I may have mentioned this before…but I really don’t look forward to winter.
I turn the clocks back with a heavy hand, and heart, making mental calculations of how many weeks until spring.
Yes, I know that Autumn can be a beautiful season, and there is much to celebrate with Michaelmas and Harvest Festivals, Halloween and Bonfire Night. But for me, especially this year, I inch towards November with a swarm of red admirals avoiding hibernation in the pit of my stomach as I watch Mother Nature slowly decay.
Melancholia, however, is not something I revel in and so today I am reminding myself that the darker months bring with them their own unique gifts.
During a recent walk around the Ted Ellis Nature Reserve at Wheatfen, on the Norfolk Broads I was greeted by thousands of bright and cheery little beacons of colour in the hedgerows, undergrowth and trees. Nature was bedecked in her most brilliant, yet transient, jewellery and her ebony and ruby red beads shone in the October sun.
Her seasonal decorations will leave no trace; they are biodegradable, environmentally friendly and carry the seeds of a new generation. They cost nothing, are labour free and won’t be exhumed from a landfill site in 1000 years from now.
I love my craft and the community of makers I feel a part of – but I make no apologies for not feeling the urge to yarn bomb a tree, or decorate a hedgerow with knit graffiti.
I can’t help it – I am hot-wired with the Modernist Manifesto. Beauty in Function and Ornament is Crime are carved into my heart and, for me, the natural process of entropy, brings with it its own poetic, unadorned, beauty.
I know a place where nature and art encounter each other perfectly, and it’s in the work of Anja Gallaccio.
A carpet of 10,000 decaying roses; 2,000 gerberas gradually decomposing and trees strung with apples shamelessly performing their entropic autobiographies.
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This is the work that stops me in my tracks. This is what reminds me that life is short, time is precious, nature is beautiful…..and art is profound.
So I’m going to stop looking at the clock, drag my eyes away from my naval, and look again at the big picture……
I’m feeling inspired. Now where’s that lovely red wool?
I’m going to make a bobble knit bangle just as soon as I’ve climbed off my soap box.
Look out for Issue 25 of The Mercerie Post – I’ll include the pattern for the bangle…..it’s super simple!
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