More about Beebe Moss....
My mom was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1923. I know it's rude to tell a woman's age, but hey, how many 77-year-olds do you know who just started a new career as a fabric designer?
Mom has been involved in creative, artsy stuff ever since I can remember. She has sewn her own clothing since she was a teenager and she knits, crochets, embroiders, and has been known to re-cover the odd piece of furniture. She discovered serging a few years back and the Creative Clothing Club (hi guys!) now there isn't anything she can't make. Mom studied jewelry design and stone setting from a Detroit area jeweler as a young woman. (When I couldn't find a decent quilting thimble, who do you think told me to stop whining and go learn how to make my own?)
She also threw pots for about ten years, and had a ceramics studio in the basement, complete with an old fashioned kick-wheel and her own kiln. My Dad mixed the glazes for her until he noticed that swell yellow was made with low grade uranium and was slightly radioactive! (We stopped eating out of those bowls and she started buying her glazes.)
When we lived in Italy, she glued busted Roman pots back together on an archaeological dig, then got interested in mosaics so she apprenticed herself off to one of the restorers at the Roman Forum. For the year we lived there we shared the dining room with a 200 pound tree stump. It had an ax head imbedded in the top and she'd balance a chunk of marble on the edge, whack it with a mallet to split it into quarters. Then she'd cement it into a metal frame using a 2,000 year-old recipe. Our parakeet (named Julius Caesar) also lived in the dining room. Between my Dad's typing (he was a university professor) and Mom's marble splitting, the poor bird went nuts.
Back in the States, she got interested in weaving. I will never forget the day she brought home Claire, a four harness loom. (Get it? ---"Claire de Loom?!") It was in pieces. She had purchased it from another weaver, but you don't just pop one of those babies in the trunk of the car. It had to be disassembled first. Then, it had to be reassembled. I thought my dad would kill her. It took them days, but they did it. Not content to weave with yarn, she soon switched to cotton shirting, then denim, then whatever wasn't nailed down. (The cats were never in the same room when she was weaving.) She developed a unique style of tufting and knotting so her pieces more resembled sculptures.
For several years she was a presenter for "Art To The Schools" an outreach program of the Detroit Institute of Arts. She'd pack up the slides the museum would give her to show the kids, then bring along real Roman artifacts she had restored in Italy.
For the past 30 years she's been an avid gardener and can coax just about anything to grow. She's been specializing in orchids and has traveled all over the world on orchid-hunting expeditions.
About 15 years we began experimenting with fiber reactive dyes. Not long after that Mom began creating one-of-a-kind dye painted and stamped silk scarves under her own "Dyed & Gone To Heaven" label which she sold at art shows and specialty dress shops.
About two years ago, I convinced her to switch to cotton, mostly because I don't work in silk and really wanted some of her designs in my quilts. She developed a unique style by stamping and then painting on the fabric. Her designs are sometimes geometric, but more often of flowers, leaves, and animals she's seen on her travels or in her garden.
My mom went back to school this past year. Yup, she went to Clown College (no kidding) and she now "performs" at senior centers with two of her buddies. (With any luck I'll swipe a photo of her wearing her shoulder length blonde wig with Shirley Temple curls, so stay tuned.) You can also find her at the soup kitchen once a month teaching fabric dying and silk screening to the homeless.
Marcus Brothers has named her line "Something Wonderful" and I couldn't agree more. Her fabric has a character and personality all its own. And, like her, it's one-of-a-kind! Enjoy!
