by Emily McDonald

Mark James not only uses his God-given talents. He also likes to share them. James is a weaver by avocation and has woven an altar cloth for St. Francis of Assisi, Ooltewah, where he and his family are communicants.

“Any time there is a creative skill in the community, it is wonderful to use it” said the Rev. Buckley Robbins, vicar at St. Francis. “Everybody benefits.”

James showed examples of his work to Robbins and asked if he could make an altar cloth for the church. The vicar agreed, and requested that the cloth have two-inch gold bands on either end.

The altar cloth, which measures 26 inches wide and four yards long, is made of bleached white cotton. In addition to the gold bands requested by Robbins, it also features white fringe on the ends. He said it will be used on the altar after the Christmas Eve service.

Another cloth made by James was used at the church’s Rally Day activities in September. “We are an informal congregation,” Robbins said, and James’ simple pieces are complementary to the informal atmosphere.

James is a psychological examiner at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He his wife Joey and their 10-year-old daughter Alex live in Cleveland, Tenn.

James got into weaving purely by accident. “We had some acrylic yarn around the house,” he said. One day he put some nails into a frame and used a darning needle and comb to weave the yarn into an orange and white square that looked like a pot holder. He liked the act of weaving, ordered a small loom from a catalog and spent eight hours threading it. Next, he made a four-foot table loom but found it was hard to change sizes of the items to be woven.

“I bought a set of plans and I took a woodworking class at Cleveland State [Community college],” James said. He felt he needed to know more about woodworking before trying to construct another loom. The loom that he built was a four-harness (frame) model hat is 36 inches long. “It took me three months to make and I will never do that again,” James said.

In addition to learning to weave, James had to learn a whole new language. Words like reed, treadle, warp, and castle are now part of his vocabulary.

Once James had a loom he was comfortable using, he’s woven and incredible variety of items. He’s crafted baby blankets; table cloths, table runners and place mats; shirts and even a pair of blue and white striped shorts for Alex (which she won’t wear!).

James employs simple patterns for his work and prefers contemporary designs rather than those found in pattern books. “Most of the patterns for the loom are from the 18th century,” he said.

The James household is now overflowing with woven items and James has also given away a lot of this work. He wants to continue to weave, however, and he’s looking for some kind of outlet or market for his weaving talent. “I thought maybe I could do it [weavings] for churches,” he said.

Basically, James does plain, or blanket weave but could duplicate a pattern if given one.

Robbins sees a definite market in the church for James’ work, at least at St. Francis. “I could see something like a [wall] hanging with an interpretation of the creation,” he said.

The weaver would be willing to try a wall hanging “if I had an artist to help out,” he said.

Emily McDonald, a communicant at St. Paul’s, Chattanooga, is South East Correspondant for this publication.