゜✧*̣̩☽⋆゜ web weaver (2022-23)

It has been a time full of observation, testing and feeling the plans in my neighborhood. Plants that are
appearing and disappearing throughout the year. I found out that even the city has such a rich garden,
healing our body and guiding the thoughts, giving the pigments for wool coloring but also paint pigments
(comfrey root, dandelion, nettles, golden white, gentian, oak bark, hawthorn, barbaries, blackberries...). I
even ate some of them and made tea. I made a documentation of the process and spoke about it with
people who saw me collecting the plants or at the workshop.
The aspect of sharing and cooperation was important. Suddenly my neighborhood was activated and I got
to know more people living around that I also met in the workshop presentation.
I found out it's possible to get the wool at several places and people who knew about my project even
came to give me more wool and try out the spinning on the spinning wheel that I learned at the beginning
of the project. It gave me time to think about the objects we are daily using and about this alienation from
its making and how loud technologies are spiritually imprinted in the products. I experienced that such a
personal participation is bringing more love to the work, awareness of the products history that I'm buying
and also new ideas about the art work. I experienced that it is wise to be aware of the state of mind while
working, that it is truly influencing the result - of coloring the yarn, spinning or painting and that I only
want to work in a bit more conscious state of mind to be responsible for the aura of the work I'm bringing.
I learned to prepare the wool for spinning, how to clean it right and how to brush it. At first I was
contacting the places with sheeps, that were related to my life. In Den Haag I got the wool from stables
that I visit every week and I know those sheeps. It's a community place where other parents with kids are
going and I had a personal connection with it which I see as an important part for the vibe of my work in a
world where many products are alienated and therefore I believe it goes on in personal relationships.
The other wool I got was from Prokop, a family member who has sheeps in the beautiful countryside.
He's a philosopher and spiritual person. I like those sheeps. Sheeps are also community beings
.
I found out in what temperatures one needs to wash the wool and what soap to use and how to dry it. It
was messy work and my baby ate a sheep poo from the hairs ehhh.
I learned which pieces of the wool one can use, what length and softness, at a workshop in Laiden.
My man, who is also a carpenter, designed a drum carder for this project so I could brush it easily. It was
later used by the community working with burn out people for their workshop. More people are feeling
the need to get to the basics.
It took me days to be able to make very thin yarn and finally I succeeded. I bought a Dutch brand
spinning wheel at Almare, where I also learned the basics of spinning from a woman, who does
workshops there. While I was studying the long tradition of textile making and its dreamy and fairy tale
aspects connected with women and her creativity of making new lives.
For each yarn I had to prepare special modrands, from iron or from alum. I was studying many new and
old books and made copies from the library to try different methods and I was also making my own
experiments. It was often not so successful as the dying goddess is not always a blessing.
I feel like we can find some lost life sense while discovering that the nature here is still strong and we are
able to be self-sufficient in making at least some stuff and not only buying - I'm not saying to only make
things ourselves, but that this helps to be aware and happy about what we have. I feel like the work got
some more depth but also playfulness.
Dying was and still is a very difficult thing, it's a craft on its own and I followed several receipts and did
improvisations too. I made my mordans, wool pretreatments. It often failed badly. I found out that the
vibe of making is affecting the result and sometimes while repeating the same process I had much better
results than the other day. I know it's often about the details, but those were influenced quickly by the
mood and focus. Also the nettles I collected at the end of March give nicer fresh color than those from the
end of April…also the location made a big difference. It's indeed an alchemy of soul and physics. During
the time I was able to create several colors, nettles are my favorite burning plants, also oaks, that are
magic and are growing in dunes where we like to chill under the tree and suck some energy, camomila,
comfrey that Is helping on bones, onion, I also got madder root from a friend and I'm just planting my
own to create the red colors. I'm also planting indigo and several other herbs for colors that are hard to
get, they will be big enough next year.
Through the time I painted new images reflecting on the invisible world, visions about motherhood and
thoughts about this web weaver spinning spider process, inspired by night dreams that had some visual
comments on it.
I made one tapestry at a very cool place in Holland in Heeze at EE Exclusives, where I was able to use
one of my yarns, because others were still too thick and breaking. 
Therefore I got an exciting idea to start tufting the other yarns into the tapestry. For that I learned to
work with a tufting machine, electric and also very basic non electric one, to try out also something more
silent that is not destroying the surface and I ordered a cheaper cotton tapestry in the US to try it out and
use more colors from the yarn I made. Then I was free to do very thick yarns and mix the colors freely
instead of trying to be a well working spinning machine, which I was not..
Therefore this project led to discovering new methods on how to incorporate more surface and colors to
bit too flat tapestry plus how to go on freely with tufting with my wool that is not so smooth and tiny all
the time.
Since I was experimenting with the pigments and plants already, I found out I can make colors and use it
for the painting as well. That is still at the beginning, but I already made oak apple ink, which is known
from the 5th century and dandelion yellow.
I made the presentation and workshop at Waaygate stable community place for local families. 
My next steps will probably be natural pigments for paintings and some more workshops about wool
since I learned from families that it is a desired activity at local Waldorf schools and for people on a
physical journey.