MECA&D 2025 Fundraiser Features Student Design

Connecting with Maine College of Art & Design

Maine College of Art & Design looms large on the western end of Congress Street in downtown Portland, Maine. Its classrooms are housed in the historic Porteous, Mitchell and Braun Company Building, which once housed the Porteous department store. It was Portland’s biggest department store for many years Portland’s own Saks Fifth Avenue—until it fell on hard times as retail fled to the suburbs in the 1970’s. Porteous finally closed its doors in 1991.

Enter Maine College of Art & Design, whose stunning restoration and adaptive reuse of the space took what may well have become a white elephant and transformed it into a vibrant art school and community space.

Maine College of Art & Design transformed the former Porteous department store into a vibrant art school in Portland’s Arts District.

The textile department at MECA&D has grown out of this impulse to make new what is old. The department specializes in both design and technique, which have somehow grown apart from each other at most other textile programs across the country. At MECA&D, students learn not only the technical aspects of textile production but they return to the simpler origins of basic textile construction. Weavers, knitters and designers all learn how to construct, compose and apply the proper fiber fills. This philosophy aligns perfectly with Swans Island’s mission to take what is valuable from history and bring it forward.

Last fall, MECA&D’s Major Gifts Officer, Dianne Brown, reached out to Swans Island seeking sponsorship for MECA&D’s annual spring fundraiser, The Fashion Show. As our conversation meandered and evolved, I suggested that we invite a student up to partake in a dyeing and weaving internship here at our Northport studios. We decided that rather than just providing sponsorship for their event, we would have a student design, dye and weave a totally unique throw blanket, which would become our donation to their annual event.

“We decided that rather than just providing sponsorship support for their event, we would have a student design, dye and weave a totally unique throw blanket which would become our donation to their annual event.”

MECA&D faculty advised us that they had the perfect student in mind. We were so excited when that intern arrived at our studio in late January of 2025. Milo Glassman, a Textile and Fashion Design student, came to Northport to work with the whole Swans Island team, learning about the traditional methods we employ. Milo spent the winter months moving through each department at Swans Island, getting their hands involved in—from hand-dyeing yarn and designing to weaving on our antique looms.

An idea takes shape

Inspired by a book about natural dyes, Milo worked with Swans Island design director Michele Orne to select a palette of yarns from our Northport yarn shop. Milo was drawn to the unique beauty only natural dyes can create. They selected a beautiful range of hand-dyed wool yarns from our Natural Colors and Sterling yarn collections.

We decided Milo’s subtle and sophisticated color palette would be woven on a white warp. The rich earthy palette of seven colors, including charcoal, tarragon green, soft vintage lilac, and lichen-colored Merino and alpaca, would rest on a ground of softly-heathered grey Corriedale wool.

“Milo was drawn to the unique beauty only natural dyes can create, incorporating seven naturally-dyed colors in the Salt Water Throw.”

The Salt Water Throw comes to life

Milo produced several designs based on the idea of kelp and salt water as a motif. With critiques and suggestions provided by the Swans Island team, Milo refined the design through more sketches and woven swatches done at the MECA&D textile studios on campus. After reviewing many iterations in sketch form, we selected our favorite design.

We all agreed on a pattern featuring non-repeating subtle stripes of hand-dyed merino wool. Gentle, all-natural shoreline hues on a ground of beautiful soft grey Corriedale would become Milo’s Salt Water Throw. Milo worked with one of the Swans Island weavers to learn the workings of our shuttle looms and then spent a  snowy February day weaving their original design.

Once Milo’s throw was cut off the loom, the Swans Island finishing team took over, completing the precise process of weaving in loose ends and fixing any minor imperfections. Trimming the weaver’s mark, washing and drying were the final steps in preparing the Salt Water Throw for its debut at the MECA&D 2025 Fashion Show.

It has been such a joy to see this project move through our dye house, weaving studio, and finishing room. The resulting piece is quite lovely to behold. We hope that Milo, their mentor Alysha Kupferer and the fine administrators we interacted with at MECA&D got as much out of this project as we did! We are proud to have the Swans Island weaver’s mark featured on this beautiful throw.

You can enter to win The Swans Island & MECA&D Salt Water Throw —designed and woven by Milo Glassman. For more information on purchasing raffle tickets to win this lovely one-of-a-kind throw, visit the Maine College of Art & Design website at meca.edu/fashionshow for details on the May 2025 event.

The Swans Island + MECA&D
Salt Water Throw
by Milo Glassman

The Details

• The Salt Water Throw  was designed and woven by MECA&D student Milo Glassman.
• The yarns used to make these throws are all hand-dyed in our Maine studio.
• This throw incorporates different combinations of three kinds of yarn in seven colors.
• Sterling (85% Certified organic Merino wool + 15% alpaca)
• Natural Colors (100% Certified organic Merino wool, dyed with all-natural dyes)
• Undyed 100% American Corriedale wool