On Weaving

There’s something about weaving that I’ve always found intriguing. It might be related to my fascination for how things connect, easily visible in an open weaving. I like to observe and decipher the links between random situations and their manifestation in the material world: how do things connect at the physical level? I love details of all kinds but mainly because of the joy it brings me to figure out how things are put together, and how wonderful the result of combining random materials can be.

Coming back to weaving, last Christmas I received a wonderful gift – a rigid heddle loom to remind me of a trip to Guatemala. The amazing trip happened a few months before, and while exploring the fascinating Mayan civilization, I discovered their stunning textiles, results of exquisite ancient weaving techniques. I was very close to taking a weaving class there, but time limitations only left me with a craving to pick up this new activity when back in the States. That trip also brought back memories of my childhood days spent in the Romanian countryside, when on lazy summer days, my sister and I would wake up in the morning with the sound and humbling view of my grandmother weaving on her immense loom. The simplicity of that activity, or for that matter the entire countryside living, did not appeal to me until years later, when I started appreciating that little self sufficient universe where people grow what they eat, weave what they wear and dance to their own music.

And so I started weaving with a familiarity that took me by surprise, and in time it became clearer why I love it so much. Weaving is a metaphor of life and a symbol of creation. It has the power to remind us that thread-by-thread we can create a reality of our own. It is a reassurance that every step is important and through the lesson of persistence and balance, we can weave our dreams into reality.

Here is my first piece and a few shots from the process.