Sunday, 12 December 2010

Spinning wheel

I was reading Gwen Buchanan's blog recently (which I found because she made a beautiful portrait of Anthony Burgess) and I noticed a pic of a spinning wheel that struck me. It reminded me of one I saw in the Keswick Museum, which you can see pictured on the left. I don't want to make her blush or anything, but I admire Gwen and consider her a true artist because she can take simple objects and show their aesthetic aspect, turn them into artistic creations: a stone wall, working tools, etc. Back in keswick, I took a picture of this spinning wheel because I thought it looked good, without understanding exactly why I thought so. It is a simple object, it was a long time ago a useful one, but it also has strong symbolic associations with the passage of time and death (I think among other things about the Norns in Viking mythology, even though they did not have a spinning wheel). But I just love it as an aesthetic object.
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2 comments:

Gwen Buchanan said...

Guillaume, You are too utterly kind... Thank you so much... I am blushing!
... the photo on your blog is perfect..it looks like a flax wheel, I love it. Mysterious... and a functional beautiful object all in one.

... a way back when, it is said that it took seven spinners to keep one weaver weaving... just to make cloth.. something we take for granted nowadays..

I clicked your link to The Keswick Museum ... So interesting! You are lucky to be in a country with so much history. England must have so many places to explore. Thank you for sharing this one.

13 December 2010 at 01:10
Anonymous said...

...and the Fates in Greek mythology... It's a symbolic object, and yet just plain practical too. I am thinking fondly of my favourite jumper, one that I bought at a charity shop, and I wonder whose mind, and fingers created it, who wore it before I did, and it becomes so much more than just an object. This is a beautiful post, and reminds me that every object has aesthetic potential through each individual's eyes, and when written about like you have, reveals it's beauty to mine. Thank you Guillaume.

15 December 2010 at 10:09

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