Sails and Finding Your Way

I love doing research.  Massie says I am an historian trapped in the body of an artist and she's probably right.  When we came up with compass as our first idea I was excited by all the research I was going to get to do.  It's hard not to think of Girl Scouting trips and trying to figure out how the compass even worked let alone trying to get anywhere with it.  Or the summer I spent trying to memorize constellations.  I began with the mechanical manifestations of time and distance we are used to and here my research lead me to the amazing Corpus Clock.  When I was in London I went to Greenwich and saw the chronometers invented by Harrison which enabled sailors to more accurately measure longitude(a handy thing when out on the open sea.)  When you look at them you realize how we now take time for granted.

    The idea of sailing reminded me of the use of the compass as one of my favorite motifs in quilt-making.  I wondered at early navigation and how for so long humans used stars as a guide when so few of us can even really see them nowadays. 

    So where does all that leave me?  Collecting old tablecloths, linens and old jeans, and still more research on how transform them into tall ship sails, a cloth compass and a night sky.