 | Re: Other Ways to co-create Weaving The Dream! |
| Re: Other Ways to co-create Weaving The Dream! |
Posted by Penny on January 04, 1999 at 13:02:25:
In Reply to: Other ways to co-create "Weaving The Dream!" posted by Penny on January 04, 1999 at 12:55:46:
Our Thanksgiving Family-Gathering "Ribbon Weave"
This past Thanksgiving our extended family celebrated my Father's 90th Birthday. Besides all of our traditional celebratory activities
I wanted to provide something for all of us to do which could become
a lasting memory of our Memorable 4 Day Gathering.
For this I asked each of our 11 family members to bring one piece of ribbon (9"-12" long, 1" or thinner in width). I then asked my Dad if he would be willing to give up several pairs of his shoelaces (which would represent something like ribbon, but a meterial which he actually had been wearing). He agreed and was intrigued.
I had prepared a simple piece of heavy paper (about 11"x17") which had 7 rows of 16 small vertical cuts, 1" apart, and 8 rows of 16 small horizontal cuts, 1" apart, centered between but just above and below the vertical cuts. This created a sort of "loom" in which to "weave" the ribbons and shoelaces.
My Dad's shoelaces became our horizontal weave and each of us then wove our ribbon contributions vertically through this structure. As there were 11 of us, but 15 spaces for vertical weavings, I chose to use the two outside vertical rows as part of the "frame" for our "Weaving". After it was all finished I also wove in bamboo skewers to pair with my Dad's shoelaces. I did this to give the structure some added strength and also because his Life Work had been as a Structural Engineer and builder of many Bridges for the state of California.
The first two vertical ribbon-weavings were put in the two center rows. They were from his 2nd wife, my stepmother, and a ribbon which had once been my Mother's (who passed away in 1986). Then the rest of us each added our own ribbons. This part just took 15 minutes or so.
I was fascinated to observe that each person demonstrated his or her own uniquness in one way or another. For some: the color was especially important; or other variations e.g adding two thin ribbons in place of one wider ribbon, or selecting many strands of thin raffia and knotting each end, or curling the ends of the ribbons.
In the end the piece looked like a rainbow of color and represented my Dad, his children, their spouses and his grandchildren (and one spouse). It was a very pleasing experience!
Later I took our "Weaving" to Kinkos and had colored copies made for each family member. These will eventually be matted and framed and given as gifts to all participants.
I also had the "Weaving" image reduced in size and have made notecards out of our Thanksgiving "Weave" so that we can easily continue to remember our Celebration of my Dad's 90th Birthday Gathering.
* To make this project easier for others to accomplish I suggest that
you might use either:
1.) A wide-weave needlepoint backing (1") for your future "weave" background
or
2.) Cut many 1" strips of heavy-weight paper which you will then "weave" together to make your own background for your "Weave"
(do you remember how you made little paper baskets when you
were in grade school?)
After your background has been prepared your guests can "weave" in their ribbons! When "The Weave" is all finished you might wish to mat it . The finished work can then be framed or the whole thing simply tacked onto a bulletin board, or whatever.....!
The PROCESS of the co-creation is the important feature here!
Penny
pax