Mary Crovatt Hambidge | |
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| Born | Mary Crovatt December 20, 1885 |
| Died | August 29, 1973 (aged 87) |
| Occupation(s) | Artist; weaver |
| Spouse | Jay Hambidge |
| Website | hambidge |
Mary Crovatt Hambidge (1885-1973) was an American weaver. She is known for establishing the Hambidge Center for Creative Arts and Sciences in rural Georgia. The institution is still in existence as the Hambidge Center
Hambidge was born in Brunswick, Georgia on December 20, 1885 [1] Hambidge was educated in Cambridge, MA at the Lee School For Girls. [2] She moved to New York, NY in the 1910s. There she met illustrator and art theorist Jay Hambidge. [3]
In the early 1920s the couple visited Greece. There Hambidge learned about weaving. She continued weaving when she returned to New York. In 1924 after the death of her husband, [4] she moved to Rabun County in the north Georgia mountains and began meeting spinners and weavers in the area. In 1934, she located her small weaving operations to an 800-acre property including buildings and pastures, which she was later able to purchase with the help of the philanthropist Eleanor Steele Reese. That property would become the Jay Hambidge Art Foundation in 1941. [5]
Fabric produced at the Foundation were marketed under the name Weavers of Rabun. Hambidge maintained a retail location for the crafts in New York. [6] In 1937 the Weavers of Rabun won a gold medal at the Exposition Internationale )the Paris World's Fair). [7] Weavings were included in the 1956 exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art entitled Textiles U.S.A. (as the Jay Hambidge Art Foundation). [8]
Demand for handwoven fabric declined in 1950s with the expanded industrialization of the textile industry. The Weavers of Rabun disbanded. [9] Hambidge changed the focus of the Center towards a broader retreat for artists. [10]
Hambidge died on August 29, 1973. [4]
Weaving is a method of textile production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. Other methods are knitting, crocheting, felting, and braiding or plaiting. The longitudinal threads are called the warp and the lateral threads are the weft, woof, or filling. The method in which these threads are interwoven affects the characteristics of the cloth. Cloth is usually woven on a loom, a device that holds the warp threads in place while filling threads are woven through them. A fabric band that meets this definition of cloth can also be made using other methods, including tablet weaving, back strap loom, or other techniques that can be done without looms.
Fiber art refers to fine art whose material consists of natural or synthetic fiber and other components, such as fabric or yarn. It focuses on the materials and on the manual labor on the part of the artist as part of the works' significance, and prioritizes aesthetic value over utility.
Ethel Mary Partridge, Ethel Mary Mairet RDI, or Ethel Mary Coomaraswamy was a British hand loom weaver, significant in the development of the craft during the first half of the twentieth century.
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Jay Hambidge (1867–1924) was an American artist who formulated the theory of "dynamic symmetry", a system defining compositional rules, which was adopted by several notable American and Canadian artists in the early 20th century.
Eliot Wigginton is an American oral historian, folklorist, writer and former educator. He is most widely known for developing with his high school students the Foxfire Project, a writing project consisting of interviews and stories about Appalachia. The project was developed into a magazine and series of best-selling Foxfire books. The series comprised essays and articles by high school students from Rabun County, Georgia focusing on Appalachian culture. In 1987, Wigginton was named "Georgia Teacher of the Year," and in 1989, he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship.
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Mary Zicafoose is an American textile artist, weaver, and teacher who specializes in ikat, an ancient technique in which threads are wrapped, tied and resist-dyed before weaving. Zicafoose is the author of Ikat: The Essential Handbook to Weaving Resist-Dyed Cloth (2020). Her works are part of private and public collections, including at least 16 embassies around the world as part of the U.S. Art in Embassies Program.
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