”My work is not so much about earning a salary but hopefully sharing something about the past that will carry into the future.” separate the growth rings into long coils, and finally soaking, sanding, and sizing the materials she soon will weave. The finished products are stunning white baskets that, over time, will age to a fawn brown. Tucked behind the baskets Kathy proudly displays in her studio are vibrant strands of fibers, twisted and labeled, that represent 35 years of research in natural dyes. She breaks from her quiet, humble demeanor to share, smiling, that upon seeing most any Hoosier flower or weed, she can accurately predict the color it will produce in a dye pot. Along with preserving historical weaving and dyeing techniques, Kathy also continues the centuries-old art of traditional rug hooking. It was a craft that originated in England as a pastime of the poor to turn leftover scraps of cloth into intricate images. Her folk-art style rugs and tapestries depict everything from farm animals and barns to flowers and geometric shapes. Kathy has shared her weaving expertise as an instructor at workshops throughout the U.S. and in more than 100 magazine articles and two books, including “The Song of the Muskox,” which
explores the history of the animals and the use of their fur as weaving fiber. The book was the result of Kathy’s graduate studies work and travels in the 1980s to the Northwest Territories of Canada, teaching and encouraging native Inuit women to produce garments, and thus income, using yarn from muskox. Fourteen years later, Kathy was shopping in a Jacques Cartier store in Canada that sold highend locally produced art, when she found a beautiful cowl for sale that had been knitted by one of the women she had taught. “I knew we had accomplished what we had set out to do,” Kathy said. “The system worked.” When she isn’t weaving, dyeing, or teaching, Kathy hustles to tend to the farm, which she and Tim share with four dogs, three ducks, three rabbits, occasionally two grandsons, and eleven Connemara ponies that she and the couple’s now-grown daughter once bred and showed. She and Tim also welcome seasonal guests into their home, which they built 22 years ago as a bed-and-breakfast, the Slippery Elm Shoot Inn. Nestled in the woods a half hour away from Nashville, the inn attracts clientele seeking solace and nature. “It’s just one more way we love meeting people and sharing our little bit of this world with them,” Kathy said. “I suppose my whole life, in so many different avenues of meeting and teaching people, has been about finding common threads.” Find Kathy on Facebook at The Hand Maiden or visit <slipperyelmshoot.com>.
March/April 2018 • Our Brown County 41