Not everyone can win…

No, this is not about the election.  I’ve said all I’m going to say.

Anyone who has read my blog for awhile knows I have a pretty talented and amazing daughter, who just turned 24.  She found weaving somewhere around 15 years old, even though she grew up around my studio, demoing with me, etc.  She is passionate about it.  She has commandeered my 45″ 8 shaft Tools of the Trade Loom.  It is officially hers now.  And she loves her little Ashford folding table loom, the one she got for a high school graduation present, also 8 shaft.  In reality, lack of shafts has not discouraged her.  She just picks up threads when she needs them in another place.

Two years ago, I encouraged my daughter to enter the Blue Ridge Fiber Show, because sending images ahead wasn’t required.  Send them the descriptions of two pieces and you are in.  I’ve judged this show in the past, and it is pretty amazing.  There were at the time two classifications of entrants, professional and amateur.  She definitely fit the latter.  I also entered the show, and sent two pieces each in both the handweaving and felting categories.  I blogged about the experience here.  Needless to say, we were both blown away when not only did I receive awards for one of my woven garments and one of my felted garments, but both of the entries she sent got honorable mentions and one of the pieces received the HGA award, a prestigious ribbon that I haven’t ever won in all my years of exhibiting.

I tried to explain to my daughter that though the pieces she sent were pretty amazing, that it was sort of beginners luck that she took awards on both pieces.  As any parent will do, it is important to give perspective and cushion the blow when you don’t win.  It isn’t about winning.  It is about sharing with the public our passion, and letting them know what’s possible with a loom, some yarn and some perseverance.

In the spring, I showed my daughter the entry form for Fiber Celebration 2016 in Colorado.  I had little new work to show.  This has been a difficult year for time in the studio.  I sent images of a couple of pieces of yardage and was thrilled when one got in.  So my daughter did the image thing, and entered, and was also thrilled that one of her pieces was accepted.  Her resume was growing.  Because the piece was less than two years old, she could enter the same piece she entered at the Blue Ridge Show where she won the HGA award.

I explained that not everyone gets in when they apply, I would know, I could paper my entire bedroom with rejection notices.  Imagine my surprise when she found out that she won 3rd place in the two and three dimensional category.  She just looked at me and grinned.  Two out of two, or three out of three if you count actual works entered.  Her batting average is way up there.

And so this fall, when the Blue Ridge Show came ’round again, I gathered up what I could to exhibit, one of the yardage pieces that did not get accepted to the Colorado show, and a new handwoven trench coat, that I barely finished in time.  It was a pretty classic silhouette, which I adored, but I never expected an award because it was so classic and traditional.  I loved the coat, but it didn’t push any boundaries.  I loved the yardage too, as I should.

My daughter put two woven pieces in the show, one was a length of yardage, subtle in its coloring and patterning, even better viewed from a distance.  She did not take a formal photo of it before sending it off, but had a small scrap from the beginning of the yardage where she cut the handling piece.

Opening night came and went, and Brianna begged me to contact anyone I knew in the area to see if we won.  I tried to explain that someone would have noticed and called, but that entering isn’t about winning.  One of my friends who also entered did email me how upset she was that she didn’t win, and having been a judge many many times, I tried to explain how subjective judging is, and how it isn’t a reflection on the piece, etc, etc, etc.  I explained that any good fiber show will show a range of possibilities and that entering is really important so the public sees what we as a community can do.

Time went by and I know Brianna was disappointed but I was confident that she would learn to understand that it isn’t about winning.

Imagine my surprise when I heard her screaming text all the way from NJ while I was in the middle of a class in North Carolina.  She had opened the mail to find this…

Not only had her yardage won first in the Emerging Artist yardage category (no longer called amateur), but I took first place with my tartan coat in the “Experienced” garment category and second place in the Experienced yardage category.  Another windfall for the Lancaster duo.  I’ve officially given up trying to explain to my daughter that not everyone can win.  One day she will find out on her own.  But for now, I’m really enjoying watching her soar, watching her enthusiasm over something I’ve loved my whole life.  I love seeing what she dives into next.  She is weaving rings around me, she is a much more competent and explorative weaver than I ever was at that age, and I have a degree in Fine Arts.  Her’s is in the sciences.

So here are my winning pieces, the yardage, a silk twill, hand dyed raw silk…

And my beloved Tartan, woven out of small scraps of leftovers from knitting projects and odd bits of stuff off the shelf.  I never got a formal photo before I sent it off, which is a first for me, because I know how important it is to have a professional photo before anything leaves my possession, but I’m trusting that the wild fires that are slowly creeping towards the Arboretum in the North Carolina mountains stay 30 miles away and that my fiber friends in that area will all be spared and that my lovely coat with the camel insets will find its way home to me in January.

Stay tuned…