Community Weaving Installed

I spent last night tying off the remaining student squares so that I could at least begin the installation of the community weaving project today. I had no idea how long it would take. The answer to that question was about 3 hours on site, plus all my prep work.

Who cares? I’m really happy with the finished product.

First, with a suggestion from my Fiberarts Guild, (thanks, ladies!) I strung the students squares like prayer flags and hung them between the Library sign and the building. Here are the first 2 rows – a total of 135 squares here.

I still had 55 squares to go, and I couldn’t fit them here. I didn’t want to add any hooks or other hardware to the Library exterior, so I tried using a tree for one end and the flagpole holder for the other. Although that worked, I knew that the flag hitting the line every time the wind blew would not be good for either the flag or my cotton line. So I decided to put a cable staple into the corner of the building and anchored the third line to it. Here you can see all 3 lines of the little flags.

Then I had to hang the 3 banners, 1 woven at each of the concerts we held. Before I left home I had tied the banners to bamboo poles, already well weathered so they’d blend in with the trees I planned to hang them from.

They move so easily in the breeze.

I tried to capture all the weaving at once — not an easy task.

One of the goals of the project was to see if the musical genre (string quartet, rock & roll, African drums) had an impact on the colors or textures people chose to weave with. For my project, I think the answer is no, but I think that’s because only 1 or 2 people had ever woven on a loom before, so everything about it was new to them. They were focused on learning the craft, not on the music.

Doesn’t matter, it was a success for introducing weaving and getting community involvement. All that’s left now is the paperwork.