One of the classes I teach at the Shelburne Craft School is called Weaving Your Story. The chance to meld my love of weaving with my passions for healing, growth and creativity has been a true boon in my life. The program is fully grant funded by grantors and an anonymous donor making it cost free for participants. The Vermont Arts Council, being a grantor and a great supporter of the program, recently interviewed me to talk about Weaving Your Story and I wanted to share the article with you here. It captures so much of what the class is about and how I feel about it!
In case you are wondering how weaving and creative expression can be healing, I think the conversation gets at it well. Enjoy!
I’m writing to you from my porch. It’s just a few days before August 1st. I’ve been thinking about the next Summoning Creativity post for a while now. As I listen to the myriad birds engaged in their morning meetings and wonder at the frogs knocking to one another from here to there*, I can’t help but come back to the bewilderment I feel at being on Earth, doing this thing called life. Being alive. Being here as part of, and witness to, all of it. All of what is happening, all of what has been, all of what will come… here we are. Part of the story.
August in Vermont has a certain texture and moodiness to it. The sun’s height in the sky has gone through some noticeable shifts and, even with the hot days of late, there have already been moments that feel and smell like early fall. The rhythms we live in are obvious. Yet, they can pass by with little notice if attention is not paid to the shifts.
Lest this seem like a naval-examining treatise on the passing of time, let me get to it and make the link between being human in nature and creativity.
The Link
When We Notice, We Are Engaged
When We Are Engaged, We Can Create
The Prompt for August
Engage Every Day
Yes. Every day.
Don’t go yet! This isn’t bootcamp or a fad diet. It’s an invitation to harness the energy of August and give yourself the gift of engagement with your life, your surroundings, and your beautiful creativity that is boundless and waiting for attention. Here’s what I have in mind.
~ Every single day, take a moment to be fully present in your body and mind. Let your senses guide you. Do you hear something that has you wondering? Do you see something that catches your attention? Feel a sensation on your skin? Taste something that has your tongue tingling? Smell something that makes you tilt your head?
~ Let your attention rest on something that is: neutral, pleasant, interesting, or beautiful. Yes, I’m being directive about that. ** Like students in school, we learn best when we feel and are safe. Let us give our nervous systems the gift of a moment of, at minimum, calm neutrality.
~ Observe what you have chosen to rest your attention on. At least for five minutes, study what has gotten your attention.
~ Then, following this engagement, document it. You can do this in several ways. On days that are busy and there’s just no time that feels available for more, simply write what you saw.
It can be as short and sweet as: “By my front step, I saw a web that formed a circle on the grass. It looked like a tissue from a distance. But up close, it was webby and dewy.”
Or, you can take a picture of it and print it out, if possible.
Or, you draw it, paint it, sketch it.
Or, you can research it. Using this example, I might wonder, “what makes those webs?” and then study that creature.
Or, you can make something inspired by what you’ve seen.
~ And… repeat. Every day for one month.
Why every day?!
Because when we do something every day, over time, we change our habits. And yes, it is a habit to plow through a day without noticing anything. And, it’s a habit to live every day and notice many things.
It’s a practice to let those things you observe work on you and interact with the part of you that is curious, has wonder, and wants to play.
Things that might be useful to have around:
An unlined notebook where you can keep sketches/drawings/writings/clippings….
A camera. Many folks have smartphones that have one million photos on them that they forget about. I recommend for this endeavor to print out pictures and put them in your book. If you have a printer that can do this, great. I don’t have reliable printer and ink costs a forture, so I often will order prints through the Walgreens app because I can order the prints I want and pick them up quickly. If you are only ordering one print here and there, it’s remains inexpensive. Many pharmacies and grocers have photo printing these days, and there’s no minimum number of prints necessary. My daughter also has this little polaroid camera that is pretty fun. I haven’t used it for things like this, but I think it would work great!
Colored pencils or pens
Charcoal drawing pencils
Portable paints
If you have a specific medium you like to work with, have that around and easily accessible in case you have more dedicated time to play and create.
Things to consider that might help support this practice:
Setting an alarm each day (with a pleasant sound, please! – no startle responses necessary for this effort!) to remind you to take a moment to engage.
Keeping your art book around so you are visually reminded to engage.
Inviting people you live with or talk to regularly to do this, too! Sometimes it’s fun to have a partner in daily efforts.
Beware of the following:
If you forget a day or days, don’t throw in the towel! Just get back to it. My relationship with my journal changed drastically when I decided not to make it a shame and self-hate punisher if I miss a few days or months. Shit happens, man. It’s no big thing.
Judgement of what you are focusing on or on what you do with it. Reminder: this is not a project to get anything specific done. It’s an invitation to engage with what resonates with you while taking it a step further and interacting with what you noticed.
What do you think? Are you game? I am! I vibe deeply with getting practical and organized in my efforts. I also don’t want to miss any of August, no matter where I am or what I’m doing. If any part of this feels too rigid for you and your nature, adjust as needed and make it work for you. Most important is to commit.
As always, I love to hear from you whether through the comments or directly, so please let me know if you take this on! I plan on sharing my thoughts about the whole thing as we make our way through the month. We’ll see what engaging every day inspires!
Until next time,
Bradie
ps- this post came a little early so you can start on August 1 if you’re so inspired!
* I think I’m hearing mink frogs but it seems like where I am is not considered part of their Vermont territory. Not sure, but a deeper dive into frog lore is in my future.
** To be clear, I am not saying the requirement is to ignore all that is happening in the world and to just “be positive, man”. What I am saying is that we need to give our nervous systems a chance to balance out, reboot, and access a sense of safety if we are actually living in a safe circumstance. With the issues we are facing, we need to do what we can to nurture ourselves so we can stay strong and grounded.
I think it was around fifteen years ago now that I re-found my love of making things. That energy had been in some kind of limbo state, emerging at times through writing, experiments, and gardening. For these last fifteen years, though, I’ve been in a steady state of learning about all sorts of fiber craft and art. A main passion has emerged, and that has to do with weaving.
The interlacement of all things is an idea, or a reality, that just grabs me. It’s simple and obvious. But it’s also profound and true. I recently wrote this in an instagram post:
One of the things I love about weaving is that is invites our minds to work with our bodies. We can be with humble tools and materials and through the simple act of interlacements, something beautiful can emerge.
To interlace materials is to simply join them in an over and under rhythm. Suddenly, elements are joined when they were otherwise separate. Weaving for me has been a way to be with myself and my thoughts. I follow the directions of the materials and let myself flow with the process, rather than try to control the process from start to finish.
This has been true of my experiences with grief. The more I tried to control grief, the more I suffered. As I have learned to move with grief and let the waves of it interlace with all of the other truths about me and my life, the more I’ve been able to grow with it.
If you told me fifteen years ago that I’d be invited to lead a weaving workshop at such a wonderful place as Mercy Ecospirituality Center, I’d have looked behind me, assuming you were talking to someone else. If you are within a reasonable drive to Benson, VT, and feel like spending a day playing with interlacements, please come! I promise, you will end up with something that you didn’t expect, and that it will mean something to you.
Thought I’d share a compilation of things I’ve been thinking about and doing this last week. Some make me smile. Some make me think. Some make me cry. Some make me feel gratitude. Some a mixture of all of those things.
I got to participate in this art show along with fellow fiber artists, potters, painters, and woodturners. What a wonderful thing! There is something uniquely powerful about putting your work out there for others to see. The camaraderie I feel with my fellow makers who are in this show is really nice. Makes me proud.
I had to cancel, very last minute, a Community Weave event at my studio because I got wrecked by an allergic response, either to an antibiotic or a new-to-me face/body cream. It looked like I got punched in the eye, and I had welts all over my body about 48 hours ago. Not cool. Much better now.
I finished a prototype for a larger series I am getting working on… it’s hard to see in this picture, but it’s a woven tube made of linen, adorned with flax, wool, jute, with a beautiful antler hanging in the middle… better images to come…
Wrapped up a fabulous class at the Shelburne Craft School- this was explosively fun and very co-creative and inspiring! Weaving with minimal rules, natural materials, and instinct frees up a whole lot of space in my psyche. Sharing that with others was a true joy.
Read through journals I’ve been keeping since high school, looking for lyrics I wrote for a song I love playing… man, that’s a trip. Never found the lyrics to that song. Did find lyrics to another song I wrote but didn’t put down the chords… what the shit? So, reworking that one. But, I did find this… a realization that I’ve been hard at work being-a-person for a long time… thinking, creating, examining, striving, loving, fearing… I often think of my younger self as kind of a hot-mess, and don’t get me wrong, I had my drawn-out hot-mess moments for sure (still do!), but I think I’ve been unkind to the younger me that was just learning how to grow up in the midst of living. Those days are over. I suddenly see myself very differently, not as pre- or post- hot-mess, but rather as a long story. Just like anyone. This shift has been medicine.
Listened to (We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang on repeat, a cover of Heaven 17’s original version. Got inspired by the artists that use their medium to say “NO!”.
Spent a lot of time with my dog who seems to know I’ve not been feeling well.
Learned that there are so many plants in my yard that are medicinal and I am now going down a rabbit hole of studying them… reading about “weeds” that heal ailments has me reconsidering what a weed actually is.
And, I think that’s it for now. There’s so much going on, so much to respond to, metabolize, and critically think through. An endless well of compassion, empathy, fortitude, and courage is needed. And honesty. And self-reflection. Most everything I’m making these days has something to do with living and dying and the cycle of these opposites that shape our existence and our choices.
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
I’ve been busy in my studio seeing through ideas that are a continuation of themes I’ve been hanging with for a while now. I just can’t seem to get enough of loosely woven wooly fabric. I love weaving it. I love playing with it. I love how it is the perfect backdrop for a stem, a stick, a branch…
There is an Open Studio event where my space is tomorrow and I am looking forward to it. There have been a lot of projects in the flow, some of which are completed, one big one that is almost done that I’ll write about separately, and two that have finally gotten dislodged from my mind and set to looms. What a relief!
I think that’s one of the best parts of making… having an idea and finally getting it into action. Why does it take so long sometimes?
Because I’m getting ready to teach my first online class that involves a lot of videos. And, as I’ve been editing them, I’ve realized, wow, I really do say “ummmm” a whole lot. It’s such a good place holder for my mouth when I need to catch up with my thoughts, but not ideal to listen to! I’m very grateful for iMovie editing features!
I’m also extremely grateful for…
~ The chance to bring Weaving Your Story to more people~ this is a class I built, drawing together my passions from years of work and study, both as a therapist and as a weaver. I feel so strongly about what weaving offers to people, aesthetically, emotionally, in community.
~ The Shelburne Craft School, and especially its director, Heather Moore, who right out of the gate expressed interest in the way I use weaving in my work with people, and wondered if we might build a class around it. And that’s just what we did! Through that process, I’ve learned about writing grants and partnering with other organizations, while expanding my own skill set as I’ve offered this work to a larger group. I’ve also gotten to teach a dear friend and colleague, Ali Waltien, how to offer Weaving Your Story in her work. How amazing!
~ An anonymous donor who has made the class available to even more people.
~ Weaving Your Story participants who take the leap into weaving… well… their stories! This takes courage, patience, trust, and flexibility, and with every single group, I learn and grow.
~ My daughter who has been helping me learn how to make and edit videos, export, upload and put into the airwaves the online version of the class.
That all reads like an acceptance speech! Seriously though, I’d be remiss to talk about the Weaving Your Story classes without expressing all the gratitude I feel for those who have given so much to me, so there we are.
Now, back to editing my videos! If I can reduce my “ummmmms” by 75% or more, I think it’ll be okay.
Weave me a rope that will pull me through these impossible times.
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!
I haven’t been able to weave lately because of a back/neck injury I sustained one month ago tomorrow. As I’ve worked to get back in touch with my body and what it’s communicating to me (if only I’d listen!), I’ve been thinking a lot my looms and which one will be my entryway back into weaving.
I think for the sake of my back, I’ll start weaving again on this wonderful one from Lost Pond Looms. I am planning on using this loom in both my Introduction to Tapestry Weaving Classes and Wild Weaving classes, as we phase out the ones we have been using. I like this loom because it is super strong and allows for different warp spacing. I also love that we are buying it directly from the person who makes them, and he’s from the next state over in NY.
So, taking it slow, and learning ever more to listen to the language of my body and woven form itself. And in the meantime, I’m circling my weaving tools, thinking about what they will hold soon, and looking forward to picking up my yarn again.
