Weaving and spinning

A touchstone for Vox Clamantis Books is weaving and spinning.

Both weaving and spinning have been used as metaphors for storytelling. The magical qualities of weaving, and the mesmerizing effect of spinning, both lend themselves well to the concept of storytelling and narrative.

Weaving is a metaphor for creating community, and for creating reality itself (the Wyrd Sisters in Norse mythology, the Moirai in Greek mythology, the Fates in Roman mythology, were all weavers).

Spinning was an art associated with gossip, women, and witchcraft — all of which were marginalized and demonized. It also appears in the story of Sleeping Beauty.

The creation of linen from flax was so magical that it became the basis of the story of Rumpelstiltskin (the straw was the flax, the linen was the gold). And the distaff on which the flax was stored became a symbol of women (hence the saying “the distaff side” for the wife’s family).

I volunteer as a historical interpreter at Westfield Heritage Village in the weaver’s shop, and it has really given me an appreciation for the magical qualities of creating textiles, and how valuable cloth was in the past, when so much work went into creating it.