Random Thoughts on a Sunday

 

The yarn in this warp is 50/50 pale blue and a pale but fairly 'bright' green.  You might want to biggify it (click on the image) so that you can see the two colours better.

Frankly, I wasn't sure the combination would 'work' but as I beamed the warp, the overall appearance was one of 'verdigris' - or the colour of aged copper.  I think it will be fine once wet finished.

When I finished the last warp I had this one already prepped so instead of doing the warp with 2/20 merc cotton to weave more article samples, I put this one on.  I felt I needed a little more time to crunch the numbers for the samples.  I had begun doing that, but began to doubt my calculations and wanted to re-do the math and make sure I was going to wind up with what was needed.

Plus this time I don't know if I'm going to beam my 'usual' warp of about 20-ish yards or just do enough to weave the samples.  

Then, there's all the body 'maintenance' I'm doing which needs to be paid attention to, and I'm still not feeling 'great'.  I am hoping that what we are doing will ultimately make me feel a bit better.  My next back injection is booked for August 12, which is later than I would like, but also gives the treatment I'm doing now time to be finished and see if the results are what we are hoping for before I get the next jab.

We tend to watch a lot of 'non-fiction' tv, so we've actually seen quite a few programs about biology and evolution.  Quite frankly, inhabiting a biologic system has given me a new appreciation of how my body works - or in the current case, doesn't.  I am beginning to understand that 'life' as we know it is not set in stone, but that individuals can vary wildly between each other.  What works for one, may not work for all.  Or even, just me.

Someone asked on Bluesky about textile art/craft.  I think there is a difference, but as always, it depends.  Can you make great art without good craftsmanship?  It depends.  Can you make mundane textiles (as in their purpose) with great beauty?  Sure.  That is, after all, my goal: To make everyday useful textiles with a sense of beauty as well as functional to their purpose.

I don't think that there is a hard/fast 'rule' about what makes cloth 'just' cloth or 'art'.  

Right now I'm reading the latest book by Guy Gavriel Kay.  I think I've read nearly everything he's written (not his books of poetry, but the poetry that he uses in his works of fiction).  He's always been a fascinating read with his blend of history, based on actual events/people in some cases.  It's kind of fun when I recognize a 'storyline' and/or certain characters and realize who he has fictionalized.  And he usually includes references to works of art appropriate to the 'time' and 'place'.  It was when I realized that he really was talking about 'real' places that I became even more interested in his writing.

I read other writers who do similar things, some more obvious in the time/place/history.  I much prefer learning about 'history' by watching it play out among the fictional characters.  I don't know that I can remember all of the authors, but Lindsey Davis - 1st century Rome/Europe, Ken Follett, Jacqueline Winspear (WWI and II), and one author I have re-read - and intend to re-read again - Dorothy Dunnett, who has a stand alone novel called King Hereafter, 900 AD Vikings, and two series set in Europe (and beyond) in the 1400s and 1500s.

The current events we are living through are beginning to feel perilous, not just in pockets here and there around the globe, but actually seriously dangerous.  Not to mention climate change.

I take some solace from music, some of it more obvious about 'resistance', some more personal.  My studio has always been powered by music, and right now it seems more important that ever to be aware.  To bear witness.  To object.  Even when you can't do much to change things.  I still feel like I need to make clear that what certain politicians are doing is not done with my approval.  

But that is something each individual will need to judge for themselves.

One thing I am certain about - humans will likely survive, but will - once again - likely learn nothing from this current time line.  If being 'woke' means that I have learned the lesson of helping each other, supporting each other, speaking out about the things that are being done in the name of greed and creating misery for others, then I will wear that label.  I would rather build a longer table than a wall.  I would rather help someone, than harm them.  Even when there are way too many 'others' who take great delight in harming others, simply based on their skin colour or assumed religion.

I suppose I should delete this, but since it is Sunday, I think I will let it be published.