Marie Brace
Artist
I am a mother, an artist and a lover of the Earth and nature. I have always enjoyed spending my days outside in the fresh air and sunshine, surrounded by animals, and I find myself lucky enough to be living that life with my family every day.
I stumbled upon the fiber arts after college when a family friend taught me how to knit, and soon after that I wanted to make my own yarn…and have fiber animals…and then sell my art! It has been about fifteen years now since I first started down this path, and starting The Wheel and The Anvil with my husband eight years ago has been one of the most fufilling experiences of my life.
Working with my hands is something that brings me happiness, whether it is in my studio or in the garden and I hope you enjoy the things I make as much as I enjoy creating them.
“Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.”
-J.R.R. Tolkien
In the studio- fiber processing
Freshly sheared fleeces from our flock waiting for a bath. Clockwise from top left- Earl Grey, Latte and Chamomile (both white), Mocha and Coffee.
Hand carding beautiful Shetland locks into rolags for hand spinning.
Soft and fluffy singles on two full bobbins ready to be plied into yarn!
Soft hand dyed rolags ready to be spun!
A sweet little needle felted squirrel sleeping in a bed of nuts.
Bespoke Fiber
Marie has almost fifteen years of experience with wool and works hard processing much of our fiber into something other fiber artists love to use for their special projects. She sells fiber at every stage of preparation- washed natural fleece, hand dyed fleece and locks, hand dyed rovings, batts and rolags, as well as hand spun yarn and hand knit apparel. She loves creating every stage, and also loves commissions! Please feel free to reach out to her with your ideas.
The finished product! Hand knit hats with local alpaca pom-poms. These hats were our first run of Maine mill-spun yarn and hand knit by Marie.
Clouds of wool carded on the drum carder and waiting to be spun on the spinning wheel.
Finished hand spun yarn all plied and ready to be skeined and soaked.
Finished hand spun ready to be knit.
Needle felted sheep toppers for knitting needles! These tiny guys help to keep your knitting on the needles.
Milled fiber
We decided to partner with Bag End Suri’s, a local alpaca farm, last year to try and see what a locally milled yarn would look like. The result was fabulous! Aroostook Fiber Mill did an excellent job for us and created a very soft and silky worsted weight yarn in three colors that is 50% Shetland and 50% Huacaya alpaca. We will be sending a few more batches to the mill to create more of this wonderful yarn that will be available in upcoming shows and as soon as our new online shop opens.
