Vermont Folklife Grantees in 2014

This year we received four grants from the Vermont Folklife Center in Middlebury, VT for students to work in a master/apprenticeship situation. Joann Darling received a grant to process textiles from her homegrown linen, Rose Diamond worked on weaving Scottish style Tweed from Vermont sheep that she spun and dyed herself, Ada Schenk pursed the weaving of household textiles (Ada is 12!) and Norman Kennedy received a grant to work with a student to create a handspun, hand-dyed warp weighted blanket. The following photos show the finished projects and all the hard work that this grant process supported. Joann and Ada have been re-funded for another year so stay tuned to see what work they continue to explore in the next 12 months.

Norman and the finished warp weighted blanket.

Detail of Norman's blanket with indigo, cochineal and rhubarb dyed yarn.

Ada and Julia (of the Folklife Center) admiring Rose's bolts of tweed.

Ada and her rug, placemats and blanket.

Rose showing Julia the raw fleece that she used to spin and dye for her wonderful tweed fabric.

Close-up of Rose's tweed fabrics.

Rose explaining the color choices that she used in making her fabrics.

Joann showing Julia the linen dishtowels that she wove from her homegrown, handspun flax.

Julia admiring Joann's dishtowels.

Joann, Julia, Rose and Norman sharing their thoughs about the value of the Folklife Grants!