The Marvellous and The Mundane
A letter on the magic of hand weaving and a maker's imprint on the cloth.
If you follow me over on Instagram, you may recall I recently wrote an Instagram caption about the value (yes more on value!) of handwoven cloth and since have been wanting to expand on it. Now I have the perfect place to share my thoughts on this sort of thing, I want to delve into the subject a bit deeper.
We are surrounded by fabric, cloth is essential. Woven and knitted into the bones of our lives, cloth is with us from the day we are born until death and beyond. Many of our dearest memories are held within the garments and textiles that surround us. However, some cloth is just a little more special than others, in my opinion. That would be the cloth that is created by hand. In this instance I’m talking about hand woven cloth, but these same ideas could be extended to knitting and stitching. The rhythmic process of creation is much the same across all hand worked textiles.
Hand woven cloth is more than just the sum of its materials, it is a labour of love. Long hours are spent at the loom, setting it up and weaving. There are no shortcuts, well not many at least. Hand weaving is very intentional, each line of weft has been put there with purpose. Each pass of the shuttle involves many nuanced movements of the weaver’s hands and body. The finished cloth encapsulates these motions of the weaver, a time stamp of those moments.
This long and repetitive process allows our minds to drift. The grounding experience of working with your hands in continual motions is much like meditation and opens your mind to let thoughts rise and fall, in and out. These thoughts and feelings are woven into the grain of the cloth. Sometimes it’s deep thoughts about life and creativity, other times to do lists of washing and food shopping. The marvellous and the mundane, sandwiched in between each pick. The value of hand woven cloth lies in the unseen, the hours of labour and the love for the process by which it is crafted.
Like hand thrown pottery, or a hand carved bowl, hand woven fabric is full of what I like to call maker’s marks. Those perfect imperfections, that can only be created by hand. No matter how many times you make the same thing, the nature of hand work means there will be miniscule differences each time. This is the beauty of the human touch, something which is lacking in mass produced factory items. That is not to say that I am against weaving in mills, in fact I love to visit weaving mills and find the looms fascinating. There are still many elements of hand processes there, changing shuttles, watching the cloth and yarns for breaks etc. But there is nothing quite like knowing the textile you hold has been created completely by hand and hours of love for a process. Whether we can see the maker’s marks or not, the knowledge that these moments of hand creation exist is enough to deepen our relationship with the cloth.
Owning hand woven cloth is undoubtedly a luxury. If you are not a weaver yourself, then the cost can often be off putting - priced highly to compensate for the hours of work taken to produce. In an ideal world, our lives would be filled with meaningful, hand crafted items that are full of intention and purpose. This is far from realistic, especially given the current state of the world, but we can strive to find little corners of our lives and homes to share with these important items.
Hopefully you’ve enjoyed these little thoughts around weaving and the value of handmade processes. I’d love to know if you have any more thoughts/ideas in response to these? Please feel free to share them in the comments.
Keep Connecting,
Millie.
The Marvellous and The Mundane
I don't weave, won't have the time or space to do in this lifetime, but I love hearing about a crafter's thoughts. I knit, am just learning crochet, but I have a weaver acquaintence who I think would really enjoy your newsletter. I'm going to pass it on to her right now.
I may subscribe myself, just to be in the fine company of another creator!