SHAMAN WEAVER CLOTHS
These tapestries were created as part of Carolyn’s Shaman Weavers painting cycle, from 2011 to 2015. Each cloth measures 5 ft x 4 ft and is sewn onto a background of hessian. The materials (fabric, felt, embroidered and woven fragments, beads, bones, shells, hide, horse hair, salmon leather) were gathered or made during the preparation journey for each painting and completed before the weaver started to arrive onto the paint board.
When the Shaman Weavers were eventually ready for their first exhibition, they were installed into a large circle of black-wrapped frames, each weaver raised about 60cms from the floor, with her cloth attached below her hands and running down a ramp into the centre of the circle. The effect was to create a vast bowl-shaped loom, with the ancient women sitting around the rim, their weavings cascading down to where the viewer stood…
The shaman weaver cloths so beautifully represent for me the way that my journey with women’s work has unfurled over the last three decades: a tapestry of fragments, layers of colour and texture sewn over and around each other, precious ancient pieces that sit beside the vibrancy of something newly woven, the scents and prayers and quiet hands of women working around the world to mend and patch and darn and hem… There are entire arcs of life and death within these cloths, deep sadness and vivacious joy. Each cloth is big enough to wrap a woman, a protecting coat, the arms of sisterhood. It is all here, caught within thread and fibre. And the wild and sacred beauty of our earth pinned into each fragment…
This loom poem below contains words that have formed the titles for many of my workshops during the last thirty years. As with a loom, the words have been woven from the bottom to the top. Together, the weft threads of the workshops have strengthened and given meaning to the warp cords of my journey. The images are from the many shrines that have been spun into prayer by circles of sisters. I give gratitude to all the women who have walked across this loom with me…
THE CLOTH ON THE LOOM
the burnished copper vessel
small grey feathers – honouring the quiet wisdoms
ancient women of the mukthno waili
the coracle of grandmothers
braiding the land
soitla – bone dreamer initiation
lagyano – shrine guardian initiation
daweyo – hearth woman initiation
grandmother wolf, bear mother and heron woman
braided river confluence
salmon sisters camp
the braided river
the wise tending of women’s sacred fires
from our wild hills to our wise hearth
hearthstone – heron trail to hearth fire
pachamama prayer journey
braided river confluence
walking the reindeer road
when women drum to the north
wildsong pack pony pilgrimage
hearthstone – threshold to heron trail
hearthstone – hearth fire to heron trail
thirteen moons women’s festival (second)
shaman weavers – kindle, council of sisters
the shaman weavers – broken
a journey with ancient shaman weavings
the shaman weavers – weaving tundra, ocean and desert
the shaman weavers – vessel
the shaman weavers – shard
the shaman weavers – lichen
the shaman weavers – dusk
woven earth and hallowed ground
the shaman weavers – women who weave wisdom into the earth
the shaman weavers
weaving islands, caverns and wild hills
the shaman weavers – thorn
the shaman weavers – antler
the shaman weavers – copper
the shaman weavers – weft
weaving mountains, rivers and forest
where women weave wisdom into the earth
heron flies west to the amber river
thirteen moons wildsong camp
weaving the land – stone and sky
the cauldron of crows
weaving the land – wood and water
the amber road
ashes and earth – the illuminating woman
ashes and earth – raw earth
ashes and earth – the hollowing
ashes and earth – the cauldron of crows
samhain drum circles
thirteen moons women’s festival (first)
drums of the heathen hills
rivenstone – song of the harvest drum
the unseen moon and the darkest drum
into the winter house
women of the bear drum
women of the salmon drum
women of the hare drum
the northern sisterhood of drums
arctic deep winter women’s retreat journey
one thousand ancient mothers
inside the winter house
the northern sisterhood of drums
the primordial grandmother drum
the road to red ochre woman
the wilderness daughters of grandmother drum
rivenstone women’s meet
our oldest magic
how strong is the face of a woman’s drum?
the women’s house
women’s drum camp
the sacred house of women
midwoman – the gift of amber
the weathered edge
rivenstone women’s meet
the ragged megs
the oracle of nights
old silverhead
the heron house
a circle of thirteen
