Hands on: Guild supports weavers, quilters, felters, even basket makers

Cathy Bickell, who lives in rural Boulder County, raises cashmere goats and uses their hair to make yarn and weave

Cathy Bickell was a busy realtor 14 years ago when she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Radiation therapy took its toll and meant “I had to find something to do to make me sit for awhile,” says this energetic, 60-something woman who does anything but stay still these days.

Little did Bickell know that one wool spinning class would lead to raising “too many” sheep, three goats and one llama on Maplecroft, her picturesque farm off 75th Street in eastern Boulder County, all in the name of art. Through the years, her interest has transitioned from spinning to weaving and now mostly felting. Today, while Bickell, who is cancer free, still is an active realtor, much of her time is spent tending her flock alongside husband, Bill, and experimenting with varying felting techniques and different ways to dye the fiber.

Bickell is a well-known member of the Handweaver’s Guild of Boulder, which will host its annual show and sale of textile arts at the Boulder County Fairgrounds in Longmont Wednesday through Sunday. More than half of the guild’s 322 members, who do everything from basketry and beading to paper making and weaving, are expected to take part in the show and sale. On Saturday and Sunday, there also will be live demonstrations of wool spinning and weaving with opportunities for kids to try their hand at these crafts.

Denise Perreault, a longtime guild member, is nationally known for her elaborate, large-scale window pieces made from tiny glass seed beads. While her work is shown around the country, she says the thing she likes about the Longmont event is that many of the artists have such passion for what they do that they sell high quality pieces priced very low.

Bickell weaves at her east Boulder County home.

“I love that the guild is composed of women who just love to knit, for example,” says Perreault, who lives in Boulder. “They put pieces in the show that are priced ridiculously low for the detail. But they just want to make enough money to buy more yarn. You’ll see everything from inexpensive knitted critters to $10,000 quilts.”

Bickell readily admits she’s “possessed” with her craft. It’s obvious she loves every step of the process from breeding and raising her animals, who come eagerly to the fence for a scratch on the nose, to cleaning their wool and picking out all the “vegetable matter” to dying the fiber to designing the finished products.

Felting is a process that involves cleaning the wool, sometimes dying it, using special tools to organize the fibers, laying them out in a crosshatch pattern then using soap and water and agitation to turn it into solid material.

“The thing I like about felting is that it doesn’t have to be precise,” says Bickell, who has more ideas than there are hours in a day. “And it can become a very creative process.”

At the Longmont show, Bickell plans to sell felt fabric and natural colored wool roving that can be used for spinning or felting. Her Turkish Rug titled “Paisley Puzzle” also will be on display in the juried gallery show during the sale.

For Bickell, working with wool is all about staying grounded.

“I enjoy it,” she chuckles. “It really kind of puts me in tune with Mother Nature. And working with the fiber is really very relaxing and satisfying.”

Email: juliefowler3@gmail.com

More Photos

[View with PicLens]