The Studio

"Maggie"

I am a weaver, a fiber artist.  Half of the upstairs of our house is my studio.  I am ever grateful to my Darlin'Man for gifting the support and opportunity to take up a full quarter of home to house the means of creation.

It holds my floor loom - an 8 shaft Gilmore I bought from a weaver forced to retire due to the degenerative arthritis in her hands, my navajo loom, a couple tapestry frame looms, piles of raw wool, shelves of yarn and of fabric, a sewing machine, and so very much art and inspiration.

I learned to weave on the Navajo Nation.  My teacher's grandmother had taught him before she died, and he showed us her beater, grooves worn an inch and more from a lifetime's friction against taut and strong warp threads.  The Navajo believe in a concept alternately translated as beauty and as harmony.  To walk in beauty is to live your life in a manner that is centered and at peace, that recognizes and accepts in love the world around you, and in which you are reciprocally accepted and recognized in love by the world.  SpiderWoman brought weaving to the Navajo, and the loom represents the macrocosm of the Navajo world: Earth and Sky, rainbow, lightning, rain.  Across cultures, weaving and spinning is linked with the act of creation and with the will of the universe - fate or destiny if you will.  When I weave, I hold this knowledge present and honor both it and life as I allow myself to melt into the age old rhythm, and into my creative unconscious.

The Navajo Beauty Way

In beauty may I walk
All day long may I walk
Through the returning seasons may I walk
Beautifully I will possess again
Beautifully birds
Beautifully joyful birds
On the trail marked with pollen may I walk
With grasshoppers about my feet may I walk
With dew about my feet may I walk
With beauty may I walk

With beauty before me may I walk
With beauty behind me may I walk
With beauty above me may I walk
With beauty all around me may I walk

In old age, wandering on a trail of beauty, lively, may I walk
In old age, wandering on a trail of beauty, living again, may I walk
It is finished in beauty
It is finished in beauty

Anonymous (Navajo)

In beauty it is woven.