An amazing thing happened to me on Saturday while Bob and I attended a huge party of several hundred people that was a celebration for sending off the crews of various large yachts, from mega yachts to large yachts, for the Caribbean 600 Race. That’s a race that starts and ends in Antigua, with a 600 mile course that circumnavigates a number of islands in this part of the Caribean. First of all, the music was amazing, but prevented conversation with anyone, yet I still met someone quite incredible!
Here is a short video of the steel drum band. I didn’t arrive in time to catch the beginning of one of my favorite songs from my youth—the Turtles “You and Me.”
The real excitement of the evening was that I met a woman living aboard her boat in English Harbour, where she has a Harrisville 22” folding loom onboard. When I asked how she set that up down below, she informed me that she weaves in the cockpit.
We met a couple of evenings later when we could actually talk. Her name is Helen, and she lives part of year the in Minnesota, and part of the year here in Antigua, on her boat.
Right now her loom is set up with an 10/2 Tercel warp. I’m not sure if she has decided what she’ll weave. She may have a plan by the time I see her again in a few days. Like me, she gathers her materials at home and brings them with her. Here is one of some photos she shared with me. I don’t know what she does when the tropical showers start with no warning. Her loom would definitely get wet because here doesn’t come without wind…usually lots of wind.
Sorry that the image is blurry. I couldn’t pass up using it because it’s such an incredible feat to meet a weaver while sailing, especially a weaver who manages to weave onboard. I have never attempted to bring any loom onboard except a copper pipe loom. In order to weave I put a table easel on a folding table and then set up my loom.
I have been considering table looms even though I don’t like them! Is that the voice of desperation? (yes) I was quite intrigued with Jane table looms, but wherever I might set it up I would have to stand to use it. If I bought a stand for it, or had Bob make one, it wouldn’t fit onboard. Oh, the hindrances of living in such a small space while trying to weave.
The only other weaver I’ve met who weaves aboard is Doris Florig, and we didn’t actually meet in person, just online. At the time, 2015, she was aboard her sailboat in Guatemala and had set up a large tapestry loom where her dining table is in the main saloon. I wrote about her here. Currently I believe Doris mostly weaves somewhere in the Rocky Mountains. Here is the photo of her loom she sent me back in 2015. Again, not a crystal clear photo, but impressive, yes?
So it goes to show that I should never say ‘never.’ I have spent 13 years lamenting that I have never met a weaver during our sailing adventures. I have now met Helen, in real life (IRL), who weaves on a pretty large loom on her boat. No, it’s not a large loom by weaving on land standards, but I doubt I’ll meet anyone else who has a floor loom on a mono-hull sailboat. (I refrain from saying never.) Bob would never agree to Doris’ solution, and I actually don’t blame him. I know I can’t get even the little Harrisville onboard Pandora. If you’ve got advice for me please get in touch!
Meanwhile, life goes on doesn’t it? And those of us with hurdles try to figure out how we can keep weaving.
This is my last week in Antigua, and the week is shaping up to be memorable. It’s our last year down here, so good byes are somewhat bittersweet. We’ll miss the friends we’ve made here, especially the locals. The future is full of possibilities with our travels to the Azores for part of June and July, and then my adventure in Scotland in the second half of July.
Bob is about to have a very exciting week. He has volunteered to greet some of the arriving mega yachts on a night this week. His watch time is 2am – 6am on Monday. His ‘job’ is to greet the yachts on arrival with a large banner, then photograph the crew standing onboard with the banner. And most importantly he will be delivering some number of cases of beer (Caribe, I think) to each yacht based on how many crew are on each boat. Here is the cast of volunteers getting their instructions.
Why is everyone looking up? There is a drone taking the photo from above. Hopefully the drone caught everyone, which I could not from where I was standing. I didn’t find Bob, but hopefully the drone did!
Antigua seems to have some kind of yacht event every week during the late winter and into spring. Right now the Caribbean 600 is about to start. Everyday we’ve watched boats go out for trials in the morning, returning in the afternoon. They motor right past us and then begin hoisting their sails. After I return home Bob will be crew on one of these behemoth vessels during the next big yachting event. He’ll be in sailing heaven. Last evening, after the volunteer event, we went to a reception for the sailors participating in the Mini Globe Race. This is an arount-the-world race of 15 very small boats, about 18 ft. long, that will be single-handed. What an interesting group.
The setting for the reception was the Sailing Academy, quite a stunning spot to spend an evening. Aside from the power boat on the left of the dock, the rest of the boats are the Mini Globe sailboats.
The founder of the Mini Globe Race, Don MacIntyre, designed the boat and then sailed around the world in it himself. He is in the center of this photo with Bob on the right and a local man from the Antigua Yacht Club on the left. Don held a reception where each sailor got to talk about what has drawn them to participate in something like this. I thought I would think they are all unhinged, but surprisingly I didn’t. Not that I would ever want to do this when I don’t even enjoy sailing between the islands down here. But, I’m amazed to say that in most cases I understood their reasoning. There are two women in this year’s race, an older woman from Spain, and a young woman from the UK.
Here is Bob with a German sailor, Christian, whose boat is named “Argo.” Part of the rules of this race is that you have to build the boat yourself, or buy it from someone who has already done the race. There aren’t too many of these boats so mostly the sailors have to make their own, either from plans or as a kit. Most of the racers have spent about two years building the boat before they can do the qualifying event of sailing from Lagos, Portugal, to Antigua. The race then leaves from Antigua (tomorrow morning) and heads to the Panama Canal.
Of the 15 entrants in this race (which will take 13 months to complete, ending back in Antigua) most are Australians, including a father/son team. Since it’s a single-handed race the son built two boats, one for his father and one for him. That was a big commitment and a big challenge. Now they will compete against each other. There was an interesting Polish man who now lives in Ireland, so his boat flies the Irish flag, which is quite a contrast to his strong Polish accent. There is one American man, Josh, whom Bob and I enjoyed meeting. He used to be an extreme mountain climber. He says sailing is lot less dangerous. Well, if he says so. He gave us his card with his website listed on it so we can track his progress. I know Bob will be glued to that, as he was when Jessica Watson sailed around the world.
Tonight there is another gathering to celebrate yet another sailing-related thing. There will be drinks and grilled food on the terrace of the yacht club, where the volunteer crowd was photographed yesterday evening. Bob is loving all this. At some point this morning the 15 Mini Globe boats will parade through the harbor blowing their air horns. They should sail right by us. Did I mention that Bob is loving all this!
Meanwhile, I am knitting, and there is a glimmer of a chance that I might finish my current project before heading home one week from today. This morning I spilled black coffee the part I am currently knitting. Horrors! I gave it a soak in cold water, trying not to get the attached yarn balls wet, and it looks like I have avoided having a stain. I can’t continue knitting until it dries. In the photo below I am checking to see if the back panel matches the number of stripes and the measurement of the first front panel. I am also taking photos to record the project in my new organizational tool, Notion. The right front and the back are now finished, and I am working on the second front panel. One week to go, including the finishing work which has some i-cord embellishment as well as sewing the pieces together. Alas, I have no buttons! I’d like to wear it in New England before the cold temperatures give way to spring.
Knowing that I will not be back here for the foreseeable future I had to buy more of Nancy Nicholsen’s island pottery. She does not ship so I feel compelled to enlarge my collection on my last few days here. Actually, I bought 4 pieces that will all be gifts. I’m not sure how I’ll get home with them since they weigh more than clothing, and I have a fair amount of that to pack. Here are my pieces, which live on Pandora and get used almost every night at dinner.
The new things I purchased are heavily packed for travel, so I can’t photograph them. I love these designs and the colors Nancy uses in her glazes. She gathers the clay locally, and her blue on blue pieces really match the color of the water here–the aqua of shallow, coastal waters and the deep indigo of the sea. These are wonderful mementos of Antigua.
My time here is now short. One week from now I will be sitting in the airport awaiting my flight. The future is looming large with projects I want to start at home, some teaching engagements, and more travel! I will soon be catching up with friends and helping to hang an exhibit of woven works. It’s all great!
And now it’s February of the new year. I spent the last month taking inventory and getting my myself organized in Notion, which was also a way to prioritize where I’m headed this year. It was a great exercise, and now I’m implementing what I discovered about my work.
I am halfway through my time onboard this winter and so I’ve begun to plan what I’ll do when I get home. If you set aside small projects like knitting or spinning or embroidery, you can continue to work on other projects. You change the bobbin on your spinning wheel, or get out another drop spindle. Same for knitting. You put the knitted item away, get out more yarn, more needles and off you go on another knitting project. This has gotten me in loads of trouble over the years–no, wait! Over the decades. I have knitting projects that might have passed 20 years since I filed them away.
Weaving projects can be set aside, but you can’t move forward with a loom until you weave off the fabric. Some of us have multiple looms, but none of us can set aside nearly as many weaving projects as we can with other handwork. I have the rest of my sashiko warp waiting for me at home. Lucikly, I’m still enthralled with it and look forward to weaving the rest of that fabric. I am also very much looking forward to putting on a warp for double weave huck once the sashiko is off the loom. Cally Booker’s workshop on double weave huck has me excited to do a few projects. On the sample warp which will come first, I hope to advance to making some cowls at some point on the warp. The main project I want to do is a ruana type wrap which will be a bigger warp and a bigger weaving commitment. I have in mind a double sided ruana, each color staying on its own side, stitched here and there so the fabric stays together, and I can wear it on whichever side I fancy. I love big commitments!
This is a double sided, machine knitted wrap that caused quite a bit of swooning among the group in the workshop Italy. One woman had this one with her, five more of us found them in a shop in Orvieto and bought our own. I would love to make something similar in double huck.
I have gone as far as I can go on the sweater I am knitting with some beautiful baby alpaca/silk/cashmere yarn that my older son gave me for Christmas. I have to order one more ball (but which color?) in order to get the sleeves the length I’d like. It will take only a couple of hours to finish this once I’m home and have ordered the yarn. I am dreaming of wearing this sweater in early spring in New England and also in Scotland in summer.
In order to knit the sleeves I had to divide each of the remaining balls in half. After wondering how to do this, I remembered that Bob had made me a PVC pipe niddy noddy a few years that I store onboard. I had no idea where it was, but Bob found it immediately.
I’ve turned my attention back to a knitted work in progress, although it’s quite a usurper in the UFO category. I started this vest only months ago, and there are far older UFOs that should have been higher on the list. I love the combination of charcoal and marled taupe in this design by Hanne Falkenberg, called “Avenue.” I particularly love the little tool bag that a good friend gave me for my birthday that looks perfect next to the vest in progress. It’s a gem.
It’s such a gem I decided I should carry it as a purse sometimes.
During January I also researched where I might go this summer when I need to get off Pandora while Bob sails from the Azores into the Mediterranean, to Spain. I have a week to ten days to do something. In the long run, I have decided to take more time, 14 – 21 days, to travel through Scotland. I have a lot on my list to see, including the Dovecot Studio, the “Hunt for the Unicorn” reproduction tapestries at Stirling Castle, the Great Tapestry of Scotland in Galashiels. My luck here in the Caribbean has been such that I have now met two women who had a hand in that epic embroidery. I look forward to seeing it in real life. Luck has also smiled down on me that my English friend will meet me somewhere on the West Coast of Scotland, and a dear long-term friend wants to join me on this adventure. We want to include some of the islands which is what will make our trip longer than I originally planned. I met a yacht captain who is from the Isle of Mull and now lives on the mainland. He has invested in a small start up for a friend who wants to knit traditional garments with a flat bed knitting machine. This friend gave Martin a long cowl made on a similar machine by Marie Wallin. He showed it to me and offered to take a photo of me wearing it. I’ve now learned that Marie Wallin runs workshops in her croft where students design and knit a Fair Isle garment. So, so tempting.
I don’t want to leave anything off my list for this Scottish adventure. I can’t count on going back again, only forward. Scotland in July….the light will be beautiful, the weather at its best, and there will be midges, lots of midges.
I now have a few projects in Notion somewhat under control. I absolutely could not set it up myself, so my younger son came to my rescue. He loves Notion. He says you can create any kind of system for keeping track of things with it, from spread sheets, graphs, tables, or even ‘cards’ with info. And you can add photos and notes. You have to know how to do this yourself though; there are precious few tutorials. It’s a tracking app for people who are already computer savvy, and that is not me. I have a lot more data to put into my Notion file, but I’m off to good start.
This week I am in an online class with Cally Booker on Doubleweave Huck. The Michigan League of Handweavers is hosting this class. They are in Michigan, Cally is in Scotland, and I am in the Caribbean. What a world. There are three class days, and we’ve already had two of them. Cally gets online mid-afternoon, while the Eastern US folks (including the Michiganders) get online at 9:30 am, most of them with coffee cups in hand. I am on Atlantic time and have finished my coffee and breakfast by the time class starts for me at 10:30. An old acquaintance of mine, from my first guild in central New Jersey, whom I’ve thought of fondly over the decades since I moved away from NJ, is taking the class from Arizona. She has to be ready to participate at 7:30 am. When we finish, Cally is ready for tea, and I am ready for lunch. My friend in Arizona can still get some breakfast! Indeed, what a world.
I don’t have a loom onboard, so I am weaving virtually, as well as being virtual myself. I have put a standard 8S huck threading in Fiberworks, and I copy it into new drawdowns to change the lift plans to get different weaving effects. Everyone else gets to go to their looms and actually weave. I look forward to seeing what they’ve woven at our next class. I won’t have anything to show. This is my set up for class. Tech on tech, with tech….I’m in the zoom class on my ipad while making drawdowns on my laptop.
My mind is focused on the incredible trajectory of weaving history as I participate in things this week. Through Marta Cucchio’s facebook page, I learned that the documentary film about her atelier, that my La Romita group visited in October, would have a free screening on the website for Hollywood Short Fest. The film recently won an award from this organization and was offering the free screening until last night. Over the past week I watched it twice. This atelier and museum has been on my mind constantly since I was there. Marta is the 4th generation woman to continue the revival of very old Perugian weaving designs. She moved the atelier to a very appropriate site outside the medieval of walls of Perugia in 1996. It is now housed in the de-sanctified church of San Francesco delle Donne, St. Francis of the Women, and Marta’s workshop employees are all women. The building originated as a hermitage where St. Francis and his disciples stayed when it was built in 1212. The name came when the Franciscan monks gave the church to Benedictine nuns in 1252. Being outside the city walls it was abandoned numerous times, since there were many battles and wars fought in this area, where being outside the city walls would make this building indefensible. The salt wars greatly diminished Perugia’s economy so this building was abandoned. In the early 19th c it was a spinning mill for a short period.
Before Marta Cucchio took possession of this site for the atelier, four generations of her mother and grandmothers had run this business at other locations. Marta is the first of these women to learn to weave and participate fully in the business.
What has been on my mind since visiting her atelier is, of course, the fabrics. We cannot know the woven structures that Mary actually wore, or the fabrics with which she may have wrapped the baby Jesus. What we know are the fabrics painted by the great artists of the Middle Ages. From those paintings and the historic records of woven patterns created and executed in Perugia, we know a great deal about the fabrics woven in medieval Perugia and can identify them in paintings. As it is, the patterns depicted in medieval paintings and frescos would have been woven entirely by hand-manipulation which would have made them incredibly valuable. For many centuries it was customary for wealthy families to have an inventory of the textiles they owned along with inventories of jewelry, silver and other precious household items. I think most non-weavers would be surprised to learn how valuable fabrics were in earlier times.
Marta and her colleagues weave on manual jacquard looms, a technology that was invented in the early 19th c. Her looms date to the late 19th c. It’s a more-high tech way of producing these fabrics from the Middle Ages, but it is far from the technology we have today. It took two years for the Giuditta Brozetti weavers to plan and execute a reproduction of Leonardo da Vinci’s tablecloth from the “Last Supper.” Some of that was research, certainly, but the whole process of making the warp, dressing the loom, which included attaching the many jacquard ‘mail eyes’ or ‘hooks’ to the warp threads, even punching the jacquard cards, took most of that time. I wonder what it felt like to throw those first dozens of weft passes and watch the patterns emerge.
During my visit in October, Marta mentioned that someone had made a short documentary about her project. The film was shown at Cannes, and then this week, she posted that it had won an award at the Hollywood Short Fest. The Short Fest group posted a free screening of the film for six days. I watched it twice. I could watch it a dozen more times. The breadth of history shown in a skill that I love spans most of human time. In this instance, Marta’s great grandmother started this atelier 100 years ago. Marta wanted to mark this historic moment by weaving something far older that celebrates the weaving history of Perugia. I marvel that women have taken this skill from the most basic materials, both in fiber and equipment on which to weave, all the way to the space age, where computers weave fabrics that are not only used in space, but in human bodies to replace vital body parts.
When I return home I will weave my double huck samples on one of my two computerized dobby looms. I will be part of the long chain of women who have expressed themselves through fabric with whatever is at hand, in my case fairly advanced technologies, like machine-spun yarns and a computerized dobby loom. Then I will sit and hand-hem my fabric. From the space age to the Stone Age. It’s all good. I don’t understand much about computer tech, but I am glad to now be able to track my weaving projects in Notion, and even weave some of my projects via computer driven looms. I still make the warps by hand, and dress the loom by hand, winding the warp onto the back beam, threading the heddles, and tying on to the cloth beam, all by hand. I still throw the shuttle that creates the cloth. What a world.
It’s January, the first month of the new year as well as my birth month. It’s the month when the ancient god Janus for whom the month gets its name, compels us to take stock of where we’ve been and what we’ve done as we look to the future for where we’re going and what we’ll do. He is the god with two faces, looking forward and looking back. He predates the Roman gods and is likely a god from Etruscan origins. The Etruscans are near and dear to me, in spite of what little is known of their culture. Their artwork is glorious and is seen in subsequent centuries in Roman culture. I visited Tarquinia in the late 1970s, in college, where there are many Etruscan tombs with artwork still intact. I had the thrill of being there again a couple of months ago, in October. The images of Etruscan artwork are prominent in my mind this month as I plan for the future.
This is my last year in my 60s. This is a year where I want to pay particular attention to looking back so I can determine where and how I want to go forward Into what will hopefully more than a decade of continued creativity. I know I have to keep de-stashing and even more importantly, I want to create things. I realize I must clear some space both physically and mentally in order to create. I am becoming bogged down in my own stuff. Someone else, younger, with more years of creativity in their future, needs to take some of this burden off my hands.
I’ve been in Antigua for 6 days now. I was treated to a quick tropical squall on the morning of my birthday, followed by a beautiful rainbow.
Then the day progressed with getting a cooking/baking lesson with the French chef of La Brasserie in English Harbour, Antigua. Eric gave me a lesson in making macaroons with fillings. He made me a large macaroon cake which is called an ‘Ispahan’ in French. My macaron cake was scented with rose water, and the filling was a butter cream/custard mixture which I also learned to make, raspberry jam, and fresh raspberries. It’s wonderful to have a beautiful dessert that tastes as good as it looks.
It’s been a rather busy few days since we arrived in Antigua. We’ve met up with cruising friends who have either returned here or stayed here through the holidays. Some non-sailing friends visited during their winter vacation here. It’s their first time in Antigua, and setting aside the Christmas winds that have arrived bringing high winds and rain, I think they are enjoying the island.
Today is our first day with no scheduled events, so we took our dinghy to a new breakfast place called You and Me. It has well shaded outdoor seating area with great views of the head of Falmouth Harbour.
After I finish this blog post I intend to knit for most of the day. My older son gave me a wonderful selection of yarn for Christmas. It’s from a local shop near him, and the yarn is “Yarn Citizens Luxe.” He bought five colors: Pearl (close to white), Heather (barely lavender), Jasmine (medium lavender), Ocean (medium indigo), and Coal (medium charcoal grey). The yarn is 49% baby alpaca, 39 % mulberry silk, and 12% cashmere. I can barely feel it as I knit, and it looks like a cloud.
My goal this year is to concentrate on finishing many UFOs, but this gemlike yarn obviously took precedence. I’m knitting a simple top/down raglan sweater and will use the colors from palest at the neckline to darkest at the hem. Even with our busy schedule, I’ve made sure to have relaxing knitting time part of every day.
Looking back, I am more satisfied than I expected with my projects this year. I should make a record of them, and to help me accomplish that my younger son introduced me to the app called Notion a couple of years ago. Notion allows you to keep track of projects in motion, to keep track of the order in which one needs to tackle projects, and to keep a record of things accomplished. I still haven’t managed how to include photos with this work tracking app, so I haven’t used it to its best potential. On the other end of the organized spectrum, I have an older friend who records all her finished projects in a regular notebook with a printout of the photo she takes when she finishes something. I have not resorted to that method because I have a basic dislike of having a lot of notebooks taking up precious space on my shelves. The notebooks I already have are burdensome enough, not to mention the many decades of periodicals I have kept and the books I own. While these are all precious possessions to me, the lack of space is getting worrisome. Sometimes I feel I might get buried in my workshop and never escape. Learning how to better use Notion this year is pretty high on my list.
In November I was invited to participate in a textile arts exhibit at a private club in Hartford. I think there were only eight invitees, and two of us were new to this event. The exhibit will be on display for the months of January and February. The club held a lovely opening reception a couple of days before Bob and I left to come back to Antigua. I invited a good friend to join me, and when I arrived I realized I knew quite a few of the attendees, but only one of the other artists. It’s always inspiring to see what other textile artists do, and I came away with wonderful images in my head. I was the only tapestry artist on display.
I thought above the fireplace was a prime place for artwork, and I was honored to have a piece there. On the left are two felted landscapes done by the only other artist I knew from the group, Diane Cadrain. On the right is my tapestry “Sunset on Wilson Cove.”
To list the things I feel are accomplishments I’ve made this year, I might put this exhibit at the top of the list. It’s not often that textile artists have a venue to show their work, and I’m very glad I was asked and glad that I managed to pull some works together before leaving the country. I participated in two other shows during this year, and while that’s not much, it makes three events that brought tapestry weaving to the public.
I did a lot of weaving this year. I finished half the warp of woven sashiko, and I made a number of sakiori samples which led to a vest that actually fits me and a tote bag I’m enjoying using. I have the tote bag with me now on Pandora.
Jody captured the best view of the vest which is from the back (althought it’s quite wrinkled from a long car ride!). There are side gussets of sakiori and two sakiori pockets on the front, but the back is almost entirely sakiori. Here’s the front—a photo also taken by my friend Jody.
The fabric for the trim on this vest is what I used as the fabric strips for weaving.
I wove my first wedge weave tapestry, wove half the warp of my sashiko project and gave away four of the finished squares.
At long last I finished the Caribbean tapestry that I began during the pandemic. I can’t post a photo of it because I plan to submit it the Connecticut biennial when I return home. What I can show is the wonderful frame Bob built for the tapestry. This is our best attempt so far at having the back be as neat and tidy as the front.
This fall I made some fabric trays for a party favor for an upcoming event I will not be able to attend, and I made three lace flowers that I included in a fascinator that was made from various pieces of antigue machine lace I have and several ribbon embroidered flowers that I’ve made over the years. That was a fun project initiated by my lace group to become a new category of lace at the Big E Arts and Crafts exhibition. The fascinators are now on display at a local library.
And then there was a little weaving and a LOT of dyeing in Umbria, Italy, which I wrote about here and here. In December my friend Jody and I put some of our new knowledge to work during a two-day dyeing session in my kitchen—right after the new year. We used indigo, weld, madder, and olive leaves and branches from my olive tree. It was hard to stop, and it’s one of the first things I want to do when I return home. The circle of colors starting on the lower right is 3 shades of maddder, , weld, olive leaves, weld with a short dip in indigo, two skeins in indigo (the first one is very blotchy, not sure why), and the last two are indigo dipped in madder. The last skein is close to a color I wanted to recreate from one of the skeins we dyed in Italy. I look forward to attempting that again at home this spring.
I also finished two knitted items this year: a vest with the yarns I got from the 2023 Kate Davies advent yarn box. It is tunic length and has a shadow knitting pattern running through it. The 2nd project is a sweater from a Kate Davies pattern called “Auchnaha.” I used her beautiful ooskit yarn in a natural grey/brown. I’ve enjoyed wearing both these sweaters before leaving New England for the tropical weather in Antigua.
Just before I left home I stopped at Hartford Artisans for a short meeting. It’s impossible to go there without being tempted by any number of wonderful handwoven/handmade things. This time I succumbed to this charming little pouch. It had a rather sad plastic button that imitated bronze. That just would not do! I changed the button to a shell, and added a shell to the plain commercial fabric at the top. I also added a piece of kumihimo from my stash of samples to turn the pouch into a wristlet purse. I’ve got it with me now in the Caribbean, and it is perfect here!
I’m pretty sure I have accomplished significantly more this year than in previous years. While it feels awkward and quite self-absorbed to list all my finished projects, I am trying to understand how I did these things, and how I can maintain this surge of work in 2025. It takes luck, of course, since we need good health to be productive, and that’s something none of us can predict. It’s time to knuckle down to learn more about Notion so I can keep better records, to de-stash my extensive work space, and get down to the business of doing what I love. Forward ho!
It’s early Sunday morning, and I am sitting in my favorite chair unraveling the sleeve on my most recent sweater. It’s a design by Kate Davies which has serendipitously turned out with quite a different silhouette than the images on her website. My sweater is significantly bigger than I expected, and I love it this way. A very nice surprise. As I was knitting the 2nd sleeve mid-last week, I realized if I just sped up my knitting I would finish the sweater that day and be able to wear it to my holiday guild meeting the next day.
The temptation to finish was great, which is what made me ignore what I know for a fact about knitting speed, at least for myself and Meg Swanson: the faster I knit the looser I knit. So, this sleeve looks considerably looser than the first sleeve, and also looks rather flimsy and messy compared to the rest of the sweater. Haste does indeed make waste. Time to rip and re-knit. Sometimes the work of our hands is creative and sometimes it needs to be a chore, like re-knitting a sleeve. I’m trying to not think of this as drudgery since it’s a quiet, pre-dawn morning, and there is coffee brewing.
It has become a time of mending since I have just finished re-sewing the side seam of a sweater I wanted to enlarge. Last winter I planned to add a gusset to the side seams of my old “Hild” sweater by Elsbeth Lavold, but I tried it on yesterday and felt the gussets are now unnecessary. That was good news for me! Since I’d only managed to knit one partial gusset before putting it aside, I unraveled the gusset on the first side and re-sewed that seam this morning. I will wear it tomorrow to another group meeting of weavers.
Doing these chores, which barely seem tedious in the quiet pre-dawn of a winter morning, has me thinking about all the kinds of work we do with our hands. I tend to focus on creating, but sometimes I have to take a step back, undo something to either fix it or make it more useful to me. I have not worn the “Hild” sweater in at least 5 years, so I’m thrilled to have it back. I probably knit it shortly after this book was released in 2006. I’m still smitten with it!
It’s now early in the following week. I have worn both sweaters! What a trill to have a new sweater and also to wear one that I made so long ago — that hasn’t fit me for years.
In Italy, while staying at the art school La Romita in Umbria, I indulged in some new work for my hands. The workshop was 10 days of tapestry weaving and natural dyeing, as you may have seen in an earlier post. I have barely done any natural dyeing, and this workshop has piqued my interest in doing more. When you see the photos of the colors we produced, you may go down this rabbit hole with me!
Two of the students took charge of this part of the workshop. They are Yonat Michaelov and Kris Nardello, both from California. Their expertise was just what we needed to get over 50 colors in only 10 days, with very limited equipment for dyeing. There was only one umbrella swift, and we had 10 lbs of local merino to wind into skeins suitable for dyeing. Chairs to the rescue.
While the skeins were scoured and mordanted in alum, I dabbled with making watercolor paints from the ingredients that our leader, Shelley Sokolofsky brought for us to try. Jody Brewer took this photo.
I now have an exciting set of colors to try, in spite of knowing nothing about water color. Another rabbit hole for me.
Here are the first dye colors from only about 3 days of work. Yonat and Kris were amazing in their organizational skills, having only two pots on two burners, with a few buckets to save some colors for overdyeing. I can’t believe what they accomplished. I was so lucky to be their assistant.
And here, Yonat explains the process and dye for each color we got so far, which was mostly the traditional dyes used throughout history, which Shelley brought from the US from Botanical Colors.
The workshop description stated that we would also use local plants from Umbria for dyes. That required some of us to get up early and go foraging. It wasn’t added to our itinerary, so Yonat and Kris foraged almost every morning to bring us more plant material to try. They found olive leaves and branches, a variety of bright orange mushroom called omphalotus, abundant local flowers called Dittrichia viscosa, over ripe pomegranates, fig leaves, prunus leaves, and oak galls. We had a treasure trove of material to try.
Jody Brewer took the next few photos of the local plant colors we dyed.
The entire range of colors we got from the local plants.
Colors from Olive leaves and branches
Oak galls.
The lovely and abundant flowers of Dittrichia viscosa.
Lastly, here is Yonat holding the color card displaying all of hers and Kris’ hard work!
Once home I find myself wanting to dye more than do the work needed for the holidays! I have a small olive tree that we prune every fall in order to keep it small enough to put inside during the winter months. I don’t cut too much so there was only 58 grams of leaves and branches. With that small amount I only tried 25 grams of the Italian merino in the dye bath.
My color falls right in the range that we got from olives in Umbria, but I wish I’d gotten a more saturated hue. I’ve saved the dye solution because it’s definitely not exhausted. For this batch I simmered the yarn for 1 1/2 hrs and then let the yarn sit in the bath overnight. I repeated this process for three days. Now the leaves are probably decomposing a bit in the bath that is sitting in my chilly garage. I want to try at least one more day of simmering and cooling to see if I can darken the color. Jody and I plan to spend a couple of days working with a sucrose indigo vat which we will make together and some madder powder. I got both those from Botanical Colors. I hope the work of hands produces some exciting results.
Here I sit in English Harbour, Antigua, thinking about my recent return from Umbria, Italy, and the highlight of my time there: a visit to a jacquard weaving museum and atelier in Perugia that is housed in a 13th c. Franciscan church.
Perugia became a walled city in the Middle Ages, prior to the building of this church in 1212. It was originally a simple hermitage that was founded by St. Francis of Assisi when he and his followers stayed here together. By 1252 the monastery was ceded to Benedictine nuns and given the name San Francesco delle Donne. St. Francis of the women—for the women? It was abandoned numerous times through the centuries, and I don’t know those stories. Our host at La Romita, the art school where we were taking a workshop on tapestry weaving and natural dyeing, mentioned that Perugia defended itself many times over the centuries. Most of the conflicts had to do with the vying city states and their status in the Catholic Church, and throughout the Middle Ages Perugia was an impoverished place, in spite of their reputation for excellent craftsmanship in pottery and textiles, and probably other fine crafts that I haven’t found in my searches. There is some great information on the Giuditta Brozzetti website.
The Brozzetti family started the weaving museum and atelier in 1912, but not in its current location. The museum is named in honor of the current owner’s great grandmother, Giuditta Brozzetti. Giuditta started an atelier to bring back the historic handwovens of Perugia, especially the “Perugian tablecloths” that were often used as altar cloths in churches, as well as being tablecloths in the homes of the very wealthy. Textiles were far more valuable throughout history than they are today and were always listed in the inventories of wealthy families. The atelier and museum moved to this magnificent site in the church in 1996. I believe it took a lot of work to bring the church into state we see it today. It is magnificent!
Here is an excerpt from an interview with Marta Cucchia, the great granddaughter of the founder and current owner:
“My studio is one of the last weaving ateliers in Italy – and the only one that reproduces medieval Perugian Tableclothes using Jacquard looms from nineteenth century. Furthermore, with the pedal looms, typical of the Umbrian countryside, we create fabrics using millenary techniques passed down orally from generation to generation. My great-grandmother, Giuditta Brozzetti, founded this Laboratory in 1921. From then on, the passion for hand-weaving was passed down from mother to daughter, each woman bringing her own experience according to her personality and studies.”
Marta has four women who assist her in the studio, and they have all come out of textile schools to make this field their livelihood. What an exciting place to work!
Some of the projects that Marta oversees are replicas of actual textiles in paintings from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. During our visit Marta showed us a couple of impressive replicas. She had high resolution images taken of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Last Supper,” and she had small areas enlarged so she could study the tablecloth. In hind sight, why didn’t I think to ask her if she thought that cloth had been woven in Perugia?
Even in this low resolution image of the fresco, taken from the intenet, you can see that the tablecloth is highly figured at each end, but also there is a hint that the white on white areas also have interesting weave structures.
Detail of a similar fabric from a different painting:
Here Marta is showing us some of the images she used to design the tablecloth. Clearly I am scratching my head in amazement!
Photo by Jody Brewer
And here is the finished cloth, woven at the Giuditta Brozzetti Atelier:
The jacquard looms in this studio are all from the 19th c except one that is older from the 18 c. These are hand manipulated looms, where the process of weaving involves attaching every thread in the warp to a jacquard attachment that has a series of cards that control the patterns. The weaver stands at the front of the loom and depresses the one treadle (a heavy one that sits rather high off the ground!) with her right foot —yes, they are all women at this atelier. Depressing the treadle opens the shed, and the weaver pushes a lever that is above the beater that engages one of the jacquard cards, then she pulls a cord that sends the fly shuttle through the shed of the open warp. Here is a video of the process, although at this point the weaver is weaving some plain weave between the designs, rather than the more interesting pattern.
Here is Marta showing us one of the many charts of jacquard designs in her collection. These graphed charts are used to make the cards which will control the weaving patten on the looms.
And here is my best attempt at getting a shot of the entire loom. The warp on the loom will be obvious to most of you. The yellow cords anre atracked to each warp thread and are running vertically to a loft area where you just see a bit of the roll of cards used to weave the design. There are other ‘chains’ of cards being stored on the railing of the loft.
I neglected to count how many jacquard looms are in this large studio, but here’s a photo of the long row of them in the museum.
Many traditional Perugian designs can be woven on regular shaft looms with floor treadles. Marta demonstrated this on what looks like an equally old loom to the jacquard looms.
Here is particularly stunning tablecloth woven on a shaft loom in a traditional woven structure with luscious colors. I tentatively asked if it was for sale (and the price) and learned that Marta wove this tablecloth for her wedding. What a treasure…
During the time when Marta’s mother led this studio they produced some designs for clothing. During Marta’s tenure she has also had commissions from Italian haut couture houses.
Photo by Jody Brewer
These dresses were designed and woven here, and I’m guessing this occurred in a past decade, perhaps the 1960s? 1970s?
There are other modern designs available here. This is quite a striking pattern that was for sale as a shawl or a cushion.
While we were there one of the weavers brought out this tiny gem woven in the same structure. They are not yet available, but as soon as they are I need one! I’m sure they will be popular. When I posted a photo of this Facebook some of my friends immediately asked how to get one.
This is my prize purchase from the day, a gem that gives me a little shiver of thrill whenever I take it with me somewhere. It is equally beautiful on the inside, lined in a fine silk fabric from Fendi.
Marta and I also discussed some of the fine finishing that goes into many of the pieces they make. In particular, Marta’s mother adds a beautiful bullion edge to some of the table runners. I must give this a try on some of my handwoven projects. I bought a small runner that I cannot show you because it is at home, and I am writing this in Antigua. Mine is off white on white, with jacquard designs at each end, and the point twill design in the middle. This one is far more elaborate, but I want you see the bullion stitch edges.
Each one of the pieces woven here are exceptional examples of textile skill. In many parts of the US, textiles are no longer valued as they deserve. I hope we can bring some of that respect and awe back into our lives. My house is full of my own handwovens, and sometimes I marvel that many of my guests don’t realize that. I’m not sure people even see textiles anymore, beyond noticing someone in a beautiful dress. There is so much to marvel at in the world of handmade cloth. The Giuditta Brozzetti Museum and Atelier has to be one of the best places to go and relish the beauty of handwoven goods. Get there if you can! If not, there are beautiful images and descriptions on the website.
This is quite a thrill for me to access my website and write a new post. This site has been ‘sick’ for about six months, and I have not been able to access it.
It would be quite an epic if I tried to cover all the things that I’ve thought about, done, and struggled with over the past six months, so I think my best option is to just tackle a few vignettes, starting with my trip to Italy in October.
I went to Italy for a natural dyeing and tapestry weaving workshop at La Romita, which is in Umbria. I asked some of my students if they’d be interested in joining me, and my weaving friend Jody decided to go. The two of us quickly made friends with two experienced natural dyers, Yonat and Kris, from California. Part of the workshop description was that we would meet local dyers and weavers, but there were no dyers on our list of day trips. We decided to skip one of the trips and rent a car together to drive north to visit the workshop of Elena Villa in Castiglione del Lagos, a walled medieval town on the shore of Lake Trasimeno, where she sells her hand-dyed yarns and various finished items, like knitwear and dyed scarves.
We’d been warned that we’d probably have to take a car with manual transmission, and since I was the one who’d most recently driven standard cars, the driving fell to me. It had been about two years since I’d done that, although I’ve driven standard transmission cars for most of my driving life, so I was a bit nervous. A strange car with a standard transmission in a foreign country–but as luck would have it, we got a big American car with an automatic transmission. I have a sense that it was because Valerio, who took us to the Avis agency in Terni, pleaded our case with the staff there.
The trip was a cinch with Google maps, and we all had a terrific day. I think we were the biggest car on the road–not my first choice!
And here we are! Elena opened her shop for us that day although she is normally closed on Thursdays. Lucky for us.
Elena is in the foreground, with Kris (R) and Yonat (L) looking through yarns. Can you imagine how much we were swooning over all these wonderful items in such stunning natural colors?
Elena’s husband took a wonderful memento photo with the lake behind us. It was such an exciting experience to meet her and to see her work. Elena recommended we go to a certain restaurant before heading back to La Romita.
We left feeling inspired and ready to create things with the yarns that have such lovely blended gradations of color, as only natural dyes give. I found a whole shelf of merino yarn fine enough to use in tapestry.
The colors are:
Solidago (golden rod) a bright gold on the merino yarn and softer yellows on the three scarves
Solidago with “Robbia” (madder), the salmon/orange
Solidago with “Cipolla (onion), the orange/rust/yellow/gold/green variegated yarn.
Fitolacca (pokeberry!), which is havested more than once from spring through late summer, giving different colors as the season progresses.
Noce (walnut, although I don’t think walnut trees grow in Italy), medium, warm brown.
Galle di Quercia (oak galls), medium grey. I bought three skeins of this because I thought it would be a great neutral.
Lunch was another rare surprise for the day. When we entered the dining room we discovered the terrace overlooking the lake. Beautiful!
It’s so rare to have photos of myself because I am usually behind the camera. The photos that include me were all taken by Jody. It’s great to have a record of being here. Here is our terrace lunch with a view of Lagos di Trasimeno.
It was a magical day, the best any of us could have imagined. I bought some fiber from local Appeninica sheep that Elena had dyed with golden rod. I didn’t have a spindle with me, so Elena went home to get one of hers and delivered it to me while we had lunch. I will never forget that! Now I have to think of something remarkable to do with this yarn.
I spun this wool on both the spindle I got from Elena and, once home, on my Nano 2 e-spinner. The spindle spun yarn is on the right and is finer and more loosely spun than the skein on the left which is I what I spun on the Nano 2. I plied both these skeins on my folding Lendrum.
I just read about Appeninica sheep on Wikipedia. They are a modern breed, first established in 1970s, and based on quite a few other breeds. They are raised mostly in Umbria and Tuscany and were bred to do well in the Apennine mountains. Their wool is considered medium/coarse. That was not my impression of the roving I had. Perhaps the golden rod softened it a bit. Who knows?
It’s exhilarating to travel, and even more so when we can branch out and explore the exact thing we are most interested in experiencing. The four of us became good friends during the workshop, and we feel we made a great connection with Elena and her stunning shop.
It’s the last weekend in March. We fly home on Monday, April 1st. It’s been a difficult winter season in a number of ways, and weather has been part of that. This part of the world is in the trade winds where the winds are predictably East. To have West winds at all used to be quite rare. This year it was a regular thing. And then there were tragedies: three deaths of sailors in the space of only three months.
But whatever the weather and whatever other circumstances block our path, the Caribbean is always colorful. Beautiful dawns and sunsets greeted us every day, with daily rainbows after the rain showers. Twelve years ago when we returned from our first passage to The Bahamas, an old friend asked me if my color palette had changed based on spending so much time in tropics. All these years later, I can answer that Caribbean colors have definitely found their way into my palette–clothing, tapestry, fabric weaving and yarn spinning, knitting.
Here is a particularly lush image from Martinique. We are in the rainforest, but also note the colors in the mineral water flowing over that cliff. There are hot springs here where you can ‘bathe’ for a fee. We are with two couples, one we’ve known for years, and other new cruisers this year.
Here is a rare moment in St. Pierre when the summit of Mount Pelee is visible. It’s normally always hidden in the clouds, one of the iconic places that gave credence to the phrase that these islands are “the islands that kiss the clouds.”
A view of the harbor in Deshaies, Guadeloupe, from the botanical gardens. Pandora is
somewhere in the mix.
Sunsets and last light are always a beautiful time of day, everywhere in the islands. Bob took all these photos because it’s his favorite time of day and A favorite pastime to record it.
I have an endless number of photos of houses, doors and windows in beautiful Caribbean colors, but WordPress won’t let me post them. I haven’t confronted this before. I’ve spent years posting images of private houses on my blog, so I don’t know what has changed. So I’ll only post one of this beautiful flowering plant.
This is the church in the center of Fort de France, Martinique. It’s brilliant to me that the building across the square has mirrored glass that reflects the front of the church. Stunning! The church is one of the iconic buildings designed by Pierre-Henri Picq, a student of Gustav Eiffel.
Plants grow everywhere there is bit of water and space, even a tiny space.
When I arrived in the Caribbean this winter one of my goals was to finish this tapestry that I started back in July, in a workshop with Connie Lippert at the regional New England Weavers’ Seminar (NEWS). I wanted to insert some areas of ‘standard’ weaving, or Gobelins style weaving, into the wedge weave background. I wove the small green square with the internal shapes while onboard.
Some days I wove out in the fresh air.
About a week ago I cut the piece from the loom.
My first wedge weave experiment
I’ll do the finishing work at home. Connie recommended I place a wet cloth on top of this piece for 24 hours to bring out the wedge weave undulations. I’ll do that home next week!
A few weeks ago I had quite a bad moment of anxiety over this piece and the knitting I brought with me. I put this piece away for several days, and one day I woke up with the energy to undo some of it and try to get it finished. Maybe all I needed was a few nights’ sleep away from the daily thinking about and looking at this piece. I needed a break! But with two of the three sweaters I brought onboard, that same break only showed that they were ‘no-go.’ I managed to make peace with that and begin the process of unraveling, perhaps as a metaphor for this strange winter. I restarted the biggest of the sweater projects and am now happy to realize that I have passed the place where I began the unraveling. Now it’s forward motion toward a finished piece!
Typical of life in general, I take two steps forward and at least one step back. But there is progress in general, and a feeling of good work is the more important thing to realize. Projects onboard are either finished now or well underway. It’s time to wind down this journey and head home, where a number of new ideas are waiting for my attention, like sashiko-ori. I’m ready!
Things changed rapidly between my last post and now. This season has had some cruel surprises. I have struggled to process these, so I felt silenced, not only from writing but also from other things. Bob has done an exceptional job not only handling these situations, but also writing about them.
In my silence I have been weaving, and knitting, and even making a couple of small basket projects. It has all been somewhat disappointing and frustrating. I guess I was expecting more….and better. I’ll get to that momentarily.
Meanwhile, there are always scenes. Caribbean colors, sunrises and sunsets, moon rises and moon sets, rainbows, all daily. We’ve been lucky to spend some great time with friends who have now become old friends. The years have flown by and friendships deepen. My land friends have rallied around me with great care. I thank each of you beyond words. I don’t mean to be secretive. Bob has said it all so well there is nothing for me to add.
Before the couple aboard Simplicity were attacked, we were in Fort de France, where I always visit a fabric store called Doum 2000, and where I look for linen fabrics from France. This year I found this wonderful eyelet fabric (cotton) in a glorious orange. While this display shows how well it would look as a skirt, I am planning a jacket.
Doum 2000 never disappoints in tempting me with wonderful linens. I must be in an orange mood this year. The printed linen fabric is very sheer. Perhaps a floaty top of some kind?
Here is the small basket. It’s going to be a birthday present for my older son, whose birthday was just over the weekend. Somehow he has now turned 40. This is supposed to be a wine bottle coaster, but it can surely be used in lots of other ways too. The maple base has a crab lasered onto the inside, and since our son lives in Maryland, it seemed the right base to choose. I will make another basket for our younger son, who also has a birthday approaching, when I get home. It has a horse shoe crab lasered design. Neither son ever looks here, so the baskets will be a surprise! This basket needs sanding and varnishing and the hole in the bottom gets a tiny corian plug instead of the traditional ivory plug. The key fob is for me!
There is progress on my first wedge weave tapestry, but I am not happy with it. It seems like I’ve put a ton of time into this for no good reason. I am trying to change my attitude to one of thankfulness for the experience of learning this technique, and also managing to weave some Gobelins style figures into the wedge weave. I have learned a lot, but it’s a bitter pill to work on something and decide it’s a failure. I know I should be thinking that disappointing outcomes lead to better understanding of where I’d like to go next time I sit down to weave. But….still….this is disappointing. Here are a few images to show how this piece came to fail.
If only I’d paid more attention to how wonky my green wedges had become right here. I was just so happy with my inserted squares.
And then came the circle. I was quite happy with that. The thing is, I know how to weave shapes in standard tapestry. The point of this was to learn wedge weave.
A couple of days ago I reached the point where I could no longer weave without shifting the warp downward so I could have more weaving space. I’ve done this on Gobelins style tapestries before, but never on wedge weave. Have you done it? I feel like I lost control of the tension when I moved the warp. Another disappointment. I won’t do that again. Bigger piece, bigger loom, next time. And when you cannot see the whole piece it’s hard to decide if it’s done. Since I’m rather disappointed with this piece, I’m going to level it off and call it done even if I can’t see the whole thing to make a decision. When the fell is level I will do a row of knotted soumak and cut it off. Then I can transport it home without the loom. One good thing.
I have three unfinished sweaters onboard. I cannot even bring myself to describe them, and my waste of time in not knuckling down on the right one to finish. Boy, I have wasted time on these sweaters! But I did finish spinning some lovely merino/silk and now have five full bobbins to ply at home. And I made a small shawl with an intriguing stitch design that looks a bit like butterflies. I will soon get some wear out of this on cool April days in New England. It needs better blocking when I get home. I did not have nearly enough pins to block the lace points.
Here is detail of the little butterflies (sideways).
And speaking of April, we have made our flight reservations home for April 1st–from Antigua. We are at the southern end of Martinique right now, in a village called Ste. Anne. It’s now time to start retracing our steps north to make that flight. I feel like I need a week to corral all my supplies into vacuum bags to shoe-horn them into our not-very-big duffle bags. We may need to find a giant box, or rent a car to drive to St. John to buy a big suitcase. Considering how disappointed I am with most of my work at this point, I sure wish I hadn’t brought all this stuff onboard.
I’ve put off writing for at least a couple of weeks due to my dark mood. I probably should have waited longer. I always think silence is best when I can’t be enthusiastic or positive. I am counting on a change of scenery–to New England spring!–to help my outlook. There should be daffodils by then. Fingers crossed.
And just to prove I am not completely in a funk, I will show you the rabbit hole that has drawn me in this week. I’ve just learned that there is such a thing as sashiko-ori. Woven sashiko. How about that? I’ve seen some lovely examples, and I even learned that someone in my guild is currently weaving this technique. I got in touch with her, and she has offered to get together and show me how to design in this technique. It’s basically supplemental warp and weft, and I’ve done a lot of supplemental warp scarves in the decades when I sold my weaving. Here is my current drawdown of an idea. It’s not quite what I want but I’m sure my friend Julia will set me straight when we meet.
I’d like to use my hand-dyed indigo linen yarn that is fairly fine, and the supplemental warp and weft will be natural sashiko embroidery thread. I can’t say more because some people might look at this post and then their future gifts won’t be a surprise! Mums the word.
I look to the work I do with my hands to keep me in balance, to get me through good times and bad. When multiple things go wrong just when I need a break from other things, it’s difficult. But that’s how it goes, doesn’t it? Ups and downs. The sons of the couple who died last month wrote a beautiful tribute to their parents, and this quote comes back to me every day over the past month:
We live in a world that at times can be cruel, but it is also a world of profound beauty, wonder, adventure, love, compassion, caring, and faith...
Gallery Exhibit at NEWS Conference, July 20-23, 2023. First place “Miscellaneous” for a Nantucket style basket, with 2 special awards for “Best use of Historical Inspiration and Best Use of Off-Loom Weaving.
OVER, UNDER, AND THROUGH THE WARP: The Art of Tapestry Weaving, April 1-30, 2023, The Barnes Gallery, Leverett, MA. www.barnesgallery.org. An exhibition of works by Tapestry Weavers in New England (TWiNE). My works “Entangled 1,” “Untitled 1,” and “Mind the Risks” are in this exhibition.
TINY BUT MIGHTY Unjuried, small format tapestry exhibit, hosted by American Tapestry Alliance at HGA Convergence, July, 2022 Knoxville, TN
INTERLACEMENTS: Artistic Expressions in Weaving. Juried Biennial Exhibit of the Handweavers’ Guild of CT. River Street Gallery, 72 Blatchley Ave., New Haven, CT.
March 30 – May 5, 2019. Awards: 1st Place Wall Hangings, HGA Award for Outstanding Fiber Art.
CROSS SECTIONS: Works in Fiber by the members of North Adams Fiber Artists. Sept. 7 – Oct. 8, 2018.
Opening reception, Friday, Sept. 7, 5pm – 8pm. Gallery hours: Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, 12pm – 5pm.
A CELEBRATION OF FIBER ARTS: Arts Center East, Vernon, Ct, October 11th — November 7th. Opening reception Oct. 11th from 2-4pm. Gallery is open Thurs–Sunday from 1-5pm. “Sunset on Wilson Cove” and “Hudson River Idyll” are both there for this exhibition.
AWARDS FROM NEW ENGLAND WEAVERS’ SEMINAR: for “Sunset on Wilson Cove”: 1st Place Tapestry and Transparency, Judges’ Choice, People’s Choice, Textile Arts Center “Best in Tapestry,” Rebecca Dea Award for First Time Entrant. NEWS 2015.
NEW ENGLAND WEAVERS’ SEMINAR: gallery exhibition, Smith College, Northampton, MA. July 9 – 12, 2015.
“THE WEDNESDAY GROUP” at Garnerville Arts Center, Garnerville, NY. May 30 – June 4,2015.
“CONTEMPORARY HANDWOVEN TREASURES,” 2015 Biennial Exhibiton of Conneticut Guild of Handweavers, Lyman Allen Museum of Art, New London, Ct; April 4 – 26.
www.lymanallyn.org
“POSTCARDS FROM HOME,” Invitational Gallery Exhibition of small tapestries by artists in Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, Australia, and New England. Northlight Gallery, Stromness, Orkney Island, Scotland. March 25 – April 25.
August 2015, Torshavn School, Faroe Island, Scotland.
“A LIVELY EXPERIMENT,” Gallery Exhibition of the Handweavers Guild of America (juried), Rhode Island Convention Center, Providence, RI. July 16 – 19, 2014.
“SMALL FORMAT TAPESTRY: Untitled/Unjuried,” sponsored by American Tapestry Alliance at HGA, Convergence, University of Rhode Island Feinstein Campus Gallery, Providence, RI. July 16 – 19, 2014.
