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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 that is useful or inspirational or just downright exciting! 

I was in south Wales earlier this week, spending a few days with my Dad on the River Taff estuary at Laugharne (pronounced Larn), just above the boathouse that Dylan Thomas lived in during his latter years.  The view over the estuary, especially when the tide was out, and the distant glimpse of Camarthen Bay and far in the distance, the Gower Peninsula, was wonderful.  I could see exactly what inspired the wonderful cascade of words that fell from Dylan’s pen and mouth.  It was very tranquil and timeless, made even more so by the covering of snow that gripped the UK this last week. 

Whilst relaxing in the lodge, I started getting a few ideas and got itchy fingers, wanting to get to a loom straight away, but not being able to.  Usually I go and write things down right away, but this time I didn’t, and now, back home, I couldn’t remember what I wanted to write.  Instead, whilst weaving today, I suddenly had an idea of how I can use my baby jacquards to create larger pieces.  Then, with an almost audible ‘kerching’, I remembered my thoughts – based on a scarf I wove off the day before I went to Wales to finish off my last warp of samples.  The scarf turned out much better than I expected.   The serendipitous bit is that it looks like the surface of the estuary when the tide was out. 

I’ve been looking for ways to represent the earth’s surface in my weaving for a few years now, and I’m doing a series of explorations to discover ways to do it.  I’m getting quite a range of samples, and I’m learning so much along the way, but it’s the sudden surprise results when I was doing something other than being scientific and logical in my approach that’s got me more excited.  Those ‘aha’ moments are ones to cherish.