Tapestry of my Life
The Teacher once made me a loom. It got lost somewhere in between all the packing, storing, moving home. Because I’ve had this fascination with woven articles for a very long time. Natural materials – linen, cotton, wool, sisal. Fibres all colour woven over and under, back and forth, row after row forming a mat. Some kind of a story.
Then I saw the ‘night sky’, woven pieces forming the background to the stable in the Christmas decoration at church. I had to stop. Feel it. And I knew who made it, my friend whose trade is weaving. We had a coffee together and I was super excited…
So one Saturday afternoon a few of us gathered around the dining table. (We’ve been sharing the ups and downs of our lives for the past year already.)
My friend Arja from Finland, with lids of shoe boxes under one arm, ‘moved in’ with bags of yarn, string, wool, pieces of wood, feathers, strips of denim, leather, raffia and I added some old buttons from my red tin. Because said Arja, one can weave with almost anything! The assignment was to bring along fabric with special significance to your life as it is now, has been or even a challenge you are facing, working through: a yellow T-shirt, velvety black trousers, scraps of material from curtains, green from a warm shawl…
Arja displayed her masterpiece – long panels gently moving in the air, like walking through a forest of life with holes and knots in the super finely woven panels made from silk… And she talked about life, her life – the super fine and the knotty, holy bits and the therapy of weaving, under and over and under and over in the rhythm of life.
She explained some basics – for the warp, think of texture and colour that speaks of the strong underlying, keeping everything together. And the weft? Anything. Whatever life throws at you.
Therapy started… There was music. Tearing. Tying. Choosing. Frustration because the fibre did not want to slip under and stay… Giggling, silence, concentration. On the floor and on the table. Coffee and something to nibble. And Arja says calmly, “Don’t worry, life is not neat and tidy. It doesn’t always go the way we expect or desire.” A very thin copper thread throughout – God was always there! Colourful feathers – children. Pearly buttons for discovering the precious pearl. Soft green fabric still warms the legs as it did then…
Finally our creations revealed the stories. The truth – our worn, fragile entwined with the yesterdays, the celebrations, the struggles all over and under into the now and the dream – unique life stories still to be continued.
But,
His masterpieces! Beautiful!
