Excerpt from THE NANTUCKET INDEPENDENT by Panos Kakaviatos

Another island weaver, Hilary Anapol, has been weaving cotton/linen, wool and wool tapestry rugs since the age of 14, having first worked with her on-island mentor, the late Margareta Nettles, for some 15 years before opening her own spacious garage-turned-studio on 19 Madaket Road.

“I think of it as a functional art,” Anapol said, while knotting up loose ends to finish a rug she had just woven off the loom. She needs several weeks to produce an 8x10-foot rug, which is reversible.“Ï tell my customers to flip their rugs over every few weeks, so that the wear is uniform, which makes them last much longer.”

In addition to showing me around, Anapol kindly took the time to explain, very basically, how rugs are woven with the loom. Made of wood, looms permit the weaving of two threads of fiber known as warps and wefts: the former being vertically oriented, the latter horizontally. Looms can handle a wide variety of material, from silk to wool. The first step is “lacing the loom,” whereby the weaver transfers threads from spools or cones on a rack onto the “sectional back beam” of the loom, used to place the warp onto the loom in sections, or increments, which vary according to what the weaver wants to make. Pedals attached to the loom, known as treadles, are used to control the pattern of the threads: they complement the lacing. The weft yarn is meanwhile wound on to a bobbin and placed in a “fly shuttle,” a long, narrow canoe-shaped instrument, usually made of wood, which holds the bobbin. After the shuttle is loaded with the weft-filled bobbin, the weaver places the shuttle onto the shuttle race, a small, narrow shelf that the shuttle glides along as it goes in and out of the weft. Before or after the weaver employs the treadles to make patterns – the timing depends on the weaver – she has to compress the weft onto the warp, an action called “beating,” which can be rather forceful for thicker fabrics used to make rugs.

At one point during my visit, Anapol beat the threads of an as yet unfinished colorful rug that she said would match a stain glass window for a private client. “I’m blending about 15 colors for this particular assignment,” she said, somewhat proudly. Then comes the finishing process: basically knotting warp ends together, which left unknotted, would be considered a fringe on a rug. “I like to knot up my fringes, generally,” Anapol remarked.

Excerpt from THE NANTUCKET TIMES by Reema Sherry

For weaver Hillary Anapol,inspiration comes from unlikely places. “I’ve been known to get stuck in co-op grain departments,” she said. Although gazing at barrels of beans and bulgur wheat grains might not seem especially creative, Anapol has discovered that the combinations of color and texture found in everyday life translate beautifully into her handmade rag and wool rugs.

“It’s all about blending, taking lots of different shades and blending them,” she said. Anapol opened her own studio in 1998, but her fascination with textiles started at an early age when she followed in her older sister’s footsteps, working on needlepoint and embroidery.

She began weaving at the age of fourteen, then joined a weaver’s guild while in college in St. Paul, Minnesota. It was a natural progression in to her current profession. Anapol comes from a “textile family” in which her father, brother and sister have made careers in manufacturing and fabric design.

Like so many islanders, Anapol grew up summering on Nantucket, then moved here permanently after college. She became apprenticed to the late Margaretta Nettles and spent the next fourteen years honing her skills, learning to manage the business, traveling, and enjoying the rich, creative world of her mentor. Anapol opened her studio and launched her own product lines.

Ninety-nine percent of my training is from Margaretta, “Anapol said. “Working on tapestries and wool rugs allowed me to be very creative. She was also very accepting and warm. “Anapol also credits her family and her boyfriend A.T. Wilce for help in starting out on her own. In her studio, she draws inspiration from her nearby garden and the pastoral landscapes beyond.