Springtime

Here in Savannah everything is blooming, birds are nesting, and it’s just gorgeous. I have a stunning clematis vine in bloom and I am in love. Each flower is almost as big as my head.

I wish I could be outside to enjoy it, but literal rivers of yellow pollen are flowing down from the trees and now all of a sudden my sole goal is continuing to breathe through the night. Hopefully soon it will all settle down and maybe I can get out there again.

I’ve been working as much as I can (my stability kind of comes and goes) and this week I’m back in the Introduction section of the massive Pattern Book, starting to put in the page number references, etc. to connect it all to the charts, patterns and the Technical Manual. It’s satisfying to see this final section coming together.

(Click any of the photos to open a new window to see the spreads better.)

Did you get to see the eclipse yesterday? We had about 70% coverage here but stupidly I fell asleep in the afternoon and missed the whole thing! I hope you did better.

I’ve really enjoyed hearing from you all over the past months, and one of the cherished friends I’ve made through the project is Jobi Cates. She came to CGB fairly recently through an experience somewhat like mine; becoming suddenly and dramatically disabled with post-viral complications from COVID. She did an astonishing thing, which was to put her mind back in order by going through our catalog of discoveries via my YouTube videos and beading almost much every form we have done. This week I took some photographs of her latest work- this is one of the spreads in progress (I’m still working on the text). The beadwork is brilliant, and beautifully done, and each stitch represents her progress back to health as well as the growth of the pieces.

I asked Jobi if I could talk about her experience and she said, Yes, definitely- I think it gives it all more meaning… I can’t look at anything I’ve made since I got sick without seeing how different my mind is. And this type of beadwork is the first tangible positive manifestation of this different mind… everything else feels like loss or damage. If I can build from that positive spot I stand a chance of living my life fully regardless of whether I ever “get back”.

I hear that. Beadwork has saved so many of us in so many different ways. I don’t know if I ever showed you all the spread in the Pattern Book for Karen Lautenschlager’s Kaleidocycle, which she designed to incorporate graphic themes from paintings done by her son Mike, who had recently passed away. By doing the work of studying and dissecting the thematic elements from his paintings, she was able to understand more about him as a person. Karen brought Mike’s paintings and her cycle to one of our team meetings in Boston (back in 2017) and all of our hearts shattered and came together again as she showed us his work and talked about her journey through this beaded piece.

I think anyone who has followed our project (or who knows me) knows how important this all has been to me, and to so many others, and I am moved every time I hear from someone like Karen or Jobi, and find out that unbeknownst to me, the work has gone out ahead, on its own steam, and brought peace, progress, hope or closure to others. My hope is that the books will do the same and that they will carry that light forward after we have all hung up our bead trays.

With love,
Kate

About katemckinnon

Kate McKinnon has devoted herself to the study of how things are done, and how they could be done better.

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