This is a question I get from time to time, and I am always delighted to share a little bit about why I chose to call my weavings sacred and how some of my shawls came to be, such as the Storytellers shawl and the animal and goddess cloaks that I make…
But first a story…..
In Norse mythology, there are a trio of goddesses who measure and regulate the fates of all beings including humans and deities. These three are also known as the Wyrd Sisters.
These three are said to sit at the base of the world tree and weave the fate of all beings. One representing the past, one the present and one the future.
This story always held a kind of wonder for me and over the years, as I explored some of my own Norse ancestry I came to carry this story with me in my own weaving, and there was a time when I called my weavings, Wyrd weavings.
When I warp my loom, which is to say when I lay down the first strings that will become the bones of the weaving, I have come to see a certain kind of magic within, for these strings, although hidden by the beauty of those woven over and under them carry the essence of the weaving, and depending on what my clients desire for their weaving to become, the warp will carry the essence of that magic.
For example I recently made a custom storytellers cloak, that was also to carry the essence of my clients ancestors.
Together we decided on a brown warp to represent grounding and earth. Then she wanted to add in the essence of her female ancestors and their strength, and so I wove in three strands of deep red right in the middle of the warp, that would be not only seen but felt through the entire piece.
This weaving also created a strong backbone for the rest of her cloak to come together, one that she may or may not share with others as she wears her cloak and weave her own stories in it.
Weaving Magic:
Weaving carries much folklore and magic, for example, the first moment that my first loom arrived I literally could hear my Irish, Scottish and Romanian ancestors cheering and crying, for it seemed that it had been a long time since one of our own had picked up a shuttle!
I then turned to some research on Scottish folklore and read about how the women would weave tartan for the warriors going to battle with prayers of protection woven within and it gave me goosebumps.
I immediately could imagine weaving magic intentions and prayers into my pieces and of course wanted to weave all my family members something imbued with my love, protection and prayers for them!
And so it was, that when I sat down to create a page for sharing some of my weavings the word Wyrd Weavings popped into my mind, carrying the folklore and magic of the Wyrd sisters, the three fates weaving magic and protection into all they touched. Since then I have changed it to Sacred weavings, but the essence of those wyrd sisters still holds true today…
Storyteller Shawls:
As a storyteller myself, in both my weavings and when I get the chance I love nothing more then sharing stories and “Spinning a good yarn” which by the way is the best way of putting it dont you think?
The idea for the storytellers shawls came first from wanting to make a piece that carried all of the myths and stories I had rolling around in my head, as often happens when I begin weaving..
So one day I just through to myself, I am going to make a shawl that a true storyteller would wear, and I envisioned it full of texture and movement, with clinking shells and beads, with bones and feathers hanging off of it and a thousand stories held within its folds, magical right?
It was shortly thereafter that I had the chance to create one of these pieces for a client who is a storyteller and as we spoke and she shared her stories of ancestors and al of the magic she saw going into her shawl that I knew I was going to be weaving the kind of magic that I always imagined… and thus the Storytellers cloak/shawl was born..
I now have been weaving for about seven years and in the past three or so have had the honour to have made so many custom pieces that have touches my heart, from grieving shawls, to ancestral pieces, from creative storytellers shawls to animal medicine pieces all of these shawls and cloaks hold some magic within them and although they all are with others, I still hold a little piece of the memory of weaving them within me and this is the magic of what I get to do!
