Untitled (2016)

Set of three handwoven tea towels, cotton
18″ x 23″
2016

Exhibitions: Living Well, at the Craft Ontario Gallery, as part of the TO DO Design Offsite Festival. January 16 – Saturday, March 18, 2017

This working cloth has value as a craft and design object, but also in its practicality as a sensual, tactile object meant to be experienced through both the eye and hand. Handwoven cloth – very different than machine made – can help facilitate our feeling and living better by creating an opportunity to pause and examine a moment, a tool, or our actions. This act of being present and having awareness through the small habits and repetitions of the day makes visible the impact that our material culture has on our lives.

Untitled is a series of three tea towels created in a technique often called overshot; usually used to make coverlets, this pattern, called Helen Cooley’s Bouquet for the small flowers created as the pattern progresses, shows round blooms surrounded by echoing twill lines.