WEAVING AND COLLABORATION

Posted by Peg in South Carolina 

 

If you haven’t seen Tien’s wedding dress, do go and look at it.  It is stunning.  But read all the blog posts about it as well.  Here is the blog post with the photos.

But there is much more in Tien’s blog than the post with the photos of her garment. These other blog posts contain the story of all the ups and downs that occur in creating a project of this magnitude.  But even more important for me, these posts contain the story of an amazing collaborative effort.

The effort involves scores of people.  People who gave her helpful advice and encouragement in the comments on her blog.  People who lent her tools.  People who gave her things.  People who taught her.  I find it an amazing story.

Years ago when I lived in Georgia and was a member of the Chattahoochee Handweavers Guild, two members of that guild collaborated on a magnificent piece which won a major award at Convergence that year.  One was a gifted and experienced weaver.  And one was a weaver and dressmaker. 

They told the story of their collaboration at a guild meeting.  I was absolutely entranced.  This was not the story of the lonely weaver working by herself at her loom or at her sewing machine.  Of course there was this work, and much of it. Nor was this the story of a weaver collaborating with a client on a piece. This was a collaboration between two weavers, each of whom brought her own set of skills to the challenge, and each of whom challenged the other from the beginning of the project to its end.

“Weaving and Collaboration” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on February 22, 2010. ©2010 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.