In the past couple of weeks I have had a few new subscribers to my blog. That’s great, but it also makes me want to immediately write to them and apologize, “I haven’t even POSTED lately! Sorry!” I’m in the middle of my piece in Helena Hernmarck technique. I make good progress (albeit, slow progress) for a few days and then other commitments get in the way. I just finished a long-promised website for my husband’s psychoanalytic practice, mcmooremd.com. The website has a slight relevance to my weaving blog. In the office photo on the Private Practice page, you can see one of my weavings, in Vestfold technique. (And though it’s nearly impossible to discern from the photo, the pillows on the chairs are from weaver Kelly Marshall.)
During our daily-complaint-worthy cold winter, I’ve been working on my scene of summer wheat harvest. I don’t like to post half-done pieces, but it’s been so long since I’ve updated this blog, and it’s all I have to offer! And it’s only a section.
Talking with my friend Steve Bigler, a fabulous painter, I expressed my amazement at the complexity of learning the language of Helena Hernmarck’s technique – the color possibilities in the bundles of yarn, the texture possibilities to create subtle changes. “Oh, that’s just the way it is when you learn a new technique,” he said matter-of-factly. “You’ll have to do it about ten times before you get it down.” OK – I KNOW that. Maybe I can count my piece done in class, and my second little test, as pieces one and two. But even if this large piece is only number three, I still want it to be great. With every inch, though, I channel Steve’s remark; I realize how I could have done it differently, and how I will be better in the future.
A video I saw today resonated with my feelings about my weaving. The audio is an interview of Ira Glass talking about people who do creative work, and how there is inevitably a period in which you understand and recognize really good work, and understand that your own work doesn’t meet that goal. You need to just work through it. Just keep working. I have to go weave.
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