Off to India!

I have the good fortune of going to India for a month this winter. This will be my second trip (this photo is from my first trip in 2008!), this time traveling with my husband Ben. We will spend three weeks at Saccidananda Ashram in Thannirpalli, which is in the very south of India.

From there we will go to Mt. Arunacula for a 5 day silent retreat.

I will be bringing my portable studio with drawing/painting supplies, embroidery materials and of course a camera! I look forward to sharing my photos and stories on all the beautiful colors, food, people, fabrics and art!

See you in February!

Winding and dyeing warps

Skeins ready for dye sampling.

Warps wound, chained and ready to dye.

I’ve had the luxury of studio time this fall and have been working since November to set up the “Mother” loom, my 56″ 16H (but currently only using 8H). This is a long, labor intensive process that begins with winding two warps – one is the ground warp and the other is the supplementary warp. The warps for this new series of art works is 49″ wide by 9 yards long,  24 epi for the ground warp and 12 epi for the supplementary warp.Next I want to test how this warp thread will dye, so I wind small skeins to test color mix and intensity. This is all done by weight ratio, so I use a scale and a calculator to figure out how much dye for each skein. I also keep track of each dye bath, saving a small piece for my records.Once I am satisfied with the color I dye the warps, usually only putting one warp at a time in a bucket. This allows me to make sure that the dye is applied evenly to all the warp ends.

Warps are all dyed and drying on the rack.

Test skeins in dye pot.

In my next post, I’ll share how I wind long and wide warps on my loom.

Unconditional Joy!

Unconditional Joy weaving project.

“Unconditional Joy” is the title of the workshop I presented at the NH Sate Council on the Arts this past weekend. At a lovely lakeside camp artists, teachers, administrators gathered for the 2013 Statewide Arts Education Conference. It has been MANY, far too many years since I have attended this conference, and darn it….I missed my peeps! Thanks to Catherine O’Brien and Frumie Selchen for keeping this annual gathering alive, and so vital to supporting the health of arts and education in the state of NH. In the workshop “Unconditional Joy” we explored what joy means to us, how we encourage and discourage joy in ourselves and others. With two paper weaving projects we explored community, personal stories and how to invite more joy into our lives.We closed our workshop with one of my favorite poems by Rumi: “After all these years, the sun never says to the earth “you owe me.” Look what happens with a love like that, it lights up the whole sky.”

Penobscot Bay, Merchants Row, near Stonington, ME

ABC’s of gratitude

Calm waters near New Castle NH

Lakeside Ossippe NH

Positive thoughts rule.

E is for ever.

I attempt to live with this kind of love, this kind of joy. But like all humans, I am imperfect and get off course. In an attempt to strive towards a better understanding of this lesson of unconditional love and joy, I began a project this summer that is rooted in gratitude. Using small plastic screen flags that are usually found on lobster pot buoys, I am stitching an “Alphabet of Gratitude”. As each letter is completed, I have begun to spell words. I often travel with the letters and invite others to spell something. I’m continually amazed by the words that show up. I am stitching letter O right now, and am excited to see what words will grow from adding a new vowel!

Making “Love Letters”

“Newtown, CT, We are family”

Paralleling this “Alphabet of Gratitude” work is a new community art project called “Love Letters”. Working with individuals or groups of all sizes I invite people to draw the first letter of something/someone they love. On the reverse side they fill in the blank: ____is for_____. As the letters accumulate, a word or string of words is formed. Look what sentence appeared at a recent arts festival in Newtown, CT!I am interested in traveling far and wide with this project. Please let me know if you are interested in inviting me to your community to raise up some “Love Letters”!

Spelling with “Love Letters”

And finally, please be sure to check out both my blogs: “Woven Voices:Messages from the Heart” and “Macomber Looms and Me”. Both blogs have more info and more photos about current projects.

Summer 2013 Gallery

This summer I decided that my front woods was a perfect place to hang a show. So I started making “post cards” of gratitude using fabric and plastic marine flags. Each flag has a fabric collage on one side a message on the other. They still look lovely hanging in the woods for all the world to see as they drive by my roadside gallery.

Along side my own projects, I have taught several workshops and done a few residencies since spring. here’s a gallery of images, from Mandalas to Paper Prayer Flags.

Phew! Summer!

People of Harvard MA

Wow!! What a busy and amazing spring and winter!I taught from Maine to New Jersey, small groups of two or three and large gatherings of over 1500.I guided weaving experiences for people of all ages facing grief, brain injury, aging, loss of mobility, racial discrimination and traumatic loss.We celebrated community, diversity, local history, our own inner beauty and the wisdom of  the heart. We talked about hopes, dreams, fears and worries. We made prayer flags, mandalas, small collage weavings and large tapestries.Here is a gallery of images that celebrate this work in community and love. Look for more news and photos now that I have time!

Boston Pubic Library April 2013

Weaving collage for elders. May 2013

Weaving collage by elder in CT May 2013

Weaving collage by elder in CT May 2013

Boston Public Library April 2013

Boston Public Library April 2013

“Good Grief” Community Mandala Morristown, NJ May 2013

Detail Milton Elementary School tapestry

Milton NH Elementary School Tapestry

Boston Public Library April 2013

Words of wisdom from Lewiston ME 1st grader

“Good Grief” Morristown, NJ Community Mandala May 2013

Diversity in Maine!

Lewiston, Maine First Grade Mandala

Silence

It is snowing again here in York Maine. I love the muffled quiet that surrounds me when snow falls. Deep, delicious silence.

Three Mandala Community Weavings from Harvard MA March 2013

Tomorrow I am off for a week of silence,  a Women’s Mediation Retreat.   It feels perfect to be heading off for this retreat. I’ve just completed a particularity busy month of residencies and ready to dip into this pool of reflection.These three Mandalas are from my 10 day residency at Hildreth Elementary School in Harvard, MA. These Mandala Community Weavings were woven by 2nd, 3rd and 4th graders, and will be decorated with about 100 clothes pin people each as well as ribbons with inspirational messages. Look for photos of the completed Mandalas at the end of March.I will be back March 15th. Thanks to each of you for your support of my work and your faith in my vision.Namaste, Sarah

Inspirational words from a 3rd grader.

The Mandala Community Weaving ~ now a PDF of instructions!

The Mandala Community Weaving

I am happy to announce that The Mandala Community Weaving project is now available as a PDF set of directions for $50. You will be able to follow these step by step directions to guide your own Mandala Community Weaving Project. Learn more about this community building peace project by following the link to the Mandala Community Weaving pages.If you wish to purchase these directions for $50, visit my blog and look for the “Buy Now” button for the Mandala Community Weaving.

Hidden talents ~ let your cat out!

After a nearly two week road trip all around Florida, I am back home. And it is frigid here in Maine. I have not yet come up with a sane reason why we hardy souls live up here when a few hours south (by air) the temps are more habitable. I do know that this indoor time makes for long hours of devoted attention to studio art making!Yesterday I began an artist residency at the Charles River School in Dover MA. We are using the Silk Road as a pathway of study. Stopping at three destinations along the Silk Road, students will learn about weaving and work on a project that connects with the culture of that region. Yesterday we explored the Chinese Taoist philosophy of Yin Yang and created this collaborative paper weaving that highlights personal strengths and challenges.

Yin/Yang paper weaving

When this community paper weaving was completed, one student remarked that on her strip of strengths she had drawn a picture if her cat. When the strips were woven together, the cat became hidden under another strip. She asked if she could draw another cat on her strip where it would show. I said “sure”.Later, I realized that part of the magic of weaving is there is an “under”. In other words there is always something hidden that we don’t see. We KNOW it is there, but it does not always show. We do not always share our strengths or our challenges/weaknesses. We hide our talents, we keep our perceived weaknesses hidden.So sometimes, as my student-friend did yesterday, we need to “flaunt” our own strengths… we need to let our cat show! So if you are hiding your strengths or not acknowledging your challenges, try letting them show today.We are all woven with these beautiful characteristics, the Yin/Yang balance of our humanity.

Collaborative Yin/Yang Paper Weaving hanging in classroom window.

Close to Home

The horrific events that happened this week in Sandy Hook Elementary School have hit close to home for many of us. As an artist who works in schools across New England I find myself asking the same questions that many are….”why”. I also wonder what I would have done. Would I have been as brave as the teachers at Sandy Hook?  I do know that my first reaction was to get in the car and go to try to lend help, to offer solace and to reach out to this devastated community. But Sunday as I sat in church I realized that here, close to home there is a need for love, solace, and healing. So right now, I will remain close to home, using my skills, my love and my energy to bring just a little bit more love and healing to this community.What a beautiful, loving world this would be if we all did that.

Making Art Count

Journal entry November 2012

It’s been awhile since I have posted here. No big excuses, just preoccupied.There is definitely a shift going on within my studio and my art. My journal has always been a laboratory for learning and exploring, but I now journal daily and plan/sketch out ideas for new works. My loom is where I create work that requires a deeper commitment.There are also several ideas for out door installations for temporary art.

Studio ~ November 2012

This piece on the big loom has been an image that has been on my mind and heart since early summer.I have given myself a challenge: for the next three months I will hyper focus on producing art work. Now that my master’s degree is complete and the Woven Voices project is at rest, it is time to make art count!

Inlay technique on the loom

Journal entry, art work sketch

July is jumping!

As I have said many times before, summer in Maine is THE BEST! While much of the country is suffering with excessive heat, we are enjoying a perfectly lovely summer thus far. The temperature is mostly in the 80s, bright sun, occasional rain and tolerable humidity. There is always a breeze and the nights have cooled a bit so sleeping is easy. My goodness, this period of bliss makes up for the harsh and long winters!!

Hanover St. Parking garage 2010

Last Friday I re-installed “Caught between Us” an installation I created for the city of Portsmouth, NH in 2010. This piece is made from recycled shrimp netting, bait bags, lobster trap headers, and gummy fish lures. It is 12′ by 22′ and originally hung on the Hanover St. Parking garage in Portsmouth. For two years this piece was rolled up in my studio, looking for a new home.  About a year ago, I had the idea that it might look good hanging on one of the bait shacks on the town docks in York.

Detail of "Caught Between Us" as it hung on the garage

Net laid out on the dock

After a few conversations with folks in town and a year later, I was able to install the fish net to its new and permanent home on York Town Dock #1. Thanks to the amazing help of Joey Donnelly, Richard Lee and Ben Fowler the net went up smoothly and without a hitch. We had to hang it at low tide, so that the ladders could rest on the rocks and mud. I think it looks pretty amazing in its new home!

Low tide installation!

Pulling it tight ~ teamwork!

Hanging with the pots at Town Dock #1

Summer, sweet as…..

Summer is in full swing here in Maine. All winter I wait for these days when I can get up at 7 AM and have my tea on the deck in a 75 degree sultry heat. At the end the day I swim in the local cove with my dog, husband and perhaps a friend. As the big sign says on Rte 95 as you enter our state: “Maine, the way life should be.” But as with all things in life, this is a temporary time, and so the rule is to make the most of each day.

Siblings making a dream catcher in the trees

I am just back home from a 7 day Artist in Residency at Searsport Shores Campground in Searsport, ME. While I was there, I worked with all ages of camping friends from grand mom and pop to little ones and teenagers in between. It was such a delight see families and new friends working happily side by side.

A talented Mom weaves herself a belt

This campground is a unique and amazing place that is rich with gardens, animals, art and beauty, right on the ocean’s edge.For seven days we wove, shared stories of joy as well as sorrow. We became friends and expanded our concept of family. Each day I would share my food scraps with the goats in the pen right next to my studio. Each day I went for a swim in the cool ocean waters. Each night I slept in a tent inside the studio made from crocheted and embroidered fabrics.

A weaving family

On my last day, I went two miles up the road to the site where my dear brother Weston was killed last August. Although this site brings me deep sadness, it feels like holy ground to me. For the past 11 months I have decorated it with handwoven prayer flags from the Woven Voices project. I was so amazed and pleased to see how beautifully the old flags have weathered the seasons.I added a dozen more flags. Healing from life’s wounds is an unpredictable journey. I am blessed to have beauty, love and community as my companions.

My sleeping tent next to the rug loom.

Weathered prayer flags in Searsport ME

Michy looks for some fruit scraps

happy camper with paper plate dream catcher

Balancing on the Solstice

Here we are….on the official commencement of summer and the beginning of our days decreasing in sunlight (sorry to ruin your day!) This is the Solstice balance, balancing the light and the dark, the positive and the negative, the hot and the cold, plus for us on coastal Maine, the tourists and the townies!

CT workshop for families

For me it is the end of my school residencies and teaching. And today, it being almost 93 here in York, I went for my first swim!

Jim Wilson shows off his vintage reed making equipment.

Yesterday Ben and I went down to Central Falls, RI to visit The Gowdey Reed Co. I have started a blog about Jim’s family business as I am gearing up sales for them. Please check out this new blog, Gowdey Reeds, Heddles and Handweaving, where I explain how this company has been making reeds for 4 generations. The basic process has changed little, and each hand loom or industrial reed is made to order for the customer.Tomorrow I head back up to Haystack MT School of Crafts. I was up there last month, cleaning and repairing all the looms in the Textile Studio. Friday and Saturday, I will return to complete the job with a van load of parts from Macomber Looms. I think we picked the perfect week to be up there, as the temperatures here are going to be unseasonably warm.

My Woven Voices thesis with it's clamshell box

And here is a BIG TAH- DAH…drum roll……. I received my Masters of Art and Healing from Wisdom University this month. I am so proud of my thesis which is a series of hand-bound books that document and illustrate this four year global peace project.

Happy and proud boy with his self portrait for the Mandala

Thanks for checking out my website. I always love hearing from each one of you.Happy Summer!!~~ Sarah

Making books for Kenya

Printing the Adinkra inspired papers

In late April I had the wonderful opportunity to return as Artist in Residence to The Great Oak Middle School in Oxford CT. For five days I worked with 6th, 7th and 8th graders to design, print, weave and bind small books.  Our goal was to create two printed sheets of paper inspired by Adinkra images of West Africa that would be cut into strips and woven together to make the cover for a book. Prior to my coming to school, Karen Giannamore, the art teacher worked hard with the classes to help them generate wonderful stories based on a choice of writing prompts. These stories were printed on paper to be inserted as the text for these handmade covers.

More printing!

Printed papers for book covers

When I arrived on Monday, we jumped right into designing the stamps, and printing two sheets of paper per student. I just love the bright colors and the bold designs that the students came up with.  After everyone had printed two sheets, we then cut them into strips to that they could be woven together to make the book covers.

Weaving the printed strips together

The printed and woven strips were then laminated to make a durable cover for the books. We then sewed the previously written and printed stories inside these gorgeous covers. Each student also illustrated their story and added reader’s questions as well as notes about the author. These books will now be shipped to a school for the deaf in Wamunyu, Kenya through a program called Kenya Connect. We understand that the students in Kenya are learning to read and write in English so these handmade books will add over 120 new books to their school library!

Illustrating the text.

Helping a partner to sew in the text pages.

The laminated book covers waiting for the pages of text to be sewn inside.

More Mandalas

The Bancroft School Mandala

After school volunteers help to assemble the Mandala

This week I was artist in residence at the Bancroft School in Worcester, MA. I worked with Lower and Upper School students to create a stunning Community Mandala. There was time with each group to have a conversation about the history and cultural connections with Mandalas. During one of these discussion, one student asked me how many Mandalas I had made. I could not answer, but it is in the hundreds.Recently I have been thinking about making my own Mandalas. After the one that I made for the Izzy’s installation, I have been so inspired by the practice of making these mesmerizing symmetrical pieces. Each time I work with students and talk about how the Buddhist Monks make sand Mandalas over and  over again as a spiritual practice, I think about what I might learn from this practice.Today it is snowing, and most likely tomorrow we will be snowed in. It just might be the perfect day to start my own Mandala practice.

Detail of the Bancroft School Mandala

Winter play and winter creativity

It has been an entirely snow-less winter so far.  I cannot recall a winter that has not only been so snow-less but so warm.  Last night at a non-profit board meeting the Chairwoman opened with the question “How you you feel about this winter? Do you miss snow?” The answers were as diverse as those attending the meeting. My answer was YES… I miss snow days. I miss playing in the snow. I miss the unbelievable quiet that a heavy snow fall makes as it muffles all other noises.

1st Izzy's installation

I have been involved with a new arts organization in Portsmouth called 3S Artspace. Last fall they put out a submission call for a winter long installation in a local ice cream shop that is closed for the winter. This collaborative project has three artists rotating installations once a week for nine weeks, culminating in a group installation for the final two weeks. My first installation was inspired by our road trip to Florida in January. Riding in the car ave me the opportunity to sky gaze for hours on end. I saw so many beautiful hawks soaring along the highways edge, and the sky was so wide and beautiful. Each installation is supposed to build on the previous one. I used the red sticks and blue background from the artist before me, stenciled the cranes and added more sapling branches.

2nd installation at night

My second installation followed the same artist who had built these trees out of bark and created this forest scene with glass balls inside the trees and rubber snakes. I added these balls out of Styrofoam and plastic spoons and forks. I covered the windows with paper snow flakes and red cellophane, plus added more rubber critters. The spoon/fork balls were on motors and slowly rotated. I felt wintery and bizarre to me.

beginning the mandala at Izzy's

My third installation was this past Friday, and I followed a different artist who is much more of a minimalist. All of the previous materials had been removed and the space stripped clean. She painted stylized mountains on the walls and hung painted pieces of bark (from the a fore mentioned trees).

the mandala completed

close up of the mandala, spoons, forks, twigs, oranges, styro-balls

So on Friday, I came in with the idea that I would take down the bark, but not remove it, and create a 6 foot mandala on the wall using any/all materials from previous installations. Here’s the result. I love it! I also wrote a short quote from Rumi along the edge of the mountains and their shadows.This installation will disappear on Friday when the third artist returns and creates her final installation. What an amazing process!This winter I am also bringing to an end”Woven Voices: Messages from the Heart”. Please check out my blog and learn more about the closure of this four year global community art project. I am in the final stages of completing my Masters of Art and Healing, with a non-traditional thesis on this project.

the last prayer flag

All is well, even without the snow.Namaste ~ Sarah

Circles or spirals?

This Sunday in church the theme for the music, children’s story and the homily was about returning or rather circling about. The metaphor of goats versus sheep was used. Sheep travel as a flock or herd and usually stick together; while goats tend to be a bit more chaotic, independent and circular in their movements.The message was very clear, there is a wisdom to going in circles, to returning again and again to the familiar, and to the repetition of lessons. As a weaver, I love repetition, pattern and yes circles! As an independent self employed artist, I  guess I really am a goat.This week, I am returning to work on my master’s thesis. This project was dropped after Weston’s death. Now I am ready to return, to circle back, with a transformed point of view. There have been many doors closed in the past three months. Now I am ready to open one and step over the threshold.

"From the perspective of a pine tree"

Now here’s the thing, I embrace the concept that traveling in circles, of repeating lessons brings wisdom. But I do not believe that each time I return to the beginning that I am the same person. Each time I return, I am new, I am different. So I believe that in truth I travel in a spiral.This piece “From the perspective of a pine tree” addresses this notion. Along the right edge of the piece, there are several large fish all traveling upward. There are two smaller fish swimming in the opposite direction. There are two spirals. I won’t go into a long analysis of what I was thinking, but I suspect it is obvious. Be it a goat or a fish, we have a choice. Swim with the crowd or head out on your own. Celebrate the spiraling path that is at the core of learning and living in this world.   

Falling and flying

Prayer flag flying at Two Medicine Lake, Glacier Park, Montana

November has swept into my heart and my home. Leaves are falling. Rain is falling. The temperature is not falling however. It has been unseasonably warm for the past week, which is rather odd considering that we had a 6″ of snow fall about 2 weeks ago.

Prayer flag at The World Friendship Center, Hiroshima, Japan

Woven Voices prayer flags are flying all over the globe. This image of a flag at Two Medicine Lake has to be one of my favorites. We have sent flags to fly in France, Guatemala, New Zealand, Africa, New York/Occupy Wall Street, Japan and Italy. So far over 1200 flags of peace, love and hope fly world wide.  I will be offering directions to those who want to do this project on their own. Contact me for these directions.

Gil and his prayer flag in St Remy de Provence, France

I have been busy teaching in schools again this month.  Here is a fabulous Mandala Community Weaving done by the students at Woodland School in Weston, MA.

Mandala Community Weaving, Woodland School, Weston, MA

I am so proud of the hard work this whole school community put into this project.

All smiles for this amazing global Mandala Community Weaving!

That’s all the news for this rainy day!

Summer of Love, Peace and Grief

I know from experience that the wider my heart gets stretched the more deeply I feel every breath, witness the smallest details and am able to be present. This summer events in my life stretched my heart wider, deeper and taller than I thought possible. On August 18th my dear brother Weston, my traveling soul mate on our trans-Atlantic crossing, was tragically killed. Please go to my Woven Voices blog to learn and read more.

Wes in his ever present welder's hat

Along with the enormity of this event, I have been weaving hundreds of prayer flags and sending them out across the lands and waters to fly in homes, gardens, schools and churches. Thank you again to all my Kickstarter backers who have supported this project. We have woven over 600 prayer flags just this summer!Wes would be among the first to say “Life goes on.” And on.Another milestone is that “Each One: The Button Project, a 9/11 Memorial has been purchased and has a permanent home!  On September 6th,  the city councilors of Portsmouth NH voted to use gifted funds to purchase the art work in honor and recognition of  Mayor Sirrell, Portsmouth mayor from 1997-2005.

"Each One: The Button Project, a 9/11 Memorial" at City Hall Portsmouth, NH

This posting will be brief, because truthfully I am often at a loss for words.As the healing and transformation continue, I trust that my words will return. Meanwhile I make art, weave and draw in an attempt to navigate this new landscape. My expanded heart is my north star.

Keep moving!

This summer my mother, Mary Louise, will turn 90. Look at her in this photo with my sister. Believe it or not, this photo was taken this weekend, one month before her birthday!

Lucia and Mary Louise in South Freeport Maine, June 2011

Doesn’t she look amazing?? I know her secret……she has always been an advocate of “move it or loose it”. Back in the 1960s she started taking yoga. I know for a fact that the daily practice of her exercise kept her from being bed ridden the couple of times that she had to be hospitalized.She is an living example of how important it is to keep moving.I try to keep moving in all aspects of my life. Most specifically right now I am trying to keep the momentum moving on the Woven Voices Kickstarter fundThe Grand Finale is now at 37% funding. Since Kickstarter is an all or nothing funding, I must meet the $4000 goal or no funds are dispersed!So in the spirit of Mary Louise, I ask you to take a peek at the Kickstarter video and make a pledge from $1 to $1000. Let’s keep this project moving.Thread by thread we can build a more peaceful world.Ok, gotta run….Sarah