Reimagining Tradition - The ornate italian drop spindle

The Italian drop spindle is the very first spindle that found my hands, and that planted the seed for my love of spinning.
I was around 8 or 10 years old, it was a boring summer day, and my Grandma told me: I teach you to spin!
She wasn’t an experienced spinner, only did it a while when she was a young girl at the farm, but I suppose she thought it would keep me busy for a few hours.
She grabbed her old spindle, we emptied one of those old pillows that were still filled with real wool, made a distaff with a branch from a tree…and I fell in love.
She was very jealous of her spindle, she wouldn’t let me use it on my own, but I was so fascinated that I whittled one out of a piece of wood and spun all summer. I spun that scratchy, ugly, uncarded wool, and I was so in love with the process.

When the summer was over, spinning was forgotten. The internet was way too young for online shopping, I wouldn’t have known where to find spinning wool. Besides, I was 10 years old :p

I picked up spinning again in my late 30’s. It was one of the main tools that helped me calm my mind during the worst of my anxiety and panic attack.
And I fell in love all over again, with the act of spinning, with the fibres, and with them, the tools of the craft…the beautiful, magical spindles.

So much that I decided to use my little savings to buy a very - very - very cheap lathe and learn how to turn them. My teacher was Youtube and an insane amount of trial and error.

I am definitely NOT a woodturner. I am just a spinner who loves spindles so much, and enjoys creating them, modifying them, fiddling with their looks and features to achieve just that sweet spinning spot.

Which leads to this. I was sitting with my little self thinking…hmmm…The antique italian spindles that I find and collect and treasure are fascinating and all, but could I take them a step further?
As you can see from the picture above, the common antique italian spindle (on the left) has quite a simple body. Also, it has quite an important bulb at the top, that you use with a half hitch knot so that you can keep the spindle suspended.
I love to spin thin, and that bulky tip for me means that the spindle is necessarily slower.
When I make supported spindles, I try to make the flicking end as thin as I can, because that allows the spinner to have a faster rotation with minimal effort. But how to make it happen for the Italian drop spindle?

Cue me at the lathe. Prototypes. All the prototypes.

I ended up with the spindle on the right.
The body is all ornate, to me it looks like something out of a fairytale, I love it. The notches are also handy to wrap the yarn around, especially at the start.
I modified the flicking tip shape, stealing a page from some of my favourite Turkish spindles, Jenkins. His spindles to me are amazing because he makes the flicking tips so slender, they are fast and just great spinners.
I made a reasonably slender end, and slightly carved the notch in it, rather than creating a proper traditional bulb.
The result is good, as you can see I could spin a fine yarn and the speed was a joy!

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If you are curious to see the details on how to spin on an Italian drop spindle, I made a little video that explains the basics (this works both for the traditional italian spindles, that I will keep making, and for my ornate version)

A relic from the distant past

As I celebrate my second year of "official" wood spindles making...today I found this relic from the past.
This is a spindle that I whittled from some reclaimed pine wood when I was twelve.
My grandmother had taught me to spin on an Italian drop spindle but didn't want to let me use her spindle, so, stubborn as I always have been, I went and made the closest replica I could from memory, with an old knife and no experience in wood cutting.
All things considered, I didn't do too bad! 😂

Finding this spindle has me thinking about how the seed of fiber and spindle making has been in me for a very long time...there is something magical in this.

I would like to take that twelve years old girl, bring her with me at the lathe, and create with her the spindle of her dreams...
Or maybe that's what I already do every time I play with a new spindle design ❤️

Dream :: Playing with the Ancestors

It may be the Veil thinning, it may be some things going up in my life that have me reflecting on my roots and who came before me...
But I have been pouring all of it in a new batch of spindles.

I took as reference the newest addition to the herd of antique Italian spindles, a small dainty one that is perfect, with its weight and size, to spin lace weight.
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And then I decided to "play with the Ancestors". Instead of going for a simple replica as I already did in the past, I decided to give this spindle a modern twist and something mine.
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I asked...what would my Ancestors tell me?
The answer kept coming in the shape of dreaming. Dreaming the dream. Conjure up things in the realm of reality that have been in my mind. Bring them forth with my hands.
A practice that has saved my mental sanity more often than I can tell, and that is proving oh so important again.

The little white feather...
I am agoraphobic. I don't go out much, my distances from home are short. But I am lucky to have a park behind the house, and I go there when I need to ground and hug a tree. Often, during these little walks, I'll find a tiny white feather, and that, to me, is always a message. "You are seen, you are loved, this is a pinch of magic for you".
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Thank you. All love.

Sacred Grounded Heart

Posted on Instagram on December 7, 2019

I think there will always be a place, between my fingers, around my neck, dangling from silver bracelets, for these small kind of amulets.
There just is something in layers of meaning cut in small pieces of silver.
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I have been fascinated with sacred hearts since when I was a child. There was a small oratory in town, dedicated to Mary Magdalene, with ex voto on its walls. These silver flaming hearts were a thing of mystery and magic to me...
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This is a sacred heart to remind us to stay grounded, to live in our heart and to be aware of the space in our pelvic floor.
A connection that can keep us balanced and tuned in to what really matters.

Grandmother Bear pendant

Posted on Instagram on December 6, 2019

A warm thing of Baltic amber, with a rainbow and inclusions, to dream up while you are deep in the cave with Grandmother Bear, resting and nourishing yourself.
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This is the season to lay low on the earth, listen to her beating heart and assimilate her wisdom.
To slow down, breathe softer, ground and nourish.
We are like the seed, enveloped in darkness, sleeping and gathering strength for when spring will come.
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This amulet is a reminder that it's ok to be like Bear and slow down, to follow our needs and timing. That is ok to take that extra nap or an hour to do something that makes you feel replenished.