Indigo to Dye For! Weekend Workshop

Sat & Sun February 27-28, 2016

Join Ready to Hand for our first Indigo to Dye For! workshop.  Indigo is the color that has seduced us, weavers, quilters, sewers, even knitters.  We all love the beauty of Its characteristic blue color - from pale sky blue to nearly black.  This 4-session series will introduce participants to indigo and the magic of the indigo vat, Shibori resist-dyeing, and indigo dyeing for ikat weaving and hand-woven shibori, and provide an "open vat" session for independent dyeing.

For additional information, contact Leslie at: saoriphiladelphia@gmail.com

SAORI Weaving Weekend Intensive!

Sat & Sun January 30-31, 2016

Join us for another intensive SAORI weaving weekend, January 30-31 2016.  The looms will be warped and ready for you to weave your own scarf, shawl, table runner or wall hanging.  As always, warping instruction also available.  Two full days of weaving in our beautiful light-filled studio/gallery.  Plenty of restaurants within easy walking distance to find your lunch, and a bottomless tea kettle in the studio office.  Space is limited, so contact us soon for more information or to reserve a loom:  saoriphiladelphia@gmail.com

A year of learning

Inspire one another, learn from everyone in the group.  Misao Jo, SAORI Pillar 4

It is hard to believe, but Ready-to-Hand has reached it's first anniversary!  It's been a year of learning in more ways than we ever anticipated, but we've been so busy learning and making that we've overlooked sharing what we've been up to.  So look to upcoming posts as we look back at how we've learned together in the studios in weaving and art classes for adults and children, featured neighborhood artists in gallery events, partnered neighborhood programs and the Welcome Threads homeless entrepreneurship project, and took the studio onto the street and schoolyards.

 

 

 

Annie Stone: Collages

April 27 - May 18, 2014

We are proud to announce Ready to Hand's first community art exhibit, featuring our neighbor, collage artist Annie Stone.  Annie's works create miraculous gems of nature out of reclaimed materials.  Join us when we open the show on April 27th, 5-7 pm.  Annie will also be teaching a collage workshop from 1-3 pm before the opening reception.  Join us for either or both! (click here for more information)

 

SAORI Weaving Weekend Intensive!

SAORI Weaving Weekend Intensive! 

Sat & Sun March 14 & 15, 2014

Join us for a special weekend of SAORI weaving day-long workshops, March 14th & 15th, 2014(9 am - 5 pm).  All looms will be warped and ready for you to weave your own scarf, shawl, table runner or wall hanging.  Up to 8 hours/day of weaving in our beautiful light-filled studio/gallery.  Plenty of restaurants within easy walking distance to find your lunch, and a bottomless tea kettle in the studio office.  Space is limited, so contact us soon to reserve a loom:  saoriphiladelphia@gmail.com

Ready-to-Hand

26 October 2013

"Be bold and adventurous."  Misao Jo, SAORI Pillar 2

“Let’s look out through eyes that shine.”  Misao Jo, SAORI Pillar 3

 

Why “Ready to Hand”?  It’s a long story, which started a long time ago (during that philosophical journey), but here’s the short version.

The name of the studio comes from the work of the 20th-century philosopher Martin Heidegger, Being and Time (1927).  Most people who read Heidegger's text find it impenetrable.  I was inspired.  "Ready-to-hand" describes our attitude toward things in the world.  We exist in the world always in relation to it and always aware of that relationship.  And we care about it, because to not live with the world is a lonely business. Either we live together with it, or we are isolated from from it.  So we care about a lot.   Being-with the world means living meaningfully with and in it.  When we live in this profoundly caring way, the world is ready-to-hand.

The world is not a burden, but a miracle; our life or work in the world is not burdensome, but perpetual opportunity for caring participation.  We become ready-to-hand. 

At least that’s how I read Heidegger, and why Ready to Hand Studio is ready-to-hand.

Ready hands and hearts

25 October 2013

"Consider the differences between a machine and a human being."  Misao Jo, SAORI Pillar 1

Many years ago, long after I'd figured out that my hands had a "knack" for making and when in the middle of a youthful philosophical journey, I crossed paths with Jacob Bronowski's The Ascent of Man (1975): 

"The hand is the cutting edge of the mind.  Civilization is not a collection of finished artifacts, it is the elaboration of processes.  In the end, the march of man is the refinement of the hand in action." 

 I was startled by the idea that my constant hand-work - especially the textile hand-work considered merely domestic (as I said, it was some time ago) - might be a pinpoint on the path of human endeavor, not merely my own busying.

And then there was an interim, filled with jobs, family, community, and plenty of making:  hand-work, and heart-work.  And all the energy and experience of this long interim led to this moment - to the work of creating a shared making-space -  to realize that hands are also the cutting edge of the heart. 

Ready to Hand:  SAORI Philadelphia. 

Weaving community together one neighbor at a time.

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