82-Uncastw Farming, Saturday, February 17,1990
GAY BROWNLEE
Somerset Co. Correspondent
MEYERSDALE (Somerset
Co.) — Ann Jones of Meyersdale
in Somerset County not only
teaches fourth grade children at
the Salisbury-Elk Lick Elemen
tary School but also has a whop
ping side business that probably
demands more than her full-time
teaching job. She weaves her own
material and makes rugs, clothes
and many other items to sell.
About 18 years ago, the mother
of the children for whom Ann
babysat was a weaver. Her work
piqued Ann’s interest. When Ann
returned to the Indiana University
of Pennsylvania that fall she took
weaving as an elective course.
*Y'— ..mg rour-hamess
loom making a throw rug. She weaves material and makes
clothing to sell at shows.
10 angora rabbits that aha lodgas In tha
abandoned carwash building on her property. Herashe has
one of them sitting on her picnic table.
Ann Jones Is Hooked
rset County, she got a job spinning
at Penn Alps, Inc.,. Grantsville,
Md. Penn Alps is famed for both
its restaurant and crafts store and
is located in the heart of a Menno
nitc and Amish community
“where anything homemade sells
to tourists like hot cakes.” Addi
tionally, Penn Alps, Inc. wants to
preserve the crafts and skills per
formed by the early area settlers.
Decrepit log homes have been
relocated to the Penn Alps
grounds and restored as a tribute
to local history. In them demon
strations take place during Sum
merfest in July-.
Ann did spinning for four years.
Then she added carding, spinning
and dyeing of sheep fleeces as part
of her demonstrations, using
bark, marigolds, and dahlias, as
the dye source.
As yam piled up, Ann says she
started weaving and experiment
ing with patterns, sticking to
simple things like place mats and
wall hangings.
Although she still makes those
things, Ann has graduated into a
more mature and complicated
plane of workmanship. Her gar
ments are skirts, tops, jackets,
shawls, and very recently, a coat
in a beautiful plaid that is primari
ly burgundy, accented by shades
of teal and purple. Although Ann
had a Mend dye the material, she
usually does it herself. Twenty
hours of work went into the coat.
Most of her weaving is done at
a four-harness loom. Her fingers
fly as she separates and knots die
thread ends to start a rug. She
moves energetically and efficient
ly, alternately moving pedals one
and three, then two and four of the
floor mechanism causing the
threads to weave around the
material. As she pulls the bar for
ward ramming the weave tight
with each row, the contraption
bangs and clangs noisily.
“I play a lot with color,” she
says. “Traditional work is fun but
you don’t play with the color. It’s
more technical.”
“Depending on what color of
thread I use, I can change the lode
of it,” she adds.
She weaves yards of material
on her loom, then gently washes
and pre-shrinks it before fluffing it
gently in the dryer. Then it is
ready to make into some garment
Her custom work usually occurs
when the desired size isn’t avail
. abk at one of her dethonstthtions
daring shows that she attends.
Scurrying through her house,
that on first sight might look like it
will burst at the seams, Ann side
steps her sundry pets laughing and
chatting with them just as one
would with children. There are
four cats vying for her attention
and two dogs.
“This place is a zoo,” she
laughs. The boxer dog escapes his
enclosure, and begins, with unab
ashed joy to lick the leery guest’s
hands. His buddy, still a prisoner
barking jealously, is a SO-SO mix
of doberman and collie.
Ann says her animal menagerie
is one of happy co-existence, dec
laring that they only compete for
attention when there’s company in
the house. They are companions
for Ann, who lives alone, and
showers them with affection.
She owns her house in town,
along with the abandoned carwash
behind it Blacktop covers the sur
face between them. It sounds
unusual, but Ann says she doesn’t
like grass. Mainly, she hates to
mow it and doesn’t own a lawn
mower. However, grass in front of
her sidewalks is cut in summer
time by a helpful neighbor. In the
rear a narrow slice of dirt on her
side of the dividing fence
threatened to sprout fresh blades
of verdant grass next to the black
top, but Ann slapped in some
herbs instead, and now uses them
to fill the pretty little hob bags she
sells.
The carwash building of faded
sky blue may not look like the lat
est design in Better Homes and
Gardens magazines, but it pro
vides adequate housing for the 10
angora rabbits she keeps. Still, she
wishes for a small farm. Realisti
cally, though, Ann admits that she
couldn’t handle the increased
responsibility, despite her longing
iteja horse and a pasture.
'ldm pfc’s loved animals all her life.
'fter. ’
On Weaving
- using her own
schemes of burgundy, teal and purple, Ann Jones has just
completed her first coat.
When she was only three, she it there are plenty of leftover
wandered from a wedding reccp- 'pieces. She wastes nothing. “It is
don and was found putting the ' Just too expensive to throw out,”
cows in a pasture. she says. So she makes ponchos.
Summer lifestylcs fonOßflrexa v placcmats, and mug mats which
bit nomadic. She travekf Wive the furniture from liquid
etferytofiefe. Her work Has Been * Stains. These make great souvenir
shown at the very selective Ohio items at fesdvals and shows. The
Designer Craftsman Show, held at really little scraps she plans to
Hathaway Brown, a private girls piece together for an original
school in Cleveland. “It was a real creadon.
honor to go there,” she says. Other
shows accepting her work were
the Central Pennsylvania Festival
of the Arts at State College, and
the Three-Rivers Arts Festival in
Pittsburgh.
Each year she must prepare a
new slides portfolio of her work.
The volunteer models who wear
the selected garments made by
Ann have refused compensation
because they get great exposure
and publicity from it.
The professional photographer
hired by Ann for the portfolio
shootings allows her half the deci
sion making during the sittings.
But she has learned, a bit painful
ly, that finished photographs show
how wrong some colors cafrbe for
this purpose. Sometimes oik color
overwhelms the others when it
wasn’t meant to do so.
“Green and yellow do hot sell
well, “unless someone just loves
green. I make a lot of neurtrals.
Reds are extremely good, also
black and white,” she says. “I
work with colors I like but I also
do what sells.”
She adds, “Some people also
have fiber preferences.” Ann uses
cotton, wool, and silk. Pulling out
a fat spool of silk fiber, she illus
trates that all silk is pot soft as is
generally thought hy most folks. It
can be coarsely textured. One silk
garment feels more like fine wool.
“Weaving is a very tactile
craft," she says, “touch is impor
tant” After Ann weaves a bolt of
material and makes garments from
wmestcad „
Her sources of yarn are the sup
pliers of the large commercial
users who always have leftovers
from filled orders. She b,uys a few
hundred pounds at a time from
oulfits in New Jersey and
Pennsylvania.
Crude shelves in the workroom
are erected against one wall. They
are bowing badly with the weight
of the spools. White dominates the
top shelf. Spools on the other
shelves are separated by color and
fiber.
Traveling to shows is a chal
lenge for Ann because she takes
af her things in her van. She man
ages to take her own portable
booth and sometimes she adds one
o( her looms. It takes hours to load
everything for one show. Once she
even took along one of her large
dogs for company, but the
ijhforgcttable experience cured
hfcr hopes that the arrangement
could become a routine practice.
“You get inventive,” chuckles
Ann, who has to be an optimist
when (me looks at the imposing
size of the partially rainproof dis-
mantled booth. “You’re glad for
friends and you don’t make them
mad. That way you know they will
help out when you need them.”
Ann also shows her Angora
rabbits at places like the Maryland
State Sheep and Wool Festival at
the Howard County fairgrounds
near Baltimore.
“People are amazed that you
can pull it’s hair out," says Ann,
“and everybody want to pet it.”