I've been thinking about plaiting

It's such a simple process and one that is enjoyable to undertake. It's also one of the original ways to join two or more strands into a stronger entity.
The ropes around the necks of the bog bodies are plaited which suggests possibly a ritual function to the simple plait.

It takes me back to my childhood and the long plaits I wore most days and in that remembering I find my father pulling back and smoothing my hair to make plaits. He pulled hard, making my eyes water but I would not have revealed a softer soul than the warrior I wanted to be.

After my sister's death I ripped one of her tee shirts and plaited it into a scarf to keep her close to me.

Now with this skirt I create plaits and find again their ability to draw out memory and allow  it to be entwined with the present and dreams of the future and I begin to dream of the contents of all three and what this skirt will carry. This leads me back to the origin of the skirt and its ritual function and for an instant I sit beside ancient sisters dreaming dreams of their dreams.

The honesty of knots

Ive started work on the skirt and find the process to be enthralling.

I sat on the grass  outside one of the classroom blocks at my sister's school and began the process of knotting together ripped lengths of silk.These need to be threaded through the main band and then plaited.

plaiting is relaxing; its the repetition and the calmness of working with your hands that allow the mind to wander.

On this day, with this task, listening to the conversations of the students as they sat on the lawn I was interested to find myself invisible and in that unseen state allowed access to their conversations.

I remembered my school days and loved how in these moments I could move with such ease between the now of the moment and the past of my memory whilst at the same time constructing in my mind the skirt I am plaiting. past, present and future move in the fluidity of the plait.

How to attach the individual strands to the main band?

I wondered how to make these joins invisible and flush with the band until realising that was not the point. 

Knots are honest. They state quite clearly what they are about and can be trusted in that function

The aim then not to hide the knots but to make them perfect.

And perhaps I was not invisible.