My Studio
Over the years I have used various types of looms from the traditional loom of the Navajo, to the counterbalance loom of colonial days, to the modern jack loom, to the complex dobby loom of the contemporary era. Currently I am using an 8-harness Gilmore jack loom and a 4-harness countermarch rug loom with shaft switching designed by Peter Collingwood.
I buy commercially produced and dyed yarn from various suppliers and, from time to time, I dye my own yarn. I finish and press finer fabric using my mother's mangle (vintage 1950).
I'm surrounded by wonderful color, texture, remembrances of travels, books from weavers of the past, and yarns waiting to be used in my work.
For my baskets, I collect pine needles from my neighborhoods and forests. They are dried and dyed and stored for future use. In my travels I have collected baskets from around the world, often with the good fortune of meeting the basket makers - storage baskets from the Philippines, Hawaiian coffee harvest baskets, Labradorean grass baskets, sweet grass baskets from South Carolina and more.
Every basket tells a story.