Once again the Catskilled Crafters selected a new project:  “Coats of Many Colors”, in which we were to use much of our unused stash of fabrics, trimmings, wools, and items unusual to coat making!  We met several times via ZOOM, and then in late September through October 16, 2022, these COATS were exhibited with AMR ARTISTS, INC. artists who were on the 2022 Open Studios Tour.  This Exhibit is at the Galli-Curci Theatre Gallery, Margaretville, NY, 12-5 Friday-Sunday, plus Columbus Day Monday.

My Coat is “Joseph’s Coat of Many Colors”.  Joseph was born several generations post Noah, and was Jacob’s 11^th son and favorite son.  The Rainbow sequence in this coat represents God’s promise to Noah to never flood the earth again.  Perhaps Jacob considered Joseph to be visible sign of God’s continued rainbow promise.  These wools are commercially spun and dyed.

However, the coat is blood stained, as represented by the hand spun and red dyed Shetland wool.  Joseph’s older brothers showed his coat to their father Jacob to convince him that Joseph was dead, when in fact they had sold Joseph to Ishmaelites as a slave.

The coat is woven in rectangular panels:  sleeves; back; and two front panels, these latter overlap in the front and have a handmade ceramic button by Solveig Comer, Most Precious Pottery.  The neck and head opening is about 10” diameter (really too small for an adult, but okay for a child) while the coat panels’ lengths are more appropriate for an adult.  Hence the ambiguity of this being an optimistically oversized coat for a favorite son?

Thanks to Pamela Martin who provided excellent tips for sewing the panels together.