crazy as a loom

Published in The Post-Star (D1)
12/1/05

Don't wear jeans if you plan to visit Hilary Cooper-Kenny's new weaving studio -- she might try to turn them into a rug. The 58-year-old textile artist recently started her own business, Crazy as a Loom Weaving Studio, in a renovated 18th-century house in Kingsbury.

"When I first got here, my main goal was studio space. Then as I sat here weaving, restoring the house became equally important," she said. "Now it's all entangled; I can't tell where one ends and the other begins."

That's a pretty accurate description of what Cooper-Kenny does to the bundles of salvage fabrics, mill ends, and old jeans that become raw materials for her rag rugs.

"My father had a used furniture and antiques business, so I've always like the idea of making beautiful, functional things out of recycled goods," she explained.

Cooper-Kenny learned to weave about six or seven years ago, and was immediately hooked.

"Sitting at the loom is one of the few times in life that I just slow right down. I lose track of time and even forget to eat," she said. "There's a real rhythm to it; a musical quality. I get the feeling of going back to an earlier, simpler time."

A few days before the studio's grand opening this weekend, Cooper-Kenny was a bundle of energy. She shuttled quickly from loom to loom, eager to show visitors around the spacious studio.

Her husband, William Kenny, quietly painted shelves in the background.

"This house was a project, no doubt about it," he remarked. Kenny is the Ward 5 supervisor for Warren County, and he joked that "I love going to work, because it's the easiest thing I have to do lately."

The couple married in 1999 and lives in Glens Falls. Last year, Cooper-Kenny took early retirement from her nursing job at Great Meadow state prison, and started looking for a studio space to keep up with her growing collection of looms.

She fell in love with the old house on Route 4 as soon as she saw it, although her husband said his first reaction was, "Oh, no." After finding out that the building was structurally sound, "We jumped in with both feet," Kenny said. They closed the sale in May.

"It's really, truly my dream come true. A whole house to weave in? It just makes me giddy sometimes," Cooper-Kenny said. "You get a lot more work done when you don't have a studio in your home."

In the five downstairs rooms are nine antique looms, surrounded by colorful displays of Cooper-Kenny's woven rugs, shawls, scarves and bags.

Although Cooper-Kenny's work is for sale at the studio, she said her goal is to create "more of a learning place than a retail space." She plans to offer classes in weaving and spinning, and hopes the upstairs guest bedrooms can eventually be used for weekend teaching retreats.

"Everybody's got to find their passion," she said. "This is mine."
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