Oh, my goodness, Sue! Your link is an amazing coincidence! Last Fall, instead of ripping up my deck Basil and Sage, I instead saw beauty in the dried stems, and took care to preserve them and let them dry. I put them in small pottery next to my Lazyboy, so I could look at them and decide what to do with them. Right away, I thought of using the multiple vertical stems as warp, and weaving with them. I haven't done it yet, cause...time. I was thinking of more subtle, whispy nature colors to mimic trees with flowers or something. But I LOVE Kaci Smith's very colorful, bold wishbones and little branches! Thank you so much for sharing that! 😀
It is so very good to know that other artists/makers have in-between times that are a little bit unsettling or unnerving or, to be less dramatic, simply weird. When previously begun projects which have currently, by some odd conjunction of fairy energy, all finished at the same time, it can feel a bit like being unmoored from the dock and therefore cast out into the unknown, or actually into territory where the pile of "must-do's" looms large (as your drawing so perfectly portrays!). You may be tempted to think Sarah, that a post of this kind may not be as enchanting to us as other posts which are full of creative project updates. But it is exactly this kind of peek into one's daily experience of in-betweenness that allows me to breathe a bit more easily and allow myself to just observe the terrain of In-Betweenland, noticing what is there, what isn't, how I'm reacting to it, and what things I tend to reach for when I'm there. Wishing you and Beryl all the best as you find delight in trimming tree limbs (oh do be careful!), in plumbing and waiting for plumbing supplies, in continuing to reach for gossamer plant fibers to spin/twist into cordage and in enjoying those beautiful soulful eyes looking up at you as you do so! 😍💖
Oh golly, thank you so much for your wondrous words -- and for expressing it all so beautifully. And sometimes we're coping not only with our own internal desire to be in it (not least those delicious regular dopamine hits that come from creation), but also cultural expectations of being "productive" in some way that is visible or even outwardly compelling. So glad we can all be together supporting one another in the truth and reality and, dare I way, importance of these times as hopefully they allow us both to rest and to expand.
Sarah, I don't always read the footnotes, but I'm so glad I did this time. The new book in the works looks like such a treat. I'm looking forward to its release, and congrats on writing the forward. Onward!
The first line of your post made me smile. In the rural Scottish Highlands, I’ve spent so many fruitless hours phoning urban call- centres this week about my poor internet connection, and began to wonder what life would look and feel like without it at home?. Then I realised that other folks experience similar, but also reminded myself how good it is to find your drawings and thoughts delivered on the ether.
I’m extremely slow- burn, and am only digesting some of your recent posts. I have no idea how you have the energy to do all that you do, but had a blast of your energy on screen recently with Nearly Wild Weaving. Your post about 99 words was such a gift! I had given myself the challenge of weaving some tablet woven bands to honour my grandmother who appears in vintage photos around 1907 as a herring girl, following the fishing fleets around the coast in the season, enjoying brief spells of independent sisterhood with gangs of young women away from family obligations. ‘The Herring it is the Fish for Me’ is a traditional folksong with many versions, but I liked the bizarre coupling of rhymes, and thought I would weave three ‘call and response’ lines. I had to design all the motifs around the letters, as well as weaving the lettering with spacing I was pleased with.
Well, guess what, having nearly finished the second band of the second couple, I’m stopping right there, because I need a new idea to flourish. And thank you, Jennifer Edwards, for saying all the other important things so eloquently. Thank you, Sarah
Oh my goodness Catherine -- Your Herring Girls project. I"m thrilled by every aspect -- the photos, the research, the figuring out the words using tablet woven bands (something that has long been on my "to learn" list -- and then the clear knowing that you were finished and that you needed "a new idea to flourish." OH, that's so perfectly put and absolutely delights me. Well all of it does. Words in textiles, the delight of research -- and the being done.
Hope your internet is now behaving itself. Because OH golly, do I appreciate having you here!
As Sagittarians, we naturally grow more curious about the unknown. Having found this to be entirely true all my life, it has explained SO much of my behavior - both good & productive, and not-so-good & productive. It launches me into new realms of creative exploration and completion. It also becomes a seriously distracting quality preventing me from finishing some of those said projects. Resonating deeply with this post today. 💚
Wondrous words Bonnie. And SO true. I'm also interested in the tug of rising and moon signs as well -- which are cardinal, which fixed and which mutable--and how to find a balance to start, stay with whatever we're doing and then actually finish. So helpful to know where one needs extra internal encouragement, eh?
I feel the in-betweenness these days, too. Putting away winter and joining Spring! My happy time...yay! Started some seedlings, planned garden layout, have seeds, need to add compost and plant soon. Lots of work! I shouldn't need to shimmy up a tree to trim it, though. 😬 Your bread looks delicious! I used to make 3 loaves every Sunday for our family of 7! I had to quit when too busy with my husband sick and on Chemo. I never resumed making it after he died. The boys want me to, and you have just nudged me to try harder to make time for bread! I love your phrase, " to find out where I'm going, I have to begin." I'm going to keep that in mind, and try to begin...to see where it takes me. Lastly, I am so bummed that I have to wait till October for that wonderful sounding book by Tommye McClure Scanlin to come out! I will definitely get that, and I'm excited to read your Forward! As always Sarah, thanks for the glimpse into your world, and for the enrichment and learning each Gusset edition brings! 😃
My Dan was the bread baker in our family for decades. He was going to give it up when he started his intense chemo treatment cuz he had so little energy and food all tasted awful. Then he got bored with sitting around and wanted something to occupy his mind so went back to it, even though he wouldn't/couldn't eat any of it, at least for the first 8 months. Two years later he gave his sourdough to our son (an amazing baker), because he just couldn't any more, and I wasn't in a place to begin. But I did end up with my own sourdough a few months after he died, and only recently have I felt ready to start delving into the whole delicious process. I love how little "time" it takes even as it takes all day -- cuz unlike weaving, those wonderful little beasties do most of the work for me!
I love that your Dan made the bread! I taught my Keith to make bread! That was when he was in Culinary school. After that, he did the cooking in this house. His last Thanksgiving, too weak to stand for long, he sat in a chair, and coached me through most of the food making, since he always made everything for a huge Thanksgiving and Christmas meal for extended family. Sadly, he spent his last Christmas a month later in the hospital, and had dialysis early that day. I am tearing up just thinking about it! Sarah, I think we'll never get over losing them, will we? We can push the thoughts away for a while, but they always come back. Special hugs for you! ❤️
Thank you for the cartoon with the world and all weighing on top of you and, like all good dogs, Beryl at your head telling you it'll be OK. So many times my dog ( half-a-dozen over the years) has done exactly that, then rested a snout against my neck...
Oh gosh-- so glad you liked/understood that cartoon. I hesitated before adding it--the truth of the moment isn't always what wants to share. And yet how is it not universal to be weighted down now and again? And also --how fortunate we are to be reminded by our dear canine side-kicks (and our internal selves), that we'll be OK. Thanks.
I adored this :) Your writing takes me on such journies Sarah. To get a glimpse into your creative practices and the joys in your life is so special. Thank you.
I love those little videos that allow me to enjoy a bit of your walk with Beryl! Enjoy that in between. Wait! Liminal... that's a word I believe I have read on The Gusset before. You're living the liminal. I'm sure that means magic is afoot!
Liminal--that is it exactly. And as you say, there is much magic to be found here. It just takes a little more careful observation sometimes, to sink into the pleasure of the ordinary, eh?
So many wonderful things here in your post Sarah!!! And the comments, too! I am a little late in sending my appreciation as the other part of being online ... my laptop is trying to give up the ghost. I have loved my little Toshiba dearly, but it is getting out of date to keep up with Microsoft changes. sigh ..... Life in the fast lane has never been my cup of tea, and now I need to face a change that I have been dreading. If only I could K2P2 something to cross this weak stretch! 😂 But enough of what somehow will get better. It has to, because I need to follow what you and Beryl are next up to! Love the pic of Beryl looking into your eyes! And the tale of the bread! What a beautiful slice!!! Will be finding out about grapefruit marmalade. Sounds grand! My dad swore by grapefruit to wake one's brain in times of dullness. Love all of the pics, and the drawings all lift my spirit!! Don't suppose you could send that hamadryad round to prune my fruit trees? 😄 Sending many thank yous for all of the delights that you share here. Cary and I think your posts go wonderfully with Beethoven's piano sonata N0. 24! 🙂 Who knew a cat could love classical music, so much? I would never have guessed.
Oh my, I so agree - to be able to do a little darning across the non-functional parts of our computers, or maybe duplicate stitch on the bits that are growing thin with wear and age. Wouldn't that just be heaven? There have to. be people who are working on that -- at least figuring out how to mend them in some fashion. Because it's hard not to grow attached, especially when they are portals by which we can connect with one another. Thanks for lovely bits of imaginal joy.
Sarah, thought you might like this post on Colossal:
https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/03/kaci-smith-weaving/
Love YOUR posts here most of all.
Sue
Oh, my goodness, Sue! Your link is an amazing coincidence! Last Fall, instead of ripping up my deck Basil and Sage, I instead saw beauty in the dried stems, and took care to preserve them and let them dry. I put them in small pottery next to my Lazyboy, so I could look at them and decide what to do with them. Right away, I thought of using the multiple vertical stems as warp, and weaving with them. I haven't done it yet, cause...time. I was thinking of more subtle, whispy nature colors to mimic trees with flowers or something. But I LOVE Kaci Smith's very colorful, bold wishbones and little branches! Thank you so much for sharing that! 😀
Sue, these are magnificent! What enticing and heartwarming work. Thank you -- for the link and for your lovely kind words.
Hamadryads of the world unite!
It is so very good to know that other artists/makers have in-between times that are a little bit unsettling or unnerving or, to be less dramatic, simply weird. When previously begun projects which have currently, by some odd conjunction of fairy energy, all finished at the same time, it can feel a bit like being unmoored from the dock and therefore cast out into the unknown, or actually into territory where the pile of "must-do's" looms large (as your drawing so perfectly portrays!). You may be tempted to think Sarah, that a post of this kind may not be as enchanting to us as other posts which are full of creative project updates. But it is exactly this kind of peek into one's daily experience of in-betweenness that allows me to breathe a bit more easily and allow myself to just observe the terrain of In-Betweenland, noticing what is there, what isn't, how I'm reacting to it, and what things I tend to reach for when I'm there. Wishing you and Beryl all the best as you find delight in trimming tree limbs (oh do be careful!), in plumbing and waiting for plumbing supplies, in continuing to reach for gossamer plant fibers to spin/twist into cordage and in enjoying those beautiful soulful eyes looking up at you as you do so! 😍💖
Oh golly, thank you so much for your wondrous words -- and for expressing it all so beautifully. And sometimes we're coping not only with our own internal desire to be in it (not least those delicious regular dopamine hits that come from creation), but also cultural expectations of being "productive" in some way that is visible or even outwardly compelling. So glad we can all be together supporting one another in the truth and reality and, dare I way, importance of these times as hopefully they allow us both to rest and to expand.
Love, love this post!
Sarah, I don't always read the footnotes, but I'm so glad I did this time. The new book in the works looks like such a treat. I'm looking forward to its release, and congrats on writing the forward. Onward!
You & Beryl have such beautiful wild places to go walking!
Lovely winter aconite … mine were blooming two weeks ago :o)
The first line of your post made me smile. In the rural Scottish Highlands, I’ve spent so many fruitless hours phoning urban call- centres this week about my poor internet connection, and began to wonder what life would look and feel like without it at home?. Then I realised that other folks experience similar, but also reminded myself how good it is to find your drawings and thoughts delivered on the ether.
I’m extremely slow- burn, and am only digesting some of your recent posts. I have no idea how you have the energy to do all that you do, but had a blast of your energy on screen recently with Nearly Wild Weaving. Your post about 99 words was such a gift! I had given myself the challenge of weaving some tablet woven bands to honour my grandmother who appears in vintage photos around 1907 as a herring girl, following the fishing fleets around the coast in the season, enjoying brief spells of independent sisterhood with gangs of young women away from family obligations. ‘The Herring it is the Fish for Me’ is a traditional folksong with many versions, but I liked the bizarre coupling of rhymes, and thought I would weave three ‘call and response’ lines. I had to design all the motifs around the letters, as well as weaving the lettering with spacing I was pleased with.
Well, guess what, having nearly finished the second band of the second couple, I’m stopping right there, because I need a new idea to flourish. And thank you, Jennifer Edwards, for saying all the other important things so eloquently. Thank you, Sarah
Oh my goodness Catherine -- Your Herring Girls project. I"m thrilled by every aspect -- the photos, the research, the figuring out the words using tablet woven bands (something that has long been on my "to learn" list -- and then the clear knowing that you were finished and that you needed "a new idea to flourish." OH, that's so perfectly put and absolutely delights me. Well all of it does. Words in textiles, the delight of research -- and the being done.
Hope your internet is now behaving itself. Because OH golly, do I appreciate having you here!
As Sagittarians, we naturally grow more curious about the unknown. Having found this to be entirely true all my life, it has explained SO much of my behavior - both good & productive, and not-so-good & productive. It launches me into new realms of creative exploration and completion. It also becomes a seriously distracting quality preventing me from finishing some of those said projects. Resonating deeply with this post today. 💚
Aquarians, or at least this Aquarian, is the same way. :-)
Fellow Aquarian says YEP!
Wondrous words Bonnie. And SO true. I'm also interested in the tug of rising and moon signs as well -- which are cardinal, which fixed and which mutable--and how to find a balance to start, stay with whatever we're doing and then actually finish. So helpful to know where one needs extra internal encouragement, eh?
Just keep writing…makes my week just reading about your thoughts and what you’re up to
Thanks Virgina! So appreciate you saying this.
I feel the in-betweenness these days, too. Putting away winter and joining Spring! My happy time...yay! Started some seedlings, planned garden layout, have seeds, need to add compost and plant soon. Lots of work! I shouldn't need to shimmy up a tree to trim it, though. 😬 Your bread looks delicious! I used to make 3 loaves every Sunday for our family of 7! I had to quit when too busy with my husband sick and on Chemo. I never resumed making it after he died. The boys want me to, and you have just nudged me to try harder to make time for bread! I love your phrase, " to find out where I'm going, I have to begin." I'm going to keep that in mind, and try to begin...to see where it takes me. Lastly, I am so bummed that I have to wait till October for that wonderful sounding book by Tommye McClure Scanlin to come out! I will definitely get that, and I'm excited to read your Forward! As always Sarah, thanks for the glimpse into your world, and for the enrichment and learning each Gusset edition brings! 😃
My Dan was the bread baker in our family for decades. He was going to give it up when he started his intense chemo treatment cuz he had so little energy and food all tasted awful. Then he got bored with sitting around and wanted something to occupy his mind so went back to it, even though he wouldn't/couldn't eat any of it, at least for the first 8 months. Two years later he gave his sourdough to our son (an amazing baker), because he just couldn't any more, and I wasn't in a place to begin. But I did end up with my own sourdough a few months after he died, and only recently have I felt ready to start delving into the whole delicious process. I love how little "time" it takes even as it takes all day -- cuz unlike weaving, those wonderful little beasties do most of the work for me!
I love that your Dan made the bread! I taught my Keith to make bread! That was when he was in Culinary school. After that, he did the cooking in this house. His last Thanksgiving, too weak to stand for long, he sat in a chair, and coached me through most of the food making, since he always made everything for a huge Thanksgiving and Christmas meal for extended family. Sadly, he spent his last Christmas a month later in the hospital, and had dialysis early that day. I am tearing up just thinking about it! Sarah, I think we'll never get over losing them, will we? We can push the thoughts away for a while, but they always come back. Special hugs for you! ❤️
And to you. ❤️🥲
Well, I learned what a hamadryad is and also that there is such a thing as grape fruit marmalade! Love the wind on your walk.
Thank you for the cartoon with the world and all weighing on top of you and, like all good dogs, Beryl at your head telling you it'll be OK. So many times my dog ( half-a-dozen over the years) has done exactly that, then rested a snout against my neck...
Oh gosh-- so glad you liked/understood that cartoon. I hesitated before adding it--the truth of the moment isn't always what wants to share. And yet how is it not universal to be weighted down now and again? And also --how fortunate we are to be reminded by our dear canine side-kicks (and our internal selves), that we'll be OK. Thanks.
I adored this :) Your writing takes me on such journies Sarah. To get a glimpse into your creative practices and the joys in your life is so special. Thank you.
I'm so happy to hear this Jodie. Thank you!
who took a photo of that hamadryad? 😉 and Beryl is indeed patient! ❤️
Teehee! Who indeed???
I love those little videos that allow me to enjoy a bit of your walk with Beryl! Enjoy that in between. Wait! Liminal... that's a word I believe I have read on The Gusset before. You're living the liminal. I'm sure that means magic is afoot!
Liminal--that is it exactly. And as you say, there is much magic to be found here. It just takes a little more careful observation sometimes, to sink into the pleasure of the ordinary, eh?
Living the liminal - what an absolutely wonderful phrase! Full of possibilities, anticipation, excitement...
So many wonderful things here in your post Sarah!!! And the comments, too! I am a little late in sending my appreciation as the other part of being online ... my laptop is trying to give up the ghost. I have loved my little Toshiba dearly, but it is getting out of date to keep up with Microsoft changes. sigh ..... Life in the fast lane has never been my cup of tea, and now I need to face a change that I have been dreading. If only I could K2P2 something to cross this weak stretch! 😂 But enough of what somehow will get better. It has to, because I need to follow what you and Beryl are next up to! Love the pic of Beryl looking into your eyes! And the tale of the bread! What a beautiful slice!!! Will be finding out about grapefruit marmalade. Sounds grand! My dad swore by grapefruit to wake one's brain in times of dullness. Love all of the pics, and the drawings all lift my spirit!! Don't suppose you could send that hamadryad round to prune my fruit trees? 😄 Sending many thank yous for all of the delights that you share here. Cary and I think your posts go wonderfully with Beethoven's piano sonata N0. 24! 🙂 Who knew a cat could love classical music, so much? I would never have guessed.
Oh my, I so agree - to be able to do a little darning across the non-functional parts of our computers, or maybe duplicate stitch on the bits that are growing thin with wear and age. Wouldn't that just be heaven? There have to. be people who are working on that -- at least figuring out how to mend them in some fashion. Because it's hard not to grow attached, especially when they are portals by which we can connect with one another. Thanks for lovely bits of imaginal joy.