VIVA’s October Guest Artist is Weaver Elin Haessly
Meet the Artist - Elin Haessly of Viewpoint Farm Fibers
I was born and raised in Denmark I have lived in USA since 1983. In 2006 my husband and I retired to a farm in Soldiers Grove. Back in Denmark I dreamed of raising sheep since my hobby was to dye wool yarn with natural dyes and plants.
Now in retirement I have a small flock of sheep so I am busy spinning, dyeing and weaving their wool into heavy wool rugs, blankets shawls and scarves.
Over the years, I have been weaving dozens and dozens rag rugs the Swedish way as I was taught in Denmark and Sweden, but discovering all the beautiful colors the cotton knit comes in, that has been my outlet for a lot of rugs this Covid year.
I can weave a cotton rug in any color that will match your Kitchen, Bath, Bedroom and Children’s rooms or any other room you can think of.
In the summertime I spend most of my time dyeing the wool from my sheep in my summer studio surrounded of more than 45 acre restored prairie, and with 2 other looms in the studio I weave wall and window hangings/displays and anything else I can think of.
Fun Questions:
What is influencing your work at the moment? A couple of things. First I am rebuilding my small studio space and dye workshop. It has taken all summer and hopefully I will be able to move in soon. As I have not been able to dye my wool form this year’s shearing of my small flock I have been inspired of the landscape right outside my window to create wall hangings using natural materials as inspiration. I also have been finding inspirations from weaving cotton rugs this winter. I am always inspired from my background growing up in Denmark with Swedish ancestors.
Did COVID isolation help or hinder your creative process? Because of Covid 19 I have spent a lot of time weaving and a special weft faced weaving called Taquete caught my eye. I have always loved abstract forms and I was also looking for a way to cover what we call the warp so it could not been seeing in the weaving. I did a series of wool floor rugs and table runners which is now sold but you can see it in the wall hanging named New Beginnings and in a few of my cotton rugs.
Who or what has strongly influenced your work? As I already stated I am mostly inspired with modern art but I also still find inspiration in the old Scandinavian rag rugs.
Why did you decide to work in your chosen medium? When I came to USA in 1983 I sold Lithography and paintings from a big group of Danish artists and together with a lot of local art I am totally satisfied not owing a piece of a French Impressionist. Instead my walls are covered with just that. I took a class working with plants to use for dyeing mostly on wool and ended up with a lot of skeins , too many to knit and a friend suggested I could loan her loom and see what I thought about it. It was soon an absolutely passion and I bought my first loom, as big as it comes. It was a Lervad Loom manufactured in Denmark but sold all over the world I later discovered. A few ended up in the state and if you have heard about the Hull House in Chicago they hired a niece of Lervad and subsequently ended up with several of the looms.
What is the most indispensable item in your studio? I have 3 looms now and they are naturally all the most indispensable items in my workshop together with many books about weaving I have collected over the years . The most treasured is a tiny little book from the 60ties about natural dyeing written of my then teacher and now revived in Denmark as the master of natural dyeing. Her name is Esther Nielsen.
How do you know when a piece of work is finished? I am not a weaver who likes to do the same things over and over, even use the same color scheme for a long time. I want to experiment and play with colors. Sometimes I just love the piece or color on an item so it is difficult to stop, other times I cannot get out of it soon enough and have to show patience to finish the piece. I am not much for too much planning but sometimes it could help my patience.
What does your studio look like? As I mention before I am building a bigger and better studio on my farm. It has big windows out to my prairie and sheep pastures as well to a hay field where wild life grasses in the evening light. It is beautiful and I could not ask for a more beautiful space.