Weaving the Threads Together to Make Something Beautiful

The table looms in the weaving room came in different sizes. If in doubt of what to do, you could always whip one of those out in a day or two. My mom has a framed small weaving I made in 3rd grade. It's about two inches wide and three inches tall. I thought I'd "go fancy" and include a PLASTIC BEAD in one of the threads. I have no idea what happened to any of the countless weavings I made on all those afternoons.

I have so many memories in that weaving room. I was lucky that I went to a school that had a weaving room, along with a clay room, wood shop, art room, and science room that we were REQUIRED to go to in the afternoons. I went to all of them. I made lots of clay figures with spaghetti hair made of clay pressed through a garlic press. I also made what I called "a stuffed animal carrier" in wood shop, which was probably one of the most useless things ever made. It was a giant box made out of plywood, with a handle, and a small door. It weighed about FORTY POUNDS empty and was so cumbersome, I never touched it after I brought it home.

In the science room, there were pickled creatures in jars, and metal dust you could collect with magnets. Once I came upon a box that said, "Open Me" and I opened it to find another, smaller box with the same message. So I opened that one and it had a message of "Almost there..." and so I opened it and there was a small box with a last message on it. When I opened the last box it had a dead, ruby breasted hummingbird. The dead bird scared me so much, that I dropped the box and ran out of the classroom and DIDN'T STOP until I got back to the classroom. I never told anyone why I was back early. It haunted me for years.

I am still drawing these fliers. I am still amazed by what comes up. They are such a good practice for memory, writing, and for drawing. I never in a million years thought about drawing those small table looms, but when I did, something in me WOKE UP.