Thursday 5 July 2012

Linen Weave For An Angel

Yuko  and Kinchan live in the adjoining village.  She was living in Milan for many years working as a graphic designer. Kinchan was apprenticing and then making Italian furniture. Two Japanese meet in Milano fall in love and come back to Japan together and get married. Smile.


They are another blessing in my life. Like me they are super busy and we are always getting together for a few hours at the most. Kinchan has a wonderful wood furniture design studio near by. I was lucky enough to find them an old empty farmhouse close to mine and they will open a gallery studio there this autumn. Tohei lived in that old monstrosity of a farmhouse many years ago for twenty years before he built his own house on the other side of town. What is that precious fragile feeling when life goes on and connected things and people you love  intertwine and grow and morph? The ancient Greeks must have had a word for it.

I had a monster loom from Bangladesh in my house. It broke the floorboards it was so heavy. Safia  brought it in from Bangladesh for Earth Day (or was it Fair Trade Day?) years ago. Along with the Bangladeshi weaver. There was no place to put it and it ended up at my house.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM9ta-J4RgQ I found a house for Safia and James close to Yuko's house come to think of it! Good old days.

The loom was just too much. I warped it with some Internet bought linen I dyed a impossible light blue in a whipped indigo bucket.  What a hassle. The linen was weak and fuzzed and broke and frayed and stretched. The loom itself is a temperamental wretch. The Bangladeshi had it tamed and running like clockwork. I am from a different planet. The God particle that keeps all my electrons and protons separated must be different from his. It was beyond me to get that contraption to groove. I would like to find him somewhere in a gorgeous village on the plains of Bangladesh and become his eternal weaving apprentice. Perhaps then I'll escape the curse the cycle of rebirth! I swear enlightenment would only be  shuttle throw away if you could make a loom like that sing.

I gave up and gave it to Yuko with the barely woven warp as it was. Good riddance.. My floorboards sighed in relief when it left. Two years ago?

She came over today to help me with some graphic design work with a drop-dead gorgeous  linen scarf around her neck. Hey....I recognize that warp!

Only a Scorpio could pull this off. This is only the second thing she has ever woven in her life! The clouds opened up and angelic voices could be heard above the green forest frog fray!

10 comments:

  1. what an inspirational and lovely story! i always enjoy dropping by your blog...though i usually leave with a wistful feeling and a yearning in my heart...

    i think i was born in the wrong place and never figured out how to get to where i ought to be!

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  2. What a treat. The connections in your life seem to multiply and the results are as you say angelic. The scarf is truly amazing

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  3. Bryan - you all seem to live in an enchanted world, a world made possible by your willingness to learn and discover and share. Thank you for opening up your life and thoughts and so generously sharing them.
    Joy

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    1. Thank you for the kind comment. Besides a little time at the keyboard, experiences are free and easy to share. Bob Dylan said, "He not busy born is busy dying." Those words stuck with me the first time I heard them when I was about 12 years old. I figure it is not a bad idea to on the former path!

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  4. onesmallstitch6 July 2012 at 14:32

    monster looms, God particles and angelic voices! think the rainy season has gotten to you. the scarf looks lovely, linen always seems,to me,to be alive. such an ancient, universal fibre - and tempermental,gotta love it.

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  5. you are building good karma and as a side creating community.drop dead gorgeous scarf indeed.

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    1. Neki san, I have to compensate for all the quarrels I pick just for the sake of fun!

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  6. similarly, a spinning student once used up the nubs and second cuts from her precious little stash of wool (that i'd thrown out) and knit a sweater that was gorgeous.

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  7. I am probably in the wrong place now but doing my best to convince myself it is the right place. It feels like home so I will stick around.

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