Incubation

Each year at this time, I reflect on the past year and feel into what I want for the next one. I wonder about what is growing in the darkness that I cannot yet see and notice what I am pulled toward or pushing away from.

Last year I largely delved into handstitch. Here's a yarn and thread tree I was stitching into felt just before Christmas - I would like to explore further with felt:

Other then for some piecing, my machine has sat idle. So it was good to make a journal gift and realize how rusty I've gotten since not regularly using free motion stitch.

I will soon be using my machine alot, at the Mark Making course I will be starting next week. But I will also be handstitching in the Contemporary Woven Boro class in mid January - so it is going to be a very busy learning time ahead! And I have other areas of focus I'd love to explore, too - so I will continue to sit with the possibilities over the last days of 2010.

Tuning In

Reflection time is important to me. The sun this morning looked like a keyhole.

I wonder what wisdom might come to light?

Winter Moon

We had our first dusting of snow this morning and that fit the mood of the hand stitched piece I have been creating, which is centered around a winter moon. Both of the photos show a part of the whole. For me, this time of the year holds both a slowing down to reflect and a rising culmination of celebration. I've been thinking about how I like to work by following my intuition and it occurred to me that this is why I generally start playing with the materials without pre-planning or making sketches. If I wanted to replicate or capture the essence of let's say a pinecone - then I might explore photos of them, examine actual cones or draw one. But what I'm after is what I don't yet know - I want to be surprised by what emerges, not have a plan. This takes alot of trust and being with the pleasure of the process, rather then being invested in an outcome. Also at this time of the year, I begin to think about what I might like to focus on for the year ahead - a rough plan that is not meant to limit my creating, but to deepen with it and keep it alive. So there's a kind of tension between staying with what wants to emerge and also having a larger vision. I notice how many aspects of fibre art interest me - dyeing, felting, piecing, handstitch, etc. - and I think switching between them is enlivening. I also think of how, if I limited myself, I might explore deeper aspects of one or a few techniques, which may offer greater growth. I don't have answers for now and that's okay, because I trust they will arrive - like the dormant seeds waiting in the dark underground that will one day greet the sun .