nothin Weavers Tie Past To Present At Exhibition | New Haven Independent

Weavers Tie Past To Present At Exhibition

Brian Slattery Photo

Weavers Donna Batsford and Ann Graham stood behind a long wooden table in the River Street Gallery at Fairhaven Furniture on Blatchley Avenue, surrounded by dozens of textiles of dozens shimmering textures and colors, along with the dozens of weavers who made them. She thanked Fairhaven Furniture for allowing the exhibition to happen, but most of all, she said, it takes a guild” to put on a textile exhibition of this size. And by guild” she meant the Handweavers’ Guild of Connecticut.

The guild has mounted its Biennial Exhibit through April 28 at Fairhaven Furniture, and it’s a showcase not only of the best work from weavers around the state, but of the strength of an institution that follows global traditions begun thousands of years ago.

Elisa Kessler Caporale, “Cracker Barrel,” and Marilyn Donovan, “My Ukranian Easter Table.”

Formed in 1948, the Handweavers’ Guild of Connecticut has hundreds of members around the state. The youngest are in their 20s; the oldest in their 80s. They range in occupation from professional weavers to doctors to librarians to social workers to state officials. They’re arranged into four areas inside the state — north, centered on Hartford; south, centered on New Haven; east, centered around New London; and west, centered around Norwalk — with a fifth area designated for out-of-state members to the north. New Haven’s area meets on the first Thursday of every month in members’ homes. The guild, Batsford explained, is not alone.

There’s a whole guild system throughout the country,” she said — a network that connects weavers to other weavers, whether they stay in state, move, or just visit.

Five times a year, the entire guild gets together in South Glastonbury for workshops and talks. But mostly, what members get out of it is camaraderie and a lot of inspiration,” Batsford said. At each of our meetings, we’re showing our work…. We’re always doing show and tell.” The weavers swap advice and help troubleshoot each other’s projects, so you don’t have to keep reinventing the wheel…. We’re all eager to see what other people are doing and to get ideas.”

Batsford learned to knit and crochet from her grandmothers. She got into weaving thanks to her daughter. When my older daughter finished high school, she wanted to learn to weave,” Batsford said. They took a class together with master weaver Lucienne Coifman. She went to college, and I kept weaving,” Batsford said. Her guild membership followed soon after. Today, she works on two floor looms in her house, as well as several other smaller looms.

When you weave, you can’t think about other things. It’s very Zen,” she said. It’s a wonderful escape.” She makes things to use and to wear — from scarves to dishtowels — and is always experimenting with new designs, new patterns, new combinations of color. I’m more of a what if I do this?’” kind of weaver, she said. She also makes gifts. I might have made 26 or 27 baby blankets for the babies that were born” in her family, down to nieces and nephews now.”

Batsford is also the point person for the guild’s southern area, and thus it fell to her this year to host the guild’s Biennial Exhibit (the exhibit rotates around the state from year to year). In addition to being a way for the weavers to show each other and the public what they’ve been up to, the exhibit is juried. The Tuesday before the exhibit opened, judges Laurie Autio and Barbara Elkins, with two scribes in tow, spent the day critiquing 68 of the guild members’ pieces, from scarves, shawls, and clothing to rugs and wall hangings. Autio and Elkins assessed the pieces according to quality of workmanship, finishing and presentation, and the texture and pattern, but also gave points for creativity and offered written feedback to each weaver regarding how their pieces might be improved.

Thus Marjorie Wheeler’s November Shadow” won first place for clothing.

“Mauna Loa” (l.); Jill Staubitz, “Thank You, Paul O’Connor” (r.).

Claudia Spaulding’s Mauna Loa” took first place among scarves and shawls.

Elaine Dimplefeld’s Less Is More” was given first place for table accessories.

The only weavers exempt from the competition were Weavers of Merit — weavers who, over the course of their careers, have won enough awards at previous exhibitions that they are no longer eligible for the competition. Donna Batsford is one. So is Janney Simpson, whose scarf, Upon My Shoulders,” drew continual praise from the weavers who passed by it. (“Outrageous!” said one.) The piece also garnered a special award from the judges for outstanding fiber art.

Another Weaver of Merit is K.C. Alexander, whose wall hanging A Change in Zip Codes” earned an award for excellence in a technique called rep weave from the judges. She recalled that her first encounter with a loom was back in the 70s,” when she spotted one in the back of the art room in high school. I really wanted to work that thing,” she said. Her art teacher, whose name happened to be Mrs. Weaver, showed her how. She began weaving in earned 18 years ago, studying with Hartford-based weaver Fran Curran.

Alexander wove A Change in Zip Codes” for friends named Jim and Judy (“they don’t know this yet,” Alexander said) who just moved to Washington state. They asked Alexander to make them pieces for their new home. She asked them what they wanted. They sent her a photograph of where they intended to hang a piece — in a stairwell — as well as a few paint samples, and said let your creative juices run free!”

The design of the paired hangings has Jim and Judy’s two zip codes in, well, code: if you count the number of windowpanes” above the line on one of the hangings, Alexander said, you get their new zip code out West; on the other hanging, their old zip code in Wallingford, so they don’t forget where they came from,” Alexander said. Below the line, the same numbers are represented again, this time in Morse code, as Jim is a war history buff.”

Why the windowpanes at the top?

I just needed length!” Alexander said, with a laugh. But more seriously — as she mentioned in a written description of the piece — the staggered columns represent the ups and downs in their lives, from births and deaths, to life challenges and new adventures, as well as the peaks and valleys of the Cascade Mountains that they now live among.” The use of color — for which the judges gave Alexander’s piece a second award —also conveys meaning: The colors are earthy,” Alexander wrote, because Jim and Judy are down-to-earth people grounded in simple values.”

On April 8 the exhibit will feature Demonstration Day, a family-friendly event that will feature what Batsford called a fleece-to-shawl” exhibit. Weavers will spin the fleece into yarn and then weave with it, giving all who are interested in learning more about weaving a glimpse into an ancient tradition that is still going strong, all around us.

The Handweavers’ Guild of Connecticut’s 2017 Biennial Exhibit runs at the River Street Gallery at Fairhaven Funiture, 72 Blatchley Ave., until April 28. Admission is free.

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