Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 2 — The Georgia Bulletin, June 6, 1985
Weaver's Rag Rug Tapestries
Presented To Blairsville Parish
BY RITA McINERNEY
Liturgical tapestries in
spired by the rag rug ar
tistry of Southern Ap
palachia found their home
at St. Francis of Assisi
Church in Blairsville on
Pentecost Sunday, May 26.
Four large sanctuary
hangings, four lectern
covers and four handwoven
baskets were presented to
the pastor, Father Bob
Poandl, by the artist, Sister
Nancyann Turner, during
the 11 a.m. liturgy. Her
Pentecost weavings, a rich
harmony of reds and
yellows, were hung for the
celebration of new life
through the Holy Spirit.
In her brief presentation
talk, Sister Nancyann told
the parishioners, many of
whom had contributed
sheets, shirts, dresses and
other fabrics of their lives
for the liturgical weavings:
“It is with much
gratitude and joy that I
pass them on to you. I trust
you with them. You will
remember that I told you I
wouldn’t limit you by using
pictures in the hangings. I
believe in your un
conscious, your imagina
tion and that symbols rest
in your hearts.
“Hopefully, the move
ments, the rhythms, the
PRESENTATION — Sister Nancyann Turner
stands at the lectern draped in one of her rag
rug weavings during brief talk at St. Francis of
Assisi Church in Blairsville. Father Bob Poandl
sits listening.
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colors and textures of these
tapestries help you to
focus, facilitate medita
tion, invite your prayer and
celebrate the season.
“I believe this place is
holy, the ground is holy and
this gathering holy. The
Lord, the Spirit is with us
and we have dressed with a
new cloth a holy place. To a
group already so loving
and gracious, hopefully
these rag rug tapestries
will add a new note of
warmth and hospitality to
your faith community.
“Thus I pray that this
series of weavings will help
draw each of you to God in
praise, worship, thanksgiv
ing and confession. I pray
that these weavings will be
a reminder to you of God’s
faithfulness and love and of
the Spirit’s dynamic and
energizing presence with
us this very day.”
In accepting the
liturgical weavings for the
parish, Father Poandl said
the hangings would
sometimes be away from
the church on “visits” to
other places but would
always be welcomed back
to “their home” at St.
Francis.
Along with weaving the
four sanctuary and four
lectern pieces for the
church seasons of Lent and
Advent; Pentecost; Sum
mer and Life, and Easter
and Light, Thanksgiving
and Harvest, Christmas
and Epiphany, the
Dominican sister from
Adrian, Mich., presented
four handwoven baskets to
hold the fresh flowers and
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cut greens of the particular
season.
For Lent and Advent the
hangings are woven of
blue, red and purple in
deep hues blended with soft
pink and lavendar. The
basket is of coil hemp laced
with ribbons in the colors of
the weavings. Gradations
of the green of trees and
blue of water and sky are
interwoven in the two
pieces for Summer and
Life. An oak split basket
reproduces the reed
baskets of the Cherokees.
The Easter, Thanksgiving
and Christmas set is pale
cream colored with bands
of yellow-gold and earth
tones. It is accompanied by
a traditional Appalachian
egg basket. A basket of
vine is the companion piece
for the Pentecost hangings.
Colors and design are
both dramatic and subtle.
In the richly sombre sanc
tuary hanging for Lent and
Advent a shadowy cross is
in stark outline through
shadings of red, blue, pur
ple and mauve. The hand,
touching the large
Pentecost piece, discovers
a tiny pearl button rooted
in the woven rags. Even
Sister Nancyann is surpris
ed each time she finds it.
It’s elusive, but it’s there,
to the delight of children
who spy it. Symbolic? The
viewer must decide.
The weavings, which
Sister Nancyann worked on
for almost two years, were
begun after a period of
prayer and reflection.
These Scriptural reflec
tions have been preserved
in calligraphic records
which accompany each set
of hangings.
“To weave, to pray, to
create,” have been the
necessities of her life dur
ing the years spent as art
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NICE TO TOUCH — Small girl likes the tex
ture of the large Pentecost hanging in St. Fran
cis of Assisi Church, Blairsville.
director of “The Place”
operated by Catholic Rural
Social Services in Cumm-
ing. “When I came here six
years ago the women didn’t
realize their gifts” she says
of their skills in handcrafts.
“I tried to make them
aware of them.”
In reaching the women
from the farmhouses and
cabins of Forsyth County
she was learning. Making
them aware and proud that
their rag rugs and quilts
were objects of beauty
made her aware that these
symbols of independence,
practicality and family
history could be adapted to
her own creativity.
As she grew more skilled
in spinning, weaving,
quilting, crocheting and
basketry, she realized that
she wanted to use these en
during Appalachian arts in
her own contemporary
creative expressions for
prayer and worship en
vironments.
She decided to commit
herself to creating a series
of rag rug weavings for a
church in the area as her
graduate project for a
master of fine arts degree
at the University of
Georgia in Athens. She had
to find a church community
that would help her with ex
penses of the work and
become involved in its
development. A proposal
and estimate as to the size,
number, technique and
cost of materials was sub
mitted to the Blairsville
parish.
After the parish council
voted “Yes,” an
nouncements in the parish
bulletin described the kinds
and colors of materials
needed. Boxes were soon
filled with remnants; old
cotton skirts, sheets, skirts
and aprons were donated.
The parish gave her money
to purchase fabrics in col
ors still needed.
Parishioners came out for
“cutting” parties.
In preparation for weav
ing, she pasted samples of
700 colors on three by five
cards. To study movement
and transitions of colors
she draped fabrics on a
clothesline in her studio.
Weaving of the pieces, the
large one 42 inches wide by
104 inches long, the lectern
piece 20 by 45 inches, was
done on her own 20-inch
loom and a larger loom, 45
inches wide, at the univer
sity in Athens.
“Most of the time it took
an hour to do an inch
because of the changing
colors. The weft was pack
ed so tight there are
sometimes 24 rows of col
ors to an inch.” (In weav
ing, the weft, or woof, of
cloth are the threads that
are carried in the shuttle
and across the warp. Warp
are the threads extended
lengthwise in the loom and
crossed by the weft/woof.)
“It was a gift to myself.
It focused me, entered my
prayers. I am a different
person now because of it,”
she says of her project.
Sister Nancyann is leav
ing “The Place” around
June 21. After her job was
phased out there she ac
cepted an opportunity to
work as an art therapist at
(Continued on Page 14)
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