Remarkably weaving the Saori way goes beyond an enjoyable activity and art in our lives. It can actually extend the senses and become a way of communicating with the world around you.

Carmel from Studio Artes in Sydney can be seen in this youtube video immersing herself in the cloth she weaves. Carmel, who is deaf and blind, uses the rhythm of the weave process and its tactile sensations to create beautiful art  cloth. Her world isn’t dependent on ‘seeing’ colours but on actually experiencing them. Sue Byatt and teachers at the studio use taste and experiences to provide her with her own unique colour palette. For example, the taste of a segment of orange communicates an orange colour, the smell of lavender – a gentle purple. I’ve often heard of people who identify musical tones with colours but this is another extraordinary human experience. In what must often be a lonely internal world for Carmel, it’s so heartening that the arts, and weaving particularly, can be a tool for assisting people to find not only meaning in their lives, but a real thread of connection to the world in some form.

Carmel’s work is published by Studio Arts at Blurb. It is an expressive collection of images of her work and you can view the book online before buying :). Carmel is now to get her own Saori loom and I asked Sue what Carmel’s  favourite colour was expecting a colour from the rainbow. But it’s ‘ocean’. Congratulations Carmel. I don’t think I can look at blue again without seeing ‘ocean’.

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