Denise Benoit
Handweaving, Fiber arts
Instagram
Facebook: Winterloom Handwovens
Denise Benoit
[email protected]
Dancing between the impulse to play with color and texture, and the self-assigned mission to carry forward the legacy of traditional arts, I arrived at the loom. Leaving hometown Milwaukee where I learned to weave in the 80’s, 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!
Now, the flock is gone and the spinning wheel and wool felting materials gather dust. These days, using a variety of yarns, colors and weave structures, from my home studio in Viroqua I design and weave cozy wearables like shawls, ponchos, cowls, and domestic goods like towels, runners and pillows. With cloth-making, it’s all the tiny intersections that fascinate me…….where vertical meets horizontal, wool, bamboo, linen, or cotton……one material diving over and under another, one color spooning up to the other, then to the eye, they blend and become something that wasn’t there before….the resulting web being much more than the sum of its parts.
Because I make more time for textile play when the garden is resting beneath the snow, I call my craft Winterloom Handwovens. I’d love to talk to you more about the art and craft of hand weaving and wool, and wherever I exhibit I’ll have my rigid- heddle loom or spinning wheel on hand to demonstrate, and also invite you to have a try!
Facebook: Winterloom Handwovens
Denise Benoit
[email protected]
Dancing between the impulse to play with color and texture, and the self-assigned mission to carry forward the legacy of traditional arts, I arrived at the loom. Leaving hometown Milwaukee where I learned to weave in the 80’s, 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!
Now, the flock is gone and the spinning wheel and wool felting materials gather dust. These days, using a variety of yarns, colors and weave structures, from my home studio in Viroqua I design and weave cozy wearables like shawls, ponchos, cowls, and domestic goods like towels, runners and pillows. With cloth-making, it’s all the tiny intersections that fascinate me…….where vertical meets horizontal, wool, bamboo, linen, or cotton……one material diving over and under another, one color spooning up to the other, then to the eye, they blend and become something that wasn’t there before….the resulting web being much more than the sum of its parts.
Because I make more time for textile play when the garden is resting beneath the snow, I call my craft Winterloom Handwovens. I’d love to talk to you more about the art and craft of hand weaving and wool, and wherever I exhibit I’ll have my rigid- heddle loom or spinning wheel on hand to demonstrate, and also invite you to have a try!
