Part 1: Weaving Herstory: Messages From the Heart of Sarah Haskell
Well Used Well Loved - 12' by 6' - 2017 - linen, hand spun paper and embroidery floss. Sarah Haskell’s piece from the recent Craft in America exhibition, “Excellence in Fiber IV”. Photo courtesy of Sarah D. Haskell.
Weaving Herstory: Messages From the Heart of Sarah Haskell
By Jamia Weir
Sarah Haskell is an artist, arts educator and seeker who weaves truth and beauty as she weaves works of art. Primarily a weaver and fiber artist living and working in York, Maine, her creative path began with storytelling; as a child growing up in New England, her father used to record her telling stories on big reel-to-reel tapes. It is clear that Sarah Haskell has taken the theatrical tendency from her youth, love of words and stories and carried it with her throughout her entire art making and teaching career, using story as the string that ties together her own works and the projects that she has led in different schools and communities. The textile arts provide a fertile ground for making meaning in life, connecting threads both literally and figuratively. From her website:
“With threads, color and pattern as my language, I create work that is inspired by the rhythms and seasons of the natural world, as well as the complex connections in the human world.”
I met Sarah Haskell at an artist residency in the small town of Johnson, Vermont at the Vermont Studio Center during a very cold winter in January of 2017. I had decided to return to the state where I did my undergraduate study many years ago, and after living in Los Angeles, California for about 9 years, I wasn’t sure how I’d take to the bitter Vermont cold again. Meeting incredibly warm and supportive people like Sarah, being surrounded by excited and driven practicing artists, helped it turn out to be one of the greatest experiences of my life. I remember being drawn into Sarah’s studio by a large piece of paper she had posted outside of her door that the resident artists could freely write upon. She had a question at the top that asked people to write about their dreams and wishes. I learned that she would later turn that paper into yarn for her woven artwork. The paper yarn Sarah makes is probably the most beautiful yarn I’ve ever seen in my life, because it is equally as aesthetically pleasing as it is conceptually pleasing. She showed me how to use a drop spindle and spun the paper into yarn before my eyes. I was mesmerized.
Yarn made from paper (Author’s photo from Vermont Studio Center, 2017)
Paper Yarn and Positive Energy: From Text to Textile
Detail of "Well Used, Well Loved" Handspun paper and linen, 2017. Photo courtesy of Sarah D. Haskell.
The concept that Sarah could “take language that was written on paper and literally make text into textile” was captivating. She uses a special paper made from mulberry threads called “Kozo” paper to create this very elegant quality of thread. Discovering an old Japanese technique called “Shifu,” she found it was not only the material and technique that captured her, but the story behind it. She told me,
“The story that I heard brings it back to Japan…where in the samurai era, people would write war secrets onto this special paper and then spin it into thread…that thread would be woven into a garment that was worn by a spy across enemy lines and then given to the enemy, who would then unravel the weaving and unspin the thread and read the secrets.”
“House of Worry”, 30” by 18”, 2006. Indigo dyed linen, handspun paper, metallic thread. Hand dyed and woven. Photo courtesy of Sarah D. Haskell
Sarah has taken the concept from this old Japanese tale and given it her own spin, using paper yarn in a multitude of creative ways. The first was a series of four house images, in which she collected writing from people on four different emotions-fear, hope, worry, faith-she spun those four separate sheets of paper and then wove four separate houses to contain the energy of these emotions. She has made clerical stoles for friends who have been ordained, woven with paper that contains prayers from the community. Sarah has also used this idea to make prayer flags for people out of paper with prayers and wishes written upon it. This started with her young neighbor who had cancer. Sarah asked her to write letters to her daughters about all the things she wanted to tell them and the things that she feared, then spun and wove those into prayer flags for her. I learned from Sarah that the word prayer flag in Tibetan is “lung ta” and it means “wind horse;” the idea is that the messages on the flags travel on the wind, to heal.
Prayer flag hanging near Glacier Mt. 2009. Photo courtesy of Sarah D. Haskell/
An artist who is also very passionate about building community through the textile arts, Sarah did a collaborative community project called “Woven Voices: Messages from the Heart”, in which she collected messages of hope and peace from all over the world and with the help of the community, wove over 2,000 prayer flags. Her hope is that all of these positive messages and wishes be blown into the wind and be released, symbolically moving out into the world.
Left: Volunteer weaver from “Woven Voices: Messages from the Heart” project
Right: Reading message outloud on Market Square Portsmouth, NH for “Woven Voices: Messages from the Heart” June 2010.
Photos courtesy of Sarah D. Haskell.
Cloth can behold a sacred energy; Sarah is mindful of this in her own process of making art objects, putting meaningful story and intention into every part of the work. Sarah shared with me, that the movement involved in the weaving process, especially at the loom, she considers to be very much like a dance. Her loom is a 56” 8 Harness Macomber that she has owned since she graduated from RISD in 1976. Her dance is one of positive enthusiasm, curiosity about deep questions, big ideas and gratitude for life itself. She says:
“Thread is the elemental building block of all textiles…and I think for me as a weaver, literally building my artwork thread by thread…the repetition, from the beginning of winding it onto a skein winder, to dye it or winding the warp, every single thread passes through my hands…and I’m a firm believer that energy is absorbed in both ways, I absorb from the linen or the linen absorbs from me.”
Part 2 will be released next week on Friday, November 22!