Great Women Building a Gracious World
Volume 1, Issue 3
November/December 2006
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Great Women Building a Gracious World Volume 1, Issue 3 November/December 2006
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Fiber means fun, by Elizabeth Blake
Steal our Button! (Load to your server, please!)
November/December Contributing Writers Sandra Bennett, Wendy Bernard, Pam Blasko, Cathy Clark, Kathy Fellows, Marni Harang, Joy Jannotti, Renee Lyons, Caryll McConnell, Shirley McNulty, Jane Plaughter, Margaret F. Rankin, Bobbie Ripperger, Joanne Seiff, Barbara Sheehey, Leslie Shelor, Teresa Simons, Sister Eugenia, Lynda Sorenson
Fiber Femmes is published bi-monthly on-line by:
Fiber Femmes 12206 Squirrel Spur Road Meadows of Dan, Virginia 24120 Email: fiberfem@fiberfemmes.com Submissions: submissions@fiberfemmes.com Advertising: advertising@fiberfemmes.com
Editor: Sandra Bennett Publisher: Leslie Shelor
While every precaution has been taken to ensure accuracy of material published, Fiber Femmes cannot be held responsible for opinions or facts provided by authors, advertisers or agencies. Authors retain ownership of their material and reproduction without their written consent is prohibited. Agencies, advertisers and other contributors will indemnify and hold the editors harmless for any loss or expense resulting from claims or suits based upon content of any advertisement, defamation, libel, right of privacy, plagiarism and/or copyright infringement. The views expressed by contributors are not necessarily those of the editors.
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Fiber Femmes Firsts! Your Very First Fiber Mentor
Remember that first time? How excited, nervous, and fascinated you were with the experience? Share your fiber first with other Fiber Femmes in pictures and let us know all about your very first time!
In this issue we want to honor your first fiber mentor. Most of us have received some help along the way from more experienced fiber folk, or have had someone there to hold our hands as we leap into the fiber unknown. Sometimes it's a person, but often it might be a supportive guild.
In our January/February issue, we'd like to feature your first fiber animal! If you're a fiber producer it would be fun to hear about your first sheep, goat, rabbit, alpaca or other wooly friend, but lots of people also keep just one fiber producer for their own use. Send us your pictures and stories by December 15!
Cyndy Curtis sent in this wonderful tribute to her fiber mentor:
I'm a weaver. My name is Cyndy Custis and I live on Anna Maria Island in Florida now, but more than 30 years ago I lived in Rockport, Massachusetts and aspired to be a weaver.
I found a wonderful teacher/mentor/inspiration in Nana Foley, a Rockport resident, teacher, mentor, great-grandmother, grandmother, mother, widow, friend and all around hoot.
When I met her she was 80 years old and going strong. She taught me how to set up a loom, warp it and some of the weave techniques I was dying to learn. She sold me my first floor loom for $75.00 which is a folding 4 harness workshop loom and is in my studio today and used daily.
She told me about the Boston Weavers Guild, which I joined and loved. (All that information and kindred spirits working along on multiple projects, weaving, spinning, knitting.)
Each spring Nana would go to Seattle to visit her daughter and sit near the swampy area on the side of Mt. Rainer and weave on her backstrap loom her version of the just blooming lupines.
She was full of energy, wisdom, kindness, stories, history and of course patience and a sense of humor which are essentials for any mentor. How many times did I ask the same questions? Many! And how many times did I ask what would happen if I did it this way? She would always say "try it and let me know what happens". I try to remember her patience and humor when I am teaching my own students and they are beginning to sense their own "designing/warping/weaving independence". What fun it is to remember her today as I write this.
I have my loom and work on display in a studio/gallery that I rent in a wonderful community called "The Village of The Arts" in Bradenton Florida. And that is just what we are, a Village of artists and artisans some of whom live in the 1920's colorful cottages that contain their studios and galleries. I am lucky enough to be part of "KAOS Gallery" which is among the most colorful! If you are ever in this area, Bradenton/Sarasota, Florida, please drop in and visit me and be sure to save some time to visit the potters, jewelers, photographers, and artists that inhabit the Village of The Arts.
Joyfully, Cyndy Custis
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