French la Vie

Years ago, I reconnected with someone I went to high school with,

and through him, I found Corey

just in time to see the Paris apartment renovation. 

When the apartment was done, my husband and I spent a week there. 

Walking up the stairs and into the space was a bit like finally reaching the Emerald City. 

I’m honored to be a guest blogger and to have the opportunity

to share a bit about my love of weaving and dyeing fabric. 

 

This is my grandson.  

He’s playing an instrument that belonged to my dad

who was a big band musician who played with some of the greatest.

He also did Broadway Theatre so I’m thrilled that Jasper

took his guitars and other string instruments.

 

Like Corey, family and friends are everything to me. 

In addition to my family, the community has always been important to me

and varies with where in my life I am. 

In these days of COVID, I’ve connected through FaceBook, to a community of weavers. 

Weavers are a creative and supportive group, which is important as we find ourselves isolating. 

 

 

 

 

My love for weaving started as a textile design student at F.I.T.,

the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City.

Weaving was a required course so I walked in and sat down at a loom. 

Who knew that you could take threads or yarn and arrange them vertically (the warp) and horizontally (the weft),

interlace them, and get fabric?  I was hooked. 

Not only had I found my passion; I found a world of people,

a community in which I finally felt comfortable. 

I’d always loved working with color, but this was a new way to play

with endless possibilities of shades, hues, textures, and weave structures

Some, who were at F.I.T. at the same time, went on to greatness. 

Calvin Klein married a girl in my class. 

Antonio Lopez went on to become one of the most successful illustrators in the business,

hanging out in Paris with Karl Lagerfeld, Jerry Hall, and a host of others. 

I do wish I’d saved the sketches he did of me when

I had a long, thin neck which was the piece of me on which he focused. 

Now I’m 75 and in the Nora Ephron cohort with regard to my neck. 

 

I moved into “the city” as soon as I could convince my parents it was ok,

I’d be fine and not end up on the back pages of a tabloid

which was where you would find all the good girls gone bad stories. 

An apartment in a tenement building in Greenwich Village with a roommate was home. 

My F.I.T. friends had also moved to the area

I was now able to earn a living and enjoy the things I love, the things that make me, me.  

NYC offered me theatre (my Dad was a Broadway musician), opera, ballet, museums, etc. 

I still drive in from Connecticut to enjoy all those things and will again when we’re vaccinated,

though I worry about the survival of the arts.

 

 

My F.I.T. graduation gift was a 45” wide loom which I still have. 

While living in NY, I did freelance work on the loom.   

I’m in Connecticut now, but the loom came with me and now has two sisters. 

My yarn stash is immense, but I never seem to have exactly the color or texture I need,

so it continues to grow. Sometimes, I dye what I need by hand painting or doing Shibori.

 

 

When I arrived in Connecticut, there was no work for a fabric designer.

Changing circumstances demanded I pursue another career to ensure a paycheck. 

With it came another new community, work friends. 

Though it was not a particularly creative endeavor,

I find you can bring creativity to anything.

Though I marked time knowing I’d be back at the loom one day.

For years I was not able to weave and despite encouragement to

“get rid of that thing”,

I held on to my loom. 

Weaving is my Zen and an escape. 

Once you decide what you will create and set it up on the loom,

the rhythm of the weaving has a calming effect. 

It’s physical and good for the brain. 

It had been important to me years ago

and I knew it would again. 

 

 

When I retired, I went for some refresher courses at Wesleyan Potters 

which is an artists’ co-op, gallery, and school. 

We are potters, weavers, and jewelers.

Another community, this one like a family, though right now,

we can’t gather nor do much work together.

 

 

 

Artists are struggling in these times, as are so many others. 

Many who usually teach live workshops are seeking new ways to earn a living. 

I’m participating in a workshop with an international group of weavers,

helping an artist who would usually be teaching in person, to develop an online program. 

The instructor studied at the Rhode Island School of Design. 

My studies at F.I.T. were industry-oriented. 

In the Garment District of New York,

I was limited to designing fabrics for apparel that would photograph and sell.   

I’m working through a completely different methodology now,

with no limitations other than my own creativity,

the loom capability, and materials on hand. 

It’s a challenge. 

Old dog, new tricks! 

 

 

 

 

If things go well pandemic-wise,

I’ll be loading my loom into the back of my SUV and heading to Knoxville, Tennessee

in the summer of 2022 for a week of live, intense workshops. 

That was supposed to have happened this past summer. 

It occurs to me that all the rearranging and adjusting

we have done is akin to what the French call le Système D.

The D stands for 'débrouille', meaning to get on with it,

figure it out, use any means available to do something. 

 

 

Here’s to us all managing through

continuing to find ways to do

the things we love.