My second day of studio/farm visits was just as fun as the first! Maine seems to be a great place for inspiration and creativity. I’m so impressed with the places I’ve visited the past two years. If I lived here I really enjoy having more exposure to these creative people!
Hope Spinnery: How lucky for me to finally visit this mill that I’ve heard about for years! It’s in a secluded spot just inland from Lincolnville, nestled in the woods with a rambling garden surrounding the mill. The upper floor is a wonderful showroom, while the mill equipment is on the lower floor. I did not get to meet Bill Huntington who runs the mill since he was off-site teaching a workshop. His mother was on hand to welcome visitors and answer questions.
In the showroom I enjoyed looking at the rovings and yarns, all colored with natural dyes. Stunning!
Weaving a Life: Susan Barrett Merrill Another gem of a studio, hidden in a lovely secluded spot! Susan is an artist worth knowing! I must find a way to bring her to NY/NJ so others can experience her charisma and her artistic ideas about weaving and community!
She does amazing things will pulled warp tapestry, creating these marvelous masks. 
Some of the masks have an entire community of figures surrounding the mask, and are fascinating creations in themselves! Susan’s ideas and her active involvement in bringing weaving into everyone’s life and managing community weaving projects is very exciting! She generously gave me a copy of her book, Zati: the Art of Weaving a Life, and I am so touched by it.
Susan has accomplished quite a lot toward her goal of bringing weaving into communities through making Journey looms we’ve all seen in recent issues of weaving magazines as well as writing this book and making several DVDs. Somehow she still finds time for doing her own weaving and creating these incredible masks. 
Her method of weaving ancient pictographs or keyforms is the core to her philosophy about understanding our own journey and inter-connectedness.
I hope I can bring her to NJ to share her knowledge and creativity with weavers from my own community!
2 comments:
Oh, dear! I missed so many wonderful things when I was in Maine! I clearly must go back.
Loving the Mask Tapestry. Very unique, she is extremely talented
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