Tag Archives: Ojos de Dios

O Is For… Ojos de Dios!

Knoontime Knitting

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Ojos de Dios is translated from the Spanish as, “Eyes of God.”  First worked by the coastal South American indigenous peoples the Huichol, they are a  combination between a prayer, hope, and protection.  They became popular in the States during the 1970’s during the resurgence of the Arts and Crafts revival.  As a Wiccan, I see them as a lovely way to intentionalize my craft and to make something tangible out of a wish.

This one was made from a continuous yarn and woven with differing weaves (which is why you can see the dowel in the center at different points on the diamond).  I bought the dowel at the hardware store, sanded it, and then painted a combination stain and varnish on it to darken it and preserve the wood.  Tip:  if you decide to do that, let the finished wood sit for at least a week so the fumes dissipate and any stickiness is gone.  It was pretty pungent to work on the next day.

What about you, Dear Reader?
For what would you make an ojo?  New job? Writing project? Love?

 

The Eyes Have It

Knoontime Knitting
The Sun

Every year, I struggle with Christmas and the holidays and what they mean to me.  Much like my forays into 3-D, my forays into what the holidays “should” be like are colored by the past and by expectations.  I remember when my parents separated when I was ten, and I believed my mother “ruined” Christmas.  The magic was gone.  I couldn’t understand why my father couldn’t be there and we couldn’t just celebrate like we had in years past.

Tolstoy said that every happy family is happy in the same way, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.  Melanie Beatty said that in alcoholic families, everyone’s angry: Mom’s angry, Dad’s angry, even the dog is angry.  That last one stuck with me – even the dog?  She’s right; my dog knew something was “up.”

Why do I bring that up now?  As I learn how to make the holidays mine after all these years, I’m finding that the past is much with me.  Which brings me to the Ojos de Dios, or “Eyes of God.”

The Huichol people believe that these amulets bring blessings and luck upon the person for whom they’re made.  When a person is born, an ojo is made for them in the central temple.  Ojos are also made at the inception of new business projects, marriages, and other beginnings.  It’s a way to attract the benevolent attention of the deities onto one’s own life.

Enlightenment

A friend of mine suggested some years ago to make the ojos using cinnamon sticks and embroidery floss.  The idea caught fire in my mind and I love the shiny effect of the weaving.  By varying the weaves, you can create more complex structures; but just by using a simple overdyed yarn you can achieve beautiful effects with relatively little effort.

Water

I made these ojos for my office.  I wanted to bring blessings on our work, and to remember that it’s the holidays.  I’m trying to capture some of that sense of magic they had when I was little.  I’m not sure what made it magical, which is part of the challenge; I don’t know what I’m searching for.

Fire

One year, my cat Marina kept batting down all the ornaments I’d put on our tree.  She broke several of them and made a mess.  By end of the holiday, all the ornaments were grouped in the top 18 inches of the tree, leaving the rest to the lights.  The next year, I made ojos for the whole tree – a whole canister of them.  It made me incredibly happy to do.

That’s part of the magic, then – making things.  I think that we humans are crafty creatures and that making things with our hands is part of what satisfies us.  So our holiday this year has centered around handmade things – from food to decorations.

What about you?  
What makes the holidays magical for you?

A Journey Into 3D Notebook – What I’m Working On

Knoontime Knitting

November is coming, and with it, NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month.  During the month of November, NaNo-ers write 50,000 words on a draft of a novel – some more, some less, and the madness that ensues is infectious.

I wish we had a NaKnitMo, National Knitting Month.  Wouldn’t that be awesome?

I was lamenting recently to Rachel Wilder, my partner in writing crime, that my stash is reaching epic proportions.  I typed up what’s under the bed in bins and showed her pictures of my shelves in my office, which overflowed from the huge apparatus over there to the top of the filing cabinet over here.

Unperturbed, she said, “Just think of it as hours of pre-paid entertainment.”

Blink.

LOFF!

In celebration of that, I figured I’d share a few of the things I’m working on or have recently finished.

This is an Ojo de Dios, or “Eye of God.”  Made by the Huichol peoples of South America, they are prayers of blessing and good fortune.  Ojos are made and placed in the central village temple for blessings on a child, a new business venture, a marriage, and many other occasions.

This one was fun to make since I usually make much smaller ones.  This one is about 12 inches on 1/2 inch dowel rods.  I sanded the dowels and then stained them using a combination of varnish and stain.  I skipped the recommended steel wool sanding in between the two coats and I think, in hindsight, I wish I had done it; on the next project I will use that as part of the preparation.  Overall, though, I like how the dowels came out.

I used a large, bulky yarn with an overdye pattern, which is what accounts for the color variations.  I also varied the weave in making the ojo itself, which is what accounts for the visibility of the dowel in the middle of the design in parts.

At the October Nightweavers meeting, a chapter of the Weavers Guild of the North Shore, we made snowflakes for the upcoming Fine Art of Fiber taking place at the Chicago Botanic Gardens November 8-10, 2013.  The designs are surprisingly easy to put together and look quite pretty in white paper.  I am across some colored origami paper that’s white on the back, so I decided to try the design using six sheets of that, instead.

The white added a depth to the snowflake that I didn’t anticipate and like very much.  I think it would look pretty, and very different, when done on paper that has designs on both sides, especially if the designs aren’t identical.

I nipped its ear when I was punching a hole to hang it with; you can see it on the tip of the red ear here.

If you’re curious, the location where it hangs is the Pumping Station: One, a hackerspace here in Chicago.  This is the art room and the view in the background is to one of the consoles for one of our 3-D printers.