Over the years, she has “not claimed” puppets, masks, collages, costumes and weaving. Today, at 85, no longer able to work at her loom, Durgin is “not claiming” labyrinths. “I ‘steal’ ideas from nature,” she explains. “I incorporate photographs and images, and I design around fabric remnants using yarn left over from my weaving.”

The result, however, is like trifle: A humble recipe for leftover cake became a chi-chi dessert.

Durgin started playing with labyrinths three years ago. A friend used images of labyrinths in her journal as springboards for her thoughts. “I asked her, ‘How do you make that?’ and she showed me how she started with a cross,” Durgin says. “Through my practice of Christianity, I have deepened my understanding of the cross. The cross is also vital to weaving because, to prepare yarns for the loom, I have to string them in a figure-eight pattern, known as a ‘cross,’ which maintains order for the threading.”

She began designing labyrinths with a three-circuit watercolor. Eventually, one design grew into a 60-inch-diameter, wooden disc; this largest of her labyrinths hangs as a rood at Church of the Good Shepherd, Durgin’s parish in Barre, Vt. She painted and positioned it as decoration for a festival at her church. “Parishioners thought it fit well in the sanctuary, and so the labyrinth is still there.”

Bits from an atlas

One of her first labyrinths incorporated paper bits from an atlas she cannibalized. “I liked the centerfold with its edges of Antarctica. That became the background over which I lay a clear film. With a gold pen, I defined the labyrinth’s path with the words of the prayer, Come, O Holy Spirit, Come.”

Durgin starts with a paper design, then transfers the maquette onto fabric, where she can push objects around and experiment with layout. “I follow the direction of the materials,” she explains. “Say I had a shell with a half-moon look. I would stick it down. Gradually objects would accumulate around it.”

She mirrored the image of a three-winged bird from Good Shepherd’s newest stained-glass window, dedicated October 2003. Parishioner Nancy Hanson based her design for the odd bird at the center of the window on a fractal she had found in a magazine.

The path comes last -- after Durgin studies the cloth to see “what is relevant to the path.” She curves the lines of some paths and squares others. She experimented with a swirled path that draws the eye to the center like roofs in a hurricane. The path for Day is pre-strung sequins. “I don’t often work with glitz, but I wanted it to contrast strongly with Night,” Durgin explains.

The size of the remnant -- “or my energy or capacity” -- dictates how many circuits a labyrinth will have, she says. “I’ve never gone beyond the 11-circuit Chartres labyrinth.” Background materials range from heavy upholstery fabric to fairylight net. “Each background has a different demand,” she explains. Each labyrinth also has a different name, often biblical: Eye of Wisdom, In the Beginning and Church/Home, for example. Last year, Durgin’s son, Gregory, photographed the labyrinths to create a calendar for family gifts; this year, his photographs of her labyrinths are being produced for sale. “When I taught art,” Durgin says, “I used to tell my students, ‘If you’re really hooked, you’ll see things that otherwise you’d be too preoccupied to see.’” She creates labyrinths, in part, she adds, to support the health aspects of walking the ancient circuits.

“The path of the labyrinth -- with its switchbacks but also with its certain course to the center -- seems to echo the body’s currents and rhythms as well as a spiritual direction,” she says. “It works for me.”

As is her wont, Durgin does not claim her labyrinths as art. “They are just what happens when stuff comes together.”

An exhibit of Charlotte Durgin’s labyrinths runs from Dec. 3 to Jan. 15 at Art & Soul Café (http://www.artandsoulcafe.org/) at Christ Church Cathedral in St. Louis (http://www.christchurchcathedral.us/). The 2005 Labyrinth Calendar ($15+s/h) is available through http://www.printedpath.com/ or 1-877-867-9958. A percentage of the proceeds will be donated to the health-ministry programs of the Episcopal Church and to Art & Soul Café to support its mission of creating a spiritually inclusive community.