This is my new series of masks called Buddha’s smile. They’re serene and a little different from my other masks. There is more structure in the nose, brows, cheeks and eyes, and they are all in white, woven from my handspun yarn from sheep I help shear (I help corral the sheep and sort and grade the wool) on an island off the coast of Maine.

My handspun yarn is one or two ply, and sometimes I spin it finer for facial details, sometimes heavier for the brow and chin. I spin in the grease, right off the raw fleece. I can do that with this yarn, because as you can see the island has no trees -- just heather and grass. The sheep are incredibly clean --there’s nothing for them to get into. They’re also very healthy, probably due to the quantities of seawead in their diet!

That’s my friend Jeri shearing, and our ride back from the island, towed by a friend’s lobster boat.