Sandy Trimble
“Woven with love and spirit,” describes the scarfs and throws created by Indiana fiber artist Sandy Trimble. When these one of a kind, handwoven articles touch your neck and hands they feel like breath and life. Sandy selects yarns and colors, dresses her loom and weaves on a pattern that she created to express any number of thoughts and feelings. Cool thing is, you get to wear these beautiful, sublime creations for years and years. Or give them! What a warm and cozy gift.
A member of the Fiber Arts Guild of Pittsburgh, Sandy has been working as a fiber artist for almost 20 years. She began her work as a weaver, doing several liturgical works locally and regionally. She moved on to felt making and Shibori dye work about 8 years ago. She loves the immediacy of the two mediums, and their expressive qualities. The Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, and 3G Gallery in Pittsburgh presently represent her Pashmina scarves and stoles. A former art educator,she works full-time as a weaver and felter. Her works have been exhibited at many events and has received numerous awards for her creative designs and soft sculptures.
On the Sheltering in Place Exhibit:
The sheltering period for me was just that, a sheltering. Waiting out the storm, and being productive. I was able to dive into the writings of Anni Albers, and learn something from her experience with the Bauhaus and her subsequent experiences in design and weaving. I then digested that information and turned to weavings of my own. The inlay scarves are one of the results.
I was also able to get to projects long put on hold. Shibori is a technique I have long played with, and experimented with, and I was able to play and play. I did a series of rayon tops using a variety of Shibori processes, and then indulged another curiosity of mine, which was the use of indigo dye as a source. The shirt presented is one of four and I’m sure there will be more indigo work in the future.
I sincerely miss the open days, centered around creation and study. I miss the freedom to move seamlessly from one exploration to another without interruption. My challenge now is maintaining a creative schedule inside of the demands of life outside of the shelter.
On W. PA Winter Artwork:
"The inspiration for this work began with a gift of white, lightly spun wool. I held onto it for about six months before I decided that I should use it with this particular weave, the weave pattern is called Yin/Yang and I manipulated the original design to suit my purpose. All of this had been planned long in advance, when I dressed the loom and prepared it for weaving blankets. However, I was driving back and forth to my local school district every day, because I was doing a weaving with first graders there. On my drive, I was struck by how much subtle color was in our local landscape, even in February. A variety of browns, grays, and the green of pine tree groves. So, when I began the weaving, I used the same subtle colors as the tabby weft, between the Yin/Yang pattern. It’s important to note that those colors were the same color my first-grade students and I dyed the yarns, using local plants. The more I worked on this piece the more I came to appreciate the beauty of Western Pa in the winter."