luminous

One of the wondrous things about living in the twenty first century—

— is that there are people who make beeswax candles¹—

—by whose light a person can ease into the beginning of a day—

—or the end of a tapestry.

The stubs can also be saved, melted down and turned into more of the same.

This last cannot, alas, be said for one of the other wondrous objects of this moment in time—

—but nonetheless I so appreciate that there are people who know how to make battery-powered, adjustable, dimmable LED photography lights—²

—in whose beam an irrepressible weaver—

—can work on a tapestry—

—at odd hours —

—or whenever the spirit moves her—

—and still be able to tell magenta from forest green. ³

The secret to discerning which magical illumination source to use when (at least for me)—

—appears to lie with Beryl the wonder dog who is canny enough to remind any stray unbridled weaver who happens to cross her path—

—that just because a person’s sewing machine eschews electricity—

—does not mean her eyes have to.⁴

What luck to have such a side-kick.

For despite the best efforts of any adjective I might weave—

—my loom knows perfectly well—

—that despite all our best efforts—

—I’ll never be as cleverly canine as Beryl.

1. Unfortunately I can’t find the name of the lovely local candlemaker who creates these and sells them at our local farmer’s market, but wherever you are, I imagine you can find your own local candlemaker to support.

2. By hand or not—I do not know. The light I use is a Viltrox L116T which comes with both a plug-in option and rechargeable batteries—wonderful if you want to weave in the middle of a room. And though not as satisfying as re-meltable candle stubs, these batteries do seem better than the use-and-discard alternative. What I love most about this light is that I can adjust both warmth and brightness depending on the situation at hand.

3. Dark value colors can become indistinguishable in some lights so that a rich red and a dark green can look almost identical despite residing almost exactly opposite one another on a color wheel.

4. The finished tapestry is 59” x 6.5” (50cm x 17cm). It has not yet been washed or pressed and I haven’t figured out how to photograph the whole thing yet (other than rolled up), but eventually I’ll get there!