MEDIA PICKS
INTERLACEMENTS:
THREADS AND LIVES
The Shutter and the Shuttle
“Usually we don’t get such feedback about what
something means in someone else’s world,” says
weaver Marjorie Fiddler about a rug that she sold at
a guild sale. In another interview, the buyer recalls
his thunderstruck reaction to that same rug when
he spotted it across the room. The story of “The
Purple Rug” is one of five told in the documentary
Interlacements: Threads and Lives. The film uses
interviews with makers and users to tell stories of
deeply personal meaning inspired by handwoven cloth.
Created and directed by Marilyn Romatka and
produced by Rainer Romatka, Interlacements is an
ambitious project focusing on the effect handwoven
cloth has on people’s lives. The film’s strength lies in
the recognition that both the weaver and the end user
invest themselves in the cloth. Each of the featured
stories examines the relationship and the experience
of exchanging and using a one-of-a-kind object. Sales
of guitar straps lead to a lasting friendship between a
weaver and a musician. Gifts of scarves and shawls to a
children’s hospital comfort families and children through
times of suffering. A non-Native weaver asks a Northwest
Coast Native dancer if she would consider dancing in
his twined robes. In each story, a piece of cloth, made by
one person for use by another, takes on new meaning in
the hands of its user.
The Romatkas made Interlacements primarily with
the nonweaving public in mind. To communicate the
importance of cloth to those outside the weaving
world, the Romatkas chose careful storytelling, focusing
on experiences that are universally understood by
humans, weavers or not. As a weaver watching this
film, I found it interesting to learn what happens after
the wet-finishing, blocking, and pressing. By giving
voice to both makers and users of handwoven cloth,
Interlacements brings weavers and nonweavers closer
to the meaning of weaving.
—Erica Tiedemann
Seattle, Washington. Film, 89 minutes. Available for private
screenings. http://www.interlacementsmovie.com.
NTERLACEMENTS:
HREADS AND LIVESTHE INTENTIONAL WEAVER:
HOW TO WEAVE BETTER
Laura FryWeavers love to weave. Second to that, they like
to read about weaving. They also love to talk about
weaving with other weavers or, if none are about, with
any marginally willing victim in the room or even the
occasional cat. The Intentional Weaver by Laura Fry fills
that need for discourse.
A conversational text,
it reads like a one-way
weaving chat with a
more experienced
mentor.
The book is
positively brimming
with homespun
(no pun intended)
wisdom: “If you
can’t be perfect,
be consistent,” and
“A thread under
tension is a thread
under control.” The
Intentional Weaver is good-natured and kind, and
while it’s also not quite perfect—there are some out-
of-focus photographs and no index—you won’t mind
a bit. These are quibbles about a worthwhile and
readable book with much to teach.
A career weaver, Laura Fry shares important
information that people—and books—often don’t. She
begins with the physicality of weaving and moves to
fibers and yarns followed by information—including
drafts—on the most common weave structures.
Through the whole of the text, there is excellent advice
not often given. My favorite? “Never use a knot where
a bow will do.” There is also a discussion on designing
and, happily, a series of projects. Fry is generous in
crediting others and in pointing to other resources
throughout the text and in the bibliography.
As Laura Fry says in her lovely “Final Words,” which
admonishes us to follow our own journey to a life of
creativity and friends, “It’s all good.”
—Sharon AirhartPrince George, British Columbia: Laura Fry Weaving Studio,- Hardcover, 206 pages, $60.62. 978-1-7752610-0-1.
d-natured and kdkiindd, andndSEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019 HANDWOVEN | 7