Melody Joy Overstreet

Name: Melody Joy Overstreet

Studio location: Santa Cruz, California, Unceded Awaswas Territory

Website / social links: reciprocalfield.com, @melodyoverstreet

Loom type or tool preference: 4-harness floor loom

Years weaving: 7

Fiber inclination: I have a deep love of natural fibers including Linen, Cashmere, Cotton, Silk, Alpaca, Nettle, Hemp, and Wool, especially in all of their natural color variations. For dyed fibers, I am enamored with natural dyes and the range of color that comes from plants, insects, and minerals. For the last two years, I have primarily woven with fine linen as well as organic heirloom cotton grown by Sally Fox.

Current favorite weaving book: Weaving as an Art Form by Theo Moorman, as well as Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer.

 

 

1. How did you discover weaving and was what your greatest resource as a beginner?

I learned to weave from a local master weaver, Ann Dizikes. Ann and I would sit together once a week in her studio. As I would visit with her, I watched how she worked with her hands, observed her process, and practiced the foundations while in her presence. For years we would sit side-by-side, weave, and share stories. One day, she gifted me a second-hand table top loom that was retired from a local community college fiber program, and in need of repair. My partner, Vincent Waring, who is a woodworker and craftsman helped me to take the loom apart, tend to each component, and restore it to beautiful form. Taking the time to care for the loom gave me a greater appreciation for the simultaneous simplicity and elegance of the instrument. Having a small tabletop loom of my own gave me an opportunity to practice the techniques independently, which I think was really instrumental to my learning process. More recently, a beloved community member, Marisa Gomez, passed on a beautiful handmade 4-harness floor loom to me. I am very grateful, as it has allowed me to weave larger-scale works, and to weave with the expression of my whole body.

2. How do you define your practice – do you consider yourself an artist / craftsperson / weaver / designer / general creative or a combination of those? Is this definition important to you?

I consider myself an artist and a craftsperson. I do not separate the two. I think in order to have excellent art, there needs to be an element of craft that is well developed and refined over time. In a sense, my artistic practice is an expression of my collective life’s work. I move through phases in my creative process where I make both functional and pictorial works. I have been weaving for 7 years, and consider myself a beginner.

3. Describe your first experience with weaving.

I was enamored and mystified by the technical aspects of weaving, and appreciating the loom for the delicately balanced instrument that it is. I was seated by my weaving teacher, and first watched her move through each step of the process. Most of our first lesson was in silence. I learned from watching how her hands moved in relationship with the fiber, and her body with the loom. I still recall learning about the different qualities various fibers had through feel, which was transformational. For my first time weaving, I worked with earth-toned natural fibers gleaned from a local thrift store. It was funky, experimental, and intuitive. The process felt both new and yet somewhat familiar, as though I was rehydrating an ancestral memory from deep within.

4. What is your creative process, from the initial idea to the finished piece? Are there specific weave structures, looms, or fibers that are important to your process?

Many of my ideas arise from observing nature-- for years it has been quiet observation of water. I am enamored with plain weave-- I love the simplicity and timelessness of the basic warp and weft structure. I am also inspired by inlay techniques and love it for its subtlety. Natural fibers are important to my process, and knowing the origins of the fiber is important to me-- including its geographic and cultural origins, how it is grown, spun, as well as how it looks and feels to touch. I especially love working with finely spun fibers, and in recent years have been particularly drawn to working with linen.

 5. Does your work have a conceptual purpose or greater meaning? If so, do you center your making around these concepts?

I am drawn to weaving and fiber arts for its ancient and metaphorical qualities. Through my work, I explore themes of origin, temporality, and interconnectivity. My most recent body of work is centered on water. I first felt called to create this body of work before having the slightest idea of how to weave. My vision for this project had me invest years in the learning process before I had enough knowledge to approach the tangible making of the pieces. Since, I have woven functional pieces such as scarves and shawls, to pictorial works, and each is imbued with intention.

 

6. What is your favorite part of the weaving process and why? What’s your least favorite?

I love the actual weaving, the moving of weft across warp, thread by thread. I find that moment to be the most pleasurable. I enjoy winding the warp for the meditative qualities it induces. The most challenging aspect for me is threading the loom, as it is demanding on my body. With proper breaks, that part also feels joyful to do.

7. Do you sell your work or make a living from weaving? If so, what does that look like and how has that affected your studio practice?

I have an interest in making a living from my weaving, though there are some ethical hurdles I seek to work through first. It is rare to find fiber that is holistically grown considering the social, cultural, labor, and ecological aspects-- if it does not honor people and soil, I do not feel in integrity to invest in it as a system or way. Because everything is connected, I would love to feel confident in the source of the fibers I work with before venturing to sell my work. 

The last body of work that I made I did not share for sale. The reason for this is that I made the work about water, and water is so often treated as a commodity though water is living and transcends ownership. The project itself could not be made possible without water-- from the growing of the fibers, to the tending of the dye bath. To sell the work is to commodify it, and I made it as an embodiment of hope, as an extension of my spiritual practice and as an offering to the divine in nature. No single person owns it. Though I hope to sell my woven work in the future, I am most excited about open-ended grants, artist fellowships, and patrons who may help me create a robust container space to keep making work from.

8. Where do you find inspiration?

My primary inspiration comes from nature observation. Often I think about nature as a home for consciousness. I find the textures, colors, forms, movements, and processes in nature to be profoundly inspiring. My attention is drawn to the way wind erodes a cliff's edge, how water carves a valley, and the way vapor rises up from a plant into the atmosphere. The quiet, almost imperceptible details around us, guided by ceaseless movement and change, are most evocative to me. Though there is infinite complexity, the reminders from the Earth that we are universally connected, part of one body, and must act accordingly, brings both humility and meaning to my life and work.

9. What other creatives do you admire – weavers, artists, entrepreneurs – and why?

There are so many! I admire Nora Grant as an artist-- her refined prints and thread drawings on paper are mesmerizing and akin to weaving. I respect the farming, mud and indigo dye work of Aboubakar Fofana and consider his artwork both thought-provoking and exquisite. I am inspired by Rhiannon Griego and appreciate the way she merges her body with weaving and the landscape. I am inspired by the diverse Indigneous weavers of the world, past and present. This includes Samuel Bautista Lazo, Linda Yamane, and Porfirio Gutierrez. I also admire my Persian ancestors who perhaps long ago wove mats to dry tea leaves and herbs on. I admire the traditional weavers who carry deep knowledge of natural dyes and weaving techniques, who with their hands and ancient memory create rugs as a form of cultural preservation and storytelling. Rugs where family and community gather together-- woven works that are part of ceremony, that adorn the temple and the home.

10. If you could no longer weave, what would you do instead?

Weaving is a way that I express my deepest love for the world. If I could not weave, I would garden more intensely, cook, and devote myself to food as medicine. I have a deep love of plants, and would continue to collaborate with them in many forms-- from distillation of aromatic flower waters to seed saving. I would also deepen the time I devote to the craft of writing and poetry.