Posted on 06/16/2002 5:48:56 AM PDT by NewHampshireDuo
For more than 25 years, a group of Down East women has been getting together to spin wool so that it can be woven into cloth and then made into clothes.
But about a year and a half ago the women began to see the benefit of not wearing clothes for a while.
They were lounging in a hot tub, on a weekend retreat, and thinking about ways to raise money for a group trip to Ireland. They thought about a book or a calendar. Maybe a semi-nude calendar?
They had heard about other mature women doing this sort of thing, including a group in England. And right next door in New Hampshire, a group called The Women of Tamworth produced their own very revealing calendar for 2002. So why shouldn't a group of spinners from Down East Maine put their best, uh, foot forward?
We were steaming in the hot tub and I just said, "We Rubenesque women are as beautiful as anything else that¹s come down the pike, said Susanne Grosjean of Franklin, 55, the calendar's "Miss August" and the member who proposed the idea. "We're all flabbergasted at how well it came out."
The spinning women were inspired enough by Grosjean's hot-tub proclamation to create a 2003 calendar called "Wearing Wool: Celebrating the Ancient Art of Spinning and the Ageless Beauty of Women." The calendar features some 20 members of a spinning circle ages 33 to 70 wearing their homemade wool products and little else. It went on sale this spring.
The shots, especially several taken from behind, leave little to the imagination. The July layout shows nine women lying face down on the grass, eight of whom are wearing nothing but wool socks. In shots taken from the front, the women are often holding a sheep, a piece of wool or something else to keep their revealing photographs from becoming even more revealing.
The spinners who participated in the calendar say they think the shots are tasteful. They say a big part of why they wanted to do this is to help counter stereotypes of female beauty as seen in magazines, TV shows and movies. And they hope to raise money for an Ireland trip, plus donate 10 percent of the proceeds to the fight against breast cancer.
"Some people probably think we're ridiculous, but one of the reasons to do this is to say to women out there, This is what women really look like," said Joli Greene, 52, who lives in Freeport now but joined the group when she lived on Mount Desert Island.
"Young people are growing up with complexes about their bodies, and one of our messages is that we are all ages and sizes and still think of ourselves as beautiful," said Cynthia Thayer, 58, who lives on a farm in Gouldsboro.
Group members say the calendars are selling like crazy in the area where they live, roughly from about Ellsworth to Machias. Members say they've heard a few rumblings from people who think the calendar goes too far, including a few spinning group members who didn't participate. But mostly the response has been positive.
"We're all selling them to friends and people in town, and none of us can keep them in stock," said Grosjean. "We're giving them to our kids and grandkids."
Members say they had about 10,000 calendars printed, and are sure they¹ll need a second printing soon.
The spinning group began in the mid-1970s; the women get together on Wednesdays in somebody's house for a spinning session and a pot of soup. Accordingly, the calendar includes many of their favorite soup recipes.
Many of the women make at least part of their living from wool, as weavers or sheep shearers or knitters. The group also includes a writer, an office administrator and a bed-and-breakfast owner. Several live on farms.
Some members say they were a little nervous about posing in the buff or near-buff, at least at first. Grosjean remembers the first photo shoot she was involved with, outdoors on a freezing-cold winter day at Thayer's farm in Gouldsboro.
"We were all standing around in these bathrobes, all feeling a little strange, when Doug (Trumbull, the photographer) asked if he should take his clothes off, too," said Grosjean. "We all laughed, and after that it was all fun. But all the sessions were in the cold. August was the only warm one we had."
Ah, the perils of posing in the buff in Maine.
How can you make any money when you give them away????
What child wants to see gramma's bum?
Or, as dear old Mum used to say, "Their gast was flabbered..."
That's what I wanted to know!
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