Tiewyan Textiles
Bev and Dick Thoms bought a 60- acre parcel on Big Woods Road in Dickerson in 1974 , built their home on a hillside , and raised 4 children there . After planting a peach orchard , which was destroyed when trees split after a hard freeze at just the wrong time , followed by a few years raising standardbred horses for a racing syndicate , they landed on raising sheep . Their first flock was killed one at a time by a neighbor ’ s dog , but as they shored up their fencing they took that opportunity to shift from meat sheep to fiber sheep , eventually trying several breeds to arrive at the best wool producers . As Bev juggled raising four kids with maintaining her career as a nurse , teaching nursing
Bev Thoms lays out wool roving to explore its possibilities . An “ inspiration board ” of fabrics and objects found in nature provides the direction for her designs .
at Frederick Community College , and building a home health nursing agency , she continued to learn more about sheep and became more enamored with producing beauty from their wool .
“ Art was always a subtext in my life — drawing , painting , experimenting with color and texture ,” Bev recounted . When she finally had time after the busiest years of family life slowed a bit , she dove into learning about the possibilities of designing with the wool of the sheep she had grown to love . She bought a loom and learned weaving , joined a fiber guild , sought workshops to attend , and found a monthly study group in nearby Poolesville that shared wool felting techniques and other creative outlets for artistic work with fiber . She converted her barn to a studio , and participates in the Countryside Artisans tour , when her studio becomes a gallery showing her own work and a collection she curates of other local art .
Driven by a desire to make use of secondhand items , Bev collects an unlikely mélange of fabrics from
10 plenty I spring sowing 2024