top of page
RESEARCH
The former Marshfield Center for Textile Research is now under the Weaver's Croft umbrella and is very committed to furthering research in historic equipment and textiles. We are open to any and all research ideas and to offer students the chance to have access to our amazing collection of historic textiles and equipment.
PROJECTS
Early Hand Loom Survey
Since first being introduced to working with early hand looms when attending the Marshfield School of Weaving in 1979, Kate Smith has been completely fascinated with these unique tools ever since. Both of her ex-husbands began to collect and restore looms to pass on to other students and it finally became obvious that some sort of data base was needed to collect information on all the looms that were coming through our hands. If you have an early hand loom please fill out the survey.
Embossing & Glazing
Fabric Finishes of the 18th c.
Kate Smith and Eaton Hill Textile Works spent 10 years studying the unique fabric finishes of embossing and glazing and eventually was able to reproduce fairly accurate embossed patterns for upholstery and bed hangings. The glazed fabrics used for whole cloth quilts and some historic clothing fabrics such as calimanco sill remained out of reach. Our hope is to continue working on solving that mystery and to achieve a workable finish that rivals those on some of our historic pieces.
Study Group/Book Club
“Against a rising tide of automation and increasing digital complexity, we are becoming further divorced from the very thing that defines us: we are makers, crafters of things.”
In his book Craeft, Alexander Langlands calls us to remember why we should bother to engage with the laborious processes of making things by hand. This question of why is what this study group will be exploring. Through reading works written by leading craft philosophers we will endeavor to explore the meaning of craftsmanship and why it may matter more now than ever before.
Books:
2/11/24 Craeft by Alexander Langlands
4/7/24 The Craftsman by Richard Sennett
6/9/24 News From Nowhere and Other Writings by William Morris
8/11/24 Why We Make Things and Why It Matters:
The Education of a Craftsman by Peter
Korn
9/15/24 Fewer, Better Things: The Hidden
Wisdom of Objects by Glen Adamson
11/10/24 The Nature and Art of Workmanship by
David Pye
The group - led by Rebecca Ranta - will meet on the above dates by Zoom for a lively discussion. Time:
6 - 8 pm.
Suggested donation - $10 - 25
EVENTS
Since 2018 the former Marshfield Center for Textile Research was happy to co-host the Textile History Forum with Rabbit Goody of Thistle Hill Weavers and the Spinning Wheel Symposium with Florence Feldman-Wood of the Spinning Wheel Sleuth. After a two year hiatus due to the pandemic we have resumed hosting these two events on a yearly or biannual basis. We hope to also offer other gatherings focused on historic topics and especially one celebrating the early hand loom in conjunction with our local timber framer community.
Stay tuned for up-coming events.
_JPG.jpg)
bottom of page