Summer’s End, and Possibilities

I love this time of year....the temperature can occasionally soar to 100+degrees, but mostly it’s what I consider welcomely warm in the mornings, pleasantly summerly during the day, soothingly cool in the evenings, deliciously cool at night.
And the colors of the chaparral have shifted from predominant greens with subtle splashes of color to muted greens among the overall rusty browns with creamy accents.  And the scents, especially the laurel leaf sumacs, are so very rich!
I’ve woven two new botanical weavings in the last couple of weeks, inspired by these colors and scents.  One is the second in my “Patterns” series, entitled “Summer’s End”. The other came to me as I found myself reflecting on the myriad of choices we make in our lifetimes, both those of daily life as we move in familiar routines, as well as those that arise at pivotal junctures in our life.  Each choice is like a seed we plant, which may or may not ever sprout, or which may come to fruition as we envisioned (rarely) or as we could scarcely ever imagine possible.  “Possibilities” is about the plants’ seeds, which hold possibilities for Earth’s future.
Hanging in 2Create Gallery montage — Summer’s End: 22”x37” $330

“Possibilities” 22”x26” $230

How I spent my summer vacation

Weaving and traveling!  That’s how!
Santa Fe, Mendocino, France, Canada....and in between weaving, weaving, weaving!
Two more itty-bitty botanical weavings, a table runner for the newlyweds Justin and Kellie, four baby-girl blankets for friends’ grand-daughters, and a large botanical weaving which I just finished this morning and hung at 2Create Gallery in Ramona.  Photos in the following order:
“Flowers, Sprigs, and Twigs”/“Lavender Prayers”/ baby blankets/“Patterns I:Surrender”
Please contact me for details:  kccweaves@gmail.com THANKS!

Monkey Business

I am posting this photo just for the fun of it!
We were recently in India for seven weeks — from mid-January to early March.
Without exaggeration, every moment there was memorable.  We saw many monkeys, of which this one photo is just a peek into the way in which these rascally creatures weave their way into the everyday life of India..
“Monkey Business” isn’t about this kind of monkey though. It’s about a California native flower affectionately known as monkey flower.  It’s one of the first to bloom each Spring. It’s colors range from soft creamy peaches to vivid reds. We have many now blooming on our hillside.  Here’s what they look like:

And here’s a photo showing me working on it, and what my “Monkey Business” looks like:

A Few of My Favorite Things

Greetings friends! It’s been almost five weeks since our return from India — still not quite the length of time we were away.  And even now, not a day passes without some thought or feeling or sense of being in that incredible country overtaking my awareness, and I pause to cherish the gift of remembrance.
Since we’ve been home I have once again taken up my usual pursuits: piano, weaving, flute, long walks.  Spring is upon us...the air is a sweet welcoming caress...beckoning me outside to wander among the burgeoning chaparral. New growth everywhere I look, and wildflowers sprouting among the shrubs.
I started weaving the day after we returned, and just completed “A Few of My Favorite Things” a few days ago, in time to hang it at 2Create before their monthly “First Friday” social event.
It is a celebration of being home again: Spring wildflowers, Cleveland sage, muntz sage, grasses that I gathered years ago and have been keeping for a special weaving, beads from my favorite bead shop in San Luis Obispo, yarns from Colleen’s yarn shop in Ramona.       21”x15.5”      $280

Twilight

TWILIGHT....the in-between time....the last sigh of the day....the quiet, soft time of gathering the threads of the day....the shadows and purple of dusk....the settling in for the night.....
I wove this piece in the twilight of 2017, using long fronds of wand buckwheat that generally grow at higher elevations, but happen to like growing on our hillside as well.
I had started reading poetry again in the morning, and came across a lovely piece from Stephen Mitchell’s anthology entitled “The Enlightened Heart”. Here’s an excerpt from a poem by Lao-Tzu that went straight to my heart:

I have just three things to teach:
Simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and in thoughts,
You return to the source of being.
Patient with both friends and enemies,
You accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself,
You reconcile all beings in the world.

This message went into my weaving of “Twilight”.
The beads are made in Ghana from recycled glass.  “17x28”. $210.  
50% of all my sales are donated to the California Chaparral Institute.
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And here are some photos for your delight:

Day and Night and Artemisia

Greetings during these remaining days of 2017!
Now we are experiencing the subtle shift which the equinox brings to us, from dark to light.
When I was designing this work, however, we were in the waning days of late autumn, as night overtakes day.
Listening to the quiet voices of the chaparral, I heard echoes of my own voice amidst the call of the artemisia (aka California sagebrush).
I gathered the last of the blooms, now mostly seed pods, and wove them into yarns of wool and cotton, using a tapestry technique know as “clasping”: two shuttles, one entering each side of the shed and wrapping around each other within the shed, in this instance forming a line of dark and light.  The mix of blue yarns in the warp represent rain — as my friend Tim so aptly pointed out when he saw the piece.
It’s on display at 2Create Gallery, at the east end of Main Street in Ramona.  17” x 24”   $332

on the east end of Main Street, in my home town of Ramona.          17” x24”          $332

More on Sacred Waters

When someone asked me for more information about “Sacred Waters”  I realized I had neglected to write my characteristic story of the genesis of the weaving, as well as technical details, so here ‘tis:

I was inspired to weave this piece while on a hike we took last Spring at the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument in northern New Mexico. It is a celebration of the profound role that water plays in the life of planet Earth.
The change of vegetation as we hiked down into the 800-foot deep gorge and then along the coursing waters of the Rio Grande and up again to the plain reawakened in me a recongnition of the role of water in our environment, as well as the role we play in honoring and preserving places such as Rio Grande del Norte.
I used tamarisk twigs and foothill buckwheat and junko grasses, along with yarns and beads and a smattering of metallic threads to evoke the sparkling quality of the rushing waters of the great river.
27”x31”.  $490.  Please share my blog with a friend.  Thank you!
 Best wishes and many blessings to all...kcc..........have a peaceful day............kccweaves@gmail.com