Weaving dragons

So it's vacation week for the Boston Public Schools. And yes, maybe we could have opened JP Knit & Stitch before this week, but, seriously, having the kids off all week makes an already complicated schedule way more complicated. So we've been juggling kids the last few days and getting stuff done in the store to prepare for our official opening which is only....EIGHT DAYS AWAY...we can't wait. Really.

Wild weaving wall hanging...with dragons and water ways swooping and swirling around.

Today I took the kids to the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton. I had read about Nathalie Miebach's very cool sounding Changing Waters installation. According to the exhibition notes, the woven sculptures are all based on "weather and marine data collected from the coast of Maine." It was as amazing as described though I can't say I totally "got" it. Getting it was severely compromised by being with my kids (and I was only there with two out of a possible three). I didn't have much time to spend with the art as my almost-3 year old, of course, wanted to touch everything in sight...

I have to say that the Fuller Craft Museum was not the most kid-friendly space I've ever been to. Since it has "museum" in its title that should give one a hint, I suppose. I was thinking more on the lines of craft = hands on = ok environment for kids. Not so. The Fuller Craft Museum was lovely--a cool, modern building with lots of big windows and bright light in a beautiful setting on a pond--but very tip toey and museum-like. I love craft because it is sooooo handmade and tactile both in the making of it and in the using of it. It's different from "art" in that it's both beautiful and meaningful and....useful. The traditional crafts of knitting, sewing, weaving, crocheting, furniture making, pottery--to name only a few--are all things of beauty that we make with our own hands in order to use. Not to stare at in a glass box, untouchable, unreachable, unfeelable....anyway, these were my thoughts as I hustled my restless, messy, touchy children through the museum and out the door.