January weavers gathering

January has come and gone in a blur but in there somewhere, our weavers gathering took place at my house; this time on the 3rd Monday.  An island of respite in a crazy month. As always I feel fortunate to share with friends a love of fiber and the many ways we inspire each other.

The night before we had our bookclub here, in which I almost burned down the house when my bread toasting under the broiler turned into charred burning little bodies with flames shooting out of the oven when I opened the door.  Word of wisdom… it’s best not to use a fire extinguisher during a party with food all over the counter; unless you absolutely have to.  Fortunately with back to back entertaining events I had bought lots of extra bread and was able to chuck what was on the counter and start over.  It made for a memorable evening.  As a fairly reclusive person entertaining is not something that I do especially well.  But hey I figured the house was already clean, minus the white powder in the kitchen that I would continue to find for weeks.

All’s well that ends well.  I haven’t had time to get a new warp on the loom as January and February have both had member shows at VIVA Gallery that involved me getting downstairs to make some jewelry.  Our January show was entitled “Woman Hold Up Half The Sky” and was in response to the infringement of women’s right worldwide.

My piece was titled Woman, Life, Freedom, in response to the atrocious lack of women’s rights in Iran. Picture below.

Jin, Jiyan, Azadi! (Woman, Life, Freedom) is the Kurdish revolutionary slogan chanted by mourners at the burial of a 22 year old Kurdish Iranian woman, Masha Amini. She was arrested by the morality police for improperly wearing her hijab. According to eyewitnesses she had been severely beaten. Later dying while in police custody.
As the protests spread from Amini’s hometown and throughout Iran, the government responded with widespread Internet blackouts, nationwide restrictions on social media usage, tear gas and gunfire. As of  December  17 2022 at least 469 people had been killed as a result of the government’s intervention in the protests; an estimated 18,480 have been arrested.. While continuing to protest Amini’s death and demanding an end to the mandatory hijab, Iranians have also advocated for wider freedoms and women’s rights. As should we all.

Our February show it VIVA features jewelry and chocolate in honor of Valentines Day.  So weaving is going to have to wait a little longer as I head down to my studio to work on some more jewelry.  I would like to fire up the torch and melt some glass for some heart beads, but we will see.   The sunshine and warmer temps are calling me to go outside and tromp around.

Enjoy the pictures of our last gathering.  Mary continues to amaze us with her work and Susanna and her husband Mark ( hope I got that right) joined us for the first time. I’m pretty sure I no longer remember all the the weave structures or who wove what.  That is the downside of writing this so far after the fact. Who am I kidding, I forget things about a minute after I do them.