As soon as the word “stillness” came up as a prompt, I knew what I wanted to create: a piece to honor the winter woods of my childhood in Northern Michigan. Though I haven’t been back to my home state in more than 15 years – and haven’t seen a Michigan winter since early 1999 – the deep hush of the woods in deep snow is a memory I can still recall with all of my senses. The deep silence, the sensation of icy nostrils as I breathed in, the fog of my breath on the air, even the scent of a frozen woodland is imprinted on my whole being. I used to wander into the snowy woods, trudging through the snow until I found myself out of sight of any other humans, and I’d fall onto my back and gaze up at the tree branches and feel the peace sink into my body. 

It rarely snows here in Oregon, and for the most part I’m grateful. I don’t miss sudden snowstorms, zero visibility on frozen roads, or having to dry my hair thoroughly before I left the house to be sure it wouldn’t freeze. But every once in an while I long for the perfect magical hush of those moments among the frozen trees, or nights when the moon sparkled on fresh snow.

I wasn’t sure how I would capture that feeling, but I knew it would come to me.

And a few weekends ago I got a sudden impulse to do a little ecoprinting with some tea and rusty metal. I chose a few pieces of fabric in silk and cotton, and experimented with different ways of placing the metal on the fabric before tying it up into bundles and dunking it in the tea. 

Imagine my delight when I unwrapped one of the silk bundles to see a piece of fabric that shone with the mottled gray and white of a deciduous forest in the winter. The white thread I had wrapped my bundles also took on a delightful mix of colors, and from there it almost seemed this piece created itself. There are moments when the materials themselves speak so clearly that I begin to work without really thinking about it, instinctively following the gentle tugging of the cloth and thread in my hands until I know a piece is finished. I’m always pleased by the outcome of such pieces, and this one is my current favorite piece. Now I just need to get a dowel so I can hang it in my studio.

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