The Ethos of SAORI Weaving - Key Ideas and Themes

October 12, 2023

I really wanted to get closer to the heart of the ethos of SAORI weaving and to understand more about the thinking of SAORI founder Misao Jo. This seemed to leave me no option but to purchase the official handbook, SAORI Self-Innovation Through Free Weaving by Misao Jo & Kenzo Jo . The book is a bit expensive and not that easy to get hold of except through registered Saori studios, however it is very extensive and contains all the vital information you could need as a serious Saori weaver.

It’s not my intention to write a book review here, but rather to pull out and share a summary of key themes and ideas that interest me about the ethos of Saori. The majority of this comes from the parts of the book written by Misao in 1977, 1989 and republished in 2000. The edition I'm reading from was first published in 2012 and printed in 2021. Misao’s writings were first published in Japanese and have been translated into English with the first English edition published in 2001. I’m mentioning this because it may affect the interpretation of certain ideas and language.

For me, two very significant themes came through which are the idea of self-expression being key to identifying and developing our ‘true-selves’ and the idea of ‘Kansei’ which refers to an innate sense of intuitive beauty inherent in everyone. These are two themes I very much want to develop further in my own work.

Other themes emerged which in no particular order, I categorised as, Humans Vs Machines, Human Nature, Unconventional Thinking, Failure and ‘Mistakes’, The Innocent Mind, Self-Expression in the Creative Process and The True-Self, Intuition, Present moment, Process over Product, Spirituality, Developing Creativity Vs Teaching and The Path I (Misao) Followed. Some of these are very strong themes in Saori, some I’ve picked out in a search to make links between Saori and my ideas around intuition in the creative process. These ideas have been clarified recently by reading the article Understanding creative intuition by Theresa Jane Hardman. I intend to compare these ideas in more depth in the future but not today!

Of course SAORI has its key statements and themes expressed in it’s four slogans

Four Slogans of SAORI (1975) p142

Consider the difference between a machine and a human being
Be bold and adventurous
Look out through eyes that shine
Inspire one another, and everyone in the group.

These are not my main focus in writing this, but I think it is important to acknowledge them and also that by examining Saori ethos in more depth, to see how these slogans emerged.

SAORI Ideas and Themes

Humans Vs Machines

This is a key theme in Saori and also relates to the first of the four Slogans. Misao was very concerned with the comparison between what could be produced by machine and an industrialised weaving process in comparison to what individuals could produce in a hand weaving process.

Intuitive Threads - Thoughts on my Creative Process

August 14, 2023

Here is an update on how my weaving for my Intuitive Threads project has been progressing. Since my first piece that I wrote about in my last blog, I’ve woven three more pieces and continued to try out techniques, materials and colours. I’m not going to focus on the technical stuff in this post, I want to talk about the emotional and mental aspects of the creative process that have come up for me recently.

DIFFICULT SECOND, THIRD AND FOURTH WOVEN PIECES

In my last blog I mentioned something I referred to as ‘the difficult second album’, that musicians often suffer with when under pressure to follow up the initial successful album. Can they recreate the conditions and the magic that made the first one successful? Can they perform under the pressure that wasn’t there when they were still unknown and had less external pressures on them to succeed?

Well now I’ve put it like that, I feel like I’m over exaggerating my weaving situation here, but certainly I felt something similar, if on a smaller stakes scale. I was really pleased with the first woven piece I created on my Saori loom. I felt free to experiment and follow through with the process I found myself in and was pleasantly surprised with the result. When it came to the second piece, I felt a pressure, albeit an internal one, to recreate or exceed that original success. So how would I do that? Well by using similar materials, yarns and techniques as before and adding additional techniques I’d learned from the workshops with Amanda at Beautiful Cloth Saori Studio

MOVING THROUGH DISCOMFORT

At first, weaving this second piece felt really uncomfortable. Not surprising considering the pressure I was putting on myself to produce something ‘really good’. I realised I had a background belief that I needed to create a coherent collection. Perhaps this is because in the back of my mind I’ve been thinking I’d like to display these works as an exhibition at some point in the future or it could come from my original textile design training. Maybe it also relates to an underlying belief that I need to have a recognisable style as an artist. A recogonisable style or voice may be something that emerges with time, but it's unreasonable to expect it to show up on my second piece on the loom. Other feelings of discomfort that arose during the second and third pieces were dislike, boredom and impatience. Which brings me to…

STAGES OF PROCESS

I realised I hadn’t been allowing for the different stages and phases of the creative process. After all, we don't all feel the same everyday. There are ebbs and flows; some days we are full of creative intention, inspiration and energy and others, we feel tired or uninspired.

What is Intuitive Weaving?

April 17, 2023

My original aim for the Intuitive Threads project was to explore both SAORI weaving and Intuitive weaving. The purpose of this project is to allow for exploration and expansion of ideas. It's open ended with loosely defined outcomes. Having said that, sometimes it's helpful to have definitives and definitions. To close down the parameters a little and close in on what's most relevant with some focus. So that you know what you're doing, where you're heading, what you're looking at. I wanted to see if there was a definition of 'Intuitive weaving'. There are 1,902 entries with the hashtag #intuitiveweaving on Instagram as of today (17th April 2023), so it must be a thing!

Maybe not surprisingly, considering the multiple meanings the words intuition and intuitive can have, I've struggled to find a universal definition. The term seems to have different meanings and purposes for different people and weavers. Maybe an Internet search is not the most comprehensive way to explore this but that's where I started. A bonus of this approach was that I discovered some really interesting and inspiring weavers and textile artists that I wasn’t aware of before. People from around the world who have created businesses and workshops and put together ideas in ways that show something out of the ordinary can work. I’ve also come across some really interesting and perspective expanding pieces of writing.

Returning to attempting to define the term ‘Intuitive weaving’, some common themes came up in my research,

Spirituality - weaving as spiritual practice, and/or tradition.
Ancient origins - weaving as an ancient craft
Archetype - weaver/weaving archetype - weaving as creation/creating
Ritual - weaving to create or as ritual
Self-expression - as a vehicle for self-expression and creativity
Subconscious - accessing and expressing the subconscious
Process over outcome - intuition is connected to in the creative process
Instinct over intellect - (favouring creativity over logic or right brain over left brain)
Boundaries - weaving process providing structure for creative practice and intuition
Flow - weaving as a physical practice that allows for a state of ‘flow’ to be experienced
Mindfulness and Meditation - similar to flow, a mindful process
Spontaneity - a creative process/way of working without or with minimal pre-planning
Individuality - creating one off individual work
Non-standard materials - using natural, found, collected or recycled materials

Technology - Intuitive meaning easy to use and understand computerised looms for industry (the interloper)

2nd SAORI Workshop - Intuitive Threads

March 30, 2023

SAORI WORKSHOP WITH BEAUTIFUL CLOTH SAORI STUDIO - 24TH MARCH

Continuing my exploration into SAORI weaving, intuition and creativity, I attended my second SAORI workshop with Amanda Edney of Beautiful Cloth SAORI Studio last Friday. I was surprised when I arrived at Napton village Hall to find that I was the only workshop participant for the day. I was really fortunate to have one-to-one teaching and an opportunity to talk, as well as continue to experiment with ideas and techniques, whilst Amanda worked on a weaving project of her own.

I took a collection of bits and pieces with me from home including ribbons, bits of lace and old bobbins of yarns from previous projects. My work recently has a theme of combining highlights of colour with a neutral or white base. I wanted to experiment with using white and neutral colour yarns and include colour with inserts of ribbons and threads. I’ve also had lace pinned on my notice board for a while so I wanted to try this out as well. This piece was a progression from last time, using techniques from last time and learning some new ones.

Ten Tips On How To Include Creativity In Your Life When You Have Chronic Illness

July 23, 2020

I believe creativity can be an important part of any healing process but apart from that it is something that can bring joy into and enhance anyone’s life. Having my own experience of chronic illness and knowing how much I’ve personally got out of being creative, I wanted to share some of my more practical tips that I hope will be helpful if you’d like to include more creativity in your life.You don’t have to have an illness to find these tips helpful, but I created them with that in mind.

How Creativity Helped me with Chronic Illness

July 17, 2020

In 2015 I got the shingles virus, initially I didn't feel that ill, I was on summer holiday from work as I worked term time in education. Feeling a bit wobbly I returned to work in September thinking I’d be OK as signs of the infection had healed. Over the following months up to Christmas my health and physical energy became worse, but I kept on pushing myself and trying to ignore how I was feeling until my health completely crashed. I had no physical energy, brain fog, I couldn’t think, it took massive energy to talk, I had dizziness, I could hardly stand or walk for any length of time, I appeared extremely withdrawn. It was like my life or at least my health had come to a big full stop.

Is Perfectionism Getting In The Way Of Your Creativity?

June 12, 2020

Why am I asking? Well because I know it does for me. Do you feel stuck with a project, course assignment or making progress on a bigger life goal? Do you find yourself not doing anything at all, procrastinating despite all those ‘shoulds’ in your head? Do you withdraw into yourself and push those goals and desires somewhere deep inside? Are you always looking for distractions, small or large, to avoid getting on with that thing? All the time with a sort of sad unfulfilled and maybe frustrated with yourself feeling that keeps popping back up?