A few years ago I felt compelled to write about my life as a professional production weaver. Several friends helped by reading my rough draft(s) and then another friend agreed to edit the manuscript.
Since starting the current seminar series, I have been thinking a lot about my life – what I have done, the people I’ve met.
The past couple of years I have had to convey to my healthcare team how important weaving is to my mental and physical health. And how much I want to be able to continue to teach, if I can figure out a way to keep doing that.
(So far the online seminars seem to be going well and plans are in the works for a repeat in January/February/March.)
“There is so much information floating around, which is all well and good but if a weaver wants to be efficient, some of it is belt-and-suspenders. Yes, it works, but it will take longer and in many cases isn’t actually necessary – if you understand your materials and your equipment and how far you can push
them. The devil is in the details, and knowing as much as possible about your materials and equipment will help determine when you can get away with one or the other, or you need both in order to get good results.”
I wanted to share the ‘Laura-isms’ I included in one of my books but I could not find them. However I came across the above quote and I find that it rings just as true today as it did when I wrote it (in A Thread Runs Through It – a memoir).
During last Sunday’s seminar I was trying to explain all the complexities of the craft ‘spectrums’, which is primarily why no one can give accurate answers unless they know the creative limitations being utilized. At one point I said that I knew that people wanted definitive answers, but the truth was – there aren’t any. Each person has to consider their loom, their yarn, their choices for density, weave structure and wet finishing, figure out where they needed to be on those spectrums of density, equipment, weave structure, yarn, etc. in order to have a place to begin, then weave a sample to test it.
When doing this seminar live, it is at this point that there is laughter (if I’m lucky) or disappointment (if I am not).
New weavers seek definitive answers to specific questions when they would be far better off to learn the principles and how to apply them.
Not everyone needs to do that, but enough do so that we keep the skills of the craft alive. Someone needs to know which questions to ask, and what parameters need to be met when making them.
Anyway, if anyone is interested, the memoir is available as a PDF download at my ko-fi shop. (Link is on the home page of my web site.) There a couple other booklets available there, as well. Check my website for other links to Blurb (for my books) and other resources.
I don’t know how much longer I will try to write for WEFT. That said, there are another 4 or 5 articles in process. In the meantime I continue to seek answers for my body – to help it function better and allow it to keep weaving.
Weaving – the craft so long, the life so short to learn…