Weaving is medicine to me. I sell the things I weave, but I weave for the joy of it, not for the money. Weaving is good for me, and I weave in a way that keeps it so. I often meditate as I weave and I do not work to a deadline. This means I never need to rush and I can take the time to get everything just so. It is very satisfying to complete a piece with such care!
I was a fine art photographer for many years. The aesthetic sense I developed over the decades now finds its expression in my weaving designs. Making beautiful things brings me joy! Sometimes a design comes to me very quickly. Sometimes I ponder it for months. I’m not in a hurry.
There is something primal about handwoven cloth. We are wrapped in cloth when we are born, and we wear it all our lives and beyond. We cannot survive without it. Cloth is integral to human existence.
Archaeologists have found fragments of cloth estimated to be 8000 years old, and impressions of woven cloth on clay artifacts found in the Czech Republic have been dated to 27,000 years ago. Before the iron age, before the bronze age, and before the copper age we knew how to spin fibers into yarn and weave yarn into cloth. Weavers are truly keepers of ancient knowledge!
A fragment of fine, 3-ply yarn was found at a neanderthal site in Abri du Maras, France, which is at least 41,000 years old. Imagine that!
Weaving connects me to this ancient tradition. That matters to me for reasons I don’t really understand.
Woven by Frank 