Technical Competence – Single Ritual Piece

1.      Choose one of the arts/crafts you already work with and create a new piece which you can use in ADF ritual, and which requires you to learn or improve a specific skill or technique.  Throughout this process, record your experience after each time you work on the piece, reflecting on what comes readily, where your challenges occur both in handling the material and your own perceptions/attitude/resistance and how you overcame any difficulties.  Submit your notes documenting the process with photos of the work. 

After doing so much work with Athena through the past few months, I decided I wanted to dive into weaving as a way to work with her.  I started practicing by doing a few basic square pieces and then selected this project as my single ritual piece.  Athena has found her way into every piece that I have done, so this time I selected an Owl intentionally to act as a symbol of her during my next Panathenia celebration.

I was fortunate to find a very basic pattern to base my weaving off of, and I began by placing my pegs in the appropriate shape.  I was a bit skeptical at my ability to do this because I haven’t done any weaving that wasn’t just square, but I knew I wanted to try.  The shape itself looks very owl-like, and when my son was able to identify what it was I felt a lot more confident.

I then used a thick, grey yarn to warp my loom. This process took a couple of tries to get the shape the way I felt it should look.  I first tried setting it up as one solid piece, but ultimately settled on making the wings separate from the body of the shape.  When I started to get frustrated, I took a minute to talk with Athena and settle myself down before continuing.  Ultimately, I’m pleased with how it turned out.

After the warp was set up the way I wanted it to be, I began the weaving itself by using a dark teal wool to weft the shape of the first wing.  I had a general idea of how I wanted the wings to be shaped, so I tried to keep that in mind each row to identify which strings from the warp should be included, and which ones shouldn’t.  There were a couple of instances where the shape wasn’t quite right, so I removed some of the weaving and tried again.  I am quite pleased with the final result though.  I like the color combination quite a lot, and think that the shape definitely looks like a wing.  Also, I feel that I did a good job in keeping the weaving straight and consistent.  I was incredibly nervous about this project because it’s unlike anything else I have done, but so far I’m pleased with the results.

           

The second wing was much easier to do since I had the reference from the first wing.  I essentially reversed the process and created the second wing.  I can definitely see the owl shape taking form.  I was a bit concerned about the way the wings were pulling away from the body, so I knew that would have to be addressed when I started weaving that piece, even though I wasn’t entirely sure how to do it. 

The next time I picked up this piece to work with it, I knew I had to bind the wings to the body.   I didn’t even know how to begin, so I took several deep breaths and made offerings to Athena, asking her to guide my hands and help me plan as I worked on this next piece.  Then it was time for me to weft the body of the owl.  I started at the top and began weaving the body, looping through the wings to pull it all together.  As I worked with the yarn, I felt Athena’s guidance helping me to know where to move next.  At the end, I feel that the piece looks cohesive and well pulled together.  I do like the contrast between the wings and the body, and it definitely feels much more solid after I connected everything together.

            The next step in this process was the weave the head of the owl.  In the middle of this, I knew I would need to use two different colored yarns in order to create the eyes as well.  I once again called to Athena and made offerings to her before my work.  I feel peace wash over me and know that I will have her guidance in this work. I weave the teal color of the face, starting at the bottom and moving up.  As I got to the space that I wanted the eyes to be, and wasn’t sure how to proceed.  I took the time to look at the work and decided that I would weave the teal yarn under the space that the eyes would go, leaving the weft unused for the eyes.  After I finished weaving the head, I went back in with the yellow thread and added it to those blank spaces.  I definitely feel like it’s starting to take shape!

            Next, it was time for details to get put in.  I used black yarn to create pupils in the owl’s eyes.  It made a huge difference in the appearance. I then went back in with the yellow yarn and created a beak and feet for the owl.  I wanted the beak and feet to stand out so instead of weaving those pieces into the work, I more embroidered them on top of the weaving.  I like the way they look and the details helped finish the look of this working. 

The final step for any weaving project is to remove your creation from the loom and weave in your ends.  I carefully removed the owl from the loom and did just that, carefully weaving each yarn end into the back of the piece while making sure that they didn’t show through on the front. 

And here it is, my finished product.  Ultimately, it didn’t turn out perfectly, and there are some flaws that I would fix in the future if I were to do this again.  However, I am quite happy with how it turned out, especially as my first real effort with this type of weaving.  I know this piece will be an important part of my next Panathenia ritual, and I’m excited to use it.