Fiber Brain

The S.O.'s handwoven blue tallit. Made with linen, silk and cotton.

Lois Gaylord, my Significant Other, is a fabulous fiber artist. A weaver, a seamstress, a maker of fiber jewelry. She has confessed that she suffers from “fiber brain”. When we joined a local Jewish group (one that was more than willing to have me as a member), we discovered that they had commissioned the first Torah to be scribed by a woman. This grew into the Women’s Torah Project, the first Torah to be scribed by an international community of women.
Back to the S.O. and her fiber brain. She wanted to contribute to the project and for several years let it simmer on the back burner. As the Torah neared completion, she dyed her yarn and wove a bimah cloth, for the Torah to lie on while it is being read. This inspired her to really dig into melding her art and spirituality.
Now, a year and a half later, the WTP is going on a tour of the Bay Area, an event coordinated by another WTP artist, Aimee Golant. The S.O. is going along, headed for her homeland, carrying fabric. But not just any fabric. She has been weaving (and hand dying) tallit, jewish prayer shawls. Two of them just came off the loom today and they are stunning. Sadly, no pictures of the new ones yet, but here’s one of her earlier examples.
I realize that this sounds like an obvious path for the S.O. to have taken, but it was never that easy. There was a lot of questioning involved, about the value of art (not just monetary), about the validity of spirituality in art, among other things. She took that leap of faith and is running with it, creating beautiful pieces of wearable art.
So the lesson for today, kiddies, is to seize opportunities. You never know where they may take you.

 

A close-up showing some of the variations in weave structure.