For nearly 30 years, Black Mountain Artisans provided West Marin and Bay Area fiber artists with a place to show and sell their creations, and offered one-of-a-kind pieces to Point Reyes Station residents and visitors. The fiber collective is closing its doors on Jan. 24.
The historic building that housed the store sold in August, but Marlie de Swart, the cooperative’s owner for the past 18 years, says myriad factors, including changes brought about by Covid, went into her decision.
“I would go back and forth, back and forth,” she said. “All of [the artists] create and have needed an outlet for their work.”
Today, Black Mountain Artisans has about 25 members, though in recent years membership was closer to 40. The work on display in the tiny main street storefront includes handspun and hand-dyed local wool and yarns and hand-knit and hand-loomed clothing, from sweaters to shawls to baby hats.
Midge Fox has been part of the cooperative since 2001, when it was called Black Mountain Weavers. Like many other members, Ms. Fox found the co-op at a time when she was looking to integrate her creativity and community. Working at the store connected her to not only fellow artists but also other store owners, to residents who frequented the store in search of unique yarns, and to tourists whose visits were annual traditions.
“It was a really warm, nice place, and I’ll miss it terribly,” she said.
The shop also worked closely with local shepherds, offering mill-spun yarn from Windrush Farm, Lost Coast Yarns, 10-Acre Tomales Bay Yarns and Feline Fibers. Mimi Luebbermann raises sheep, alpaca and llamas at Windrush Farm in nearby Chileno Valley, which has been a source of fleece for the shop.
“Artists, maybe a bit like farmers, are great at producing a product, but often not very good at selling it,” she said. “Marlie’s store, which is so warm and inviting, has been the center of encouragement for local fiber artists.”
Ms. Luebberman, who has taught spinning classes with Ms. de Swart at Windrush for 18 years, said fiber is a complex business and that Ms. de Swart “really knows what she’s doing and makes it look effortless to us mere mortals.”
“It’s hard for people to conceive of fiber as art, but if you understand what she’s doing, it’s very complex,” Ms. Luebbermann said. “She is a true artist.”
Ms. de Swart says she knits intuitively, rather than from a design pattern. Every piece is different, and she likes to mix different wools to play with color and detail. Her pieces are both sophisticated and earthy.
Ms. de Swart, who grew up in Holland, studied fine art at the Sorbonne in Paris, at Occidental College in Los Angeles, and at Art Center in Pasadena, where she met her American husband. When they finished school they spent several years in Amsterdam, then returned to the United States and settled in San Francisco. There she became involved in the software industry just as it was getting started.
She was initially hired to manage translation—“everyone in Holland speaks several languages,” she said—but that grew into setting up subsidiaries. She found herself in a fast-paced career that required extensive international travel, and by the age of 50 she and her husband decided it was time for a change. They moved to Bolinas.
Ms. de Swart had spun wool from a young age. Two of her aunts, Franciscan nuns, taught knitting to high schoolers, and her mother spun and knitted.
The question of how to immerse herself once again in a life of creativity was answered when she joined Black Mountain Weavers, a nonprofit cooperative of fiber artists based in Point Reyes Station.
When the co-op began struggling with membership and financial issues, she offered to take over.
“I agreed to make it a sole proprietorship, but to continue as though it was a co-op,” she said.
Charmaine Krieger, a longtime member from Bolinas, is “the master weaver of the group,” according to Ms. de Swart. Ms. Krieger said she understands the challenges of running the business and is grateful for the time she spent working at the brick-and-mortar shop, where members could choose to work several shifts a month to receive a higher percentage of their goods sold.
“I’ve gotten to know Point Reyes much better than I would have,” she said.
Black Mountain Artisans will be open one final week, from Wednesday, Jan. 19 through Monday, Jan. 24, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The members hope to continue sharing their handmade works through pop-ups in the winter months, and Ms. de Swart says she plans to help those who want to find a new home for their work.
For Patricia Briceno, a member of 20 years who said she “grew up with a needle,” hope lies in another store where she can continue to sell her handmade pieces. “I don’t know where it will be, but I can’t just stop making,” she said.