.

It might be clear that I was working some things out in the making of this knitted sculpture. Namely, a grief to do with the natural departure from one stage of life into the next, evidenced in part by the changing soul landscape bringing me towards menopause. Over time, I’ve learned that I do best when I wrestle with matters of the heart/mind/body through my hands. Maybe writing, maybe drawing or weaving… in this case, knitting with gorgeous deep red cotton thread, strong and soft at the same time, and engaging with a plant called Witches’ Broom, parasitic in nature, that you find on trees and bushes. Witches’ Broom is an abnormal growth of branches in the tree, usually signaling some kind of distress.

Evidence of distress mixed with beauty, resilience, and strength…

I’d been looking at the first iteration of Hema Thríno for some time in my studio and I began to see her in a different form~ less vulnerable, more in an assumption of power and clarity. So off the wall she came and we got to work together and brought her into fuller form. She has a countenance now. She is here more fully… calm… and powerful.


by Leave a comment

Vermont Crafts Council Open Studio Weekend

Hey, hey! I’m a bit behind in getting the word out that I’ll be participating in this year’s Vermont Crafts Council Open Studio Weekend.

The details:
Dates: Saturday and Sunday October 4 and 5
Address: Shelburne Pond Studios @ 1260 Pond Road, Shelburne, Vermont
Hours: 10am – 5pm
What’s in the studio: lots of things but especially recent work I’ve been doing that interlaces my focus on the plants around me and my love for weaving. My work has been dreamy lately, and I’m excited to show it.

If you’re in the area and feel like stopping in, I’d love to see you! This Open Studio event is wonderful. If you haven’t participated before, there are studios open all over the state and you can pick loops that are in a region you’d like to explore. The very comprehensive maps will show you all the spots to check out. This is my second year doing it and it’s a total joy. Many thanks to the Vermont Crafts Council for putting on such a great event.


by Leave a comment

Things that made me smile today…

I wish I had pictures of all of these things but I was driving when I saw some of them, or it just would have been weird to bust out my camera…

  • handmade signs asking drivers to slow down because of geese in the road
  • the kind and lovely person who helped me understand my new progressive lenses
  • asking this wonderful man what he’s up to and him saying something like, “6’3, no good, and logging”
  • a joke that flowed off a dear person’s tongue as seamlessly as water over a smooth rock
  • signs indicating that in a family barn, you’d find coffee, snacks, art, and vintage stuff… I love Vermont so much
  • the Green Mountains
  • hearing how excited someone I was talking to is about an upcoming trip she’s going on with her family
  • listening to the birds around my studio- I think a couple of pigeons were yelling at each other
  • thinking about this fantastic play I saw last night that my friend is in
  • seeing signs all over the place that suggest that love, compassion, and a welcoming attitude are preferred by many
  • my cat resting in the garden
  • the smell of peonies
  • an about-to-bloom poppy
  • the sounds and sights of bees doing their thing
  • the smell of catmint

we need to notice the things that make us smile,
call to our hearts,
help us feel connected to other people, even if we don’t know them,
and to ourselves, even when we’re tired, sad, scared, or sick

Until next time,

bradie


by Leave a comment

Amazing Book: Border & Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism, and the Rise of Racist Nationalism, by Harsha Walia

Just doing a little light reading because, you know…

Pretty much every sentence in Walia’s book is a powerhouse meal of critical information. I highly recommend it if you’re someone who is trying to find your way through this time in our shared history.

From Border and Rule,

“We are told that immigration policy is about law and order, not racial exclusion in an allegedly post-racial society. But there is no objective fact of migrant illegality; as Catherine Dauvergne maintains, ‘Illegal migration is a product of migration law. Without legal prohibition, there is no illegality.’ While borders are hierarchically organized and permeable for white expats, a handpicked immigrant diaspora, and the rich investor class, they form a fortress against the millions in the “deportspora” who are shut out, immobilized, and expelled. The global turn toward deportation and detention as the central means of immigration enforcement is attendant to the rise of neoliberalism.”

That’s just in the Introduction…

What will our leaders do? What will we do?

“All men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil. The only crime is pride.” ~ Sophocles, Antigone


by Leave a comment

Sweeping Away and The Wild Bits

little bits of everything
here and there
this and that
brooms sweeping away what is not ours
inviting a hold on what is
thresholds beckoning
then not letting go
interlacements revealing
the over-under dance



by Leave a comment

Playing with my Ancestors

In my space
circling around materials and ideas
I found my great-grandparents
Not all but some,
And then it started.
Do you like this color?
Did you have this flower in your garden
That was in the back of your little house
Where you made my brother and me
The most delicious hamburgers
In a frying pan, with butter and salt?
I remember you and your dear love.
Mom told me you held hands when you slept at night.
And you, great-grandmother I never met,
Whose teacups I have but am not graceful enough to use.
Maybe you know I’d slug the coffee that could fit in that dainty piece of porcelain in one gulp,
Apologies.
I feel loved by you and can feel you through the veil.
I’m glad we got to play.

Klara and Friedrich Behind a Veil
Virginia Behind a Veil


by Leave a comment

The Creative Process~ Article Published!

I’m delighted to share that an article I was invited to work on with the director of the Shelburne Craft School, Heather Moore, has been published in the IMAG #18 periodical from InSEA publications. It’s called, “Who Cares How it Comes Out? Pinhole Camera as Teacher and Muse”. You can find it here! It was a marvelous process, working on such an important-to-me project. The more I think about creativity, the more I think it is an essential and critical part of being human and that it ought never be treated as an afterthought. We’ve, as a species, been articulating our ideas and inspirations for millennia. To be able to think and write about how the creative process fosters community, empathy, enthusiasm, and engagement was a real pleasure. I hope you like it!


by Leave a comment

Happy Spring

Took a long walk today at beautiful Shelburne Farms.

Picked up some weather worn sticks.

Stared at a pileated woodpecker while it went about its business.

Felt the warm, wet wind, and exhaled.

Made eye contact with a cow.

Communed with a robin.

Greeted a cardinal.

Listened to people laugh.

Sent many wishes into the sky.

Noticed the osprey aren’t back on their perch yet.

Heard an eagle in the distance.

Thought about my next weaving project and the steep learning curve I’ll surmount to make it.

It will be red.


by Leave a comment

Beautiful Weaving Quote

For one of the classes I teach, I gather quotes that capture the symbolism of weaving and how it describes so much of our experience of life. I’d love to start sharing what I find here.

We all belong to the same beautiful tapestry of existence, and our lives are all woven together to create the magical experience of life. None of us are alone, or solitary, or unimportant- we’re all part of something that is vastly bigger than ourselves but, at the same time, comprises each of our individual energies. We are forever interconnected, and these connections are more awe inspiring and more powerful than we can even fathom.

~ Laura Lynne Jackson, “Signs: The Secret Language of the Universe”


by Leave a comment

America’s Shadow

The Shadow of America has burst forth,
Hideous in full form,
Visible to the world.
Not for the first time,
But still, this time too
Is trying our souls.
Many have known this Shadow.
Those able to see have recognized it,
Studied it,
Preached, sung, written of it.
Courageous vilified for naming it.
Truth-sayers killed for challenging it, taking it to court.
Those countless murdered by Shadow’s effects on humans in righteous denial,
Their blood is on our hands,
Fostering dis-ease until we ease ourselves into taking it on, this Shadow-illness
That, when denied becomes more itself,
Tyrannical.
To know is to descend into darkness,
Where ancient Destruction lives,
With Her corpse wall hooks,
And His poison.
No wonder there is turning away.
To face Shadow is the stuff of legend.
Legend’s heroes have scars, every one,
Valiantly earned,
Skin debt paid in the quest towards light.
The lid is blown off this American dream.
Now we must, oh we must!
Welcome the cracked open broken heart that comes with Shadow
As it swirls and climbs,
Snuffing out white-washed lies,
Engorged on delicious ignorance,
Creating and co-creating with light
Something new.
A new table where all have a place,
Eyes looking into eyes, with recognition, sorrow, love.
This time,
And again,
It is an invitation.

b. mccabe hansen

Notes:

“With Her corpse wall hooks”; references Ereshkigal, Mesopotamian goddess of death and the underworld who hangs sister/goddess Inanna on wall hooks; the myth of Inanna explores many themes, including the process of descending to darkness to face that which we have not seen or accepted within ourselves, claiming our cut-off parts.

References:

Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth: Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer, Diane Wolkstein & Samuel Noah Kramer

Descent to the Goddess: A Way of Initiation for Women, by Sylvia Brinton Perera

“And His poison”; references Phthonos, Greek spirit and embodiment of malicious envy.

“Is trying to our souls”: Reference to Thomas Paine’s American Crisis, December 23, 1776. Excerpt: “THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”