Timespinning (Salley Ring)

A work of Timedancing with Daire Spillane

Hands stripping willow branches, passing traditional craft knowledge between generations

Stripping the sallies one generation to the next

Russell seated on a stool, weaving willow branches into a traditional salley belt

I remember to weave

A wand and wheel leaning on green grass leaning against a tree crafted from willow branches against the backdrop of an old stone arch bridge

The wand and wheel

A crowd of people in a circle on a beach watching a women with her head down stepping through the salley belt woven with straw and tied with ribbons while Russell holds it vertically

Lúnasa on Kilmacreehy Strand

Russell, a man with short dark hair dancing on a nightclub stage in a moment of sensuality while his hands run aroudn his head and chest

Ritual carried into nightlife

A color 90s photograph of Russell at 10 years old with his father and his sister standing with his mother at the zoo

A memory of my father playing Down by the Salley Gardens with his Irish tin whistle every morning to wake me

Before I sang Down by the Salley Gardens in my last recital in high school, someone gave me a photo they found of my father.
He was killed four years earlier by a drunk driver in a motorcycle accident.
Returning to Kilmacreehy Strand but this time with multiple salley belts laid on the beach with a mound of flowers inside while Russell leans tenderly with his eyes closed with Daire, who was in the first picture teaching him how to strip and weave sallies

Love can do funny things…

If you listen.
A dashboard photograph of an Irish road in Clare with motorcycle and sidecar blurred in the distance ahead while sallies (willows) line the road