Photo provided Dee Nierman’s mother is shown in the past at the 1864 loom that Nierman uses today.
Rag-rug maker Dee Nierman lets it be known right at the top of a conversation that, at 87 years old, she is holding up as well or better than her indomitable, fourth-generation loom built more than 150 years ago for her great-grandmother. The machine rests in her Brownstown basement, where Nierman does no such thing.
All because the 1954 Columbus High School graduate still creates for fairs and festivals.
If one struggles to weave a multi-textured story from those details, and the fact that she and niece Margaret Luckey Snyder are much of the focus of the new documentary “Weaving Indiana,” well, woe be unto them. Never was there a question that she would learn weaving like those before her.
“I would certainly say not,” Nierman said, comparing it to growing up farming, which she also did in Bartholomew County. “It was automatically handed down. I lived it as a child.”
The 24-minute film will be presented for free at 6 p.m. Thursday in the Red Room of the Bartholomew County Public Library, 536 Fifth St. in downtown Columbus. Promotional material linked to the video refer to Nierman and Snyder as “important fiber arts ambassadors in Southern Indiana.”
Nierman estimates that she creates about 115 pieces annually for craft shows. And her continued excellence is enough to have earned the 2020 Indiana Heritage Fellowship Award, recognized by Traditional Arts Indiana, which also helped make the documentary possible. Claire Gillett, a graduate assistant at Indiana University in the department of folklore and ethnomusicology, filmed the project in the fall.
“She did a very good job,” Nierman said of the rough cut that she recently saw.
Snyder, a 20-year rag-rug weaver and in a smaller portion of the film compared to Nierman, agreed, and loved Gillett’s rough cut.
“She took a lot of information and made it concise and especially pertinent to the weaving history in our family,” said Snyder, who lives in the White Creek area on the Bartholomew/Jackson County line.
The documentary also includes the historical roots of this creative practice and the ways it has found new life in Southern Indiana today. Snyder added that she particularly likes the idea of a question-and-answer session with her, Nierman and Gillett planned after the screening, with the help of Jon Kay, director of Traditional Arts Indiana.
“And I’m just curious about who will show up,” Snyder said. “Will the people who come be those who know Dee and I? Or might some people come because they, too, have a history in weaving?”
About the screening
What: Showing of Claire Gillett’s new, 24-minute Traditional Arts Indiana documentary “Weaving Indiana.”
When: 6 p.m. Thursday
Where: Red Room of the Bartholomew County Public Library, 536 Fifth St. in Columbus
Information: mybcpl.org
