textile therapy

i’ve been under the weather this week and finally succombed to dragging myself (actually phil drug me there) into the the doctor for a z-pack and some sympathy. with all the paperwork and computer work to do i figured a couple days of that and i would be better but it wasn’t working. we’ll see if this helps. some textile therapy seemed to be in order and inspired by some of the others in jude’s contemporary woven boro class i committed a little orange to a woven sample. i started making these little pieces into prayer flags of a sort. i see them all strung up and flapping in the wind somewhere. have yet to figure out where. a couple of people had done some works in blues and orange and i liked them so much i needed my own fix.
just holding it in my hand and wondering how to stitch it – i’m feeling better…something about these colors complementary nature seems to have the right vibrations.
Speaking of textile therapy, some of you will remember Wendy from here or here, depending on how long you have been following along. She has been quietly continuing the good work that she does and today a new article by Wendy appears in the recent online edition of HandEye.

the topsy turvy indigo doll is a good listener.

I know many of you remember the Wendy from my new years blog post. Today, the new issue of Hand Eye features a full article on Wendy Golden-Levitt’s therapy work with children utilizing textiles. She facilitates the process through a rare sensitivity to the child’s needs allowing for textiles to help channel the stories the children have to tell. Here is a recent photo she sent me of another child with the “magic talking stick” – a drumstick with a tail of silk shibori ribbon attached. Such a simple pleasure.

Over the past year that I have communicated and shared my work with Wendy a simple email from her telling me a story of how a piece of ribbon or scrap of silk or indigo helped a child tell a story inspires me endlessly. This article has really got me going today.
Plus, I am happy to report that all the cats have been located and none of them were blue. Must have been the wind we had that “blew” the lid off the indigo vat and not one of the cats falling in…phew! The lid has been secured and PETA does not have to cite me for unethically dyeing a cat indigo blue!