A couple weeks ago, I got a suspicious contact through my website, someone wanting to come interview me about weaving and take some videos in my studio to be used on a morning television show. In today’s world (and maybe because I watch too many crime shows), we have to be careful about things like this, right? But I checked it out anyway.
It turns out that Levan Reid is a real person, and he really does collect “happy news” stories for WBZ Boston (a CBS affiliate). My first impression of him was his radio announcer’s voice! He told me what he was looking for and about the process. It sounded like a unique opportunity for me, so we got the ball rolling.
The next week, he came to my house with a cameraman, Richie Lourenco, and we spent 45 minutes up in my studio talking about weaving, looking at my looms, and chatting. Levan was so professional and so friendly. He made the whole experience seem easy.
Since he had put the idea of “happy news” in my head, my thoughts went immediately to one of my current projects. The Weavers’ Guild of Boston’s challenge this year is to weave something for a child that is inspired by a book. The products (a pillow, blanket or bag, for example) will be given to children afterward. I had gone to The Silver Unicorn in Acton MA and found a cute book by Jory John called “The Sour Grape”. Besides having an appropriate life lesson moral, I loved the colors used by illustrator Pete Oswald!
I decided on some 8/2 Valley Cotton yarn and a warp long enough to make several projects. First off (after sampling, of course!) was a book bag for my 21-month old nephew Sebastian, which was sent along with a copy of the book. In addition to another book bag that will be submitted for the WGB challenge, there will be some dish towels in these very fun colors.
Back to the WBZ news story. The video was featured several times through the day on Friday 20 January 2023. They had decided to run it as a break in the snowstorm coverage that was otherwise dominating the day’s news. I was so pleased with how Levan and his team condensed the whole story to just 2 minutes. They captured the vibe of my studio, my “happy place”. To me, my engineering career seems like a different lifetime (ending 22 years ago!) but looking at this I recognize what an impact in had on current thinking.
