From Farmer to Weaver
Hi, I’m Hilary!
I run The Cultivated Thread, a small-batch weaving studio in Mid Coast Maine creating handwoven wearables and home goods. It’s mostly a one person operation though I do contract out a few specific production tasks. I’m most interested in making products that can easily slide into people’s day to day lives so I primarily make handwoven towels. I work exclusively with natural fibers and strive to source organic and/or U.S. produced materials.
Photo by Kelsey Kobik
In 2020, after years feeling challenged by mental health struggles that aligned with the farming calendar, I left the agriculture world I’d called home for over a decade and launched The Cultivated Thread. It was a huge shift for me; the rhythm of farming - cultivating vegetables, tending livestock, and cutting firewood - defined my life’s pace and meaning. During the colder, darker months weaving was a treasured meditation and opportunity to create. Starting a business was unfamiliar and scary but I knew weaving. I was going in a new, but not entirely foreign, direction.
Customers love TCT towels because they are soft, absorbent and rugged. They’re designed to perform a job which also includes being machine washed and dried - easy maintenance. And they last! My first towels were sold 5 years ago and I’m still hearing from early customers about their TCT towel that is still a staple in their kitchen or bathroom.
I create with daily use in mind and select weave structures and fibers that will translate into items that stand the test of time. By bringing intentionality and care into all stages of the production process, it is my hope that in each piece I am infusing energy, utility, and beauty that will offer a lifetime of service. I make functional art.
Photo by Melissa Keyser
I went into full time business with The Cultivated Thread as I was phasing out of full time work as an organic produce farmer. Farming was such an important part of my life - I can’t stress this enough - that I wanted a name that nodded both to my past, agriculture, and my future, textiles.
The term cultivate is a wonderful word. In organic crop production it is both a broad and specific word, often referring to mechanical weed removal. After the cultivating tractor has gone through a bed it looks so tidy - weeds are removed from between rows and what was once a carpet of green is now clean rows of production crops. It's immensely satisfying (when everything goes right!).
And parallels (pun intended) could be drawn between these neat rows and the act of keeping hundreds of threads organized on a loom.
Some words about our name
To me, crops and threads symbolize potential. When nourished and tended, they will take the energy put into them and transform into delicious, healthful food and soft, beautiful cloth.
I mentioned that cultivate can have multiple meanings; be both detailed and broad. In a broader and less tangible sense, I want TCT to be a good community member. As a small business owner, I am one part of a larger whole in my surrounding community. How can TCT contribute to the neighborhood, to the Maine craft community, and to the customers that are served? How do we acknowledge our past, and honor the future?
There always seem to be more questions than answers and I’ll forever be learning and refining. But through all the evolutions, ‘cultivate’ will remain important in this way - cultivating community.