Samantha Ives

re.making textiles

Fabric and fibers have always been my best method of communication. My grandmother and I had a fraught relationship. I felt that she was harsh and brash, and I was sensitive and easily hurt. We struggled to communicate with each other, but eventually we figured out how to speak through crafts and textiles. She perpetually had a project in her hands, be it a sweater she was knitting as a gift, or a cross-stitch she had been working on for months, or a latch hook pillow she was finishing off for a grandchild. Her hands were always busy making something. Her sewing box was the stuff of wonders, with a variety of scissors each devoted to their own craft and threads perfectly organized by color. And I found curiosity and joy in watching her make. So, despite our differences, working on a project together was one place in which our relationship was easy and exciting. She taught me to knit, crochet, hand sew, embroider, latch hook, and needlepoint, but really what she taught me, was a love for fiber arts and a way to communicate with her and others. She would set me off with new project and I would sit on the floor working away in my little “factory” for hours, my parents amazed by my sudden devotion to a new craft. Years passed, the craft might change, but fibers and fabrics remained.