ChatGPT, the kindness of others, textile sculptures, spinning and weaving, and postcards are the topics of these links that I enjoyed. I hope you will enjoy one or several of them, too.
Writer Amanda Guinzburg asked ChatGPT to evaluate and choose several of her essays to send to an agent. Read her crazy conversation with ChatGPT, all presented as screenshots. It's unbelievable how human-like ChatGPT sounds. Have you interacted with ChatGPT before? What do you think?
I thought some of these Site-Specific Textiles by Rachel B. Hayes were beautiful.
Read about the mostly-anonymous kindnesses of others in "A Restaurant Surprise I'm Still Thinking of Two Decades Later." Also, don't miss all the stories in the comments section. They may be better than the original article. Do you have experiences of being the recipient and/or the kindness-giver?
There's a movie called "The Nettle Dress," about the process of harvesting, processing, spinning, and weaving nettle to become cloth to make a dress. Below is the trailer. And watch another brief video showing how the spinner/weaver scoured (cleaned) and weighted small skeins of the yarn for the weft. (Whenever I think of nettle I think of stinging nettle, a wild plant that causes an awful reaction on my skin. How does he prevent a reaction, I wonder.)
I think this was so interesting to me because in earlier decades I was a spinner, dyer, and weaver.
For a while, Bonnie and Ellen worked together. They became good friends and then Ellen moved away. She began writing a postcard a day to Bonnie who saved them all. She amassed thousands which are now on exhibit at Willamette College. See photos here at Bonnie's blog and read a news article here.
--Nancy.
Another interesting roundup, Nancy. And that Bonnie and Ellen story which I've never heard of sounds fascinating. I will be following your leads there. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome, Jocelyn. I wish I lived close enough to Bonnie to see the exhibit in person.
DeleteOh, a new rabbit hole to jump right into! I read the story of Bonnie and Ellen and was hooked! We used to live about 20 minutes from Salem, my sister and BIL still do, I've linked the story in an email to see if they know Bonnie. P.S. I was once a weaver (and a very bad spinner), but decided that quilting was more my medium. I still get excited to find a new quilting blog...though I should really be stitching instead of reading about it!
ReplyDeleteThose rabbit holes can be so tempting, and time-consuming, and hard to get out of sometimes, too, Pat. I think Bonnie was an instructor at Willamette, and I'm sure her husband was. I wonder if your sister knows or knows of Bonnie.
DeleteI've been thinking about my loom, linger in our attic. I really need to get it out, put all the pieces in one place, and try to sell it. Is a 40" Glimakra Ideal with a hanging beater. I haven't used it for over 25 years. The spinning wheel, either.
That's true for me, too. I should be stitching instead of reading blogs....
I just clicked through to see all the links. What wonderful stories and experiences! Thank you, Nancy.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome, Nann.
DeleteI staerted reading your selections, always enjoy. Thanks. Just the idea of a nettle dress makes me squirm, tho--looking forward to learning more.
ReplyDeleteI forgot to foward y answer to you clouds question from my blog. A couple posts back "mid-July"
Caught some beautiful Mare's Tail clouds for coming Monday post too.
Oh it didn't paste...emailing now.
DeleteYou're welcome. I know what you mean about the nettle, Lizzie.. Well, linen isn't a very soft fiber until it's been processed, but even thinking about gathering the nettle makes me uncomfortable. I suppose it softens similar to the way linen does.
DeleteI'll go back and look at the Mare's Tail clouds from your mid-July post. Robin at I Like to Create posted some interesting clouds the other day. She said her grandmother used to call them Buttermilk clouds--which caused me to wonder how often clouds have "common" names and what they are.