Kathy’s winning weaving from this year’s Salida Fiber Festival Colorway Challenge “Best Use of Color”
We’re thrilled to share that Kathy Strathearn won this year’s Salida Fiber Festival Colorway Challenge “Best Use of Color” with her beautiful tapestry weaving made with wool from Tierra Wools. Her winning weaving was described as “a unique art piece [that] has lovely structural integrity. The tonal values celebrate each other and the lightest value, the grey/green, creates a road for the viewer to follow. Beautiful structure to the pattern.” We couldn’t agree more!
Kathy has been a longtime supporter and friend of Tierra Wools: she took her first weaving class from us over 20 years ago! We sat down with Kathy to talk about her winning tapestry, how she got into weaving, and what’s next for her as a weaver.
Congratulations on your win at the Salida Fiber Festival! This year’s Colorway Challenge was “Greener Pastures”: what was your inspiration for the weaving and how did you choose your colors?
The green colors on the winning weaving were chosen by the Salida Fiber Festival Colorway Challenge. I was to choose a complimentary color to include in my weaving and I chose purple. I think green and purple go beautifully together. As far as the design goes, I sometimes like to challenge myself with a more complicated design. I use graph paper to create what I think I might be able to accomplish on the loom. This was a difficult design for me, but I kept at it and conquered!
One of Kathy’s weavings
Tell us a little bit about how you got into weaving.
Over 20 years ago, my husband was doing volunteer work for the Friends of the Cumbres and Toltec Railroad in Chama, NM. He heard about Tierra Wools and told me we should check it out. Well, we did and we both immediately signed up for a beginning weaving class. I was hooked from the first shuttle throw! We pretty much immediately bought a four harness walking loom from Rachel Brown - still my favorite loom!! The following summer I signed up for the Tapestry I weaving class. I struggled with simple tapestry for awhile because, at the time, I had no one to help me. After I took Tapestry I, I made many summer trips over the next few years to the Navajo Indian reservation and studied with master weavers there. My technique got better as well as my confidence. But each year, we still continue to return to Chama, and I thoroughly enjoy weaving on a Tierra Wools loom. It’s like coming home to my weaving roots.
What aspects of weaving do you enjoy the most?
It’s hard for me to decide which aspect of weaving I enjoy the most. I have a binder full of graphed drawings that I have made that I haven’t woven yet. Maybe [creating these drawings is] what I like the best. But putting colors together, taking that empty canvas (warp) and creating beautiful designs with Churro wool are also a real thrill! I definitely prefer working with Churro wool. I appreciate the history of the yarn.
Do you have any other crafting hobbies besides weaving?
Other crafts that I like to do are crewel embroidery, cross stitch, and I’m teaching myself how to knit. Actually, my grandmother taught me the basics of knitting when I was young, so I had a pretty easy start with knitting. I’m now just working on a couple different knitted patterns - I’m surely not ready to take on a sweater yet!
I’ve always woven blankets since my first class. But soon I will have a Zapotec walking loom, which will allow me to continue weaving blankets on my Rio Grande loom and then I’ll be able to weave rug weight and perhaps more landscape tapestries on my soon-to-arrive new Zapotec walking loom! I have a small studio behind my house where I have all my looms and so much stash! It certainly keeps me busy. No time to get bored.
Kathy’s first tapestry weaving
What’s next for you as a weaver?
I just recently took my very first tapestry landscape class. I thoroughly enjoyed the freedom of placing yarn in random places to create movement in the piece! It’s truly amazing what you can do with yarn if you have some foresight and courage. The scary part is, unlike painting on a canvas, you can’t go back and change your piece after it is off the loom.
Tierra Wools has nearly sold out of my weavings this past summer. It’s time for me to perhaps recreate some of my favorites! After weaving some challenging pieces, it might be time to relax and pull off some old favorites from the loom. But it looks like I am coming to the end of my warp and will have to take on that big job. But it’s all part of the process!
Visit us at Tierra Wools in Chama, NM to see more of Kathy’s works.