Greetings!
At the insistence (dare I write "persistence"?) of my friend Nina, I am posting close-ups of yesterday's image of "Manzanita Reverie".
With these you may better appreciate the subtlety of the weave structure, not to mention colors, plant textures, ....ENJOY!

From the OED:
REVERIE:  1) joy, delight, wildness, wantonness; 2) fantastic, fanciful; 3) a daydream.
Yes!  That perfectly captures the essence of this happy piece, which I have entitled "Manzanita Reverie". Those bits of plant that you see wantonly arranged in the body of the weaving pictured here (more clearly if you enlarge the image) are manzanita catkins.
I collected them late last fall. They were all over the great rounded manzanita plants which practically cover our hillside, and they simply called out to me to include them in a weaving.
Of course, manzanitas are not the only native California plants we have here; hence I've woven in sages and everlastings and asters and grasses and poppy pods at the top of the piece, and then inserted a row of sweetly fragrant salvia clevelandia leaves along with that vibrant red stripe just below center line.
I have my friends Jill and Beryl to thank for the rough-spun natural flax yarn I used as a major component of the weft, and I have my friend Carolyn to thank for the coral bead embellishment on the fringe.  Overall measurement: 24"x24".
May this reverie of mine bring you much joy!

Friends are such a blessing in life!
My friend Nina shared a quote with me from a passage she read in "Art and the Artist".  Here's an excerpt:  "...a piece of art is just a piece of the heart of the artist.... The expression of a piece of art is the expression of the life of the artist."
So it is with me.  Every time I gather plants for weaving I feel as though I'm gathering a part of my heart, a part of myself, to weave into something beautiful and endearing and enduring.
I currently have two works in process, one of which is close to completion, and I'll share a photo of it on my next post after it is finished and ready to hang.
For now, take a peek at my other work in progress, "Chaparral Sunrise".

Greetings! It's a new year and a new weaving!  This one's called "Wildflower Whimsy".
When I was gathering materials, I also gathered the qualities of wildflowers that came to my mind: freshness, fullness, innocence, wildness, harmlessness, simplicity, artlessness, gentleness, naturalness.  This botanical weaving is an expression of all of these, with innocence and simplicity perhaps more readily evident.
The fine gauge pale yellow warp yarn, and the open tabby/plain weave structure,  present simplicity and innocence.  The mixture of colors and textures of the additional yarns, as well as the flowers themselves, evoke the range of qualities I called upon.
And as I wove from top to bottom, I cut away an inch or so of the warp, symbolic of the bit-by-bit loss of natural habitat for these adorable and yet vulnerable treasures.
Next week: "Chaparral Sunrise". Meanwhile, be well and happy in pursuit of your passion!

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....