Maine Fiber Arts: Threads of Our Lives

Photos p14373 and p14374, which are of the exhibit displayed at Bangor Public Library.

na4010 Cathy Elliot, interviewed by Katrina Wynn, January 4, 2016, at her office at UMaine, Orono, ME. Elliot talks about knitting; being a Brownie or Girl Guide in Canada; fiber arts in her family; learning how to sew at school; doing and teaching basketry; spinning yarn; her fiber arts communities, the shawl ministry at the Unitarian Universalist Society in Bangor; knitting groups; Friday Fiber Friends; tatting; lace knitting; yarn and fibers; the Maine fiber industry; Tour de Fleece; YouTube; social media; the online knitting community Ravelry; traveling to Europe; British versus continental knitting, fiber arts jargon. Video and photographs taken at the 2016 Harvest Festival at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor November 19-20, 2016. Text: 28 pp. transcript (in progress, not in access copies) Recording: mfc_na4010_audio001 62 minutes. Photos: P14314 - P14325. Video: mfc_na4010_video001-004 5 minutes.

na4011 Danielle “Dani” Beaupré, interviewed by Katrina Wynn, January 11, 2016, at the library of the Maine Folklife Center at UMaine, Orono, ME. Beaupré talks about knitting, her Franco-American heritage, her family, learning how to knit with her mémé (grandmother), spinning yarn, traditional Franco-American knitting, Franco-American aesthetics, fiber arts jargon, digital and local fiber arts communities, Tour de Fleece, Ravelry, YouTube, her Etsy shop, gifting her work, mending, teaching Franco knitting, knitting podcasts, show and tell of her work. Text: 23 pp. transcript. Recording: mfc_na4011_audio001&002 40 minutes. Photographs: P14022- P14025, P14326- P14327.

na4012 Carol F. Thomas, interviewed by Katrina Wynn, January 22, 2016, at her home in Auburn, ME. Thomas talks about her family; her French Canadian heritage; learning embroidery with her grandmother; knitting; spinning yarn; weaving; felting; her family’s fiber art traditions; her family working in the textile mills in Lewiston-Auburn; starting her business: Generations Textiles; learning how to spin and weave with her son; the New England Textile Arts network; local fiber arts groups; antique car associations; indie dyer; Franco-American traditions; knitting socks for Civil War reenactment; catalon; Franco-American aesthetics; online fiber communities: Ravelry, Weavolution; designing patterns; pricing her work; reusing scraps; knitting techniques; group projects; the local libraries. Also included are two videos: 002 is a shorted version intended for social media. Text: 36 pp. transcript (in progress). Recording: mfc_na4012_audio001 91 minutes. Photos: P13997 - P14002. Video: mfc_na4012_video001-002 7 minutes.

na4013 Mei Selvage, interviewed by Katrina Wynn, February 8, 2016, at her home in Portland, ME. Selvage talks about painting; mixed media art; being an artist; growing up in China at the end of the cultural Revolution; spirituality; Mudras and yogic practice; her At Home project (organized books and embroidery by ancient concept of fire, earth, and water, ether and space); paying a homage to women through her work; immigrant identity; corporate America; work and art balance. Text: 19 pp. transcript (in progress). Recording: mfc_na4013_audio001 43 minutes. Photos: P13927 - P13929, P14037.

na4014 Rana O’Connor, interviewed by Katrina Wynn, February 8, 2016, at her house in Portland, ME. O’Connor talks about quilting; growing up in Iran; her family and friends; getting inspiration for her quilts from photographs; minakari; going to college in the United States; traditional Persian fabrics called Qalamkar; restoring quilts; her designing process; charity quilts; local quilting groups; round robins; quilting retreats; Art quilts; sewing; learning how to sew and making her own clothes with her aunt’s guidance; learning how to quilt with a coworker; organizing quilts exhibits; quilt shows; her blog: Rana Quilts ranaquilts.blogspot.com; making a quilt with her daughter for a school project; labeling her quilts; quilting techniques; her quilting studio. Text: 36 pp. transcript. Recording: mfc_na4014_audio001 103 minutes. Photos: P14003-P14016.

na4015 Sally Wilson, interviewed by Katrina Wynn, February 8, 2016, at the Freeport Public Library in Freeport, ME. Wilson talks about knitting, rug hooking, cross-stitching, needlework, her family, learning how to knit from her mother, local knitting communities, visiting Great Britain, her Scottish heritage, New England aesthetics, her Franco-American in laws, yarn, local yarn shops, teaching her sons how to knit, knitting for her friends and family, knitting techniques. See na4232 for photographs of Sally’s work. Also included are two videos: 002 is a shorted version intended for social media. Text: 18 pp. transcript (in progress). Recording: mfc_na4015_audio001 44 minutes. Video: mfc_na4015_video001-002 5 minutes.

na4016 Joan Dana, interviewed by Katrina Wynn, February 22, 2016, at he home in Princeton, ME. Dana talks about growing up in Pleasant Point; her family; learning to make baskets; learning how to bead with her aunt Elizabeth Tomah; the double curve design; woodland people; beading; teaching others how to bead; quill work; selling her artwork; Passamaquoddy traditions and ceremony; her vision and health issues; smudging; her sweat lodge; teaching traditional arts at the school on the reservation; traditional cooking; taking care of her family; making regalia; commissioned work; leading prayers at Wabanaki gatherings in Passamaquoddy. Dana was also part of the Remnants of Our Lives project in the 1990s. Text: 19 pp. transcript (in progress). Recording: mfc_na4016_audio001 45 minutes. Photos: P13944, P13945, P13946.

na4017 Jennifer Sapiel Neptune, interviewed by Katrina Wynn, January 8, 2016, at her home in, Orono, ME. Neptune talks about beading; basket making; Penobscot and Wabanaki designs; reproduction of ancient beadwork; going to museums to learn about Wabanaki art; the double curve and floral designs; learning to do beadwork; selling her work; the spiritual aspect behind her art; offering her second beaded purse to Mount Kathadin; the reproduction of chief collars and regalia she made; the material she uses; teaching basketry and beading; collaborating on the reproduction of a Maliseet man’s outfit for the Maine State Museum. Text: 25 pp. transcript (in progress). Recording: mfc_na4017_audio001 50 minutes. Photos: P14312 & P14313.

na4018 Frances “Gal” Frey, interviewed by Katrina Wynn, February 22, 2016, at her home in Princeton, ME. Frey talks about beading, basket making, growing up on the Passamaquoddy reservation in Perry, teaching tradition art classes at the school on the reservation, her work as a massage therapist, her family’s basket making tradition, making regalias, Passamaquoddy and Wabanaki traditional designs, collaborating on the reproduction of a Maliseet man’s outfit for the Maine State Museum, selling her artwork, pricing her artwork, being recognize as an artist by her community, the beading techniques she developed, having apprentices, the material she uses, the artwork of her sons, her studio, show and tell. mfc_na4018_audio002 is just verbal permission to deposit the recording. Text: 32 pp. transcript (in progress). Recording: mfc_na4018_audio001 and mfc_na4018_audio002 79 minutes. Photos: P13951-P13955.

na4019 Lorin “Mim” Bird, interviewed by Katrina Wynn, March 9, 2016, at her shop Over the Rainbow Yarn, in Rockport, ME. Elliot talks about her origins; her family; her genealogy; her family’s fiber traditions; knitting; crocheting; quilting; braiding rugs; the evolution of yarn and the wool industry; her shop Over the Rainbow Yarn; her stash; digital communities: Ravelry, YouTube, Craftsy; knitting history; pattern designers in the digital world; helping people with their knitting; the need for community; stitch ‘n spin groups; local yarn producers; pricing of locally produced skeins of yarn; the process of knitting; historical pieces; knitting techniques and styles. Text: 38 pp. transcript (in progress). Recording: mfc_na4019_audio001 94 minutes. Photos: P13956 - P13957.

na4020 Stephanie H. Crossman, interviewed by Katrina Wynn, March 9, 2016, at Rockland Public Library, ME. Crossman talks about netting; learning fish netting with her husband’s great grandmother; living and working on Vinalhaven; the fish netting industry; the material she uses; the difficulty to find netting patterns; modernizing fish netting to make shopping bags; wearable art and three-dimensional sculptures; selling her artwork; her creative process; commissioned pieces; fancy netting; participating in craft shows; her Etsy shop; her sources of inspiration; her interest in passing netting on through an apprenticeship program in the future. Also included are two videos: 001 is a general video, 002 is about learning to net. Text: 37 pp. transcript (in progress). Recording: mfc_na4020_audio001 70 minutes. Photos: P13906 - P13919. Videos mfc_na4020_video001-002 8 minutes.

na4021 Simin Khosravani and Parirokh Amir Soleimani, interviewed by Katrina Wynn, March 29, 2016, at their home in Glenburn, ME. Khosravani talks with her mother Pari Roth about rug making; her family; her family’s fiber arts tradition; growing up in Iran; her Turkish-Iranian Kashkooli tribe; tribal life; transition from semi-nomadic to urban life-style; Kashkooli fiber arts and patterns; Kashkooli rugs; Persian rugs; Pari Rokh’s fiber art work; the impact of city-life on the production of fiber art; the loss of traditional fiber arts; pricing for rugs; the transmission of patterns and techniques; preparing the wool; dyeing wool with natural plants; the possibility of apprenticing with her mother; the Iranian community of Maine. Also included are photos from an August 11, 2016 visit to see her first sample. Text: 48 pp. transcript (in progress). Recording: mfc_na4021_audio001 96 minutes. Photographs: P13938 - P13943, P14272- P14278.

na4022 Rose M. Tomah, interviewed by Katrina Wynn, April 1, 2016, at her home in Houlton, ME. Tomah talks about working on the reproduction of a Maliseet chief’s outfit for the Maine State Museum; residential schools; the Maliseet language; teaching the language; the loss of the language; making fiddleheads quilts; making dreamcatchers; making drums; painting on fibers; domestic violence; selling her art. Text: 19 pp. transcript (in progress). Recording: mfc_na4022_audio001 35 minutes. Photos: P13947 - P13950.

na4023 Carolyn Hildebrand, interviewed by Katrina Wynn, April 1, 2016, at her home in Stockholm, ME. Hildebrand talks about Swedish huck weaving; the foundation of New Sweden and Stockholm, ME; living on a military base; Loring Airforce base; William Widgery Thomas; genealogy; Swedish settlement in ME; seasonal jobs; Worcester, MA; Great Depression; Swedish community of ME; Franco-Americans and Franco-Acadians; her Swedish heritage; huck weaving techniques; quilting with Cooperative Extension; keeping family traditions; family; family heirlooms; making patchwork quilts for her grandchildren; New Sweden Historical Society; demonstrating huck weaving at craft fairs; making pillows with family heirlooms; making Raggedy Ann dolls; reconnecting with her family in Sweden. Text: 58 pp. transcript (in progress). Recording: mfc_na4023_audio001 91 minutes. Photos: P13930 -P13937.

na4024 Rita Pelletier, Jacqueline Lozier, Monica Cyr, Georgette Fehrenbach, Marilyn Ouellette, Anna Mae Raymond, interviewed by Katrina Wynn, April 2, 2016, at their weaving studio in Fort Kent, ME. The women talk about their Franco history and fiber traditions (Pelletier is interviewed specifically towards the end): knitting; crocheting; weaving; women’s work in the early 20th century; selling knitted baby clothes; helping each other with newborn trousseaus; their mothers’ fiber art traditions; old remedies; beliefs; birth control; large families; religion; drowning accident; 1917 influenza epidemic; school in the St. John Valley; religious education; school uniforms; art classes; women’s fashion; food; weaving studio in Rockland; upcycling, Rita Pelletier: family loom; genealogy; potato chores. Text: 14 pp. transcript (in progress). Recording: mfc_na4024_audio001 54 minutes. Photos: P14017 - P14021.

na4025 Anna Mae (Deschaine) Raymond, interviewed by Katrina Wynn, April 2, 2016, at at The Valley Crafters studio in Fort Kent, ME. Raymond talks about The Valley Crafters; their studio; quilting; quilts the women in her family made; learning from her mother and grandmother; making a yo-yo quilt with her mother; Acadian village of Van Buren; her family and their Franco-American origins; hooked rugs; homemade Christmas gifts; World Acadian Congress; weaving; crocheting; French Canadian sashes (ceinture fléchée); Acadian flag and colors; Catholicism; using recycling fabric; upcycling; looms; keeping traditions alive; painting artist Lulu who they share the studio with; Great Deportation; French: not speaking it in school; losing the language in the Valley; growing up speaking it. Text: 24 pp. transcript (in progress). Recording: mfc_na4025_audio001 36 minutes. Photos: P13754, P13893 - P13905.

na4026 Elaine O’Donal, interviewed by Katrina Wynn, May 11, 2016, at her home in Gorham, ME. O’Donal talks about tatting; her family; her mother sewing their clothes growing up; growing up on a farm; learning how to shuttle tat from a local woman; tatting material; creating her own designs; selling her art work; pricing her artwork; going to traditional art shows; going to antique shows; her fiber network; commissioned pieces; framing her pieces; lace; the OIDFA lace conference; teaching her daughters how to tat; the traditional arts apprentice program; the popularity of tatting with the steampunk scene; tatting jargon. Also included are two videos: 001 is a general video, 002 is how she met her mentor. Text: 46 pp. transcript (in progress). Recording: mfc_na4026_audio001 95 minutes. Photos: P13958 - P13990. Video: mfc_na4026_video001-002 7 minutes.

na4027 Susan E. Watson, interviewed by Katrina Wynn, June 3, 2016, at the Page Farm and Home Museum at UMaine, Orono, ME. Watson talks about her origins; her family; her family’s fiber traditions; growing up and living on a farm; felting, making a yurt; rug hooking; Australian locker hooking; Susie Stephenson; Beth Bede; Halcyon Yarns’ felting classes; fiber festivals; processing wool; natural dyes; wet felting; needle felting; her felting studio; Nuno felting; teaching workshops; teaching her family; relaxing aspect of practicing fiber arts. Text: 30 pp. transcript (in progress). Recording: mfc_na4027_audio001 65 minutes. Photos: P13991 - P13996.

na4028 Kavya B. Seshachar, interviewed by Katrina Wynn, June 10, 2016, at her home in Cape Elizabeth, ME. Elliot talks about crocheting; embroidery; macramé; mixed media; learning fiber arts techniques from her mother; her family’s fiber arts traditions; fiber arts traditions in India; participating in the Cape Elizabeth’s Labor Day craft fair; participating in a Guinness World Record project with Mother India’s Crochet Queens in January 2016; crocheted jewelry; using traditional techniques with a modern twist; designing her own pieces; the Indian community of Maine; the therapeutic aspect of fiber arts. Also included are two videos: 001 is a general video, 002 is about the Guinness World Record. Text: 37 pp. transcript (in progress). Recording: mfc_na4028_audio001 63 minutes. Photos: P13977 - P13990. Video: mfc_na4028_video001-002 8 minutes.

na4029 Anna Mae Hilty, Velma Hilty, and Lizzie Esch, interviewed by Katrina Wynn, April 1, 2016. A. Hilty, V. Hilty, and Esch talk about their family, moving to Maine; the Amish community in Maine; making their own clothes; reuse – recycle, waste not want not; rug braiding; sewing; quilting; piecing quilts; quilting bees; doll making; mending clothes; gardening; Amish aesthetics; the seasonal life in Smyrna Mills; some differences between Amish community; teaching their daughters; gifting quilts to young married couples; making clothes for young mothers; their fabric store; their values; inheriting patterns from their mothers. Text: 37 pp. edited transcript. Photos: P13920 - P13926.

na4232 Elaine O’Donal and Sally Wilson, interviewed by Katrina Wynn, September 22, 2016, in the Callahan Hall of the Lewiston Public Library, Lewiston, Maine. O’Donal and Wilson talk about their tatting and knitting traditions (respectively): how they learned the art; the groups they have been part of; their style and design process; selling/giving away items. They also answer questions from the audience and the audience provides additional stories of fiber art in their lives (grandparents, crocheted undergarments, style). This is the first of three MAC funded library events for the NEA funded “Threads of Our Lives” project. Recording: mfc_na4232_audio001 69 minutes. Photos: P14211- P14270.

na4233 Carolyn Hildebrand and Anna Mae Raymond, interviewed by Katrina Wynn, October 15, 2016, in The Cary Library, Houlton, Maine. Hildebrand and Raymond talk about their Swedish huck weaving and loom weaving (respectively): Swedish and Acadian and Franco history and culture in Maine; how they learned the art; some of the technical aspects of how to do their art; lesson from Hildebrand on huck weaving. They also answer questions from the audience and the audience provides additional stories of fiber art in their lives. This is the second of three MAC funded library events for the NEA funded “Threads of Our Lives” project. Recording: mfc_na4233_audio001 89 minutes. Photos: P14279 - P14311.

na4234 Jennifer Neptune and Simin Khosravani, interviewed by Katrina Wynn, December 3, 2016, in the Bangor Public Library, Bangor, Maine. Neptune and Khosravani talk about their beading and weaving traditions, how they learned, the heritage (Penobscot and Kashkooli respectively) of the traditions, the importance of continuing traditions, threats to tradition (current and past), passing on the tradition, and answered questions from the audience. There were 13 event attendees. This is the third of three MAC funded library events for the NEA funded “Threads of Our Lives” project. Recording: mfc_na4234_audio001 81 minutes. Photos: P14329 - P14368. Video: mfc_na4234_video001 3 minutes.

na4235 American Folk Festival, August 27, 2016. Recordings from the Narrative Stage and photographs from both the Narrative Stage and the Demonstration Tent in the Folklife Area of the 2016 American Folk Festival on the Bangor Waterfront. Katrina Wynn moderated all of the sessions except the Harlan-Haughey panel. Also included: copy of 2016 AFF pocket guide and Saturday’s narrative stage schedule. Narrative Stage lineup: 12:00-12:45 Jennifer Neptune, Old Town: Penobscot beader 12:55-1:40 Simin Khosravani, Glenburn: Kashkooli apprentice weaver 1:50-2:35 Panel: Melissa Winders (Yale), Mary Bird (UMaine), Susanne Grosjean (Susanne Grosjean handcrafted rugs), Sarah Harlan-Haughey (UMaine) 2:45-3:30 Panel: fiber communities, the local and the digital, Mary Bird (UMaine), Elisa Sance (graduate research assistant for MFC), Kavya Seshachar (Cape Elizabeth) 3:40-4:25 Kavya Seshachar, Cape Elizabeth: Indian crocheter 4:30-5:00 Fashion Show: asked the demonstrators and public to bring wearable homemade fiber art and show it off! Text: 4 pp. schedule. Recording: mfc_na4235_audio001 - mfc_na4235_audio006 222 minutes. Photos: P14112 - P14149.

na4236 American Folk Festival August 28, 2016. Recordings from the Narrative Stage and photographs from both the Narrative Stage and the Demonstration Tent in the Folklife Area of the 2016 American Folk Festival on the Bangor Waterfront. Katrina Wynn moderated all of the sessions except the Harlan-Haughey panel. See NA4235 for official AFF pocket guide. Narrative Stage lineup: 12:00- 12:45 Stephanie Crossman, Vinalhaven: netting artist 12:55- 1:40 Kavya Seshachar, Cape Elizabeth: Indian crocheter 1:45- 2:15 Fashion Show: asked the demonstrators and public to bring wearable homemade fiber art and show it off! 2:25- 3:10 Panel: Melissa Winders (Yale), Mary Bird (UMaine), Susanne Grosjean (Susanne Grosjean handcrafted rugs), Sarah Harlan-Haughey (UMaine) 3:20- 4:05 Simin Khosravani, Glenburn: Kashkooli apprentice weaver 4:15- 5:00 Jennifer Neptune, Old Town: Penobscot beader. Recording: mfc_na4236_audio001 - mfc_na4236_audio006 237 minutes. Photographs: P14150 - P14205.

na4271 Photos for the NEA Maine Fiber Arts: Threads of Our Lives exhibit taken by Elisa Sance at One Lupine Fiber Arts of a Bangor fiber group in Bangor, Maine, summer 2016. P14371 was used in the “community” exhibit panel. Photos: P14369 - P14372.