Mindfulness
The last few days have gone by in a bit of a whirl. I’ve been so busy, interleaving different activities in between each other. This morning, the rain caused me to stop and reflect. I was walking with Charlie on our usual walk, thinking about all the things I would...
Patience
One of the lessons that weaving teaches is patience. All kinds of patience - the ‘take a deep breath and count to 10’ patience when something easily preventable happens; the ‘am I dedicated enough to the quality of this piece that I unweave those picks to sort out...
What is Courage?
I’ve been reading an old book by an author called Eric Williams. He was a pilot in the Second World War and his book is called The Tunnel, and is about escaping from captivity. His first confinement was in a small cell and brought back to my mind Nelson Mandela’s...
Expanding Horizons
I susbscribe to VAV Magasinet. This is a recent subscription and during my perusal of the latest VAV magazine, I realised how narrow my awareness of the weaving world actually is. I thought that I was relatively up on weaving traditions internationally, but then I...
The Power of Words
I love words. They have the power to harm or to heal, to empower or to reduce, to inspire or to deflate. I try to write a journal most days and I do that in the mornings, before the day’s tasks and “must dos” get in the way. It’s a stream of consciousness thing –...
Weaving Genius?
One of my students was talking about the artistic temperament at lunch today. It started a discussion about differences in how we all perceive the world. I remembered some of my experiences with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and going on tour, and how some...
Views
Views change in different conditions. What an ambiguous statement. Do I mean views as in opinions? Or views as in vistas? Actually this morning I mean vistas. I was walking Charlie along a familiar route, but the weather was very misty and very cold – snow topped...
Serendipity
I love that word! It holds a whole world of surprise, fun, exploration! I've been weaving some more samples today (what a surprise!), and I got all excited again about the possible choices I had to weigh up. As soon as you start something, something else pops up...
Zone Out
One of the books I am reading at the moment is called 101 Experiments in the Philosophy of Everyday Life by Roger-Pol Droit. It’s full of different exercises you can try to see deeper than the surface of things. The second exercise in the book – Empty a Word of Its...
Inspiration and Character
When you hit the zone and work is easy, isn’t it wonderful? But what do you do when the inspiration, and the energy, runs out? Well, that happened to me today – not for the first time, I might add. Sometimes I just finish the sample or scarf that I’m weaving, and...
Weaving Teaching is Fun
Now I'm back from the US, it's back into teaching with a surge! I love teaching. I know I'm in a very privileged position because I'm self-employed and people from all backgrounds and geographical reach come to my home studio to learn. And not just from the far...
Support Systems
The first thing I need to do on this posting is to apologise to Jo Earl for giving her a new first name and mis-spelling her surname!! My humble apologies, Jo. I’m still on US time at the moment, despite having arrived back in the UK on Saturday. My flight was...