Threads that bind
May. 6th, 2026 12:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidLast night I went to the Newton Library (read: far too long on the D branch of the Green Line plus a mile walk after) for an event sponsored by the Vilna Shul and JArts: "Threads That Bind: Weaving as a Practice of Storytelling,” which included a talk by Josh Kurtz about the history of weaving, (including texts and examples from Jewish history and other indigenous folkways), plus time to start a project on laser-cut flat hand looms that we could take home to finish later (along with whatever fibers we wanted from the varied assortment he’d brought, which varied from whole skeins to small balls of leftover yarn to roving).
I had a good time, though each part felt too short. The talk included slides, of the oldest known woven piece (a dress from Egypt about 5000 years ago); of a workers’ solidarity/protest banner that showed a complete picture including protest banners as part of it; of a piece commissioned by the Jewish Museum (in NYC, I think, not Jerusalem) to remember the Holocaust, six panels in browns, white, and black, which looked to me like they were unreadable text; of the unicorn tapestries; of a woven ceremonial dress made by a Native person in the southwest (I failed to take notes, so don’t have his name, but do remember he’s 26), who not only wove the cloths, but also shepherded and sheared the sheep, combed and spun the fibers, and foraged the materials to dye the thread/yarn (!!!!).
The looms were flat, laser-cut wood, looking rather like a rectangular picture frame, with holes in all corners, and little teeth top and bottom. We warped our own looms (though he did have some pre-warped, for those who wanted), then chose some of the fiber abundance to use as weft. The laser-cut pieces also included a flat, wide needle-like piece that could help with the back-and-forthing of fiber, and a smaller flat ‘fork’ for pushing the rows down. Both were optional, but useful. There wasn’t time to complete a piece, but we got to take the looms & tools & fibers we wanted home to complete! Josh requested photos once people finished their pieces.
I had arrived early, so I was there during room set-up. Josh mentioned that he’d gotten some yarns at Make and Mend in Somerville, so after the event, I asked if he was headed back to Somerville by car, and if so, could I catch a ride back (rather than another mile-plus walk, an eternity on the D-line (ok, maybe an hour?), then three-quarters of a mile walk home), which he was happy to offer. We chatted on the way back, talking textiles, and also Jewish geography (NHC turned out to be our first connector of friends in common).
I had a good time, though each part felt too short. The talk included slides, of the oldest known woven piece (a dress from Egypt about 5000 years ago); of a workers’ solidarity/protest banner that showed a complete picture including protest banners as part of it; of a piece commissioned by the Jewish Museum (in NYC, I think, not Jerusalem) to remember the Holocaust, six panels in browns, white, and black, which looked to me like they were unreadable text; of the unicorn tapestries; of a woven ceremonial dress made by a Native person in the southwest (I failed to take notes, so don’t have his name, but do remember he’s 26), who not only wove the cloths, but also shepherded and sheared the sheep, combed and spun the fibers, and foraged the materials to dye the thread/yarn (!!!!).
The looms were flat, laser-cut wood, looking rather like a rectangular picture frame, with holes in all corners, and little teeth top and bottom. We warped our own looms (though he did have some pre-warped, for those who wanted), then chose some of the fiber abundance to use as weft. The laser-cut pieces also included a flat, wide needle-like piece that could help with the back-and-forthing of fiber, and a smaller flat ‘fork’ for pushing the rows down. Both were optional, but useful. There wasn’t time to complete a piece, but we got to take the looms & tools & fibers we wanted home to complete! Josh requested photos once people finished their pieces.
I had arrived early, so I was there during room set-up. Josh mentioned that he’d gotten some yarns at Make and Mend in Somerville, so after the event, I asked if he was headed back to Somerville by car, and if so, could I catch a ride back (rather than another mile-plus walk, an eternity on the D-line (ok, maybe an hour?), then three-quarters of a mile walk home), which he was happy to offer. We chatted on the way back, talking textiles, and also Jewish geography (NHC turned out to be our first connector of friends in common).
no subject
Date: 2026-05-07 11:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-05-07 12:15 pm (UTC)I found out from the organizing librarian that the template they’d used was more efficient in using material than it looked: there was the approximately 8.5x11 paper sized loom frame, with a smaller one cut from the middle of the larger, and the loom tools cut from the middle of the smaller.
Neither is large enough for major works, but small pieces fit, and while it’s slow (no foot pedals, no shuttle to get the weft through the warp quickly, etc.), it’s fun for small pieces, and very accessible even to folks who haven’t worked in fiber before.