“The Book of Potholders” is a hanging, single-sided textile work 28” square. The background banner is constructed from heavyweight canvas scraps, embellished with nine thick potholder forms comprising a wide variety of fibers and found objects. (View details below.)
Making potholders from a loop loom kit was a popular pastime when I was a child. I discovered that replacing the kit’s uniformly-sized loops with socks or other interlock-woven fabric scraps resulted in unexpected, irregular forms. For “The Book of Potholders,” I used the loop loom to create foundations for each of the nine ‘chapters’ of the book.
First, I wove together upcycled garments and purchased cotton loops on a metal 7.25″ crafter’s loop loom. Then, I stitched found objects of metal, paper, garment labels, and fabric scraps to the surface using a variety of fibers: wool, DMC floss, silk and rayon.
