pilgrimage | Tien Chiu's Blog

It’s almost time! I’m flying to San Miguel de Allende on Wednesday.

I’ve been thinking hard about what to bring in the way of craft supplies. I’m not sure what will be available in San Miguel de Allende, especially since I’ve heard from local weavers that there aren’t a whole lot of weavers there. (There are plenty of weavers in Mexico doing wonderful work, but the biggest concentration is in Oaxaca, a long ways away.)

So if I want to be sure I have access to something, I need to bring it with me.

Left unchecked, this dilemma would undoubtedly result in two suitcases full of craft supplies, plus a small carry-on with a few clothes. (Because having to go around naked is far better than not having that fourteenth pair of scissors, RIGHT???)

After much thinking and journaling, I’ve concluded that, instead of trying to weave, I’m going back to my trusty spindle. The only thing I know for sure about my series Pilgrimage (see the full set of blog posts about it here) is that it will contain a glittery or glowing magenta thread as a “through line”.

Every piece will have that magenta glow somewhere, woven with yarn hand spun on my drop spindle. I plan to take that spindle nearly everywhere – when weaving, when going about town meeting people, maybe even in Spanish class, if the teacher doesn’t mind.

The magenta comes from the strange magenta glow over the house on my last day in the old place. Here it is again:

pre-dawn magenta glow over our old house

I have never seen anything like that eerie glow before. I’m sure there is some meteorological explanation for it. But before dawn on the last day of the house I’d lived in for 13 years? That’s an omen, a pointer beckoning to the new life. A signal for change.

So I’m making that magenta the uniting element for the entire series. Whatever the piece, it will have at least a little (possibly a lot!) of magenta in it, always leading to the transformational path.

Towards that, I’ve been sampling a lot of different fibers and fiber blends. Here are some of them:

The white ones were spun with the intent of dyeing the yarn afterwards, but I also dyed a bunch of silk bright magenta (the bottom ones).

All of the skeins have some form of sparkle in them. Mostly holographic silver angelina mixed with silk or wool, but also two tiny skeins of magenta plied with an iridescent thread.

Unfortunately, the sparkle doesn’t show up in photos, because sparkle is caused by tiny eye movements and the camera captures an instantaneous image. So it’s hard to evaluate them based on a photo.

Of the skeins, I like the top and bottom pink skeins best. The top one is two plies of magenta thread and one ply of iridescent thread. The bottom one is magenta fiber liberally blended with holographic silver angelina (sparkle fiber). I haven’t yet decided which one to use.

I’m currently in the middle of spinning a larger sample skein of the magenta thread mixed with iridescent thread. The thread I’m spinning is quite fine, about 11,000 yards per pound. (Sewing thread is 12,000 yards per pound.) So the 92 yards I’ve spun so far weighs only 3.8 grams:

I’m actually using two spindles to make the yarn. The first is my “walking spindle,” which I use on my morning walks. Since I occasionally drop it onto the sidewalk, it’s gotten a bit battered.

The second one is a beautiful spindle that I just got from Golding Fiber Tools, which makes gorgeous, one of a kind spindles that are perfectly balanced and spin nearly forever. It has a gold plated Tree of Life on the spindle whorl, which I thought was perfect for this journey. However, it’s so beautiful that I hate to drop it on concrete, so I plan to use it indoors.

Here are both spindles:

I’ve spun probably another 100 yards between the two spindles, so it’s just about time to start plying with the iridescent thread. Because plying on a drop spindle can be awkward, I’m going to ply using the tiny Electric Eel Nano 2.1 electric spinner that arrived a week or two ago. It’s small enough to fit into my cupped hands, so perfect for traveling.

Those tools, the magenta fiber, iridescent thread and angelina fiber, and some cotton carders (for blending fibers) are all I currently plan to take. (I am debating taking some additional white silk fiber and some dyes, but I think that would be gilding the lily.)

I’m also bringing my laptop and iPad, of course, and intend to sketch out my thoughts for each piece along the way. I will develop them into finished work once I’ve settled into my new home (wherever that may be!) and have my studio set up again.

Off to follow that magenta glow!

I haven’t written much the last few weeks because the chaos has been insane.

However, the house is sold, and we’ve packed and moved all our stuff – a heroic effort. We’re both pack rats and we’d been there for 13 years!

Between the two of us we packed just under 200 moving boxes, gave away 30+ more boxes to Goodwill (the neighbors got plenty too!), and got rid of two BIG dumpsters’ worth of rubbish.

It is said that one learns a lot about oneself while moving, and this is true.

For example, I discovered that I have 28 boxes of yarn, weighing approximately 20 lbs apiece. That’s 560 lbs of yarn! And that’s AFTER selling or giving away another 80-100 lbs. That’s thoroughly embarrassing.

However, I must say….

I also discovered that I own 33 pairs of scissors (!). (Like tribbles, they appear to be born pregnant.)

Here are some of them:

The ones at top left are my favorites. They’re not great for cutting, but they are fascinating – a gift from a Tibetan lama friend, hand-forged in a small town in India.

Below is a better picture of those scissors. You can still see the grinder marks on the handles. Talk about “hand of the maker”!

I also found some “blast from the past” memorabilia. This, for example, comes from my trip to Southeast Asia in 2003. It’s from an adventure I had in Bangkok, where the best body painter in Bangkok agreed to paint me up as a barbarian warrior princess (and I wound up on the front cover of a travel magazine!). We had a photo shoot with various props. I’d completely forgotten about this one!

I also found wedding dress #1. I made this one myself, in 1994. It’s not bad, especially considering how inexperienced I was at the time. The beads have tarnished, but 30 years ago they were bright gold.

Doesn’t hold a candle to wedding dress #2 – but then, neither did the marriage. 😉

On the morning after we cleared out the old house, I returned before dawn for one last round through the house. To my amazement, the sky above the house was glowing a beautiful (and eerie) magenta, even though it was still quite dark. I have never seen anything like that before. Here is a picture – exactly as shot, and completely unenhanced.

This is inspiring a new series that I think I am going to call Pilgrimage. As I’ve currently conceived it (and this will likely change at least 30 times before I finish it, if it even gets finished), it’s a series of four pieces:

Threshold – leaving the everyday normal and launching into the unfamiliar
Wandering – exploring the new world (and maybe getting a bit lost!)
Cocoon – musings on what I’ve learned
The Way Home – settling into a new home and a new “normal”

So far I’m only thinking about the first two pieces. I am really struggling on the format and media – obviously I won’t have the jacquard loom, and probably won’t until the end of my journey, so weaving them on the jacquard loom is probably not viable. And I can’t fit too much equipment into my suitcase.

I’m thinking that the best format is probably tapestry, but I have not done tapestry weaving except for a brief one-month trial, and I wasn’t particularly fond of the process. That was twenty years ago and I might like it better now, so I am planning to put together a simple loom and maybe experiment a bit before leaving.

I have a vague idea that Threshold will start with that picture of the glowing sky over our old house (it really did seem like an omen!) and that the unifying theme across all the pieces will be a glowing magenta thread or path to represent the spiritual journey. The magenta glow will, of course, be handspun with a drop spindle on my morning walks, and will probably incorporate some sparkly stuff.

I haven’t had a chance to think it through any further yet – things have been way too crazy. This past weekend was the first breath of free time I had for over a month – and I spent most of it just catching up on sleep!

I am (hopefully) leaving for Mexico in exactly three weeks, so I don’t have much time to think things through. I think the most important thing to figure out is what tools and materials I should bring with me, and “wing it” later, within the limits of the things I’ve brought along. This is completely unlike my usual working style, so I’m feeling very rushed – and, frankly, pretty uncomfortable with the whole thing.

And that’s GREAT. The whole purpose of this trip is to explore new ways of thinking, doing, and being. This may not produce my best work, but it’ll engage me in a dialogue about my style, process, and beliefs – which is exactly what I am looking for, right now.

Following the Magenta Thread

Crossing the Threshold