Shadowing / Ecumen Centennial House, Chiaki O’Brien, Older Adults, 2 hours
This week I joined Chiaki at an assisted living center in Apple Valley where she was hosting a series of weekly Saori weaving classes for the home’s residents. There were four people who joined, all of whom had been attending for one or more weeks. Because of the length of the class and the number of sessions, each weaver would return to the project they had started in weeks prior. The biggest difference between this class and the previous one at the Weavers Guild was the time I spent with each of the students, and the amount of help I offered. At the weaver’s guild I was mostly observing, making regular rounds of the room to chat with students about their choices, their weaving experience and their process. At Ecumen I spent my time split between two women and had a lot more hands-on work with them. The kind of help I was there for was refilling shuttles with yarn, grabbing spools off the table, adjusting the loom tightness, reminding them of the steps and helping take sweaters off and on (it was a snowy day so we were all bundled, but the room was set to about 80 degrees). Mostly the ladies wanted to chat, about who I was and why I was there, about their work and their weeks, health issues that had come up and their families.
Because they had all been doing the Saori weaving for a few weeks at that point, everyone was solidly in the rhythm and flow of Saori methodology. One of the women I was working with had based her last weaving off of a shawl her friend had knit her husband while he was going through chemo, and had both hanging in her room. She told me about how the weaving let her feel free like she didn’t feel in other aspects of her life, and how she wished every part of her day could embrace mistakes like Saori weaving does.
I think a large part of their day-to-day lives show a different level of control than before they moved into the assisted care home; the amount of control over where they go and when relies a great deal on others. I think what Chiaki was able to share with them was a balance of control over choice, while letting go of expectations. They had all embraced the characteristics of Saori, having nicknames based on their tendencies in weaving. Sandy was the Loose Weaver while her neighbor down the hall was the Tight Weaver.
Talking with the “Loose Weaver” made me wonder how we could incorporate the Saori mentality into more places in our lives; how to embrace mistakes and celebrate taking chances, even if they don’t work out like you had hoped. These kinds of approaches can be so helpful for any kind of situation and I’m curious as to how this mentality can be shared. From what I’ve experienced with these Saori classes, the physical act of doing this work naturally sparks these conversations. How can these conversations and realizations happen outside of weaving?
Residency / Highpoint Center for Printmaking, Tyler Green, 3 hours
This week’s classes were rescheduled due to the weather, so Tyler had me come in to do prep work in the classroom. It was mostly paper tearing and deep cleaning, as there hadn’t been any classes that week to get any of the tools too dirty.