Sheryl exhibiting great patience.
Nancy and Molly going to great heights for their art.
Saga of the Woven Paraments Part 3: We began by weaving at the bottom of the loom with a simple under and over pattern, straight across. We quickly realized that this would produce a rather boring composition. After researching more advanced techniques, we experimented with inserting some rhomboid-shaped “lozenges” (as they are called in the weaving biz) to add contrast and interest. These inserts were intended to be tapered, diamond shapes, but we quickly discovered that with the thickness of our weft, the diamonds kept stubbornly winding up as, well, blobs. As we continued working, we learned to accept, and even to love, our blobs.
Next, we discovered that as we worked the weft in around these blobs, they acted as obstacles, forcing us to weave up and over and around them. One observer commented that it seemed to be a metaphor for life – just when you feel as if you’re sailing smoothly along, you encounter a problem that you have to work around. Romans 5 resonated with us: “ … we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” Having to work around the obstacles in our weaving produced interesting, wavy horizontal lines, which gave character to the piece. And that produced hope that our banners might turn out all right, after all. And we began to feel the Spirit that had been at work through us.
More confident now, we thought further about the purpose of the banners and our design. These paraments are intended for Ordinary Time, the period on the liturgical calendar that falls between our church holidays and celebratory seasons. It is a time for spiritual renewal, growth, and the building up of the church; traditionally, the dominant color is green.
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