The pull of wool Textile artist inspired by spinning wide range of natural fibres The Creators
By: AV Kitching Posted: 3:00 AM CDT Saturday, Jul. 6, 2024

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/07/2024 (466 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say Maureen Winnicki Lyons is obsessed with wool.

A conversation with the fibre artist will gift you a wealth of knowledge ranging from wool categorization, of which there are four: fine wool, medium wool coat, dual wool coat, and long wool and sheep breeds — with more than 1,000 distinct breeds in the world — to the difference between wool and yarn (they are most certainly not the same thing).

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

She’s collected more than 200 kinds of raw wool, which she now keeps at her studio, Wool Mountain in ARTLington Studios on Arlington Street, after running out of room in her house.

Familiar kinds of wool like Spanish Merino and South American Alpaca share space with fibres from more unique breeds, such as Swedish Åsenfår, Scottish North Ronaldsay and Dutch Zwartbles.

Closer to home, she gets her Cotswolds and Wensleydale wool from Spirit Sands Shepherds in Carberry, Navajo Churro wool from White Spruce Heritage Farm in Pipestone and Shetland wool from Prairie’s Edge Wool Farm in Steinbach.

“I am the kind of person that gets very excited about things. There is just so much to learn about wool; all the different breeds and the things they are good for. It’s never stopped being exciting to me because every breed of sheep has its own fascinating history on how that breed came to be and one thing leads to the next and before you know it…” she trails off.

… And before you know it you end up with a house crammed to the rafters with wool, and 13 spinning wheels on your dining table?

Lyons laughs.

“I like to collect things! Textile arts is a rabbit hole and if you are like Alice in Wonderland, well it’s quite perfect.”

But it wasn’t always this way; wool isn’t Lyons’ first love.

Twenty-five years ago she was working with an altogether different raw material: clay.

“I could not have imagined life doing anything other than ceramics. Then, in April 2003, I woke up paralyzed. It was the onset of a rare neurological condition called transverse myelitis. It is similar to MS, and can morph into it. I was undiagnosed for two years and I lost the capacity to do everything,” she says.

The illness, which she continues to manage, signalled the end of ceramics for her.

“Pottery is an inherently strong-person job. To throw things on a wheel, to lift and carry, you need to have a bit of muscle to you. If you drop a ceramic vessel it is gone forever but you can drop a ball of yarn an infinite number of times and it will always forgive you,” she says.

“When the time came for me to find something to nurture my creative spark, I looked for something softer and more welcoming. Wool has opened up brand-new worlds to me and I haven’t looked back since.”

Lyons is currently putting the finishing touches on her three-dimensional mixed media sculpture — a life-size female bison head — which will be on display during the Winnipeg Folk Festival at the Prairie Outdoor Exhibition space.

“I love these big, grand-vision artistic endeavours but I am not disciplined enough to do it on my own, so to have a reason to do something a little more grandiose is really thrilling,” she says.

As well as creating her own art, Lyon also runs Mindfulness is in the Making classes and workshops where she teaches others how to work with natural textiles.

“There is something about the repetitive nature of textile arts, whether it is hand-spinning, hand-weaving or needle felting, which makes it very easy to find a sense of quiet and inner peace. In order to make something new you have to let go of the old. There is a whole amazing world we can reconnect to. Using our hands and minds to do something inherently useful never stops being exciting to me,” she says.

av.kitching@freepress.mb.ca