Le nid de Colibri

March BJP (in progress)

2009-07-04T00:02:00.000-07:00

March BJP in progress

Last year, I thought it was important to respect chronology in my BJP efforts. This year, I cannot do it, and I keep thinking for every piece alternatively "something is missing" and "I can't go on with this piece".

With this piece, still not finished, I am quite pleased because it is maybe the first time I really do improvisationnal embroidery. I am beginning to think more in terms of cloth and colours and textures, rather than in terms of illustration of a feeling/idea. Then, I am amazed to see the piece is more revealing (to me) like that.

I just started from the juxtaposition of two textiles I had, and went on, following the voices of the piece/materials. I know which beads are wrong for the piece because they make me sick.

In the first days of March I visited a town with a sacred tree dedicated to fertility, then left India and my boyfriend. When I look at the piece I can only see an empty bed under a tree, no lover, no baby. My first visit to India I did after discovering I will probably never have another baby. I see also Christian symbols (Holy Spirit and trinity), and it is amazing how the more I learn about Hindu faith, the more I understand the religion of my ancestors ; symbols may be different, but in the end all human beings aspire to the same things.

Bead journal Project Update

2009-06-21T07:55:00.001-07:00

November 2008 - Skeleton Woman

First month after separating for the second time from the father of my children. Reconstructing. Work propositions.
Using Robin Atkin's ruffle embroidery technique.

December 2008 - Quiet Christmas
Using part of a made to measure Salwar Kameez and shisha mirrors from Chandigarh

January 2009 - Lightness of being
Snow, light, no pressure.

February 2009 - I love U
I went to India again. U became my lover.
U asked if I would consider marriage.
Using "ari" traditionnal Indian embroidery and Indian sequins.

June 2009 - Play/Marche
I went to a shamanic workshop. Did meditation work and drumming. Walked out of the workshop after a few hours with the two people I came with. Using textile markers as in workshop. Inspired by Marie's "Butterfly of How" and E E E E snake introduced to me by Acey.
Happy Solstice anyways everyone !

(September page here. October page here)

Bead Journal Update - I'm still in

2009-04-05T00:46:00.001-07:00

OK, I am very very slow, and very late, but I am still in for Bead Journal Project 2008.

Hello !

2009-03-06T04:12:00.000-08:00

Pondicherry street office

For the last 2-3 weeks I managed to sneak out of my office and... went back to Tamil Nadu, India. I had a great time of course.

This time I managed to get a little closer to textile and jewellery craft people. This was possible thanks to the information found about Indian crafts on the CDs sold by the Craft Revival Trust. Thank you Lainie for the link !

I found my way to the wonderful Tribal Research Centre (TRC) in M Palada, near Ooty in the Nilgiri mountains. With a total tribal population of about 28,000, the Nilgiris is an important tribal district. You can read more about the tribes here. In the museum you can see many fascinating objects made of clay, wood and vegetals. Here are a few pictures relating to Toda embroidery, which is world famous.

Toda woman embroidering a Poothkuli shawl - Photo (c) TRC museum

Tribe scissors - Photo (c) TRC museum

Toda ancient shawl - Photo (c) TRC museum

Toda modern shawl with traditional flower motif bought in Ooty

If you are in the region, you can buy Toda embroidery in Ooty and there is also a recommended Woman's Cooperative in Kotagiri.

*

In Pondichery, I saw a patchwork exhibition at Aurodhan Art Gallery. The artist name is Vatika and he has a shop and guesthouse near the gallery, François Martin Street. I love the way he mixes printed textiles, embroidery and beads.

Vatika at work

Across the road there is a shop named Excellent Bengal Handicrafts specializing in fairtrade ecofriendly Kantha embroidery from Bengal. Ms Bharati Dhar, director, aims to save traditional arts of India, provide skills and jobs opportunities to under priviliged villagers and use natural, waste and recycled goods to manufacture simple and stunning products of a vast variety. She is trying to expand her work. If interested in helping her, she has a facebook page, her email address is bharatidhar@yahoo.com

Ha Melody...

2009-03-23T14:49:00.000-07:00

This wonderful album by the great singer/composer Serge Gainsbourg was given to me by my first love. I was 18 back then and I didn't know that life was not only a big eternal scar. I was totally unaware of all the lessons that I was about to learn...

Gainsbourg died since and has not come back into fashion yet... But, boy, isn't he gorgeous ! and I really miss him. However, some of the songs are still painful to hear for me.

Anyways... Listen. Listen...

(Words translate roughly as "Ha, Melody, because of you I did so many stupid things... If you lied to me, I'll get really sick...")

And, don't ask why, I've seen my way to the next whisky bar and listen to this song about Paris all the time at the moment. Under the sky of Paris anything can mend... some people say :o)

Oh yes... it is almost April in Paris !

Happy Spring to everyone !

Purple power

2009-03-21T01:33:00.000-07:00

picture found here

Yesterday morning, my 9 year old showed me a little book filled with quotes. She had copied them in her best handwriting with purple ink and many spelling mistakes. I was impressed by what she chose.

For example one was
"Law is like a spiderweb. It traps only small flies and lets the big flies get through".

I wondered why she used purple ink, and it reminded me about this beautiful story....

THE PURPLE HAT
G-Rated You have to be sure to read the very last line!!!

Beautiful Women
Age 3: She looks at herself and sees a Queen.

Age 8: She looks at herself and sees Cinderella.

Age 15: She looks at herself and sees an Ugly Sister (Mom, I can't go to school looking like this!)

Age 20: She looks at herself and sees "too fat/too thin, too short/too tall, too straight/too curly" - but decides she's going out anyway.

Age 30: She looks at herself and sees "too fat/too thin, too short/too tall, too straight/too curly" - but decides she doesn't have time to fix it, so she's going out anyway.

Age 40: She looks at herself and sees "too fat/too thin, too short/too tall, too straight/too curly" - but says, "At least, I am "clean" and goes out anyway.

Age 50: She looks at herself and sees "I am" and goes wherever she wants to go.

Age 60: She looks at herself and reminds herself of all the people who can't even see themselves in the mirror anymore. She goes out and conquers the world.

Age 70: She looks at herself & sees wisdom, laughter and ability, goes out and enjoys life.

Age 80: Doesn't bother to look. Just puts on a purple hat and goes out to have fun with the world.

Maybe we should all grab that purple hat earlier.

Please send this to five phenomenal women today.
If you do, something good will happen; you will boost another woman's self esteem.
If you don't... your left boob will drop off.

(This version of the story found here.)

India continued

2009-03-06T06:49:00.000-08:00

In Tamil Nadu, I saw many temples of course, and this time many temples dedicated to the Goddess. It is not allowed to take pictures of the shrines, and non-hindus are sometimes warmly welcome and sometimes barely tolerated. As a result, I don't have pictures of what moved me most. I wrote last year about what I felt in temples here.

I was surprised to feel a totally different kind of energy in Shiva temples and Shakti temples. I am sometimes very naive.

Here are a few pictures of expressions of faith...

Tiruvarur Temple - in each little house there is a statue.

Tiruvarur. Nandy looking after a Shiva lingam.

A statue in Arunchaleshvara Temple, Tiruvannamalai - temple dedicated to the element of fire.

Yoni (symbol of the Goddess) in Kamakshi Amman temple, Kancheepuram.

Offerings for fertility in Kamakshi Amman temple, Kancheepuram.

Ceiling in Palani, in the temple dedicated to Murugan, son of Shiva

Textile tribal snake - TRC museum

Mask against evil spirits.

Celebrations in honour of Goddess Kali, who defeated demons, but in her rage did not stop and tramped Shiva to death. Pondicherry. Don't ask what is in her mouth !!!

Village car festival in honour of Vishnou

Food stall, village, Nilgiris

Tribal Gods, TRC museum

Prehistorical rock art, Karikkiyur, Nilgiris.

Temple footprints.

Back to beading !

2009-01-31T02:51:00.000-08:00

This week, I started beading again, after a very very long pause.

True, there was many things happening in my life, but I can't help noticing my creativity stopped just after I started working on the Maid with no Arms, and DOM, the Decent Old Man.

Dom, the first from the left on the picture below, was cut out from the ceremonial cloth I carried with me in shamanic workshops, and in India (to be honnest, this cloth is what made me decide to start visiting India by coming though Chennai/Madras - yes, i know it is very foolish). He is supposed to help me heal from the legacy of wounded ancestors...

A few days ago, listening to Clarissa Pinkola Estes' tape "How to love a woman", I discovered the Inuit tale of "Skeleton Woman". I cried, and creativity came back... Just like me, she doesn't like being photographed. It is funny because I kept wanting to add bones in my october page...

Gentle cleaning

2009-01-17T11:37:00.000-08:00

Denise Desjardins

Today I saw a film about Denise Desjardins, and she was there after the screening to answer questions.

I first heard about her many years ago through my yoga teacher.

A much loved figure in France, she was first a successful painter and decorator. After her marriage, she spent much time in India and followed the teachings of Mâ Ananda Mayi, and later on of Swami Prajnânpad. Together with her husband Arnaud, she founded the first ashram in France in 1974.

She went through a kundalini experience, and experienced memories of past lives simply lying next to Swami Prajnânpad. She says past lives are not to be understood as something that belong to you, but rather as energies that are deeply imprinted in your psyche for some reason or other, and that should be cleaned, so that you can find the real you.

She never chose between her spiritual life and her family life. She used to take her two children with her in India. She managed to maintain a balance.

She explained this idea, which I heard in India, that a woman taking care of her family and children does not need special rituals or mantra, because her whole life is devotion. However she follows the paths of fullfulling all the heart's desires so long as nobody is hurt, not even yourself.

She is funny and warm and so simple. What an inspiration !

Goodbye 2008, hello 2009 !

2008-12-31T11:48:00.000-08:00

2008 was good.
I loved that year, it was full of new experiences and truly great people.
It was full of laughter and tears, fears and happiness.
And I learnt to relax. Well, almost.

2009 will be good I'm sure. Because each minute is precious. No matter what is going on outside. Each minute we have the power to change it all !

I wish you all a very happy, prosperous and healthy new year !
May you find peace, a few Coyote surprises, may your creativity flourish, may you live fully !

Love,

Hélène

Happy Holiday Season

2008-12-23T11:51:00.000-08:00

I wish you all a Happy Holiday season.
Lots of warmth, friendship and nice foods for body and soul !
I wish you relaxation and good fun !

What do you need to be happy ?

2008-12-07T15:19:00.000-08:00

All week-end I learnt how saying

"thank you", "i am sorry", "i love you"...
can change your life.
This is the method of a very generous soul, Mabel Katz.

Now I am on a high !
You know what ? I love you ! :o)
No, but seriously, I do.

More information here and here

A glimpse of my november BJP

2008-11-29T00:52:00.001-08:00

This is a glimpse of my progress on the november page. Not an easy month. I choose the fabric, and did the moon first (a japanese embroidery design). Then I stopped for many days. I opened Women Who Run With Wolves at random and find a scary story about a girl who gets her hands chopped off, but survives and gets stronger. Days later I envisionned the police outlines of corpses and thought about Keith Harring. I started the spirit doll body. Next day The Bombay terrorist attacks started. We hear that two French nationals were killed ; the founders of a delightful underwear collection that especially appeals to teenagers and young girls. This month's theme is about the freedom of women, the freedom to love and be oneself. The importance of keeping the heart alive, even under the ash of fear, hatred, jealousy, sorrow, contrary winds...

This page is still in progress. May peace be with you.

7 little known facts about me

2008-11-05T02:01:00.000-08:00

Bobby has tagged me to reveal 7 little known facts about me. So here it goes. I am a pretty weird lady (I'm sure you know that already)...

1. When I was 18, I fell madly in love with a beautiful and cold young man. He made me feel like I was a number on a list and that my only interest was my virginity. I developped heart problems and had to take digitalin. These problems healed with time. That guy is living in India now.

2. I went to India this year after reading Sarah Macdonald's hilarious "Holy Cow", and started losing my hair after that visit - just like her.

3. During my first night home after that visit I had the weirdest dream. I was alone in a forest surrounded by strange spirits or monsters. They told me to stay with them, I said I couldn't because I had to take care of my children. They said OK, come back later. I woke up terrified, not knowing where I was.

4. I had a spontaneous out of body experience when I was around 13, just walking in the college playground after lunch. I don't remember what was on the menu that day, but I do remember the smell of the birch trees. That experience really scared me, I waited many years to talk about it.

5. I did a few Holotropic Breathwork sessions. This changed the idea I had of myself, life, mental health and all that. It's a pretty violent therapy but it helped me cure from whatever problem I had - post traumatic stress, chronic depression (?) ... I still don't know but I feel better.

6. While in India, I came face to face with some of the big lies I had been telling myself. I am still trying to digest that.

7. At the moment, I have very little energy. I think I know why but I can't tell with words. Probably more on that in future beaded pages ? ;o)

Update on October Bead journal Project

2008-10-26T10:59:00.000-07:00

Let's keep smiling

Here is an update on my october page. I don't know if it's finished yet.

October 2008 will probably be remembered in History as "black October" or something similar since the World economy is now rocking seriously. On the ecology side, we learn many bad news everyday ; icecoat melting, toxic gas spreading and animals disappearing. Many of my friends and family members have had a hard time in October - and me too...

And so what can we do ? "Let's keep smiling...." as Mr Chat seems to suggest :o)

Update on September Bead Journal Project

2008-10-15T07:38:00.001-07:00

This is an update on my September page, "That old black magic (called love)". I don't know why, but I don't have a lot a creative energy at the moment, and I work even more slowly than usual.

I have thought a lot about eyes in September. There was this poster everywhere in Paris for a theatre show about Maria Callas giving a lesson when she had lost her voice :and then at the end of the month I learnt through this delightful blog and this one that it was festival time in India for Durga and from link to link found this :

So it has been a journey from fear and magic to love and feminity back to magic and fear :o)

September BJP

2008-10-01T11:56:00.000-07:00

First there was this...
Then this...Then this...

nothing finished yet,tsss...

To bead or not to bead

2008-09-30T10:19:00.000-07:00

I am having big trouble with this year's Bead Journal Project. I am amazed that just musing about 3 colours, I get to visit powerful archetypes and uncomfortable emotions. My theme of the month is love, my piece is entitled "That old black magic"...

Anyways, I have heard interesting news today. Near the town of Toulouse, there is a church in which you find a Black Virgin Mary with child, la Vierge Noire of Notre-Dame de Daurade. This statue is adorned with clothes, and she is supposed to help especially pregnant women, mothers, and people affected by floods and fires.

A few days ago the Society for the Protection of the Statue, APPD, has asked famous stylists to design new clothes for the Black Virgin (Sonia Rykiel, Christian Lacroix, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, Paco Rabanne, Prada, Gucci...). Saddly enough, they haven't responded yet.

Anybody interested ?

Here is a link to her old dresses. And here is another link more general (in French).

Little hearts given to the Black Virgin

A wild week

2008-09-28T10:13:00.000-07:00

Phew, it's been a wild week.

It started on tuesday. I did a Feng Shui ritual in my office, as there is much shouting and vexations going on all the time. That night I dreamt of being brought to a shrine by two crones, and seing a glimpse of the Goddess surrounded by roses and jasmin. Strangely enough one of the crones was Mrs McClusky from "Desperate Housewives" :o)

Next morning, when arriving at work, I learnt that a pipe had burst two floors above my office during the night ; water everywhere, no electricity, no computers, no elevators. No safety instructions from the bosses. My office was one of the very few that was spared by water. Strange.

A few days later, I went to a conference by distinguished anthropologist Jeremy Narby, and learnt that Swiss magic mushrooms are nicer and funnier than South American Ayahuasca, but give less visions. It's just a wild week !

My workpace

2008-09-14T13:04:00.000-07:00

Denise has challenged us to show our beading workplace. So here is mine ; the kitchen table. This summer I finally put all my beading books and materials in just one cupboard, what a relief ! In the corner, near the spice basket, you can catch a glimpse of the Asa Foetida box that came with us in Italy, because it rolled out of its shopping bag.

And this is what the workspace looks like when I get excited over a project. Yes, I am a very messy person. Personal message : Stellou we have found the Coyote statue at last !

Why red ?

2008-09-04T02:18:00.000-07:00

Geranium by Duvalmickael50

Why red ?

This is going to be a long wordy post, I’m afraid !

I was welcomed into life with a drama and a red flower bunch ; a gift by my grandpa’s excentric 3^rd wife, which my mum thought very shocking and unappropriate.

Later on at age 7, I was gifted by my parents with a red bedspread which became my dummy and helped me stop sucking my thumb. I am quite ashamed to reveal that I still have it on my bed, although it has grown very dishevelled with the passing of time. On last year’s Bead Journal Project I was tempted several times to do a page with a piece of that old bedspread, and also to work on the red thread theme.

I love colours and when I started reading the book “A Perfect Red” by Amy Butler Greenfield which had just been translated into French last year, I got really excited and fascinated. I had no idea that the quest for a colour was so intimately linked with political, economical and scientific issues !

Then just before I left for the holidays I read somewhere the claim that black, red and white are the three major colours of mankind. Elsewhere Michel Pastoureau, a French historian specialized in colour, claims that red is THE ultimate colour. Black and white are sometimes said to be no colours. These 3 colours are associated with many symbols ; day, night, bone, earth, blood, life, death, power, desire, church….

Obviously as soon as I had made up my mind I saw red everywhere, in paintings, road signs and even insects !

Finally the Museum of Arts Décoratifs in Paris is organizing an exhibition on the colour red next March.

For me, working primarily from colours rather than concepts is an attempt to harmonize my efforts and also to go towards abstract.

Plus I have decided to buy a minimum of supplies this year, and a very large part of my existing stash is red based.

There you are ! :o)

Added later : the BNF - French National Library organized an exhibition on red and the costumes of designer Christian Lacroix a few years ago. The text is only in French but there are nice pictures of the costumes here.

Hidden friends

2008-09-10T13:30:00.000-07:00

Theodora, San Vitale, Ravenna

When I was a child I was given a poster of Empress Theodora. For years she stared at me from over my bed. It didn't always feel comfortable, such a weird gaze, but sometimes it made me feel good or it sent me into long daydreams. It was my mother who gave me this picture, saying very little but with much intensity. I just knew it was a precious gift.

And so this summer, we visited Ravenna and saw the original mosaics. I insisted on that. Funnily enough, everybody enjoyed the visit of the Basilica San Vitale and the mausoleum nearby. In the Basilica, I found many red, black and white tiles. An interesting website with many photos is here.

My pictures of the floor of Basilica San Vitale, Ravenna

A few moment ago, I followed a link suggested by my friend Tally and suddenly found a story of Theodora's life (longer version here). A truly wonderful lady. I'm amazed that my mother casually gave me a feminist (christian) icon with many jewels to put in the traditional place of the crucifix.

Isn't it strange how we are surrounded by hidden friends all the time ? If we manage to stop the noise inside and outside just for a moment, then we start to hear their voices...

And from a textile point of view I am amused to hear that in her time, the Blues and the Greens were fighting each other :o)

Back from Italy and Bead Journal Project 2008

2008-09-01T05:47:00.000-07:00

Alley in the fishing port of Chioggia, Venetia, Italy

Vegetable stall along the road, Venetia, Italy

Hello, I'm back from a lightning trip to Italy, one of my favourite places on earth ! I am very tired but I have the impression that everything is new in my head.

Graphosoma Lineatum

Today is the first day of Bead Journal Project 2008. Last year I chose to work mainly around the journal theme, trying to express faithfully moods, thoughts and dreams that came each month. In the end, I was a little annoyed by the lack of formal unity of my efforts. So this year, I have decided to work mainly with 3 colours, red, black and white, and to expand my format to a felt square.

"No clinging"

2008-08-21T13:28:00.000-07:00

(c) Edmond Couchot & Michel Bret, “Je sème à tout vent”, 1990.
The dandelion has been used as a logo by the famous French dictionnary Larousse since 1876, being a symbol of the spreading of knowledge.

Today I got rid of about 15 boxes of books. 5 went to a friend, 10 to a charity. Some of these books I had since I was a teenager, others were kept since my university years, others were bought in the years when I tought I would become a psychologist... As there are many books that my mind refuses to read now, and as books are meant to be read, and as I am going through the "no clinging" lesson... I finally let go of them. I feel proud and sad at the same time. Books are very important in my family. It is an important step for me.

One of my friend is very wise and has not a single book in his house, he helped me to do this in a way.

(This leaves plenty of space for beading and textile books lol !)

Francis Lionheart

2008-08-19T02:17:00.001-07:00

Here is my latest spirit doll, Francis Lionheart, made for a little boy born under the astrological signs of the Lion and the Salmon. There's an open eye for good luck and sweet dreams. Fish and feather as reference to St Francis of Assisi who is said to have charmed the beasts and plants even when the clergy took him for a fool. Not many embellishments since I guess everything will be pulled out very soon.