While walking in my neighborhood during the spring quarantine I found a Leclerc four-harness loom. It was bulky trash week, and the tabletop loom was folded by the curb, along with some discarded lumber and an old broom. Dirt was packed into the crevices and it was missing a couple of parts, but I recognized it like a lover from a past life. My 14-year-old daughter begged me to leave it there. NO WAY! I carried that loom all the way home and she walked ahead like she didn’t know me.
It has been a while since I was in college, (like, cell phones were not common kind-of-while) but I still have my notebook of weaving patterns from my only Fibers class at the University of North Texas. My friend, Kate, pointed me in the direction of a weaving textbook, which I read cover to cover. I ordered skeins of yarn and got reacquainted with the joyful tedium that is dressing a loom. Soon I was making scarves, and washcloths while dreaming of a larger loom for making blankets.
Wait, what??? Slow that roll! I can’t pay $3,000 for a new floor loom! Instead, I looked for a way to combine weaving technology with ceramic sculpture.
The two worlds collided when I read the chapter about rug-making in my 1970’s weaving textbook. I could add objects to the weft using a low-pile rug-making technique. I began weaving with leftover colored porcelain pieces I had laying around the studio. Next, I made ceramic forms specifically for the loom. Within two months I had gone from finding a curbside loom, to making a set of washcloths, to infinite new possibilities in ceramic sculpture. These sculptures are dynamic because they are securely attached to the woven backing and can be hung, draped, and endlessly manipulated!
The first of the sculptures premiered at CAMBIAart Gallery in Austin, TX and in an exhibition of American Craft juried by Kathyrn Gremley, director of the Penland School of Craft Gallery. I am thrilled with the response and plan to continue experimenting. I have a solo exhibition with CAMBIBAart this spring and can’t wait to feature more of these sculptures.
So, my question to you is, what is your 2020 loom? The pandemic changed our lives in a way that disrupted our routine, but what about it changed your life for the better? If you began working from home, how did you use the extra time you used to spend commuting? What things did you notice on your pandemic walks? How did your life extend past sourdough bread? Remember, there are looms all around you…. You just have to keep your eyes open.
