Sea Foam

Sea Foam: An exploration in Saori Weaving “…the spirit of weaving was found in the practice of breaking away from conventional ways of thinking and living a life faithful to your true self.”(Misao Jo – Self Discovery through Free Weaving -SOARI). In 2004, I attended a brief, yet profoundly inspiring seminar about Saori Weaving. The premise of this technique is that the process of weaving is an exploration and discovery of self. It is experiential. It is ongoing, without beginning or end. Each Saori piece is unique. As a Fibre Artist, I am challenged to move an idea from a conceptual framework, to a piece that can be experienced by others. I am very drawn to the process of creating the work. It can exist “in the ethers” for a very long time. It evolves and grows. Occasionally, it is carried forth. My inspiration for Sea foam, was to capture “… that which remains.” After the tide subsides from the shore. I have used a silk warp of several textures to give the foam depth and have embellished with colored silk bits and handspun tassah silk in the weft to represent shells, sand and bits of seaweed. Using the principles of Saori, the warp was randomly wound and threaded. Broken threads were consciously left broken. Decisions to alter the beat, or change texture and colour were made spontaneously at the loom. May 2005 (click on photos for larger view)

This project has been a series of "firsts" for me. Although I have spun silk, I had never woven with it. I had never mixed yarns of varied weights, or altered the sett.

I consider myself a "colour" person. White is "boring" I said. I had planned on dyeing these skeins. But as I spent more time with them, I realized they were far from being bland. The colours were subtle, and their differences in texture made them sumptous.

The idea for this project came from a single word - Seafoam.
While in Vancouver, I saw an exhibit of ocean inspired pottery called "Sea Escape" by Shirley Takako Inouye. When I finally decided that I might actually weave Seafoam, I put together a sand table, and played with rocks and shells for awhile.

I began to appreciate the unique qualities and differences between rock, shell, and sand.

Is this not exactly a perfect expression for silk?

I began to work in earnest. Winding the warp.

Winding the warp on was challenging. I had lost the cross (my mistake) and therefore some threads were crossed and several broke. In keeping with the Saori philosophy of free weaving, I left the threads broken and continued on. It was essential to not only accept the moment, but to embrace it as an opportunity to be part of Seafoam.