Shifts and Strands:Rethinking the Possibilities and Potentials of Textiles
Textile Society of America International Symposium 2024
Presenter: Stitching Time into Place: The San Juan Ridge Tapestry Project
Talk Synopsis:
Completed in 2022, the San Juan Ridge Tapestry Project is a contemporary example of traditional women’s handwork that has frequently, and often subversively, documented community life, political upheaval, and the natural world through thread. Initially inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry, the ambition, scale, and cultural significance of this project embodies the ethos of the back-to-the-land community that arrived in California’s Sierra Mountains in the 1960s. Their stories, stitched in wool on linen, narrate the community’s history, voice ecological and political concerns, chronicle the bioregion’s flora and fauna, and celebrate the communal nature of their existence; likewise, the tapestries offer a blueprint for sustainable futures.
For sixteen years, hundreds of volunteers stitched twelve embroidered panels measuring in total more than one hundred feet. The creative effort to bring the tapestries to fruition exemplifies the ideals of collective action which has enabled the community to persist through numerous challenges including their fight against the resurgence of gold mining, the damming of the Yuba river, denuding of old growth forests and wildfire. Underlying their story as settlers is their commitment to the stewardship of the land and acknowledgement of contemporary Indigenous peoples.
My presentation explores the tapestries through an ethnographic lens informed by years of conversation with residents of the ridge and project leads—founder Marsha Stone, lead embroiderer Mary Moore, and designer Jennifer Rain Crosby. Through lush images, technical detail, quotes from the makers, and a short film clip, I highlight the collaborative process, skillful rendering in thread, and dynamism of storytelling. Don't Mine Our Water tapestry
Don't Mine Our Water, 2013
