Good meeting of the Oxford Guild of Weavers Spinners and Dyers on Saturday with a talk from Jim Gaffney about Turkish Weaving - Colours of the Earth. It proved impossible to resist one of his natural-dyed woven kilims and it is now adorning my dining-room. I started a bit of a trend as two other kilims were also carried home by their happy owners. Sometimes it's necessary to succumb to beautiful objects... I read once that in Native American tradition there is no distinction between beauty and function: beauty arises from living in harmony with the order of the universe and a Navajo Night chant records how we are surrounded by beauty. That weaving is also a Navajo tradition doesn't seem a coincidence. And this harmony is also about trading fairly, and knowing that the kilim I now walk across each morning and evening has been made by Turkish women who are thus helped to preserve their traditions. Which is what this involvement in textiles is all about for me. Jim and his wife are going to be at Ally Pally in October so do check out their stall if you go.
Thursday, 25 March 2010
Objects of Desire
Good meeting of the Oxford Guild of Weavers Spinners and Dyers on Saturday with a talk from Jim Gaffney about Turkish Weaving - Colours of the Earth. It proved impossible to resist one of his natural-dyed woven kilims and it is now adorning my dining-room. I started a bit of a trend as two other kilims were also carried home by their happy owners. Sometimes it's necessary to succumb to beautiful objects... I read once that in Native American tradition there is no distinction between beauty and function: beauty arises from living in harmony with the order of the universe and a Navajo Night chant records how we are surrounded by beauty. That weaving is also a Navajo tradition doesn't seem a coincidence. And this harmony is also about trading fairly, and knowing that the kilim I now walk across each morning and evening has been made by Turkish women who are thus helped to preserve their traditions. Which is what this involvement in textiles is all about for me. Jim and his wife are going to be at Ally Pally in October so do check out their stall if you go.
