How do I weave dreams?
With warps of joy and pleasure
And weft of the earth
- Mary Anderson
Whether it starts with a class in the neighborhood, or a skill taught by another well-versed in the art, fiber arts has a subtle way of entering our lives even when we don't expect it. Mary Anderson has a history of fiber arts in her family - and it has manifested itself in different genres over her family's generations.
A family visit revealed evidence of a fiber tradition, with the discovery of her Great Grandmother's working (yes, Mary still spins on it!) Walking Wheel. It had been stored in a cousin's attic for years in Maine. Mary was able to transport it to the west coast. Back in Great Grandmother's day, in the 1800's, sheets were made from linen. And when the sheets had lived their useful life, items like handkerchief holders were sewn from sections of the sheets that hadn't worn out. Mary has samples of these, and also has woven towels from some of the flax that had been stored with the wheel. Some people might call this work "arts and crafts". But generally arts and crafts is a misnomer - artisan more aptly describes the hand-crafting of useable art, versus reassembling mass-produced parts. Spinning, weaving and knitting have evolved from being survival skills to manifestations of artistic expression. For example, tapestry is more of a painting than a weaving medium. And although it is not considered fine art, it is displayed as art.
But, I am getting ahead of myself. Let's jump to the 20th century, when a young woman named Mary graduated from the University of Denver, then worked at Ames Laboratory in Mountain View. It was there she met her husband. After getting married, Mary took some classes in weaving at the Palo Alto Adult School, which was only a few blocks away from her home. She stopped after she became pregnant. But after her daughters were in Campfire, a need for an outdoors project sparked a curiosity to research and experiment with dying natural materials. All that activity led to a quite an extensive fiber stash. After barely making a dent with Campfire projects (such as making God's eyes), Mary soon found a primitive loom to work with on bigger projects. After a while the desire for something even bigger led to a 4-shaft LeClerc loom. Next there was an 8-shaft and now Mary works on a 10 - 16 shaft dobby loom which has been modified by Jeff Wilson.
Spinning came after weaving. Currently Mary is spinning llama fiber raised in Los Altos. Most of the wool she uses when weaving is what she has spun herself. But her real love is working with cotton, making towels and technique samples for a Complex Weavers Work Group. Each project is carefully documented and tagged. When giving a gift, she creates two. And every Christmas she weaves gift bookmarks - usually using a summer/winter weave.
Mary's weaving projects are inspired from the observation of necessities, other people, and every day experience. When an idea is floating around in her head, she gets all her yarns out and sees how the colors work together and makes her decision on what to use from there. Designing is her most favorite weaving task, and Mary likes to create items that are unique to her.
Another reason weaving appeals to Mary is the process of seeing a project develop. After the first six inches of design, weaving becomes a way to pass the time or figure out a solution to a problem. One time Mary was inspired by a book on Peruvian techniques by Harriet Tidball. While studying it, Mary discovered that it matched a Bronson threading. Using two colors in a Bronson creates the effect of seeing a different design/texture on one half versus the other. So she played with it for a while using multiple colors, etc. and has created quite an impressive inventory of samples.
A real development in Mary's technique came after attending a free form design workshop at Cyrena Wilson's, creating a pattern with house shapes. Bringing the sample to a Randy Darwall critique workshop for commentary, he advised her to concentrate on developing her storyteller skill.
Well, inspiration for that suggestion was not far behind. It came from her grandson's visit to California and a game of counting all the VW bugs they saw on the road - an occurrence that is much more frequent in California than his native Boston. And while someone like me would be daunted by such a project, Mary conjured the story into a woven book! Another woven book, also inspired by her grandson, is about a boy and a tree as they both grow and change over the seasons.
Time has no boundary for this woman of the arts. She loves the artistic expression that weaving provides and cheerfully molds fibers into forms that integrate eras and geographies - when done they seem so natural and intuitive! Mary's innate talent to create the extraordinary out of the ordinary leads to amazing results such as weaving scrolls inspired by things and places that surround us everyday. One scroll was inspired by public restroom signs from Russia, Barcelona, Heathrow and the U.S. Other scrolls she weaves for her grandchildren come with a haiku that she writes about the theme of the scroll - a most special message from Grandma! Mary's favorite scroll - of Noah and the Ark - was submitted to the Convergence Committee along with the following haiku:
When Noah counted two by two
did he wonder
“What will I feed them?”
Mary's husband, an aeronautical engineer, would be shocked at the popularity of computers - and especially in how she is using them with her weaving! After he died some time ago, Mary started to travel around the world. She has visited Thailand, the South Pacific, Japan, Turkey, Scotland, England, Sweden and other countries in Europe on both pleasure and weaving/textile trips. And while she doesn't travel so much anymore, she has a well of consistent energy that takes her on extraordinary journeys through the observation of our ordinary surroundings.
The next generations of her family are already continuing artistic traditions, each in their own way. Her son is a composer. One daughter makes contemporaty clothing out of second hand kimonos. The other daughter is a gardener and collects California paintings. So far, one of her five grandchildren crochets, another is working on a masters degree in poetry, and another will be studying at the Boston Fine Arts school this Fall. It will be interesting to see how fiber will weave its way in their generation!
By Claudia Cocco, June 2005
Last updated: 2/13/05