Evening star., 1952-10-05

Art

By Ruth Dean

IL yOQ 1C 1ldIlOy Will d Ollu0
rule, try weaving as a hobby.
Lest this scare away an aSpirant
to the ancient craft. however.
Mrs. Varion Steele assures the
newcomer that the ability to add
2 and 2 is enough.
A Navy wife, an accountant and
Mrs. Steele is herself a
comparative newcomer to the
woof and warp cult.
1t was just four years ago in
Buffalo that she took up weaving.
more as a time filler than any
thing else. Her husband was TAX
ing a course in gem cutting at
the Buffalo Museum, and since
weaving was one of the courses
that fell on the same evening.
Mrs. Steele thought she'd try her
hand at it.
There's been no holding her
Isince-much to her family's ella
ton and her own. For her hus-
band and only daughter, 16-year-
old Carol, it has meant new
clothes made from material money
can't buy. For her it has awak-
ened a talent she had never real
lied she had.
Its simple; it's just arith-
metic," she tells the weaving
CLASSES she is conducting three
times a week at the American
ization School. The classes are
under the District Public Schools
adult education program.
The majority of Mrs. Steele's
students are District housewives
and they are finding out what
their teacher learned long ago
that weaving is as practical as 1t
lis inspirational. BY the end of
I the course, Mrs. Steele expects
that they will have a good-sized
collection of rugs, towels and
napkins to take home with them
and use.
To Mrs. Steele, the delightful
thing about weaving is that its
, basic principles remain the same
that is. the designing Of the
!, pattern. threading of the loom to
set the design and it's final putting
together with shuttle, treadle and
beater. It's the type of loom that
makes the difference between a
simple or complex result.
Mrs. Steele teaches on 4-harness
and 8-harness looms in her classes.
. but to her the real fun is in oper-
ating her 16-harness loom at
home. That's when she reaches
for the graph paper and gets out
, her slide rule. figuratively speak,
, ing.
Each square of the design she
draws on the graph represents a
harness, which is that part of the
loom that holds the wires, or he'd
dies through which the yarn is
threaded. Each change in the pat
= tern requires a different set Of
IWires-so you see where hobby's
fancy can lead you. For the pres
ent. Mrs. Steele keeps within the
bounds of 16-harness frame. But
she's already looking forward to
E the day when she can own draw
: loom, on which each heddle can
7 be controlled individually without
any harness attachments to worry
7 about.
, Mrs. Steele is a veteran at teach
, ing, though these are the first
;. weaving classes she has under
taken. After her graduation from
Ithaca IN. " Conservatory where
she majored in public school mu-
sic, she taught seventh grade for
awhile. She can play the pipe
organ and thinks this ability has
aided her in weaving, which en-
i ploys some of the same muscle
n movements
f AS if this busy artist of the
h loom had not enough activities to
4 fill her time, she does accounting
Y on the side. Several afternoons
a week she works as part-time
4 accountant for an electrical
n equipment firm.
q Her home on Garrison street
\ reflects her hobby at every glance.
\ from the nylon and silk twill up
= holstered, overstuffed chair in
the living room to the beautifully
s patterned damask cloth that COW
+ ers the dining room table at
! mealtime.
Mrs. Steele confines her weav-
: ing to one hour a day and claims
it never tires the eyes.
Another selling point she gives
l her housewife students is that
f pursuing the craft is good