Barbara Schutzgruber – Storyteller & Weaver

Back in the day…. the hands of a lady’s maid had to be smooth and soft or she would risk ruining the expensive silk garments of her mistress by snagging finely woven fabric. I have learned over my years of working with various fibers and fiber techniques that I do NOT have ‘lady’s maid’ hands! That is especially true as I write this blog!!! It’s been long rough winter here in Michigan (we are just now moving into spring and it’s the end of April!) and even with bottles and jars of lotions my hands are like sandpaper.

Due to my travel schedule I only had 2 weeks this month to make items sell at Fiber Feast – the Ann Arbor Fiberarts Guild annual spring fashion show, luncheon, and sale.

This meant that I was wet felting panels for purses and hand plaiting silky nylon ribbon for scarves all in the same week. This made for a slow process as the wispy silk fibers I use to embellish the wool felt

and the thin nylon ribbon

were sticking and snagging as if my finger tips were covered in the griper side of velcro!

Now that the warmer weather is finally here maybe… just maybe…. my hands will have a chance to recover!