past and future lives

I would be a textile designer. I LOVE the textures of fibers, the colors and patterns. The following list is a key to the photo collage (click on image to enlarge).
1. It all began with potholders in my early years. I wove them with stretchy loops on my metal frame. Over, under, over, under… I became the supplier for everyone on our street.
2. In junior high my art teacher, Mr. Barrett helped me make this inkle loom and taught me how to weave sash belts and guitar straps.
3. In high school friends and I learned backstrap card weaving. We wove belts and sold them at shopping centers and craft fairs (hippie days).
4. I advanced to a floor loom in high school and continued weaving through college. I learned how to spin my own yarn while on a college overseas program in Scotland, and even mailed home a freshly shorn Shetland fleece. My Gilmore loom and Ashford spinning wheel are pictured here.
5. A sample of one of the many things I wove on my floor loom.
6. I learned to spin alpaca, llama, camel, wool, linen, cotton, silk, and jute. Friends used to bring me their dog hair combings!
7. In these mother-earth days I used natural materials to dye fibers, creating a whole spectrum of colors. Friends brought me onion skins, walnut hulls, and lichen.
8. In high school I began printmaking and silkscreened repeat patterns to design fabric. All these years later there are still pins in the seams of this skirt!
9. These are Indian textile blocks I’ve collected.
10. Here is my daughter (a few years ago) sporting a top we printed together from those Indian textile blocks, as well as a silk pillow also done from the textile blocks.

This is a tiny bit of my textile history, but the history really goes back much further. My ancestors from Scotland and Northern Ireland were weavers. More recent ancestors worked in the textile industry in upstate New York, however I knew none of this when I began to dabble in these areas.