As a child, Joe Buriel had an interest in plants, so he became a scientist. Eventually, he ran the now-defunct Soil Testing Laboratory at the University of Maryland before he retired in 2004.
Buriel also had a creative spirit, which led him to pursue a wide range of artistic expression. His mediums include watercolors, etching and quilting, but the medium most associated with Buriel is weaving (though he prefers to call it “fiber artistry”).
From his home studio on Longfellow Street (and sometimes from his dining table), Buriel produces items that include scarves, towels and coasters featuring earth-tone colors, such as umber, ochre, sage and burnt sienna. Sometimes, though, he also incorporates brighter hues like paprika and cerulean blue.
From his home studio (and sometimes from a small loom in his dining room), Buriel weaves towels, scarves and “useful” kitchen items.
Ceramicist Becky Moy Behre met and befriended Buriel in the 1980s, and eventually invited him to participate in festivals at her Greenbridge Pottery in Howard County. Behre said she had admired Buriel’s painting, knitting and quilting, but only later recognized that his major passion was weaving.
“He has prolifically produced such a profusion of lovely well-crafted scarves, tea towels and place mats with rich sumptuous textures and deep colors, and I was amazed to discover one day that he’d never sold his work,” she said. “So I urged him to share it with the world, and we started carrying some of his work in our gallery. He is now a regular participant in our annual Woolyfest and other Greenbridge events, where his wares are greatly admired and well purchased.”
Joe’s weaving (sorry, fiber artistry) journey began almost by osmosis in 1985. At the time, he was working with another textile-based medium — quilting — when inspiration hit. “I was making these place mats from leftover drapery scraps used in making quilts,” he said. “And then when I saw the interaction of all these pieces of fabric going back and forth, I decided to learn how to weave.”
The end-product determines the yarn Buriel uses. Towels are (usually) made from cotton, while scarves incorporate plant-derived rayon for added drape.
His curiosity piqued, Buriel took a weaving class at the now-defunct Springwater Fiber Workshop, a nonprofit organization in Alexandria, Va., that included a store and a school for teaching the fiber arts (the workshop closed permanently in 2007). Over the years, he also studied fiber arts and visual arts at the University of Maryland’s Art and Learning Center (now known as Studio A), Yellow Barn Studio in Glen Echo, and Montpelier Arts Center in Laurel.
Naturally, Buriel gravitated toward fiber arts for the creativity, but he is also drawn to the practicality of the items he weaves. “I like doing things that are useful, like scarves,” he said. “They’re decorative, but they’re useful. You can wear them. I make these place mats, the kitchen towels and coasters. Everything I do is supposed to be useful.”
The end-product determines the yarn Buriel uses. Towels are (usually) made from cotton, but he likes his scarves to have some drape, so he often adds rayon that comes from plant-derived material, typically bamboo. “I can use silk, although if I do, then it’s more expensive, which means that I have to charge more,” he said. “I also don’t use wool because some people are allergic to it, and it can be scratchy.”
Buriel stays clear of trendy designs and instead weaves patterns that speak to him. Ideas may come from almost anywhere and almost anything — nature, other textiles, pottery. “There is a go-to magazine for weavers [Handwoven], and you can get a lot of ideas there,” he said. “The other place you can go is the internet or yarn suppliers.”
Buriel stays clear of trendy designs and instead weaves patterns that speak to him.
What started as a journey of creativity slowly morphed to include commerce. He eventually started selling his wares at local art festivals and fairs. “I pretty much started selling when people started asking me to be in their shows, like Becky [Moy Behre] and Bine [Sabine Dahn, owner of Bine’s Pottery in Ashton],” Buriel said. “They wanted to have a variety of artisans at their mini festivals, so they asked if I would be willing to sell. And it works out for me because I can get rid of my stuff and be able to buy [more yarn] to make more stuff.”
For the past five years, Buriel has been a fixture at the Hyattsville Arts Festival (formerly known as “Arts & Ales”), where his scarves and towels sell well. He said this year’s festival, in late September, was his best ever. Still, selling is not the main objective. “I do the weaving for myself,” he said. “Selling is not an important part of the whole process. I do it because it’s fun interacting with people, and it’s nice to have people say, ‘Oh, I really like your stuff,’ and ‘This is really beautiful.’”
Buriel has been a fixture at the Hyattsville Arts Festival, where his scarves and towels sell well.
It may not look like it, but weaving is pretty labor intensive. One does not simply sit down, start weaving and end up with a useful object. “In order to complete a project, you need to have an idea of how much yarn you’re going to need and what patterns are going to be done,” said Buriel. “So, most weavers have a data sheet that you put down what it is you’re going to make, what it is you’re going to use to make it, and then you can calculate how much yarn you will need. And it’s very mathematical. I worked in the lab all my life, so this came pretty natural to me.”
Weavers then have to determine the warp (the stationary yarns that run north to south) and the weft (the horizontal yarns that are passed back and forth from east to west). The warp provides the structure, while the weft creates the width of the fabric. The weaver controls much of this via multiple pedals on the loom, so it’s important for the fiber artist to remember the desired pattern. Buriel says it takes about two days to set up the loom to start a project.
It takes a lot of yarn to weave a scarf. Buriel’s typical piece, for example, measures 72 inches long and uses about 239 yards of yarn for the warp and 183 yards for the weft. It also takes about a week to complete.
Buriel and his husband, Dave, have lived in Hyattsville for more than 30 years — enough time to see the dramatic changes in population and development. But the one constant is the embrace and support of the maker community. “There are a lot more people moving in,” Buriel said. “But I think Hyattsville has kept its charm, with creative people coming in and carrying on the tradition. It’s nice to see.”