About Rachael H. Emmons

Rachael H. Emmons is a a fiber artist living in North Windham, Maine. She has been designing, weaving and spinning under the name R. Hixon E. from her home studio for two score and ten years.* Rachael’s weaving spans from fine, transparent tapestries from table and home goods and historical reproductions, and even industrial and bleeding-edge experimental fabrics. 

Rachael’s career started when she was teaching Art at Cape Elizabeth High School in Maine. While she left full-time teaching to develop her weaving and spinning skills, she didn’t stop teaching. Rachael has taught weaving and spinning workshops all over the United States. 

As Rachael was establishing herself as a custom artisan weaver, she started working for industrial mills. These projects involved test weaves of new materials as well as troubleshooting issues mills were having translating fabric from smaller looms to the giant weaving mill looms. Prototyping, problem-solving, and working with difficult threads evolved into more research and development projects working with such interesting materials as monofilament recycled plastic bottles and kevlar. (Both of which, she complained, dulled her scissors.) 

Her artistic skill combined with her technical prowess resulted in beautiful and epic custom projects over the years: vintage Gullwing Mercedes luggage lining, reproduction fabric for Plymouth Plantation, custom narrow trim tapes, luxury super-fine merino scarves, custom table linens… 

… and then there was that time she wove green garden hose. 

About Carla C. Emmons

The “other” voice on this site and on Etsy is Carla C. Emmons, Rachael’s daughter. Carla has been spinning, weaving, among other things since before she started kindergarten. She also has a legacy of unfinished projects in nooks and crannies about. She is assisting with the operations of the Etsy store, marketing, content writing, and all things tech.

Carla would come home from school and sit on the stairs over her mother’s studio, watching her work while they talked about the school day and her mom’s projects. Now? Carla is looking forward to getting the stories of some of those projects documented while compiling tricks and tricks to share. 

 

* She didn’t like me saying “decades” and suggested this herself. The real number is still higher than this, but don’t tell anyone.  -C-