“Some say our world is hanging by a thread. I say – a thread is all we need” says Terry Helwig, Founder of The Thread Project: One World, One Cloth.

Back in May, 2005 Weavers Forum received an email (via Janet De Boer of Textile Fibre Forum) from Terry Helwig. Terry was looking for weavers in Australia to be part of her project, The Thread Project – One World, One Cloth. A project involving the weaving of 49 panels to make seven World Cloths representing the seven continents.

Without any delay, I forwarded the information to Weavers Forum members by email and within a week Terry had four talented weavers from Australia signed up to each weave a panel.

Vera Hazelgrove, who works in her studio in the garden of her home in Adelaide, (South Australia) where both she and her seeing-eye dog Karley reside. Vera says “My warp was a beautiful saffron-orange colour and is a panel for the orange World Cloth called: Dawn Looming.”

To Vera the project is a celebration of our diversity and unity. She loved the weaving and found it very peaceful and mediative. Vera says “I collected threads from friends, family and people living in my street and my pen friends from Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Japan, Romania and Pakistan. I also wove threads in memory of dear family members who have died. I wrote to the e-groups I am a member of and told them about this project and was surprised at the response from people from America, England and Australia who sent me threads.” “I am glad to have been able to experience this coming together of threads from all directions and I felt honoured to tie all those threads to each other and weave towards this beautiful World Cloth.”

The other three weavers, Karen Madigan, Maryann Stamford and Gail Campbell were sent warps for the yellow cloth - Lienzo Luminoso (Cloth of Light).

Karen Madigan from Old Bar (New South Wales) says “Weaving has given me a creative and intellectual base in my life. Allowing me to enjoy and discover so much about life and the world we live in. Words, stories, music & poetry were woven into my panel with the actual threads. Words and sound create an intellectual connection with others; the sensory work and texture of the weaving will connect our unspoken emotions. This is a holistic project that I’m delighted to a part of.”

Weavers of the Biripi indigenous women of the Manning Valley in NSW assisted Karen on the weaving of her panel, making red, yellow and black beads for the closing wefts.

Maryann Stamford - Maleny, (Queensland) – “After 26 years I still get butterflies when I see a loom dressed and ready for the weaver. In weaving, I find an odd combination of order and control, mixed with unending variations and surprises. The physical technique of weaving satisfies my need for rhythm and logical progression, while the infinite combinations keep me excited and determined to discover the unknown.”

Maryann’s concept for The One World, One Cloth Project came from her fascination of the possibilities of the 'six degrees of separation' that surround our lives. In the same way this project reminded Maryann of how our passions are shared by so many others who we will never meet in person but are somehow linked each to the other. So Maryann evoked her own six degrees of separation by asking family, neighbours, and friends to take a cream or white ribbon to as many of their friends, colleagues and neighbours as possible and to gather their signatures on the ribbon with a permanent black pen. Maryann wove over 330 individual names and 10 Textile/Weaving Groups, representing many hundreds more, into her panel. All these people came together in her studio then took their place in her weaving and then flowed outwards again to combine with the people from the panels from every continent of the world.

Gail Campbell who lives in Beeliar, (Western Australia) involved weavers from The Western Australia Handweavers, Spinners and Dyers Guild in the weaving of her panel.

Gail says “I found your web page while browsing on the net for information for one of my school classes and thought this would be a great idea to encourage our group to think outside the circle of Western Australia and join with international people to inspire others and to give enjoyment to others so that they may have a blessing as well. I find the secret to life is giving to others as you are then doubly blessed.” Gail also says “On receiving the balls of thread I opened the bag and wondered how the group would place these diverse threads into making the panel. A bright yellow warp and three balls of thick and thin, dark and light, novelty and plain, and even cut cloth, bias binding and cord....”  Gail and the weavers from the WA Guild decided that it would be best to sort the threads into light, medium and dark and weave the panel from light to dark.

Dawn Looming and Lienzo Luminoso are two of the seven-panelled world cloths being woven from individual threads contributed by thousands of people world-wide, into an ambitious work of art, symbolizing unity amidst diversity. Each seven-panelled cloth has been warped in a different colour of the colour spectrum and has been given a name that represents the theme of that particular cloth. The transcendent theme of the cloths implies that we are all tied together and, just as every thread makes a difference in the cloth, every person makes a difference in the world.

Weavers Forum became a Threads Ambassador and following the quick engagement of the four weavers from Australia, encouraged members, family and friends to send in threads – either as an individual or from their local group.

People were also encouraged to include their name, group’s name and details, and any information if the thread they were sending had a special story. The weavers of the panels kept these stories in a project notebook and some stories have been placed on The Thread Project website www.threadproject.com along with lots of other information on this interesting project, which was started in 2001.

2006 saw completion of cloths and in the September, five years after 9/11, over 400,000 people viewed all 49 panels hanging together for the first time in St Paul’s Chapel, New York (see Threads Project 8 Sept 2006 video clip at http://www.trinitywallstreet.org/multimedia/?video.) At present the cloths are being exhibited in Charlestown, SC, USA and during October 2007, an event has been organised for the weavers to gather and meet for the first time at a Meet-the-Weavers Reception and a Weavers Forum.