5. Haiku Tins (photo to follow). I found a good source for tins with aperture lids recently, and have woven several freeform pieces to fit the different sizes. For the smallest tin (pencil box-sized), I tried something a bit different. Using beautiful yarns in graduating variegated shades, I wrapped the yarn, rather than wove. This is a ridiculously simple thing to do, but because of the blending and shading in these particular yarns, really very effective in the end result. I think of them as meditations on colour, which led me circuitously round to haiku. After reading quite a lot of haiku, and being aware of them as a source of strong natural imagery, I decided that they suited these wrapped tins perfectly. So I have bought some recycled fibre paper, onto which I will print individual haiku, and a little collection of these printed slips of haiku will fill each tin. (Obviously if someone has an alternative use for the tin, they are welcome to remove the haiku, once they have bought it!) If you like haiku, can I strongly recommend ‘Clear Light’ by Alan Spence? The Haiku Tins will contain a mix of traditional and contemporary haiku.
6. Meditations. I’ve woven a few freeform pieces for the craft fair, and while they evolve quite naturally, I also find that after weaving one, I tend to want to go back to basics, back to the basic, essential flow of weaving. The wrapped Haiku Tins gave me the idea to just weave a very plain block, allowing the colours of the yarn to do all the work for me. This allows me to really get lost in the rhythmic, soothing process of weaving, and becomes a meditation on both the process and the random evolution of the colours. The pieces you see to left and right are examples, unframed thus far.
My idea is to frame them, individually, in very plain, simple wooden frames. Within the frame will also be a handwrtten haiku, composed by me, relating to the images evoked by the weaving. I love the clarity and economy of haiku, the condensed images retaining a simple appreciation of the mysteries of the world around us. I think they work perfectly with the meditative process involved with the weaving of these pieces. I’m in no way claiming that my own haiku compare with the masters of the genre; but the pieces are personal to me, and using my own poetry makes them even more so. I guess it gives the viewer of the work an insight into my own perceptions, whether they agree or not.
Fading autumn sunlight,
glowing
over muddy fields
Night swallows spring evening,
casting shadows
that will pass
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