update

to all of you who read here and especially those who have left comments in the previous posts..thank you so much, your words of support give me courage and strength, they mean the world to me

we keep on getting austerity measures that are harshe and harsher, taxes piled upon taxes, and it doesn't look as if they are getting any results..

the computer is very uncooperative in the heat, it closes after loading sites and pictures, it gets overheated or just fed up..

I will visit individually, but I wanted to say a collective thank you

the japancloth is travelling with me to spain to be stitched down, and it will be presented to the Embassy in December

in between travelling:

I've made a feather for jude's feather project




I wanted it to be special, so I made the "cloth" first-pomegranate dyed crochet yarn, with a few extra strands of indigo added as an after thought
catching the shadows. It;ll go in the post on Tuesday
I learnt how to twine rags into string, and she got a head of hair, made from the mnemonic device I used while composing the tale I'm telling
and a face, and a name..meet ANNA the raglady
making a book of fabrics .. the Odyssey, part b, of course
abit like a vertical quilt- stacked layerson to the next voyage then.. see you soon!

back from Arcadia

mountain villages. Storytelling at dawn, watching the mountains float with the new light, the world being born again. my workshop this year was about the mythic image, metaphor, abstraction. Illustrated by the koutsouna ladies.

"what is in your hand?"

"a boat without sails"

it was half an empty walnut shell.

storytelling, no?

a memory of last year's workshop overwintering in the forest.

and stitching dots, making a cloth out of bundled scraps.

food for the soul.

how to make a traditional ragdoll from greece, a koutsouna

all you need

first the head, with the ridge in front
then the body, a cylinder, wind tightly
tie the body with the strip of cloth, tightly so that it stays attached to the neck. this is what makes me think that the lack of arms is intentional. It is easy to make this strip longer and give her arms
this is the "elegant" stage, like a cycladic sculpture
the shirt
the apron
the headscarf, longest side over the forehead. thesedays children call it a bandanna. until they notice the older ladies in the village, and say "look, a koutsouna~"
you can tie it in front,
or around the front and tied in the back. take care to cut the scarf wide enough, it is fiddly to tie when it is too short, and it gives character to the koutsouna.
from behind
this is to see the face, made by the walnut inside. the photo is dark, i'm sorry, but the shadows wouldn't show up with the flash.look at the walnut carefully, and at peoples heads. if you put it upside down, it doesn't work.

all the knots are simple- do you call them overhand knots? the first stage in shoelace tying. you want to be able to undo them easily, to give your koutsouna a change of dress, or body, or why not- face!

this is an article on traditional clothing

girls used to make baby koutsounes as well, and their first weavings were baby blankets, woven on a tile, for koutsouna babies.

Naomi, happy dollmaking and lots of hugs