Kathryn Pokalo
Tool Roll
2019
Grey and blue wool
10" x 4" x 1"
About Kathryn Pokalo:
"I have long enjoyed working with fibers and textiles. I learned how to knit at 13 when I visited friends in England. A high school friend taught me how to crochet.
While I was exploring and experimenting with ideas for a small business that would combine my interests in textiles and creating something useful by hand, I learned about, went to see, and subsequently purchased a feltloom, a needle-felt machine designed and manufactured in Kentucky. I'm now making objects that are useful, pleasing to the eye, and pleasant to touch.
In my modest way, I embrace the ideas of the Pre-Raphaelites; we should have nothing which is not both useful and beautiful. I hope my customers will see that standard in the works of my hands.
I have two grown daughters whose talents and vision have encouraged me and a devoted husband who has, for three decades, supported my aspirations.
My business is called Pleasant Valley Textiles. Local lore has it that the town name, Conshohocken, derives from the Lenape words for 'pleasant valley.'"