Putting heart and soul into everyday items by Jeannette Ross
When the Westchester Craft Show returns for its 15th year on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, Oct. 17-19, at the Westchester County Center in White Plains, two Connecticut craftspeople will be among those returning. Patricia Burling of Willow Weave in Monroe will show her hand-woven rugs and throws and Thomas Throop of Black Creek Designs in New Canaan will display his handmade furniture. In addition to more than 115 craft artists at the juried show, the Westchester Craft Show is one of 60 venues to be featured in All Fired Up! A Celebration of Clay in Westchester. This series of exhibitions, panel discussions, workshops, and classes is intended to deepen public appreciation of the depth and breadth of ceramic arts. As part of this project, the craft show will host several lectures by nationally recognized ceramic artists. Willow Weave
Ceramics is not what Pat Burling is all about. She is well known for her brightly colored and boldly designed hand-woven wool rugs, as well as her sumptuous mohair throws. The rugs can be used on the floor or as eye-catching wall hangings. “My work is about color and graphic design,” said Pat, who has been weaving for 30 years. She works in her home studio where she has three looms, creating rugs in a style called Ripsmatta. Thomas Throop’s furniture is noted for its functional yet elegant design in a diversity of wood. Looking at one of her rugs it’s easy to appreciate the artistic talent, but the physical effort involved is deceptive. It can take several days to get the loom ready for a project before she can even start weaving. Because she is too petite to sit while weaving she stands in order to get enough leverage for the strong pull it takes on the loom to make all the rows nice and tight. As a result, Pat weaves about 30 inches a day. The rest of her time is devoted to meeting with or talking on the phone with clients, answering e-mails, designing new projects, and performing all the other tasks associated with any business. Pat’s rugs are made of 100% wool that is light-fast, color-fast, stain-resistant, and mothproof. “I work with 48 yarns to the inch,” Pat said, explaining how the loom was set up. “I can play with the colors. I can pick them up and put them down with my hands.” The result is that each row is subtly different no matter how many or how few individual colors WILLIAM F. VERRILL she is working with. Depending on the pattern, some rugs are the same on both sides, some are different. In either case, FINE WOODWORKING - FROM DESIGN TO INSTALLATION they can be reversed. Using earthy, jewel-toned colors, Pat’s 30 YEARS OF LOCAL EXPERIENCE - BY APPOINTMENT - 203-761-9109 rugs are highly textured with thick and
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The HOME Monthly, a Hersam Acorn special section, Ridgefield, Conn.
October 2008