Cotton Pickin' Good Time

This whole undertaking started after I watched a program on PBS that showed a woman in Colonial Williamsburg spinning cotton. I thought it was the neatest thing. Since my students used yam in many projects, I began to get this crazy idea: Why not make spinning a part of my art curriculum (even though I knew nothing about the craft)? Little did I realize where it would lead or what interesting knowledge students, parents and I would acquire. This venture was also an excellent lesson in problem-solving.

Lake Mary High School (LMHS) is located in Seminole County, Fla., which is one of the fastest growing areas in the United States. Once a rural county, it is now the location of innumerable new or relocated businesses and a bedroom community for people who work at Disney World and many other large tourist attractions.

SPINNING OUR WHEELS A majority of LMHS students have been transplanted from other states and now live in subdivisions in this vaguely defined megalopolis. Most are proficient with computers and other high-tech equipment and consider a spinning wheel something their mothers would buy to set in a corner of the great room for use as a plant stand. They have given little thought to the origin or production of fibers.

Our first objective was to buy a spinning wheel. My initial purchase from a national art supply catalog was a disaster. It looked wonderful, but would not spin. This wheel was sent back, and it looked like defeat was on the horizon before we even got started.

The project was saved by two parents who were interested in our art program and fiber arts. One parent loaned us her spinning wheel, donated wool and helped me establish a working relationship with The River Farm, a unique fiber company in Virginia. We ordered an "Ashford Traditional Wheel" from them and were back on track. The second parent was a saint. She taught me to spin so that I could pass this instruction on to my students.

Carding and spinning wool is fun, and the students used the results in many projects. However, the process of my ordering sacks of wool lacked the student involvement I was trying to achieve. It was too much like the other art supplies that were automatically there when needed. Even though I wished to have the students engaged in the production of fiber, I had no desire to take on the task of raising and shearing sheep.

COTTONING TO THE IDEA My thoughts then wandered back to the woman I first saw on television spinning cotton.

We could grow cotton, and the students would experience the production of an art material from seed to finished product. Now, this was exciting! I was warned that cotton was difficult to spin. Wool had long fibers and spun easily, while cotton was short-fibered and tricky. It also had those nasty seeds. These challenges only made the experience more enticing.

Another problem was encountered. Where would we find cotton seeds? While working on another project with a science teacher at school, I mentioned our dilemma. I could not believe it when she had her sister-in-law, who happens to teach high school in Georgia, send us a box of cotton that was picked by her students especially for us. We now had seeds and new friends!

Trying to grow cotton in pots in an air-conditioned room with only one window did not work. Having a cotton field on a campus with 2,600 students and no fenced-in planting area presented other problems, especially considering cotton's long growing season. My students were also more at home in a mall or surfing than farming.

Once again, a parent came to our rescue! One student's father owns a commercial nursery and volunteered to plant cotton for us at his business if we provided the seeds. Everyone quickly extracted the seeds from the Georgia cotton and soon our crop was in the ground.

When the 1996 school year began, art students started spending Saturdays, not at the beach or the mall, but in the field. We learned that cotton continues to produce until a bad frost. No bad frosts occurred that school year, but lots of cotton did. All involved students were volunteers, no extra credit was given, and some were not even in my class, but thought the idea was "neat" and arrived with bags, ready to pick. As a class project, we designed and silk-screened t-shirts for those who participated that read "Cotton Pickin' Good Time." During the spring of 1997, our second crop was planted.

ADD A LITTLE GIN We quickly realized that we would need some way to efficiently separate the cotton from its seeds. Removing them by hand took too much time and wasted fiber. We had another problem: Where would we find a cotton gin?

With addresses found in publications, we started contacting companies who sold fiber equipment. We were thrilled when a positive reply came from Studio Gaustad in Jackson, Calif. They had a craftsman who could build us a single crank roller gin, but it would take time. We placed our order and waited.

Four months later it arrived, complete with a video on its use and care featuring our gin and the craftsman, Alden Amos, who built it by hand. The roller gin is a beautiful little machine, just the right size for a classroom. It is capable of getting the job done, but small enough to fit on any table or workbench.

By this point, not only were we spinning wool, cotton and blends to construct wall hangings, weavings and basket decorations, we constantly discovered new uses for the resulting threads and yarns. When commissioned to sculpt a 5-foot-tall giraffe from plaster-craft for a local homeowner, two student-artists spun the mane and tail on the wheel.

It took two years to gather knowledge, equipment and resources. With school funding and a mini-grant, we purchased a second wheel and other needed equipment. In our classroom it is not unusual for a student to carry the spinning wheel and set it beside the computer so they can spin while talking with a friend who is working on a computer animation project.

My philosophy is that in an age when technology influences most design, a bit of the homespun goes a long way to adding excitement and impact to a work of art. With student involvement, from harvesting in the cotton field to a finished art project, the handmade phenomenon is an educational experience not soon forgotten.

Carol Gentry teaches art at Lake Mary High School in Lake Mary, Florida.

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