Kathy Sparks, The Hand Maiden
~ story and photos by Chrissy Alspaugh
After opening a science kit for Christmas when she was six, Kathy Sparks became convinced she could create potions. She’ s spent the rest of her life doing just that. The retired college chemistry teacher runs The Hand Maiden fiber arts studio in northwestern Brown County, preserving historical weaving methods and teaching other artists throughout the country about dying their fibers with common materials found in nature. Everything from dandelions and violets to walnuts and insects serve as the base for dyes she concocts in every color of the rainbow. And what Kathy weaves is just as natural and varied— wool folkart style hooked rugs, sweaters made of yarn she’ s spun from the coat of her Angora rabbits, and baskets from material she makes herself from brown ash trees harvested in New England.
“ I just realized at some point that so much in this world is destroyed before we recognize its true value,” she said.“ My work is not so much about earning a salary but hopefully sharing something about the past that will carry into the future.”
In high school, the Hoosier native moved to Belgium with her family. She returned to the U. S. to earn a degree in natural resources and environmental science from Purdue University. Kathy next followed her husband, Tim, and his job with the Navy. She earned a teaching certificate from University of West Florida and later a master’ s degree in dye chemistry from Western Washington University. The next 29 years were spent teaching students in middle school through college in Washington state and at Ivy Tech Community College at Columbus in subjects including anatomy and physiology, chemistry, Earth science, biology, and natural science.
Kathy’ s mind is thirsty to understand how things are made and their role in nature. Her words move fast when she talks about the years of research she’ s done across five continents, diving deep into the history of weaving.
One of her passions is replicating precisely-formed baskets that date back to the 1800s in the Shaker or Taconic styles. No one sells the materials Kathy uses made of brown ash— the Rolls Royce of weaving— so she spends weeks each year helping cut trees in New England, hammering them to
40 Our Brown County • March / April 2018