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Today we're sharing an interview with weaver and designer, Kristin Crane. I first came across Kristin's work on Instagram, where she shared landscape tapestry weavings made with Array. Kristin's work is often inspired by nature and a sense of place, which she shares more about in this interview. Enjoy!
I grew up sewing, knitting, and crafting but I learned to weave in college. I have a degree in Textile Design with a concentration in wovens from Thomas Jefferson University (although it was Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science when I attended). After graduating, I worked for about a decade in the textile industry designing woven fabrics for the residential home furnishing industry. In the early 2000’s the textile industry went through a seismic shift in the US and many mills closed, so I switched gears career-wise.
It actually took a while, mentally, to get to a place where I felt like I could just weave for the fun of it and not have it tied to my job. Now that I’m in that place, I have a different and much richer relationship to textiles. Now I weave both art pieces as well as functional textiles.
Almost everything has the possibility of inspiring me, but I’m particularly inspired by a sense of place. I love observing and learning about what makes a particular place unique. What fibers grow where, who cultivates it, what are their textile traditions?
I also find nature a constant. Nature ignites all my senses and if I’m ever feeling a creative block I know I need to get outside. I live in the Ocean State and the ocean always gives me the space to breathe deeply and allow the space for inspiration to show up.
Nature is very often a starting point for me in my work. I often take a sketchbook out with me on walks to capture thoughts, colors, smells, sounds, whatever catches my attention. These aren’t intended to turn into something directly, but rather just to slow me down, quiet my brain, and get me to focus on my surroundings.
One exercise I sometimes do is make myself small color palettes of what I’m looking at. I draw rectangles and paint them in with the colors I’m seeing. By recording colors, it connects me to the place and sometimes serves as a color palette to use somewhere in the future. This practice of walking with a sketchbook led me to gathering actual bits of nature on walks and using them directly in weavings.
During the pandemic, I took an online class with Pam Pawl called The Path. In it, we had to chose something that would be our path and source of inspiration throughout the weaving exercises. I chose the beach. It was the summer of 2020 and weekend trips to the beach were keeping me grounded. I would go to the beach with my sketchbook and come home with pockets full of stuff. I started weaving with materials such as beach reeds and moved on to using double weave to create pockets where I would tuck shells and rocks.
This practice led me to trying to weave in nature. I bought a tiny loom from Hello Looms and would bring it with me on walks and vacations. I would look around to try and find something there that struck me as specific to that place and when it was possible, I’d weave tiny pieces right there.
It’s amazing how these small weavings can transport me back to a place in a much more intense way than a photo. It connects me with how a place felt as much as what it looked like.
I have a gorgeous Macomber, 16 harness loom that I adore. Though it has dictated every place I have ever lived, I will never part with it. In the past couple of years, I’ve also been playing with some small looms (such as the ones made by Hello Looms) and love being able to take my weaving outdoors.
It’s so hard to choose, but I have a soft spot for this piece, Preserving, I did on an ikat warp I dyed with indigo and added beach reeds as I wove. I love that it combines my love of dyeing with reeds from my favorite Rhode Island beach. This piece was done early in my experimenting with weaving with beach finds, so it feels like a starting point for me.
It sort of depends on what I’m working on. If it’s something I need to count or really pay attention to, I usually have it quiet in the studio or listen to instrumental music. I have a soft spot for instrumental music from Hawaii. If I’m more in production mode, then it’s likely a podcast. Haptic and Hue is my favorite textile related one, and I’ll confess to falling down a lot of true crime rabbit holes. (I should listen to more music!)
Sample a lot. The best way to get to know your materials and tools and to get better is by practicing and playing around. Give yourself permission to just weave without thinking it needs to be a finished product. Also, sample on a wide enough warp, I’d suggest 10-12”, so you can see how the cloth will perform and behave off the loom and after you’ve finished it.
I also think weaving gamps is something you will never regret. It is so helpful to have resource textiles in your studio.
Kristin Crane is a weaver, designer, and writer obsessed with textiles. She is fascinated by what textiles can tell us about a place and the people who make them. You can find more of Kristin’s work on her website.
