“When you came to the CLTextile May meeting and presented this project to the group I felt excited about the project, but not particularly inspired personally. I kind of played around with some of the materials I brought…had some thoughts in my head, but, honestly felt like I really didn’t have anything to bring to this project. I did have one piece of fabric that I had brought, a piece of silk that had been printed on, dipped in indigo, and had a silk resist process applied to it. I had made this piece of fabric several years ago in a class at Penland School of Crafts. I was really drawn to this piece of fabric.
A few days later, as I had thought on and off about this project, ideas began to come to mind. And the words “no one told the leaves” a phrase I used in a weaving after 9/11 came to mind loud and clear! I found a piece of linen I had, and wrote those words randomly on the the linen. To me those words mean a variety of things, how the world changed after 9/11, but the seasons still continue (no one told the leaves). On a more personal level, they mean a hidden grief, a silent sorrow, of a time when I had a miscarriage. Lots of women suffer this loss, a child lost. Because there is no child for others to see, to know, because many times this loss is only known to the mother, maybe the father, maybe a few close family members, it becomes a loss unknown to others. a grief that is silent, a sorrow that is silent.
I also knew I wanted to do some hand stitching on this piece. The “thread” I used was originally part of a weaving process, where I paint loosely woven fabric and the remove the fine weft thread. I save this thread and that is the thread I used. I stitched every day for about an hour or so until the deadline. I used that time to slow down, to reflect, to look back, to look forward, to let me thoughts move where they wanted, to experience quiet, to sit with my husband while we watched baseball…
Finally to combine/layer the silk and the linen. Our lives are layered and complicated. Our lives are hidden and revealed. Our lives continue even after a silent sorrow or hidden grief.
I am very glad I was able to find “something to say” and be a part of this amazing project.”
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