a lack of competitive spirit...

when i received an email from the nice folk at Aichi
a week or so back
inviting me to submit work for their natural dye exhibition
i was quite chuffed
even though
deep in my explorative work here in New Orleans
i would have been hard pressed to find a finished piece to send
other than the work i showed recently in Cleveland
[the reserves at home are far away]

we had an email conversation about whether that work would be appropriate
and they said that would be fine "because the exhibition had not been a competition"
which is when i realised that the Aichi event was a competition

my work is about paying attention, 
not about winning races.
i want to find the quiet space inside
invest in wordlessness and mindfulness
listen to inner stillness and to stories

lining up to be judged doesn't make a deal of sense to me.
so i took the hook out of my mouth, let that one go
and went back to my stitching

joy

it becomes clear that a chosen path is the right one
when
after taking the first few faltering steps
signs appear

a kind weaver wrote to tell me of a loom in her safekeeping
that had been gifted to her
and was looking for a home

i went with my good friend r to have a look
and fell in love with it

we had to take it apart
to transport it home
the experience of constructing the Saori from flat pack
was very helpful
as was my friend r, who has [unlike me] been formally trained as a weaver
[my training is from my Ma, who can be formal but mostly prefers not to be!]

together we reconstructedthis wonderful passed-on gift
and now it awaits some loving care with hot beeswax
before i warp up

first though, i'm off to Melbourne
where i hear the Natural Dye Symposium is already in full swing in the concrete jungles of Fitzroy.

letting the cat[s] out of the bag

fingers crossed that Customs in Paris have released the parcel
in which case the Dresses
should be on display here
this month
but there's no point in me listing an address
attendance is [as i understand]
by invitation only
so i guess this is mere trumpeting on my part

oh and speaking of cats
the Watercats have a new blog
a kind of zen wandering
worth dropping into...

now and Zen

from time to time i flip over to 'Zen Habits' written by Leo Babauta

the most recent epistle compiles his favourite posts of the year on one page so you can leap off into all sorts of interesting directions

you might already be one of the 150,000 plus readers of this site

but

if not,

you might like to swing on by

here's a link