Behind the Scenes: Weaving for Art in Embassies

Over five years ago, Janelle was contacted by a curator from Art in Embassies, a cultural diplomacy program under the U.S. State Department, to create a large-scale textile piece for the brand-new U.S. Embassy being built in Erbil, northern Iraq. At the time, the building hadn’t even broken ground, but the wheels were set in motion.

Photos by Lauren Lemon

As for inspiration, the curator had asked for a textile work that could warm up a massive stone wall, set in a triptych format. They pointed Janelle toward the historic Citadel in Erbil and the work of photographer Sebastian Meyer, whose images of arches, columns, and colorful tile glazes guided the final design. The woven piece blends sandy tan hemp with saturated primary hues, a nod to the citadel’s aged walls and its vivid mosaic details.

Fast forward a few years to the early days of the pandemic, and the project was back on. After officially onboarding as a government contractor (yes, really), Janelle began weaving the first panels during a residency at Peters Valley Craft School in New Jersey. The deadline shifted more than once, as deadlines do, and in the meantime, life moved forward: pop-ups came and went, and eventually our flagship shop opened in the high desert.

Then came the summer of 2024. A very real, very final deadline was set for early 2025, and the weaving kicked into high gear.

With the holiday season in full swing, Janelle brought on two incredibly talented fiber artists from the desert community, rented a dedicated studio space, and got to work. Midway through, the studio sublet ended, and they had to scramble to find a new workspace. The entire piece—massive in scale—was woven in smaller panels across multiple looms, then hand-sewn together on the studio floor. Once stitched, the entire back was reinforced with thick nylon webbing, sewn on by hand in a grid pattern to help the work withstand gravity and the test of time.

It took five months of intense, physical labor from the three-person team to complete. And once finished, there was only one thing left to do: see it hanging in all its glory. There just wasn’t a 25-foot blank wall handy.

So, they got creative. The final piece was suspended from a bar rigged to a forklift in the sandlot behind the shop. (The piece is so massive in scale that the forklift wasn’t quite tall enough, so part of the piece still brushed the ground—but we made it work.) Friends and neighbors gathered to celebrate the completion with an art show under the desert sky. The finished tapestry floated like a sail, soft and monumental, woven with so much time and care. It was emotional, to say the least.

A week later, the piece was carefully rolled up in plastic. Art handlers arrived to transport it, and soon it will be crated and shipped to Erbil, where it will be installed in the new U.S. Embassy building. A five-year project, sent out into the world from our corner of the desert. We couldn’t be prouder.