NEWS

Garden club guests learn to weave with their feet

Mary Lee Minor

It never ceases to amaze me how a simple event can become filled with encouragement and appreciation. Our garden club was invited to the Attica Community Garden Club’s guest night on Sept. 17. When an original speaker fell through, the program chair came up with four women who could share in the four corners of the church fellowship hall.

The flier mentioned a basket weaver, a feather and bead tree maker, a steppingstone castor, and a woman who showed us a fun way to weave with our feet ... an ankle weaver.

I went directly to the weaver’s corner. I thought this was possibly a huge breakthrough in artistry. Tamra Leddick was dressed in a period costume and looked the part. She was standing with her “inkle loom.” Quickly, she clarified that the word “ankle” was heard in a phone conversation, rather than inkle.

These looms were used for years in England from around the mid-1700s to 1800s. Think Shakespeare. The looms were designed to weave several yards of narrow fabric for articles which adorn clothing such as belts, sashes, ties or hair and headbands; bookmarks and guitar straps were made.

Going a step further, several 4-inch strands would be sewn together for scarves, bags, shirts and as table runners. The set up is quick and easy once the frame is built. Inkle comes from the word for braided linen tape. Bands from an inkle loom are not braided however, but woven.

Her work seemed simple and relaxing. Maybe it was because she sat on the floor.

The leaf prints steppingstones were making use of cement. Instead of casting, Mattie Miller mixed up a batch of Sakrete-type with water. She then placed a fresh rhubarb leaf face side down. The wet mixture was blobbed on top of the leaf, away from the outside edges. She cited ways she had colored her Sakrete, and even applied stains after each had dried.

In station 3, Cheryl Enders was creating feather trees with dexterity. These were long, narrow and thin. Each was applied to a short piece of dowel rod and taped in place. Marvelous, and tricky, too. These were made up in a variety of colors. At the same table were beaded trees.

Our final adventure was with Mary Brook, a basket weaver. She shares with Lyme Village. The baskets were handmade from prairie grasses, some twisted together before weaving, English willow, pussy willow, grapevine, corn husks and bittersweet. The Cherokee storage basket was beautiful.

The button baskets were just cute. Mary admitted that she would not likely make another white oak basket since it took a week to make. Weaving by cabin dwellers was so fine that cranberries could be picked by the basketful.

We enjoyed a fellowship time with a smorgasbord of goodies before returning to town.

Mary Lee Minor is a member of the Earth, Wind and Flowers Garden Club, an accredited flower show judge for the Ohio Association of Garden Clubs and a former sixth-grade teacher.