Pictured above: "Harriet Tubman Dreams of the North Star," a wall hanging that won the Third Place Award at Complexity, the biennial exhibit sponsored by Complex Weavers, held in 2024 in Wichita, KS, and displayed at MarkArts Gallery. This piece is woven on 28 shafts on a hand-painted warp of 24/3 cotton using an Echo design based on a Gebrochene pattern from the 17th century. The beaded fringe at the bottom includes African trade beads, fine chains, seed beads, and Swarovski crystals.
The scarf above, "Harriet's Shawl," appeared in the Complexity Exhibit in Wichita, KS, during Complex Weavers Seminars in Wichita, KS, in 2024. It also won the People's Choice Award for the Faculty Exhibit at NEWS (New England Weavers Seminar) 2023 in Worcester, MA. It's dedicated to Harriet Tubman, who lived through the hell of slavery ultimately to lead an estimated 70 slaves to freedom on the Underground Railroad. She spent the final years of her life in Auburn, NY, a city near my home in Rochester. The scarf is woven on a hand-painted warp combined with a black warp, using a 28-shaft Echo pattern woven as four-color doubleweave. The pattern is based on a 16th-century Gebrochene design called "The Earl." I like the trajectory of stories, from the portrait of an earl to Tubman and her journey to freedom.
This garment, "Tabard for a Gentle Knight," was juried into the 2022 Convergence fashion show to take place in July in Knoxville, TN, sponsored by the Handweavers Guild of America. The fabrics were woven on 24 shafts in 4-color doubleweave on an Echo threading, using 16/2 bamboo and 16/2 cotton (and 16/2 bamboo) in the weft. For the side panels, I created a "collapse" fabric by using silk/stainless steel as one of the wefts. The pattern is a Vogue pattern by Sandra Betzina. Who says knights can't be gentle? And who says women can't be knights? Photos by Timothy Fuss, Pixelwave.
This garment, "Tabard for a Covid Warrior," was also juried into the 2022 Convergence fashion show. The fabrics were woven on 16 shafts in 2-color doubleweave on an Echo threading, using 18/2 cotton and 30/2 silk in both warp and weft. All of the yarns for the project were dyed using indigo, cochineal, and osage orange in various combinations. For the side panels, I created a "collapse" fabric by using silk/stainless steel as one of the wefts. The pattern is the same Vogue pattern by Sandra Betzina as in the garment above. This piece honors all of the health-care workers who gave so much during the pandemic. If you look closely at the motifs, they look like the Covid virus. And the front of the tabard features a heart design, expressing love and gratitude. Photos by Timothy Fuss, Pixelwave.
This shawl was juried into "Complexity," the biannual exhibit of Complex Weavers. It received two awards: Third Place and Best Use of Silk (sponsored by Treenway Silks). It's a 12-shaft Echo pattern of my own design called "Pagoda," using an extended parallel threading and a parallel threading that resembles Rep Weave but uses just one thickness in the weft. If you look closely at the pattern, you'll see the repeating arcs of the rooflines familiar to pagodas in eastern architecture. The fabric is woven on a warp of 60/2 reeled silk, using three different hand-painted warps. The weft is 120/2 spun silk. Photos by Jack Poeller Photography.
This piece was juried into the Convergence 2020 fashion show sponsored by the Handweavers Guild of America. I call it "Lavender's Blue" because of the colors, of course! Using a jacket pattern by Marcy Tilton, I wove 11 yards of fabric in alternating colors of lavender/periwinkle and turquoise/teal blue. The weave structure is an 8-shaft Deflected Double Weave pattern and the yarns are lace-weight baby alpaca and silk noil. I hand-painted two warps and then combined them on the loom to weave the fabric. The button is a hand-made Dorset Button, wagon-wheel style, and the closure for the button is a kumihimo braid. Both the button and the braid used the same hand-dyed silk noil yarn as in the fabric. The coat is lined with Dupioni silk hand-dyed in turquoise. Photos by Jack Poeller Photography.
This coat, "Summer's Lease I," was juried into the fashion show for the Handweavers' Guild of America's 2018 conference, Convergence, held in Reno, Nevada. I wove this on my 12-shaft Macomber loom, using two hand-painted warps of 20/2 silk wound together and woven in Echo Weave and Turned Taquete. The lining is hand-dyed Habotai silk and the pattern is my own design, based on a swing coat that I own. Photos by Timothy Fuss, Pixelwave.
This outfit was also juried into the Convergence fashion show in 2018. I wove it on the same warp as my coat pictured above, using my own designs for the top and the skirt. The top is Rep Weave, with alternating wefts of 60/2 silk and bias-cut Habotai silk ribbon, hand-dyed in golden orange. The skirt is cut on the bias and made of a fabric woven in Echo Weave. Photos by Timothy Fuss, Pixelwave.
This jacket, named "Blue Rills" after the ripples in the design, was juried into the 2016 Handweavers Guild of America fashion show, "Moving Forward," in Milwaukee. The event is the HGA biannual convention, Convergence. The fabric is an 8-harness deflected double weave, woven in 18/2 merino and 20/2 cotton. I painted two warps (the cotton and the wool) in two different color palettes using MX Fiber Reactive dyes. The jacket pattern is by Marcy Tilton. Photos by Timothy Fuss, Pixelwave.
The second piece, also juried into the Convergence fashion show, is plain weave -- although it may not appear to be -- with a 60/2 silk warp in alternating black and white threads. The sett is fairly loose to allow the weft yarns to collapse, making the fabric crinkle. I used three different wefts: 60/2 silk in black, 60/2 silk in white, and 30/1 wool overtwist. This pattern is also by Marcy Tilton. Photos by Timothy Fuss, Pixelwave.
This coat, handwoven of 60/2 silk, was juried into the 2014 Convergence fashion show, sponsored by the Handweavers Guild of America, to be held in Providence, Rhode Island, in July. I handpainted two warps in two different colorways: one in a range of sky blue to aqua to pale green and the other in a range of chocolate-brown and mahogany. It's woven in blocks of 3/1 and 1/3 twill, so that the stripes tend to collapse and pleat. The collapse-weave effect is intensified by weaving with a gossamer-weight weft of overtwist wool, which scrunches and relaxes after washing. A hand-knitted, beaded silk-ribbon flower is the closure in front. The pattern is my own design, based on a shawl-collar coat that I own. Photos by Timothy Fuss, Pixelwave.
This coat was juried into the 2012 fashion show for Convergence, the biennial international conference sponsored by the Handweavers' Guild of America. This year's show and exhibit take place in July in Long Beach, California. It's titled "Sunrise Sunset Coat," marking the changes this winter in the lives of my family. Photo by Timothy Fuss, Pixelwave.
I used two different wefts: one of hand-dyed 60/2 silk (on the right side of the photo above) woven in stripes of 3/1 and 1/3 twill and the other of Habotai silk ribbon and handspun merino (on the left in the photo) dyed a deep burgundy and woven in plain weave. I love the way the warp flows every which way in the plain-weave fabric, which resembles a rag rug. The pattern is by Issey Miyake, Vogue 1069, now out of print but still available from the Vogue website. It has a wonderful construction that drapes beautifully and flows gently over the body. Photos by Timothy Fuss, Pixelwave.
This coat was exhibited in the Weavers' Guild of Rochester's 65th anniversary exhibit, "For the Love of Fiber," and received the Handweavers' Guild of America Award. It's woven in a 6-harness waffle weave and plain weave, with handmade Dorset Buttons. The fiber is 18/2 merino from JaggerSpun Yarns. Photo by Denise Kovnat.
This shawl appeared in the fashion show during Convergence, the 2010 Handweavers' Guild of America biannual conference held in Tampa, Florida. It's woven in 3/1 twill blocks using 60/2 silk. The warp is hand painted and the weft is hand dyed. Photo by Tim Toal, TJT Photography.
This sweater is my own design and appears in the online knitter's community, Ravelry, as a free pattern download. The yarn is Kauni Effektgarn in two colorways. Photo by Tim Toal, TJT Photography.
This jacket appeared in the Convergence fashion show in 2008 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The fabric was woven off-loom in hand-dyed Habotai silk ribbon, which was then quilted onto a base of hand-dyed Habotai silk. Photo by Denise Kovnat.