OGT DAILY - Day Eighty One WEAVING

The Norns or Three Fates Weaving 

I went to this wonderful weaving demonstration on Mayan back-strap and Traditional Laotion loom weaving at Columbia University today.

The actual conference is Fr- 4/7-Sat 4/8 and promises to blend weaving artists with medical doctors, historians and computer scientists to look at weaving as a cognitive skill that dates to prehistory and represents the binary system, which is an antecedent to computer technology.   It is entirely free and open to the public.

Fascinating.  Hope some of you can make it.

http://scienceandsociety.columbia.edu/cssevent/weaving-cognition/

Mayan Back Strap Loom

Laotion Jacquard Loom

Jacquard detail 

Ikat - a tie-dye wool weaving method

Carol Cassidy, founder of Lao Textiles brought some of her collaborators to demonstrate their master skills from traditional jacquard to the incredible dye weaving technique call Ikat.  She is a textile expert with the United Nations Development Program and has lived in Laos for many years.  Her colleagues were Ikat Master Mrs. Simone Phankeo and Master Weaver Mrs. Boukham Phengmixay.  Carla Childs learned to weave on the back strap loom in Chaipas, Mexico as an anthropology student recording the process of young girls learning the tradition from their mothers.  All shared their expertise with us today.

Weaving as a metaphor is an absolute passion of mine, no doubt related to the notion of layerists.  See previous blog post about life being in layers.   Well I see life as being a weave of threads.  That's a very old metaphor.  The three fates spoke of the loom and the process of weaving representing the life of a person and the weaving of their fate.   Mayan myths speak of the act of weaving as the act of creating one's life - the top of the loom being the sky and the bottom the earth and what is woven between is up to us. The Norse fates or Norns - Uror (Crone - what was) - Verandi (Matron - what is becoming) - Skuld (Maiden - what will be)  - all have names that mean to become in Scandinavian tongue.    While I am not so interested in traditional weaving methods myself - I am interested in the rhythmic embodied act of weaving, which mimics body rhythms and can help a person who is anxious or traumatized learn to relax.  I am also interested in the idea of narrative threads and the weaving of stories and how this can be enacted the craft of weaving.   Needless to say I was thrilled to be invited to the conference where I met many like minded individuals from all disciplines and walks of life.

More to come....