Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Bloody Finger and That's How It Works.

One day I thought listening to a meditation talk by Sharon Salzberg on Mindfulness would teach me something while I sewed. Well, it taught me I wasn't focusing enough on my sewing and I sewed my finger. I was attached by black threads through my nail and finger to the sewing machine! 
That woke me up.

'Aloha Dad', 2014.12

So this is how it works. I weave strips of fabric together. I disengage the feeder foot on a simple sewing machine, using the darning foot to freely circle each intersection. That stops the unraveling of the woven threads because each raw cut edge is crossed with several stitches. I'm so practical, these have to wash. They also have to have two faces. One side and then the other side.

Viking vessel with a woven sail. Field Museum.

Wednesday, April 8, 2015