Saori weaving

All flowers are beautiful,

even though each individual flower is different in form and color.

Because of this difference, “all are good”.

Because everything has the same life, 

life cannot be measured by a yardstick.

It is this individuality that makes everything meaningful 

and the uniqueness of each thread

that creates the tapestry of life.

Misao Jo

(from Loop of the Loom website)

I've been busy, busy, busy.  I just got back from a week in Europe, and on my first day home took my mother into New York for a birthday surprise.  She loves weaving, so her gift was an all-day pass at Loop of the Loom, an amazing fiber studio on the upper east side that follows the Japanese tradition of saori weaving.  Saori is a free-style form of weaving that embodies the concept of "wabi sabi," or the beauty that exists in imperfection and simplicity.  

Once you learn the basic techniques, you can really just play with color:

The program we followed was called a "zen weaving" session, and I can see why:  we lost all sense of time, and became completely absorbed in the quiet sounds of the loom as we worked it, and the patterns developing before us almost without any thought.

It's funny -- I love color and use it intuitively in my quilting and mixed media work, but not as much in clothing.  I went in with the idea of making a scarf, and my final piece reflected that:

My mother, on the other hand, is not hesitant to wear bright colors, and so she made this:

I think next time I go to Loop of the Loom, I will go without any preconceived notions of what I'm going to make, so I can truly just play with colors.  I do that so easily with my quilts -- I wonder why weaving felt like it had to be "practical?" 

In any case, we had a wonderful day, and I can't wait to return!