Memories

 The Dance 

Watch the feet as they step and slide in perfect time, they find their place and never miss a beat 

Watch the hands sure and deft, no wasted motion as they sweep on their appointed path 

Watch the eyes watching: they observe the placement of the hands, the threads, the tools. 

They watch and help to dance the dance 

And when the music ends the dance is done, the cloth is cut the loom left bare then, yes, then the dance lives on a static record left to prove the dance begun 

This solitary dance goes on unseen, a private act seen only from within. 

And if one other sees within the cloth one half the joy felt in the dance, then I have danced for them as well. 

Laura Fry, 1983

This was a poem I wrote for my first (and only) solo exhibit at the local art gallery.

Tasked with writing an artist's statement, I got stuck and could not think what to write.  Then one day, while I was weaving (and everything was going smoothly), these words came to me.

Even though it was not time to stop, I stopped anyway, because I knew I needed to write those words down before they floated away on the river of time.

I used this poem as the dedication for A Thread Runs Through It.  

Today I spent several hours going through boxes of books from a dead weaver's estate.  Although she was older than me, we were in the same weaving class in 1975, so I felt like she was a contemporary.  As she aged, her body began to fail her and eventually she had to stop weaving, but could not let go of her books, looms, yarns.  So, when she died a few years ago, her spouse and children began to give, sell, get rid of things.

The local guild benefitted receiving some of her things - yarn, mostly.  Eventually her spouse also died, and now the children are needing to get rid of the rest.  Hence the boxes of books and some small tools that arrived at the guild room last week.

Since the guild was founded just as we were beginning our weaving journey, the guild already has many of the books in her carefully kept library, so we are selling the duplicates or the ones that are very specific that we don't think the guild members will be interested in.  Some of her books date to her home economics education, and I'm hoping to find someone who really wants one particular one, because a quick search online indicates that it is still prized amongst seamstresses/tailors.  There are a few other 'precious' books that I hope people will be interested in having - a signed Peter Collingwood Rug Weaving, Allen Fannin's Handloom Weaving Technology (2 copies, like new).  No Common Thread - with handwoven samples, by Dini Moes and ? Heggtveit.  Two copies of Linda Heinrich's The Magic of Linen (like new).

As I look at my book shelves, I find that I still cannot part with what books I have left (after purging my library on at least two occasions).  I suppose someone will be tasked with getting rid of what is left in my studio when I move on to...where ever the weavers hang out.  

Anyway, if the guild decides to run an eBay auction, I will be sure to let folk know.