The power of intention. Makes for a great motto, but what does it mean?
For me it means I have a goal that I am working towards. In life. In weaving. I intend to make something – a particular something. In order to accomplish my goal, I have to have certain skills. Particular knowledge.
How do I obtain those? I have to stumble around at the bottom of the learning curve until I figure out what I need to know in order to get from intention to material.
The above photo is of a sample warp. I had an objective in mind, but I wasn’t sure how to achieve that end result. And so I put a sample warp on. And I wove it. I experienced how the materials felt as I worked with them. I observed how they reacted when I changed one thing, and then another thing, and then another. I tossed it into the water to see what would happen. And then, and only then, did I actually attempt to make…something…using these materials in this particular arrangement.
Some of the Olds students are working on their homework and asking questions. This is part of an answer I sent to one of them this morning:
Above all,
document what you have done. Because I don’t necessarily just want
to see ‘perfect’ (although that is always lovely to see!), I want to see the
student work through the exercise, draw conclusions and observe the changes that
happen when something is changed. And perhaps, after doing the initial
sampling, the student will do another one, based on their initial conclusions,
so that they can produce results that come closer to ‘perfect’. Change one
thing, everything changes. When analyzing the samples after wet finishing,
comment on when you might use that particular combination, or why you would
never use it. Document, document, document. We always think we will
remember, but we don’t!
Why am I such a staunch supporter of the Olds program? Because it hopes to make the students think. Mastering a craft such as weaving does not mean coming to class, being told what to do, doing it, then passing the course.
Rather, the mastery of something like weaving means understanding the principles. Gaining the knowledge of what happens when by actually doing the thinking, the analyzing of the results, figuring out how to more closely meet the parameters of the exercises. Honing the physical skills required in order to get the results desired. All of that. But mostly to learn how to think the process through in order to get the intended results.
There is a reason I am calling my proto-book The Intentional Weaver. I hope to distill some of what I have learned in 40+ years of stumbling around at the bottom of the learning curve (why do I keep typing that word as ‘curse’????) until I figured out how to more-or-less, most-of-the-time-but-not-always get results I am happy enough with to put my name on and offer for sale.
With this publication I hope to explain some of the principles that go into the construction of cloth that the weaver wishes to have as their result. Not so that I can tell people how to get their results, but how to think through the process in order to get their own results by following their path.
Right now all writing is on hold while we get through the next four weeks of show season. This is the time of year where I ‘harvest’ the crop I have been working on – all the weaving I have done for the past 10-12 months will be on display and for sale in hopes that I earn enough money to get me through the next 10-12 months. So the writing will have to wait for a bit. In the meantime I’m still thinking it through. Still analyzing what has been done so far. Still honing, polishing, thinking what else needs to be included. Definitely not forgotten. Just one more step in the process of being…intentional about what I want to have result.
In my heart I know that anything I produce – not my weaving, not my writing – will not satisfy everyone. I’m quite sure my book will be…controversial…because I have walked my own path, made my own mistakes. My path will not be for everyone, because most of all, what I hope, is that people will make their own path. Because change one thing, everything can change. In weaving, as in life.
Currently reading A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny