Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Rapunzel's Tower

A few years ago I made a number of felted pieces on fairy tale themes.  This is Rapunzel's Tower.  She's headed out of the house today and I thought I'd at least post her picture and some text I wrote when I made her.

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Rapunzel’s Tower

Did you ever have something you wanted to keep safe?  How did you protect it?  Did you put it in a tower and lock it away from the world?

Did your safety measures work?

I used to work in the aerospace industry with solid rocket fuel.  I remember discussions about keeping the fuel and engines loaded with fuel safe from contaminates.  And then there were the reports that even in special, clean storage facilities insects got into the engines…Our attempts at keeping the fuel clean failed.

The wicked witch’s attempt at keeping Rapunzel safe failed too. 

My great-grandmother made pillows as gifts for my brother and me.  Each had an animal cross-stitched on front.  They were fun pillows! They were just the right size to lean against for reading, comfy to hug, and dense enough that they were GREAT pillow-fight weapons.  Unfortunately, my grandmother was visiting when one of our pillow fights broke out.  Oh, the scolding we received!   The take home message from the scolding was that we should treasure these gifts and keep them safe.  I don’t think my grandmother knew that we did treasure them.  We used them, we loved them, and we made great memories with them.  Eventually, they wore out. The physical pillows are gone.  The memories remain.

I wonder about all the things we keep safe.  Are we doing ourselves a dis-service?  Are there other ways to keep something safe and to protect it, while still allowing it to function?  I wonder what we will change because we have considered Rapunzel’s tower.

Keep safe!  Stay warm!  Enjoy the journey!
Jessica Madsen
Fiber Artist/needle felter

1/30/2014


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