It All Started With One Little Scarf
Emilie Rapa began her career with us as a dye technician but it wasn't until she tried weaving that she discovered her true passion.
What do you do?I am one of four weavers who weave our custom wool and specialty linen rugs on an 8-12 harness Swedish coutermarche floor loom. We begin by measuring out the yarn to the specific length, specific number of threads, and arrange them in their specific order on the loom. Depending on the length and width of each rug panel, it takes about a day to set up the loom and wind all of the yarn onto it with even and concise tension before we can actually begin weaving. We weave our rugs in panels and not in their actual full width because our looms can only weave a fabric up to 60" wide. We can weave any size rug, one panel at a time.
Before that?
I worked with Michael Johnson as a dye technician.
Describe your dream job.
I'm pretty much doing it—turning a bunch of cream balls of yarn into a big beautiful colored, patterned creation. It's rewarding to watch the spools of linen or skeins of wool interlace and become a woven design.
What inspires you?
Textiles in general, fabrics in fun patterns, yarn too.
Do you have a favorite color?
I love gray. Some people might not consider it a color—since black is supposedly the absence of color and white is all colors, making gray a little bit of every color as well as a bit of complete absence of color. If you consider color theory this way, then gray would be an enigma, which makes it more interesting to me.
What's your best discovery?
When I found out I could weave... I had no idea I had it in me. I always loved sewing and working with fabrics, but once I wove my first little scarf, that was it. Now I'm going back to school to learn more about this industry, and I absolutely love it.