Susan Barrett Merrill spins all her own yarns direct from the fleeces of sheep she helps to round up for shearing on an island off the Maine coast. She grows dye plants in her garden and wild-crafts goldenrod and other wild plants in the woods and fields of her coastal Maine area. Susan's masks have been exhibited extensively in museums and galleries, including the Portland Museum of Art, the Farnsworth Museum, and are in private and museum permanent collections, including one purchased during the International Fibre Biennale, for the Museo di Citta di Chieri, near Turin, Italy.

Oma - handwoven hand-spun wool, natural dark gray and white, face dyed with comfrey plants, hand-spun, felted to merino wool headdress.

Mother Earth Humming to Her Creatures - handwoven natural white wool from Maine island sheep, felted on white merino headdress with rams-wool ruff, with turquoise beads and stone animal figures.

Blue Tara - handspun face dyed with Japanese indigo plant, wet-felted wool headdress with indigo details and wire-supported whorls of white and indigo wool.

(SOLD) Rhythm - handspun "in the grease" directly from raw fleece (like all the mask faces), handwoven with the Zati mask 3D weaving technique, wet-felted onto a headdress of merino wool dyed with weld plants from my garden, with madder-dyed details, twined and and needle-felted details. The drummer figure is felted of dyed and natural merino over a wire armature, with a twig drumstick.

Detail of the drummer showing the birch twig drumstick and the twining and needle-felted details.

Radha - black and white handspun and madder-dyed details, with madder-dyed natural wool ruff and felted merino headdress, dyed in madder wash. Twined and needle-felted details and patterns.

(SOLD) Travelers on a Red Road - a triptych of indigo, madder and goldenrod-dyed faces, handwoven of hand-spun island sheep's wool, and felted onto merino headdresses. Indigo and goldenrod details, and plant-dyed felted figures with various materials.

Detail of Red Road mask "Feeding the Hungry Traveler" - plant-dyed figures with wet felting, crochet, beading, and wood discs from branches, with a Japanese-style arrangement of the hook made of an ivory fish, and a silver pot over the cauldron-fire.

Travelers on a Yellow Road - triptych of 3D handwoven Zati masks, of gray wool dyed with goldenrod and madder, or left natural. Felted scene of merino wool, dyed with indigo, goldenrod and madder, with needle-felted details.

Detail of the middle traveler, showing two figures. The right figure is carrying a bundle of birch twigs. All figures are wet-felted over wire armatures, with plant-dyed details, twigs, silver beads, and various materials.

Red - this graphic mask is 3D handwoven from black and white wool, and felted onto a headdress dyed in an intense madder dye pot. The face is ringed with three strands of carnelian beads.

Jamoja's Kiss - two faces in relationship. Handwoven, plant-dyed, linen warp, wet-felted onto merino wool headdresses. On an iron frame.

Sar-Akka - a brilliantly-colored 3D handwoven Zati mask, with intensely-dyed yarns of madder, indigo and goldenrod, with linen warp and natural gray wool. Felted on a colorful headdress with Central Asian shyrdak designs, lined with madder-dyed crochet trim, tiny turquoise beads, and antique silver earrings.

Susan Barret Merrill is weaving Sar-Akka. The Zati 3D weaving technique came to her in a dream. Woven flat, with weft-wedging and slit-weave, pulling threads together brings the face into shape. Her chief dyes are madder roots, Japanese indigo used fresh, traditional indigo, and goldenrod. Susan's masks and her philosophy of weaving are detailed in her book, The Art of Weaving a Life, published in soft cover by Schiffer, and available at Weaving a Life website in soft-cover, ebook (pdf) and audio book read by the artist.