Denise Benoit
Textiles, Handweaving
Instagram
Facebook: Winterloom Handwovens
[email protected]
Somehow, between the impulse to play with color and texture, and the mission to carry forward the traditional arts, I arrived at the loom. That was back in my hometown of Milwaukee where I learned to weave in the 80’s. Later on I was led to SW Wisconsin by a quest to learn where wool comes from and soon found myself minding a spinner’s flock of sheep and milking goats on my own small farm I called Rumination Ridge. Those twelve sheep produced a weaver’s lifetime stash of heritage breed wool!
These days, from my home studio in Viroqua I use a variety of yarns, colors and weave structures to create cozy wearables like shawls, ponchos, cowls, wraps and domestic goods like towels, runners and pillow covers.
With cloth-making, it’s all the tiny intersections that intrigue me…….where vertical meets horizontal, wool, bamboo, linen, or cotton……one material diving over and under the other, one color resisting or yielding to the other. Then to the eye, they become something that wasn’t there before….the resulting web being much more than the sum of its parts.
Please visit me at the Winding Roads Art Tour 2025. I’d love to talk to you more about the art & craft of hand weaving and wool, my favorite material.
Because I make more time for textile play when the garden is resting beneath the snow, I call my craft…..
Winterloom Handwovens.
Facebook: Winterloom Handwovens
[email protected]
Somehow, between the impulse to play with color and texture, and the mission to carry forward the traditional arts, I arrived at the loom. That was back in my hometown of Milwaukee where I learned to weave in the 80’s. Later on I was led to SW Wisconsin by a quest to learn where wool comes from and soon found myself minding a spinner’s flock of sheep and milking goats on my own small farm I called Rumination Ridge. Those twelve sheep produced a weaver’s lifetime stash of heritage breed wool!
These days, from my home studio in Viroqua I use a variety of yarns, colors and weave structures to create cozy wearables like shawls, ponchos, cowls, wraps and domestic goods like towels, runners and pillow covers.
With cloth-making, it’s all the tiny intersections that intrigue me…….where vertical meets horizontal, wool, bamboo, linen, or cotton……one material diving over and under the other, one color resisting or yielding to the other. Then to the eye, they become something that wasn’t there before….the resulting web being much more than the sum of its parts.
Please visit me at the Winding Roads Art Tour 2025. I’d love to talk to you more about the art & craft of hand weaving and wool, my favorite material.
Because I make more time for textile play when the garden is resting beneath the snow, I call my craft…..
Winterloom Handwovens.
