The Breath of God

We began with the element of wind on my E-Course – Water, Wind, Earth, and Fire. The element of wind/air is associated with the East in many Native American traditions because of the rising sun and the experience of newness and awakening each morning. The element of wind/air invites us to open our souls to be-ing, to be inspired. The root of inspire is related to spirare “to breathe”.

I feel a new energy stirring within, appropriate as today is Beltane. This is a cross-quarter day, marking the midpoint in the Sun’s progress between the spring equinox and summer solstice. From now until 20th June, the days will be longer and all around the countryside, flowers and trees are bursting into bloom and leaf. A few days ago, I saw the first swallows and swifts inscribing their aerial calligraphy across the sky. Now that it’s the month of May, our wedding day is also more in focus – I can actually see it on the calendar, instead of having to lift April up all the time.

Today, I completed the first of my Four Elements table runners for our wedding reception – Air. A couple of days ago we went to the White Horse Inn and finalised the table plan, which allowed me to figure out the exact length for each one.

I wanted my Air runner to be light and tranparent and, well, airy. I used a sheer cotton voile panel from IKEA and for the wadding, I used some of that plastic fabric wrapping stuff that our kitchen table came wrapped in. I screen printed feathers with charcoal grey fabric paint onto the plastic.

Then I sewed a 13″ wide tube from the voile. Steve helped me feed the plastic through the voile tube, not an easy feat to do solo as it is 130″ long. I screen printed more feathers onto the voile with metallic silver fabric paint and finally, hemmed the ends and stitched long, looping lines with metallic silver threads.