The Apple Creek Farm

In February I was busy cooking up something I had never done before:

Fiber art as Fine Art!

I submitted this woven piece, with a hand turned distaff and spindle, to the Arts Council of Wyoming County Fiber Fine Art Exhibit.

I have long considered myself an artist, and found expression through various visual mediums both satisfying and sometimes necessary for my own mental health! So submitting something to this sounded fun.

Having never submitted anything to an exhibit before it’s been a little learning curve with artist statements and such. I’ll include those at the bottom of this post.

The organizers of the Exhibit and accompanying Fiber Fest mentioned that this is for people who see fiber as their artistic medium of choice. Especially in light of art for arts sake, and not fiber as a material for wearable, or otherwise usable items. It’s been very cool to consider that and what that means as an artist.

I’m still stewing over this whole experience and the unexpected win!

Here are the blerbs I submitted with the art piece, just for fun:

Artist Bio:

Ann McCool is a fiber artist and wood worker whose work explores the relationship between raw materials, hand made tools, and history. She hand spins yarn using historically inspired spindles and antique spinning wheels, working primarily with locally sourced and hand-dyed fibers. Her practice centers on traditional process – washing fleece, preparing rolags, spinning by hand, and weaving on a vintage floor loom – allowing each stage of the process to remain visible within the finished textile. In addition to creating woven and handspun works, Ann designs and hand turns wooden spinning tools inspired by historical examples. She has been providing these historically informed tools for contemporary spinners, bridging functional craftsmanship with research-based design. Her work reflects a sustained study of early textile traditions and the enduring role of hand tools in shaping both fiber and culture.

Artist Statement:

My work is an exploration of the interplay between fiber arts tools and the fiber artists who use them. The artistry and craftsmanship that go into such things as creating a spindle or spinning yarn, which are both used to create something else, has captured my imagination. I am fascinated by historical hand made tools used daily and in some areas taken to the grave. As well as the particular fiber arts they create given the fiber and raw materials available at that specific time and place. I’m also experimenting with how those fit into the lives of both historical and modern fiber artists. Exploring how historical tools might fit into a modern life, I create replicas of historical tools and put my own twist on them.
I’m also drawn to how, historically, distaffs and spindles have been synonymous with women, especially women with my own Western European heritage. As a woman engaging with these tools and the things they produce affords me both a creative outlet and a form of mental and even financial independence – just how it would have throughout history.
This piece features a Viking era replica distaff, loaded with wool roving which is held on with a braided piece of brown handspun yarn. A hand weaving hangs from it, which is then weighted in the historical way with loom weights at the bottom. To the left of the piece is a suspended spindle inspired by an 1800s French oil painting, which is suspended by white hand spun yarn. The weaving itself features an agrarian landscape with rolling hills and a farmhouse with smoke leaving the chimney.

Techniques used:

Spinning techniques used in the creation of this piece: Medieval style suspended spindle spinning, using the spindle in the piece as well as spindle-and-whorl spindles, with the use of a hand distaff, and plied using an 1800s walking wheel with evidence that it was probably made locally here in WNY.
Colors of wool: most of the colors represented were hand dyed or are completely undyed natural sheep colors.