For our ancestors, it was tedium. For today's practitioners, it's art. The laborious processes of spinning animal fibers together and then knitting or weaving the yarn into fabric are almost lost skills in our mass-produced world, but not to the members of the Medina Spinning and Weaving Guild. Its members meet regularly to learn new techniques, appreciate one another's work and share their interest with people who understand their passion. Not everyone does.
Fiber arts are, to be sure, intensely hands-on work.
Spinning, for example, involves preparing wool or other animal fibers through the processes of combing or carding, twisting the fibers together to make plies and then spinning two plies together in the opposite direction to make yarn. Weaving requires the laborious preparation of cutting warp threads to exact lengths and threading them onto a loom, then producing fabric one deliberate row at a time. It is slow work in a fast-paced world, and that's exactly what the guild members love about it. The Medina guild concentrates mainly on spinning and weaving, although some members are involved in related arts like knitting with hand-spun yarn or felting fabric. The artisans are always trying different things, such as incorporating beads or feathers into the fibers they spin or creating wall hangings or rugs in a variety of bold colors and textures.