The mail is always heaviest on Mondays. Today, I steel myself for the long delivery day ahead by waking a bit earlier. I do a brief scroll on Instagram, and find a beautiful pic of a patch of lichen, a swirl of green and brown craters. I would love to reproduce this in felt, and file away that thought to ponder later. It’s raining hard when I wake. It rained two weeks ago, before Hurricane Elsa arrived, there were torrents of rain accompanying Hurricane Elsa as she passed through, and I get set for another rainy day. I don’t mind delivering in wet weather. I get wet, the mail gets wet. But being IN the rain actually feels quite peaceful: both daylight and air are softer, sound is muffled. I arrive at the post office, head to my carrel, and sort mail, setting up for the day. I’d hoped a caffeinated buzz could help me blast through setup, but this is the first workday that I’ve drunk coffee in more than a year, and I just feel hands-shakey jittery. I get through, and eventually I’m on the street, ready to deliver. The rain is much lighter, and eventually stops altogether, although it remains cloudy. I’m thankful for the respite from both the rain and the discomfort of carrying around a sopping-wet mailbag. While walking from house to house dropping off mail, it’s a balance between being sufficiently present so that I don’t miss an address or forget to drop a parcel, and being enough on autopilot so that I can think about sewing and feltmaking projects. I think about the Shetland fleeces I have yet to clean and would like to dye, and of the textures I’d like to incorporate in a series of wall hangings. A series! It’s so fun to think of making a series of objects, dreaming up and elaborating on the theme that connects each member of the group. But the mail is always heaviest on Mondays, and so the day is long and I am beat when I come home from a 10-plus hour day. I’d like to start planning out these wall hangings, make sketches and think about resists for the felt and what colors to use and preparing the wool, but perhaps not today, Monday, when the mail is heaviest.
2 Comments
|
AuthorFeltmaking, dyeing, sewing. A woman and the fabric of her life. Archives
September 2021
Categories
|