Can you make art on a potholder loom? Yes!

For many years, I have been designing all kinds of fun dolls, toys, and fashion accessories with the potholder loom.

Potholder looms are a vastly under-rated tool for creating all manner of unique and engaging pieces.

Photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

But…. can you create art with the potholder loom?

Yes, indeed you can.

Recently, I contributed work

to a beautfiul book by a group

of international fiber artists:

The Four Seasons.

I wove the ‘frames’ for

‘Sophia in Summer’

and ‘Sophia in Autumn’

with wire on the potholder loom.

I also worked with crochet, tatting (yes, I tatted wire for the pieces), woodworking (I carved and burned Sophia’s face for both pieces, and carved the leaves on the tassels of Sophia in Autumn), and a thread twisting tool.

Here is Sophia in Autumn:

Photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

In Philip Newell’s book,

Echo of the Soul,

he mentioned

that Sophia, Divine Wisdom

has been thought to

sit at a window,

and if you contemplate

and meditate,

you can approach her window

to receive glimpses of wisdom.

This is an image that I find

captivating and intriguing.

So, it is one that I explore in my work.

It makes sense to me that the changing of the seasons would influence the wisdom that we find in nature, and in the glimpses of Sophia at her window.

And, so when Myra Wood invited members of the International Free Form Fiber Guild to contribute pieces to the book, basing their work on the theme of the 4 seasons, I was drawn to create images of Sophia.

I also knew that I absolutely HAD to use the potholder loom to create these woven homages to Sophia,  the Goddess of Wisdom.

There is something very powerful about using a simple, almost ‘dismissed’ loom to create images of the gateway to wisdom.

And of course, wisdom isn’t wisdom unless it leads to love and compassion, is it?

So, using a small loom that I dearly love, and appreciate deeply (even though it isn’t held in particularly high esteem by lots of people) is a really good metaphor for me for the process of visiting Sophia’s window in search of glimpses of wisdom….