Calling All Angels

One, single, tiny little down feather. There, in her comb. White and fluffy and tiny and perfect. What had flown over her? As she lay curled around the fallen aspen. Left her this sign, now caught by the spines of her comb as it passed through her hair.

She feels the shape of it. In the realm of intention. Beyond her sight.

It must be called up by doing. Like finding a path through the woods. Each choice that she makes will be the weaving of it.

She wanders around her room. How is this going to be managed? There is no room for a loom here, at least not any like she has seen in pictures. And one of those small bead looms, or the square peg ones they used in first grade to make potholders out of loops of soft cloth — those won't do either.

It needs to be hidden too, what she is doing.

If people find out … they'll think she's crazy. They might even lock her up.

The small scrap of crocheted yarn is still on her night stand. Dusty. She looks at it across the gulf of years. The wood of her nightstand is dull and scuffed. The quilts on her bed — one as old as she is, stitched by a grandmother's hand from scraps left by a lifetime of sewing, the other a smooth, cheerful print, bought new almost a year ago — don't match each other. The small bedroom holds the leftover heat of the day, but a chill moves down her spine, and her chest aches suddenly.

Time to open Google.

In the end, it's got to be a backstrap loom. A stone age technology. Still used in the present. Google gives pictures of the sashes and bands, hair ties and belts. Garments, too, stitched together from the intricately patterned bolts. For HOW, she has to fall back on interlibrary loans, with long, anxious waiting for the books to trickle in. And then copying … diagrams and instructions … a paper trail that cannot be helped.

"The backstrap loom … is deceptively simple. For the most part, it consists of sticks, cord, and a strap that is worn around the weaver's waist. … This simple technology means that almost anyone can own a backstrap loom, and that the loom can be set up almost anywhere."

So long as the other end can be anchored to something.

"This mobility allows the weaver to work indoors or out, at a neighbor's house or in the marketplace, keeping watch over her children or chatting with friends."

Maybe even in a closet.

The pictures show how, between weaving sessions, the loom and the work can be rolled up together, and put away in any corner.

Even the back of a dresser drawer. Or hidden, in a suitcase …

"The backstrap loom can be adjusted to fit any weaver — from the child first learning to weave, to an adult master weaver.

Basic technique is a plain weave."

Wind the warp in figure eights. The weft threads will pass through. Over-under-over-under.

"Unlike the treadle loom, the backstrap loom also allows the weaver to brocade designs into the fabric as it is woven, using a supplementary weft, added along with the ground weft.

Traditional patterns and shapes were drawn from the natural world, from gods and myths, from personal encounters, or family stories."

Images of those cloths of many colors, their plants and birds and rocks and dreams, swim through the darkness as she tries to sleep with gritty eyes. Weeks have passed. With too much screen time, and not enough night before the alarm.

But the rightness of it has formed. To make the loom. From the world that Edward and his family had inhabited. A loom made from the world, to weave a cloth with colors and scraps that she must find in the world. To bring them back to the world.

The memento left on her mother's dresser in Phoenix. The journal and its companion. What were those things?

And what is this thing now?

The water road. The rainbow cloth. Waits in the realm of intention, beyond her sight.

Help me.

Cedar twig and blackberry thorn.

Help me. Splintered heartwood of a white-skinned tree. Help me. Spotted owl.

Help me. Deer and mountain lion, cinnamon and salmon fish.

Help me. Mandala grass and blue sky bowl. Standing fir and mist and rain. Sunlight sparkling joy on water.

Help me. Orcas underneath.

She calls on all the grandfathers, on crawling bug and raven croak and ghost pipe stem. Even the keening gull.

Help me.

And wonders, with summer already slipping away, can she accomplish such a thing in time, before the last trace of their ashes is gone.

Can she even make such a thing as cloth — a skill she has never learned or tried.

Or is she merely losing her mind.

The tiny feather sits on her nightstand, beside the scrap of childhood crochet.

In the realm of intention. Beyond her sight.

Author's Notes:

The webpages that Bella saw are lost to the past. But these may do …

Sam Noble Museum. "Backstrap Looms." University of Oklahoma. : / / samnoblemuseum dot ou dot edu / collections-and-research/ethnology/mayan-textiles/weaving-technology/backstrap-looms/.

Fashion Institute of Technology, NYC, Donna Kay posting from undergraduate thesis: : / / fashionhistory dot fitnyc dot edu / backstrap-loom/

Backstrap Weaving: : / / backstrapweaving dot wordpress dot com / 2012/12/07/backstrap-weaving-encuentro-de-tejedores-de-las-americas-part-three-and-more/o-520/

Education and More: Preserving Traditional Weaving, the Backstrap Loom: : / / www dot educationandmore dot org / blogs/news/54856837-preserving-traditional-weaving-the-backstrap-loom

Smithsonian, National Museum of the American Indian: : / / americanindian dot si dot edu / collections-search/objects/NMAI_156423

Carol Ventura: : / / www dot carolventura dot com / backstrapweaving dot htm

Mac & Magic Loom Design: : / / www dot youtube dot com / watch?v=iFJQuuSLzf4

All Fiber Arts / Saami Textiles: : / / allfiberarts dot com / tag/sami-textiles

Backstrap Weaving (Claudia Vega, Panchimalco, El Salvador) Instructional Video: : / / www dot youtube dot com / watch?v=R2JlgXorWeg

Weaving narrow bands with a double-holed heddle (Sami) : / / www dot youtube dot com / watch?v=qynTGaBZycw

Some books, including some that Bella may have found in her search …

Hill, Daniel Delis. History of World Costume and Fashion. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2011. : / / www dot worldcat dot org / oclc/144223528.

Strong, Ann Pelletier. "The Backstrap Loom." Appleseeds, April 2001, 19. Gale General OneFile. : / / link dot gale dot com / apps/doc/A73023273/ITOF?u=fitsuny&sid=ITOF&xid=b046f7be.

Veirs, Leslie N. "Unraveling the mysteries of backstrap weaving." School Arts 91, no. 2 (1991): 18+. Gale Academic OneFile. : / / link dot gale dot com / apps/doc/A11333486/AONE?u=fitsuny&sid=AONE&xid=825c91eb

Did I spend an inordinate amount of time trying to visualize Bella weaving hidden in her room? Yes, I spent an INORDINATE amount of time trying to visualize Bella weaving hidden in her room.