It's been a busy month....the election (enough has been written on that!), I gave a presentation on my work to the Borrego Springs Art Guild which was fun and well received,  I started weekly piano lessons with a new teacher - Diane - who is infectiously energetic and enthusiastic about music, I finished the third of three throws which I wove for friends, and I've started three botanical weavings, one or two of which I plan to submit to the Ramona library/art guild jury for display in the library's January show.  And Thanksgiving, which we spent with dear friends in Encinitas, was wedged in there too. This throw I took to my dear friend Denice, who lives in Ft. Collins, Colorado.  It's a cotton and wool blend.

This

throw I wove for our friends Geoff and Muriel, who visit every year from Alberta Provence, in Canada.  It's a wool and cotton blend, and it's somewhere between Ramona and Gibbons, wending its way through the Canada postal system, which Muriel assures me can take a while (it's been just over four weeks at this writing!). I hope it arrives safely in their home, and soon!  The  temperature in Gibbons has just slipped into the single digits, and this blanket is woven with the softest, plushest Churro yarns from northern New Mexico.  

My chicks are starting to leave the nest!
"Buckwheat Wabi-Sabi" (see post dated 9/4/16) will be relocating to Seattle later this month.
Three (one of which will be moving to Santa  Fe after the first of the year) are spending the next couple of weeks at the Borrego Art Institute, part of "The Art of Flora and Fauna" exhibit, which runs

through November 13.  Check it out, and while you're there, stop in for a bite at Kesling's Kitchen.  Open from 11 - 7 daily.
"Dreaming of the Chaparral" was just off the loom when I took it to Borrego for the show.
I've included a photo of it for your enjoyment.
And in case you would like to offer this -- or any of my other weavings -- a home, you can reach me at kccweaves@gmail.com

"The man pulling radishes
  Pointed the way
  With a radish."  ISSA

The quote above is from a poetry anthology by Steven Mitchell entitled "The Enlightened Heart".

The weaver points the way with a weaving.....
When I see something that moves me, the first thought I have is either "I want to weave that!" or "how could I weave that?"

Several years ago I was on a meditation retreat at a women's community in upstate New York. Each resident had a map of the world in her room, and each had the responsibility to focus her thoughts and feelings on a particular area of the world, as well as the world as a whole.

When i saw this map in the room of a friend who lived there, my first thought was "I want to weave that!"  So I did.  That was the beginning of my foray into map weaving. As I weave each map, I dwell on the highest and best for that region of the world I am weaving.

Here's a glimpse of those maps I've woven....

Getting back to the idea of the twists and turns our artistic path holds,  here's a more recent piece that, in the aftermath of "subtle" I just let loose and wove!  It's big: 32" long by 44" wide.  Boy, did I have fun!  Enjoy!

Our Twins, Part Two

As promised.....the second twin.... This I wove a couple of years ago, if that.  I had just started participating in a monthly gathering of fiber aficionados in Santa Ysabel.  Beryl Warnes, of Julian Weaving Works fame, was our host.
Most people were weaving or spinning yarn or knitting.  I brought Cleveland sage branches and a spool of golden thread to wrap around the branches.  Needless to say, everyone was curious.
Why are you doing that?  What's that going to be?  I honestly had no answer for them, other than that I like to weave botanical weavings, and recounted my history of weaving plants.
But "why are you wrapping the branches with the thread?" they insisted.  And I explained: "I just have this idea that it's a good thing."
My environment, our environment, is precious to me.  That is why I weave what I weave, besides it being interesting and fun -- to enliven the preciousness of the teeming life that abounds all around us. As my friend Valerie noted: it's a matter of reverence.
So here's the twin, with a bit more flamboyance than her fraternal predecessor, as you will no doubt notice.  I've include a close-up so you can enjoy the details more easily.

Our Twins

It's interesting to notice the twists and turns creativity takes as we journey through our artistic endeavors.
A few years ago I wove a piece that was very fine in detail.  You really have to get quite close to appreciate the subtleties. It is narrow (12 inches at its widest point) and long (51 inches including hanger cord and fringe). It has a simple weave structure, called tabby or plain weave, and I wove it using shades of brown and burgundy and mauve yarns, Cleveland sage branches, and a metallic thread of silver green and red. A few metallic beads at top and bottom also adorn the piece.  Here's a photo.  Stay tuned.....tomorrow I will post its twin.

Writers often use weaving metaphors in their work.  Here's one I recently read and wanted to share with you, from "How The Universe Got Its Spots" by Janna Levin:
"The fabric of the universe is just a coherent weave from the same threads that make our bodies."

My botanical weavings are also metaphors. They are my way of illustrating our interconnectedness with our environment.  This one is called "New Mexico Wanderings". I wove it this past Spring using grasses and other plants that I gathered during an especially meaningful visit to that Land of Enchantment.  I hope you like it!

I'm weaving a magic shawl.  It's the second piece on this warp of silk and cotton and rayon in grey and cream and maroon.  I chose these yarns because they complement the fronds of tall buckwheat which I gathered a year or two ago. My friend Valerie, who's a botanist,  calls it "wand buckwheat", which is why I'm weaving a magic shawl, after weaving four feet of magic wand buckwheat on this warp.
I'm not sure for whom I am weaving this shawl...maybe me, maybe you!
Here's a photo of me weaving the magic shawl, and another photo of the buckwheat botanical weaving, which has a story of its own that I will perhaps share with you another time.  Cheers!

weaving the magic shawl.

Just off a loom:  my newest botanical weaving is a little chaparral gem!
Woven with seed pods and grasses and branches, twigs and sprigs which I gathered from along the roadside where we walk every morning and evening.
Enjoy!

botanical weavings

Nature-lover-weaver...that's me!  Two of my favorites things: roaming through the thick chaparral on the hillside where I live, and weaving.
I started weaving nearly two decades ago.  I wove blankets and shawls and scarves and table runners.  One day, a few years ago, I was out walking on the mesa near my home, feeling uninspired, and I began to notice the sages and deer grass and sumacs and buckwheat, their colors and textures and scents(!), and I exclaimed "I want to weave YOU"!
I headed for my studio, collecting deer grass and white sage fronds and bee's bliss sage branches, and botanical weaving was born!
On the left is a photo of that first piece.
I have lots more I want to share with you....