Wednesday Artist Profile - KMR Handwoven

After last Wednesday's lapse (sorry!), I thought I'd profile a handweaver as a special treat. The fantabulous Kathie of KMR Handwoven really caught my eye when she joined EtsyFAST (the Fiber Arts Street Team).


Isn't this towel great?? I love a weaver with a sense of humor! And she did a great job photographing it, too - that yellow pepper is a very nice touch - as we all know, decent photography for an Etsy shop is not only crucially important, it can also be pretty darn difficult.

More goodies...




She has several handwoven check book cases and coin purses in her shop. See what I mean about that good photography? More great pictures. And, since I'm terrible about sewing with my handwoven fabric, I have great admiration for those who do!


Tote bags too!

While chatting with Kathie, I found out all sorts of interesting things about her weaving. For instance, she weaves on a drawloom. I've never seen one in person, but she got me all interested in them and I've been doing research (even found a place near here where I could take a little workshop on one, how fun). Here's a picture she sent me of her drawloom:

Hmm. Kind of small, but you get the idea - it's a beast, isn't it?? It has two sets of harnesses - one set for structure and one set for a pattern - and with a drawloom you can weave any sort of pattern that you can draft on graph paper...

Can you see the detail in that photo? These are some baby bibs that she wove on her drawloom - adorable or what?? She needs to get these in her Etsy shop, pronto. :) Boy, though, does the idea of a drawloom appeal to me...

A couple of notes for the weavers that may be reading this - if you are going to Convergence in Tampa this June (I am! I can't wait!), you can see some of Kathie's wall pieces in the Weave and Resist Exhibit at Hillsborough Community College in Ybor City, Tampa. (How cool is that??)

And she is also in Catherine Ellis' book, Woven Shibori. Her piece is on p.86 - and, once again, it was woven on her draw loom before she did a shibori discharge. It is *gorgeous*.

I'm not always a huge fan of woven shibori (sorry, folks, but in my opinion, I think people can make some very muddy-looking pieces using this technique - though I must say I really like Catherine Ellis' work, not muddy at all), but Kathie's piece is beautiful. I'm looking forward to seeing her work in the exhibit at Convergence!

And, just on a personal note, I have had a fabulous time chatting with Kathie over email. She's just one of those lovely people that you would love to live closer to... (I've met quite a few of people like this through EtsyFAST - maybe it's something about working with fiber.)