Welcome to Lydia Trott

As of September, Lydia has been a part time member of the studio. Lydia graduated from Philadelphia University in 2007 with a BS in Textile Design. She concentrated on woven design and developed an interest in large scale weaving. A professor noticed this interest and offered to sell her a Cranbrook rug loom (which is the same loom we use in the studio). Lydia jumped at the offer and immediately started using it to make rugs. After moving several times with her loom in tow, she finally landed in Kensington (a Philadelphia neighborhood) after getting married. And her Cranbrook found a home at Part Time Studios, where she continues to weave part time under the name Home Terrain. She spends the rest of her week here at Claudia Mills Studio weaving stock rugs, custom pieces and helping with design. I have known Lydia for several years having met her at an ACC Balitmore show when she would come with her father, Brad Smith, furniture designer and maker. She would hang around my booth asking questions about weaving. I like to think I might have had a slight influence on her choice of textile study. Whatever took her there, I am certainly delighted. She has been a wonderful addition to the studio.

Designing Rugs

There is a process to creating a rug. We don't just put yarn on the loom and start weaving. If it were only that simple! As with any design project there are many steps to go through before one gets to actually make it. There is always a concept; either a group of colors from an image, a facade of a building, a piece of interesting fabric etc. Because we work with the right angle we do have that as a limitation. When we decide on the size of the rug, we go to our fabric samples and pick the colors to use. They are then cut to fit the design that has been drawn on paper. This "mock up" can be rearranged until the design it complete. See below for examples of the designs on paper. I will post the pics of these rugs after they are woven.

Weaving with Prom Dresses

In the studio we stock about 100 solid cotton colors. We can match just about any color a client needs. All these fabrics are new thereby keeping a consistency in the colors. I have wanted to weave using recycled textiles for a long time. We have finally started this process using two prom dresses that my assistant Krista has graciously donated. One of them was heavily beaded adding three very subtle sections of shine. The other one had a beautiful pale organza skirt with a gold embroidered bodice. Weaving with these cut up dresses can present certain problems, just cutting the strips of the beaded dress was an all day affair. Take a look at the finished product. It measures 3’ X 5’ and would work best hanging on the wall. We added several other fabrics from our stash to compliment the dresses. You can even see the original beaded dress in Krista’s classic prom photo!