Winter Sky

Each season has its own beauty, and no season is more poignant than winter. Leafless trees, bare, rise stark against a landscape of muted colors. Hints of color emerge from evergreens and the rust-brown of beech trees or the occasional oak that hold onto their leaves as if to spite the wind.

Winter sunsets, as viewed from my studio/office, are lovely. My phone’s camera doesn’t see color as I do, so my photographs offer an interpretation of the moment, not the moment as I experienced it. The camera does, however, capture winter’s bare trees.

The colors in winter sunsets inspire me as I select yarns for my loom. I frequently warp my loom with black yarn, (the long-ways yarns that make the fringe on a scarf) just as winter’s trees stand dark against the sky. I find myself gravitating to muted colors, often in monochromatic schemes, with splashes of color for accents or texture.

Understanding my own preferences and being comfortable expressing them is both freeing and gratifying. It’s in following what my heart says that I develop a signature of my own. I find this to be true in basket weaving. More on that another time.