Weaving is the production of cloth by interlacing yarn through fixed yarn held in tension. The yarn moving through the shuttle connects not only the individual threads but centuries and continents. Old and new interlace and are woven together. Handweaving connects us to the Turkish weaver whose 10,000-year-old piece of fabric still exists.    Handweaving connects us to the weavers who use backstrap looms in Guatemala and Sierra Leone. Handwoven fabric connects us to Lydia the dealer in purple cloth.
        Protection from the elements is a basic human need, reflected in how quickly clothing appears in creation accounts: God provided animal skins for Adam and Eve as they left Eden; Spider Man taught the Navajo people to weave, Spider Woman, to spin.
        My love of textiles comes from my mother, who taught me to knit when I was 9 or so. My first weaving venture was selling potholders - made on the potholder loom Mom used at camp - to neighbors. In high school, I sewed a skirt in which the intersecting threads were clearly delineated, and I realized I wanted to make fabric from scratch.
        I love color and texture, the feel of the yarns as I touch them, and the hand of the fabric. I design my woven pieces to let the yarn speak for itself. I learn something new with each warp - sometimes about the interlacement of the yarns, sometimes about myself.
Kate Foreman Suko

woven shawl


wrap your warm bread in this hand woven cloth


too pretty to be, but yes it is a woven dish cloth