Weaving is Magic - Making Cloth from Thread
I was introduced to weaving while in high school in Maine, by the mother of friends. Nancy saw creativity lurking inside me and offered me an outlet. When I moved to San Francisco in 1972, to live with her son, she sent me a Harrisville 4 harness floor loom, which I still use. Nancy taught me the basics, I took a few classes at Straw-into-Gold in Berkeley, the rest I’ve learned by being curious, making mistakes and figuring out what works. There were a number of years when I didn’t weave. However, in the last few years I’ve rediscovered weaving and enjoy playing with colors and textures. Nancy continues to be generous with her knowledge and her yarn which has allowed me to experiment, play and create.For me, being a weaver is about the cloth. How the texture feels and how the cloth will be used. Being a practical person by nature, the process of weaving samples; to see how the structure works or how the colors live together, isn’t enough for me. There needs to be something at the end of the process, something functional. Over the last couple of years, I’ve been weaving dishtowels - tea-towels - kitchen towels, whatever you want to call them. These towels have allowed me to play with color and texture while producing something handy, practical and cheerful as well.
While weaving all those towels, I’ve grown very comfortable with my looms and have enjoyed the structure that the towels provide. I also know there’s more to weaving than cotton towels and fortunately I have a supply of yarn not meant to be in towels; such as silk, rayon and wool. I’ve been having fun exploring the fuzzy and bumpy yarns by creating different usable, pretty, cheerful fabric such as Scarves and Art Pins. Art Pins are from the bits of warp left on the loom – not to be wasted - either framed or combined with beads to make Brooches.
In 2005 I discovered collage and the fun, challenging part of art; the inspiration and the follow through of taking an idea and turning it into a piece of art. Combining collage and weaving, how to use what I know about weaving to make Art on the Wall instead of Art you can Wear or Art you can Use.
Weaving has been a theme, with maps, either combined with thread on the loom or cut into stipes and woven together, adding words and pictures to tell a story or to create a story. Collage offers me the opportunity to delve into the not so visible parts of life, the subtle messages woven into and between. It’s all still a work in progress.
Thanks for visiting 
I'm available to create custom pieces.
kate-AT-weaverkate-dot-com
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