Rest and reflect.

Dear Friends,

Like clockwork, Thanksgiving brought a fresh blanket of snow to our corner of Vermont, heralding a season for rest and reflection. We have more to be grateful for this year than we can hope to express, but suffice it to say, we thank each and every one of you for being a part of the school. You have found meaning in what we do and fellowship with each other—two things that the world could always use a whole lot more of.

December has always been a fairly quiet month for the weaving school and we hope that you too will find time to spend with family and friends. If you need some holiday decorating ideas, we find that looms look great decked out in strings of lights, especially during the long solstice night ahead.

On behalf of our Board, best wishes for a happy holiday season. Don’t overdo it on the egg nog.

Justin Squizzero

Director

Looking Back

We think it's fair to say that 2024 was a wild ride. Here are a few of our favorite images from the past year. We can't wait to see you all in 2025!

Gift Certificates

If you're struggling to find the perfect gift for that special someone on your list, consider the gift of a class at Marshfield School of Weaving. Click the link, select any monetary amount, enter your recipient's info, choose a delivery date, and your lucky someone will be able to sign up for any program of their choosing, whenever they're ready. Gift Certificates never expire and residual value may be applied towards any of our classes.

A full listing of our programs may be accessed here. We hope you can join us!

Winter Reading List:

A New Book with Marshfield Connection

Seth Rockman has just published his latest book, Plantation Goods: a Material History of American Slavery, and it's a must read for anyone interested in a deeper understanding of 19th-century America. We were especially fortunate to play a very small part in the creation of this book back in the summer of 2014. Much of Rockman's research revolved around the Peace Dale Manufacturing Company, a Rhode Island firm that produced textiles marketed for the clothing of enslaved people in the American South. Not being a weaver himself, Seth came to us with manufacturing records and we helped him to recreate the kind of cloth that Rhode Island farm girls wove as outwork for companies like Peace Dale. We all came away from the experience with new insight into how these textiles were made and the kinds of work that some of our looms may have done in the past. Seth may also be the first (and last) of our first time weavers to use a warp of singles cotton! If slogging through the archive wasn't tedious, repairing broken warp ends sure was!

Like all of Seth's writing, this book is accessible and engaging for a general audience while being meticulously researched and revelatory. We are thrilled to be able to share with you a University of Chicago Press 30% discount code: UCPNEW. Order your copy here and apply the code during checkout.

You can listen to an interview Rockman gave for Sew What? podcast where he discusses the book and his experiential research at Marshfield.

Thank you Seth for letting us get involved with your work!

Seth's weaving at Marshfield even made it onto the top of the dust jacket of the book!

As always, we can only do what we do with your generous support. Gifts of all sizes make a tremendous impact. Thank you.

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