Dear folks –

 

This email announces a post about a collecting experience of my own. It is one made on my non-Textile Museum blog, “Eccentric Wefts.

 

Some of you know of my eclectic collecting tendencies, and if you read my post, not long ago, on “Textiles and Text,” in which I confessed to my condition, you saw it demonstrated as well.

 

Well, my condition is getting worse.

 

This post is about a folk art object I encountered in the Maryland countryside.  I did not know what it was or where it might have been made, but I couldn’t walk away from it.

 

This post is also about finding out what it is, and the incredible luck I had, in this instance, buying blind, and having things turn out interesting and well.

 

I am, apparently hopeless to resist making such purchases, but want to emphasize, in the strongest terms, that I cannot recommend that anyone else do this sort of thing.

 

You can reach this post and my story by holding down your Control key and clicking on the link immediately below or by copying the link and pasting it into your browser.

 

 http://raymondj.wordpress.com

 

You can also simply do a computer search for “Eccentric Wefts R. John Howe”.

 

All of these methods take you to an “about” page on my blog.  The post being announced is the first in red in the column on the right.

 

There are, again, a large number of images in this post, so you may have to be a bit patient while they load.

 

You are receiving this email because you are on one of my lists of “ruggies.”  Because there is some unavoidable overlap, you may receive more than one of these announcing emails.  If you do, please just use your delete key.  If you would prefer not to receive future announcements about such posts, please contact me at rjhowe@... and I will remove your name from my listings.

 

I do not permit direct comments in this blog, and do not particularly encourage any, but if you have something that you feel is useful to share, you can send it to me at the email address above, with your permission to quote you should I decide to publish it.

 

I hope you enjoy my story about finding a carved and painted, wooden, distaff, made in one of three villages in the Russian Arctic, by descendents of a group of dissidents, exiled to that area, by Peter the Great.

 

My thanks to Robert Chenciner for telling me that I had, completely by accident, made an interesting, even modestly valuable, textile-related purchase.

 

Have a fine New Year,

 

R. John Howe