HARNESS WEAVING:

It was a former High School classmate’s comment about weaving that sparked my lifelong passion for weaving.  She had left the High School to attend school in either Vermont or New Hampshire that was operated by, I believe, Quakers.  Among their many course offerings, there were weaving classes.

However, it was almost 10 years later, from  1974-1976,  that I attended SUNY Fashion Institute of Technology as an evening student in their Textile & Surface Design Program.  I took every weaving class they provided. This program focused on harness weaving.

My primary teacher was Nell Znamierowski.  FIT Textile Department teachers were professionals in the field, and I believe Prof. Znamierowski had studied under some of the great named  industry weavers of the 1940s-1960s (Anni Albers, Dorothy Liebes, etc.).  She had also been teaching weaving at the now defunct Brooklyn Museum School of Craft, and told me about their selling out second hand floor harness looms:  I bought my first loom, a Leclerc, in 1980.

1980-2024:  My many textile products have been sold at craft events, and some were commissioned, but sales have always been slow.  Then in Fall 2023 my AVL 16Harness Dobby loom went to a new owner, who is a fourth generation weaver, and my 4Harness Dundas table top loom was sold to a local friend interested in resuming her weaving experiences.  This marks my transition to fulltime tapestry weaving.

TAPESTRY WEAVING  — 1990s to present:

Then in Summer 1991 I attended two  introductory Tapestry Weaving weekend workshops at The Scheuer Studio (The Center for Tapestry Arts)* in New York City:  that experience of learning how to “draw in wool” further defined my weaving passion to include spinning and dyeing.  From 1993-1995, I completed my Arts Education degree at SUNY New Paltz.

Around this time,   I came ‘home’.  Moving from the totally urban New York City to the very rural Delaware County  in the northwestern Catskill Mountains represents a key moment in my life and in my craft.

*In  the October/November 1985 issue of Threads Magazine, pp. 487-54, Joanne Mattera wrote about Ruth Scheuer’s Studio in  “Bringing Tapestry into the 20th Century”; this article has detailed photographs that assist the reader in appreciating Ms. Scheuer’s expertise and business:  https://issuu.com/mariamarko/docs/threads_magazine_01_-_premier_issue/51

2016 — present:

While I had woven several tapestries in the earlier years, it wasn’t until late 2016, upon retirement that I have the luxury of time and studio space for weaving tapestries, and in two distinct themes.  The first theme is  “BRING HOME THE COLORS OF THE CATSKILLS” ™, which focuses on scenes viewed from the studio and sketches done with the East Branch Delaware River Plein Air Painters.  The second theme is “FALL FROM GRACE — FALL INTO GRACE” ™, which focuses on Scripture words and God’s promises  through color, imagery, and the Hebrew calligraphy.

With each theme I use locally sourced wools that I hand spin and dye for slubbiness, texture, and color variations.  The most exciting aspect of tapestry weaving is using my MIRRIX Zeus 38″w frame loom, as seen in the photo above.  

The woodblock print of WINTER STREAM is an excellent example of my realizing I can create artwork that is good. More importantly I am excited by the evidence of an affinity between the woodblock grain marks that carry or resist the colored inks to the textures of the handspun dyed wools I use in weaving tapestries. This artwork started as a series of photographs of a stream in early Spring that translated successfully into a woodblock print which readily morphed into a drawing with wool (Further details: Summer 2016, Eberhardt-Smith, T. (CatskillMade) Flow, Spring/Summer, “Featured Artwork: Winter Stream”, issue 5, http://catskillmade.eberhardtsmith.com/issue/flow/).

In 1991 I met a group of women who knitted, crocheted, wove, and spun.  They taught me how to spin, and Lisa Ann Merrin (Spinners Hill, Bainbridge, NY) sold me a second hand Ashford Traditional spinning wheel.  From there I started dyeing locally sourced wools.  I then hand spin (on a new Ashford Traditional wheel) these wools, delighting in the subtle color variations, which accent my textiles and tapestries.

I have been incredibly blessed in multiple ways:

• Invited to exhibit with 10 other fiber artists at the Olive Free Library’s FABRICATION Exhibit, and to demo tapestry weaving at the Opening Reception; 
• Invited to present FALL FROM GRACE — FALL INTO GRACE at the Walton United Presbyterian Church and the Gould Memorial Church;
• Invited to participate in the two person exhibit THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL, Headwaters Arts Center, Stamford, NY that highlights my tapestries of 40 years span;
• Joining the American Tapestry Alliance and attending their online tapestry workshops: http://www.americantapestryalliance/artistpages/tabithagilmorebarnes;
• Painting with the East Branch Delaware River Plain Air Painters;
• Creating with the Catskilled Crafters  on their annual projects:  http://www.facebook.com/catskilledcrafters;
• And participating in the AMR Artists (Andes-Margaretville-Roxbury) Open Studios Tours since 2012    https://www.amropenstudios.org/tabitha-gilmore-barnes. or www.facebook.com/AmrOpenStudios

This is from the Delaware County Historical Association, Delhi, New York. Queen Anne of England signed on April 20, 1708 the Hardenburgh Patent that covers lands that became Delaware County.  (I am tickled by this date as it is also the month and day of my birth.)

On this map, the diagonal line that runs through the words Hardenburgh Patent mark the south eastern border of Delaware County as it abuts what is now Ulster County. What is called the Pepacton Branch is the East Branch of the Delaware River, which then divides into two smaller branches. Roxbury (my home) is on the right hand mini branch, hence Roxbury’s claim to be the Headwaters of the Delaware River. Yet, the left hand mini branch leads into Stamford, which claims to be the Headwaters source. However, one slices or divides Delaware County and its names sake river, this River starts here and winds its way down past New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and southward.

Delaware County was home to small villages of self sustaining farm families, hence the need to have sheep for wool wives and daughters would spin and weave. Also, the Delaware County Historical Association still has, albeit in incomplete pieces, a Jacquard Loom that may actually was used to create many of The Delhi Jacquard Coverlets (The Delhi Jacquard Coverlets, 1982, and Delhi, 1976 Jacquard Coverlets, 1976)

http://Delaware County Historical Association

Inquiries for purchase or exhibit, and Studio visits, by appointment,
Contact me at:
info@tabithagilmore-barnesstudio.com
In the Subject Line write:
“Artwork Inquiry” or “Studio Visit”.