Tuesday 16 March 2021

Change {part one}

Hello Friends ~~~ As the seasons turn it is with some surprise I feel caught unaware, and I realise this week sees the Vernal Equinox on March 20th,  we are half way through the first half of the year with Easter in a couple of weeks, and hurtling towards the Summer Solstice.  The days are growing deliciously longer, but to where did the year fly? How did it turn so quickly by? Some days seem so much longer than others as ferocious Winter gales  have pounded us and pushed us into Spring, yet surely and steadily Winter lies behind.

My thoughts turn to one word ~~~change~~~ and all the changes the turning seasons bring, each one in their own unique glory. As each season changes and turns, so our lives change and turn ~~~ yet there is a constancy to that change ~~~

Spring passes and one remembers one's innocence.
Summer passes and one remembers one's exuberance.
Autumn passes and one remembers one's reverence.
Winter passes and one remembers one's perseverance.” 
~~~Yoko Ono~~~

It goes without saying, we are, collectively, currently going through change of an unprecedented nature on a global scale.  Everything that was once the unchallenged familiar path we trod is now no longer straight or true.  Even when we are all vaccinated and have the virus on the run, I don't think we will ever be able to return to the world as it was a year and a half ago.  We are changed forever.  In some ways, I feel we are being given a second chance, but many are rejecting this opportunity to change our behaviour and put things right in our world.  From now on, my life will always be about Hands; Face; Space.

Recently, I was in my attic and came across something I made years ago, as part of an art course I took in 1998.  The group visited Castell Henllys, a recreation of an Iron Age Village, where we gathered research.  Upon our return to the studio we had three days to collate our research and then design and create a final outcome.  I confess, I may have gone into this with, what turned out to be, a completely unjustified preconception of how our ancient ancestors lived.  All that was about to change.

On the day we visited Castell Henllys, I was unwell with a feverish cold and after a short while exploring outside I hunkered down inside one of the huts where there was an open hearth with a roaring wood fire in the centre of the hut which radiated warmth, comfort, and cosiness to an extent that I'd never experienced before.  Any conceptions I'd ever had of how our Iron Age ancestors stayed dry and warm, protected from the elements, changed right at that moment and melted into the flames that seemed to dance across the centuries that lay between us, as my preconceived ideas disappeared up, dissolving with the rising smoke.

This was where the clan gathered, to eat, sleep {in beds around the edges of the hut} and tell their stories of an evening when the day's work was done.  I was amazed by the cleanliness and comfort as the conditions seemed primitive with a dirt floor; hewn logs for surprisingly comfortable, posture friendly seating; and an open space simply covered by woven fabric for an entrance which offered little or no protection from the elements, yet here I sat, incredibly comfortable, warm and dry, in the half light and in a haze of wood smoke.  More conceptions over comfort and community changed.

The walls of wattle and daub were adorned with decorated wooden shields, and the roof of tightly packed reeds raised high above my head supported by tree trunks and sturdy branches.  Somehow, it made up for the open door and I soon found myself forgetting that I was unwell. These people had building skills and took pride in their interiors by decorating them. Yet more conceptions changed.

I began to experience an immense and overwhelming feeling of connection to the natural world, and as if the spirits of the ancient ones were anchoring me to a new place of belonging, as I consciously drifted into another time. As I was becoming attuned, so I changed.

As my eyes adjusted to the low light, I let my gaze wander around the space and was amazed at the skill and craftsmanship, honesty and authenticity, in everything that came into my new found focus. Beautifully woven reed baskets, iron pots and pans, iron and wooden utensils, a fire dog, woven blankets on the beds, and woven curtains to separate the beds into cubicles, the guides dressed in woven garments that had a beauty only seen in hand dyed and hand woven cloth. These were made by a people who relied upon raw materials found in the environment around them.  Everything came from nature, and would eventually decay and return to the land from which it came; changed from what it was to become something else, and to change again as it no longer served its purpose.  And so my perceptions and conceptions continued to change.

I was particularly taken by the weaving looms, basic, yet quite recognisable as the forerunners of our modern day looms, and eventually these were the primary force behind the physical construction of my final outcome.  The skill and art of weaving seems to have remained a constant, having changed little over the millennia, other than the mechanisation.

These were a people who lived in a community, individuals but in harmony, together; at one with the land and nature; respect for each other and for the land on which they depended; who wasted nothing, and created artefacts that were both useful and functional, and beautiful.  My opinion of who they were and how they lived could not have been more changed.

At this particular time, I was going through great personal changes.  I was going through a divorce, a major life change which, as anyone who has gone through divorce knows brings changes on many, often complicated levels.  I also did not know that the insignificant cold I had was the start of a significant life long change in my health.

My final outcome had to reflect the profound emotional and abstract changes I experienced that day, as well as my physical observations, and it seemed fitting to bring everything together in a woven hanging.  I eventually constructed one by hand, from a mixture of found, reclaimed, and recycled objects, with an underlying feeling of disintegration, mutability, and change, which is how I responded to the information I had gathered ~~~ combined with the deep and meaningful personal experiences I was going through at the time, and representative of my love for, and work with textiles ~~~ as outlined in my process, following.


Back in the studio my research progressed and I processed my hand drawn sketches, photographs and other images along with my  experiences gleaned at Castell Henllys; two things seemed to stand out.  First, the were the way in which our ancestors utilised nature and found objects, changing them to purpose; and second, the mutability, the changeability, of those objects within the circle of life. Having changed from hunter~gatherers to settled farmers, the Iron Age Celts still relied on the bounty of nature for their food, medicine, clothing, shelter, enclosures and protection, weaponry, and more. We now know that they had a sense of aesthetic and, amongst other things, changed plants into dyes for colouring their cloth, their art, and their bodies.  Woad was a primary source of the particular shade of indigo blue associated with the period. They used trees and reeds that grew locally and changed them into beams and roofing for their constructions and animal pens, and grew grain to harvest and change into flour for food. I drew on all of these things, and more, bringing them together in a woven by hand wall hanging that was not precious in any way. I just let my hands respond to the found materials, and created something in full knowledge that the mutability, the changeability, of the materials chosen was part of the outcome.

Fallen sycamore seeds and grain husks as the piece deteriorates and falls apart returning to the earth


Lavender grown in, and gathered from, my garden incorporated into the weaving

Everything used was found and recycled materials, all in careful consideration with my theme Change.

I used found twigs and branches, wheat stalks, sycamore seeds, some old blue cord to recycle and to represent woad {I did not have the time to find woad and prepare it myself as I only had two days in which to complete the project} I brought everything together by hand, as they would have done in the Iron Age.  I incorporated seeds found at the site itself.



Roughly made clay weights created in response to Iron Age weaving looms




In the closing statement of my presentation, I emphasised the mutability, the changeability, how the Iron Age settlement had returned to the earth and was recreated again, how the circle of life continues, and how my weaving will slowly return to rejoin the earth from whence it came ~~~ ever changing, ever present ~~~

Over the years, twenty or more, that lie in between,  I have watched this weave do exactly what it was intended to do.  Change.

My Friends ~~~ we are in an unprecedented time of enormous change, where the only constants are the slow turning of the wheel of the year and the endless weaving of our stories, as we drift on unseen forces, from season to season. As the year turns, let us remember that as we move through Spring, our antipodean cousins move through Autumn ~~~ ever constant in the circle of the ever~changing year ~~~

Until next time
Stay safe, stay well.

21 comments:

  1. Wonderful post Deb, just beautiful and moving. Your natural art piece is fabulous. My fave summer shirt is printed with the saying, 'Change is the only constant thing in life'. And for me it's a time of change, too, being back home and getting used to being on my own again. Thanks for this fantastic post. Hugs, Valerie

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    1. Thank you, I am glad you enjoyed it, and so happy for you that you are home again. Hugs, Deb

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  2. Thank you so much for a very thought-provoking and poignant post. It is wonderful! :) I certainly now have very different ideas about life in the Iron Age. Your piece of weaving is fantastic - and I love how you have used natural materials which are sustainable and will eventually return to the earth. I shall read this post several times over as there is so much of interest and beauty.

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    1. Thank you, and I am happy you enjoyed it. A kind of heart and soul piece, out of my comfort zone.

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  3. What a lovely post. Your natural materials weaving is perfect.
    I've always been fascinated by the looms at the Anglo Saxon village at West Stow in west Suffolk

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    1. Thank you, I think weaving is one thing that has changed very little over the years, mainly improvements to technique, and mechanisation.

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  4. Such lovely words and your textile project is beautifully made and supports the theme of your project. I enjoyed reading this very much!

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  5. Such a beautiful post! And your woven piece is really beautiful. I tend to initially resist change because in this time of endless "new and improved" items and planned obsolescence, I think it is wasteful to jump on every tech bandwagon that comes along. But I try to embrace the changes that are inevitable, while still holding onto the aspects of my life that represent history and tradition.

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    1. Thank you. New and improved get a mention in the follow up! Continual improvements and upgrading technology are a particular bug bear of mine.

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  6. Change, the thing I need to make friends with, Deb. The pandemic has taught me many lessons that remind me that I am not in control. Your woven art and its changes is a great metaphor for life. xoxo

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    1. Indeed, we do. Change is definitely out of our control, and it is one thing most of us dislike intensely. xoxo

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  7. 'There is nothing so certain as change', your post has such depth - your weaving holds many memories.
    May this year bring you some joyful changes.
    Happy Equinox. :-)

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    1. Thank you. I wish joyful changes for you, and for us all. I hope you will be able to travel west soon! Equinox Blessings to you and your family.

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  8. What a profound lesson you learned that day. You know how much I hate change, but we truly all have no choice in that matter, and so do need to learn to embrace it. Thank you for the amazing writing you did for this post. I felt I was right there with you, so clearly did you describe it!

    Your weaving is wonderful. I saw the lavender right away. And the clay weights are perfect at the bottom. The whole weaving pulls one thing into another and blends one thing into another...just like nature. And it will disintegrate as nature does. Lovely post~

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    1. Thank you, my friend, I'm glad you enjoyed it. How I wish I had owned a camera, yet somehow I think even an old 35mm SLR would have detracted from my experience of the day. Hugs, xoxo

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  9. What a fascinating and thought-provoking post. Yes, everything changes and this year has certainly taught us a lot about change. Even the teenage mutant ninja virus is changing. I've always had challenges with change but it is indeed inevitable. Your wall hanging is as beautiful as your post. So clever to use the items you chose and then seeing them change over time just adds to it. I'll be thinking about this one for a long while.

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    1. Thank you, smiling at your description of the virus. That's one thing that's changing that we really wish wouldn't indeed.

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  10. It's always a strange feeling to walk where previous generation have, I always wonder what people in the future will make of our way of life.

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