Big business looms for Stockbridge weaver

By David VerziPrint Story | Email Story
STOCKBRIDGE - Growing the fabric is the weaver's art, and for Stockbridge handweaver Sam Kasten, art and business are growing. Thirty-two years a textile designer and 19 as head of his likely unique Interlaken-based company, "Sam Kasten Handweaver," the artist-entrepreneur is internationally known for fine fabric and service. Using choice, natural threads and yarns - cotton, linen, ramie, silk, mohair and cashmere - Kasten's workshop provides fine hand-woven cloth to designers of major corporate offices and palatial private residences. Wall covering, drapery, rug and upholstery fabrics are the fruits of Kasten's 15 various-sized and specialized looms, operated by eight dedicated weavers who meticulously strive to produce exclusive textiles faultlessly. "Using ancient technology," Kasten said, "we'll go to any length to provide designers with what they can't get anywhere else. We agonize, taking as much time as necessary to get the product to match their wildest wish." For example, one demanding designer asked Kasten to capture in rugs the patina peculiar to weathered clothesline, encrusted with mold and rust. So, Kasten and his intrepid weavers went house to house, through the countryside, trading new rope for old and then unwound 3,000 yards of line to re-weave as rugs. "When I hire weavers, men or women, I look for the characteristics I would seek in a spouse. Simply, I engage people that I would marry," Kasten said. "Yes, experience can be helpful. But give me good, decent people with a full, solid sense of commitment and I'll make them weavers." Providing his weavers a relaxed atmosphere and as much autonomy as possible, Kasten said, "Their self-motivation frees me from micro-management and allows me to roam the world seeking new clients." "Sometimes our fabrics throughout a home or office are asked to be the calm backdrop that presents art forms; other times there are no paintings, no sculpture - our woven work around windows, on furniture, floors and walls is the art." Executive suites worldwide, including those of IBM, Ralph Lauren, Pitney Bowes and Texaco, have benefited from Kasten's usual and widely known subdued palette. But, increasingly designers have been challenging Kasten's looms to yield more vibrant colors, a task the weaver feels his company does especially well. "Jobs beyond the usual energize the shop even more," he said. One recent unusual corporate project even saw Kasten's employees able to weave bright and bouncy exacting abstract pieces for framing. Another saw the weaving of a seamless 109-foot by 9-foot piece. As his weavers continually push the limits of the loom to create his sought after peerless designs (which have been featured on Martha Stewart's television program and in "House Beautiful" magazine), Kasten described custom weaving as "terrifying" - and by any measure it's no easy matter. With chest-level heddles guiding the vertical (warp) threads, the weaver depresses foot treadles that lift some of the warp. This creates a passage (the shed), and hands guide the shuttle through the shed to carry the horizontal (woof) thread. After each shuttle pass, the weaver pushes forward a wooden bar (the comb) to tighten the weave. Depending upon the sophistication of the design, simply loading the tread or yarn onto a loom can take many hours, even days, and sometimes weeks. "Yet, given all the problems in today's world," Kasten said, "I make sure to keep things in proper perspective, so when we have a 'glitch,' I take a breath and remind the weavers that we're not making material for the queen's underwear." Born in Chicago and raised in Des Moines, Iowa, Kasten was "a most unhappy and unfocused student" on the verge of departure from the University of Iowa without a degree. Chancing upon the school's loom room, he met an instructor who inspired him and changed his course. Upon graduation, Kasten apprenticed in Nantucket, where he would open his first shop, and moved to the Berkshires with his wife, Jane, and their two daughters in 1985. In addition to his richly romantic 1833 big, brick weave shop (once a whiskey distillery), just off Route183, Kasten also enriches the Berkshire's art scene showing fabric, pottery, furniture, paintings, sculpture and photography by local and nationally known artisans at the SKH Gallery, in the old train station on Castle Street in Great Barrington. Kasten, 54, a "cultural patriot," is also the founder and active board member of IS183 (formerly the Interlaken School of Art) in Stockbridge. Delighted that the school is flourishing, Kasten noted its dedication to increasing knowledge and ability in the various disciplines of by-hand creativity. Believing the Berkshires' economic salvation lies in a continued and invigorated absolute commitment to the arts, Kasten said, "Commerce will surely follow culture." In a major step, Kasten is about to announce the 2004 establishment, with a Chicago-based colleague, of a machine-woven textile company whose design headquarters will be in Stockbridge with warehousing and distribution set in the Windy City. These power-loomed fabrics, Kasten said, would be produced by the most respected machine mills in the United States, Italy, Belgium, Scotland and Switzerland, with an eye toward emulating to the extent possible the sensitivities and nuances found in the hand-woven product. Kasten sees this new venture as a double plus, allowing his designs to be available to those who previously could not afford them, while enabling a larger audience of designers to become aware of his hand woven textile operation -for which he will soon launch a Web site. Though some are sure that the weaver's lot must be a monotonous one, in Stockbridge, Kasten and his dedicated crew are busy weaving an exciting pattern of change that continues to grow and grow.
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Lanesborough Fifth-Graders Win Snowplow Name Contest

LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — One of the snowplows for Highway District 1 has a new name: "The Blizzard Boss."
 
The name comes from teacher Gina Wagner's fifth-grade class at Lanesborough Elementary School. 
 
The state Department of Transportation announced the winners of the fourth annual "Name A Snowplow" contest on Monday. 
 
The department received entries from public elementary and middle school classrooms across the commonwealth to name the 12 MassDOT snowplows that will be in service during the 2025/2026 winter season. 
 
The purpose of the contest is to celebrate the snow and ice season and to recognize the hard work and dedication shown by public works employees and contractors during winter operations. 
 
"Thank you to all of the students who participated. Your creativity allows us to highlight to all, the importance of the work performed by our workforce," said  interim MassDOT Secretary Phil Eng.  
 
"Our workforce takes pride as they clear snow and ice, keeping our roads safe during adverse weather events for all that need to travel. ?To our contest winners and participants, know that you have added some fun to the serious take of operating plows. ?I'm proud of the skill and dedication from our crews and thank the public of the shared responsibility to slow down, give plows space and put safety first every time there is a winter weather event."
 
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