Well Used, Well Loved: September 2017

THE BACK STORY

THE BACK STORY: In January 2016 I launched "Well Used, Well Loved" (WUWL)a long term community art project that explores age, beauty, impermanence and attachment through a hand woven dish towel and reflective writing/drawing. Eight households from England to Oregon "adopted" a hand woven linen towel to use however they wish. Every other week I sent a prompt for reflection to be recorded in a small journal that I provided. The response to my initial call to participate in WUWL was overwhelming. Over 50 households expressed interest in taking part in the project and I only had 8 towels.

So I created a secondary project that dovetailed with the first one. This second group of ultimately 38 households (Maine to Arizona) wrote and drew on kozo paper (a special Japanese paper) to record their response to my prompts. Thru a hands-on workshop at my studio I taught local folks from this group how to spin their kozo paper into thread using a Japanese technique called Shifu. I created a video tutorial for those who wanted to learn to spin their paper from afar.

Prompts to both groups were the same. For example Prompt #6 was: "The materials for this project are hand woven linen and Kozo paper. Both are created from plant fibers, known for their absorption qualities. Absorption can also been seen as dissolving boundaries. In that light what parallels or connection do you observe between your own ability to absorb, to soak up, to empathize? What connections do you perceive between your linen/paper and the action of union, of dissolving boundaries, connection? What value do these actions have today.

In September 2017 I began to collect the 8 towels, the kozo papers and the journals to wrap up the project. The journals, the used/loved towels and the completed four panel piece woven from the community threads combine to create an installation that honors and reflect the spirit of this project.

Friday, September 8, 2017

Off the loom!

The end of the warp!

The two center panels for the "Well Used, Well Loved" piece are off the loom. I have tentatively titled this piece "With these hands."

The next few steps include sewing the edges, fringing the bottom and finally adding the embroidered and couched hands. I've sketched out a new design.

I wil be an artist in residence at Hewnoaks in Lovell, ME from September 16 - 22. While there I hope to get a great deal accomplished on these panels. The big effort of getting these panels dyed and woven has been done.

I am super excited to see the images finally take shape! I'll be sure to post with progress reports.

Sketched layout for "With these Hands"