Lola Liepold Creates A Room All Her Own

Sunlight bounces off of brightly colored yawn in in Stonington’s Velvet Mill. The wide-open weaving studio is filled with the comfortable warmth of a home away from home, which is exactly what owner Lola Liepold was seeking when she created the studio.

“I needed a place to get up and go to everyday,” Liepold said.

Two years ago, finding herself alone after the death of her husband, Liepold wanted a reason to get out of the house, a place to store her looms and a spot to weave. She found much more than that in FiberArts Studio.

Today, the space is not so much an artist studio as it is a classroom and resource center. About twenty people use the space paying by the hour or month to keep and use their looms.

“I just left the door open and let people come by,” Liepold said.

Curiosity and word-of-mouth brought people to Liepold and eventually she had to give up her first space in the Velvet Mill for the larger studio that is home to the community of weavers today.

“Some people come all the way from Boston,” Liepold said. “They inherited looms and needed a space to use them and become comfortable with them.”

Liepold grew up in Fairfield County but has lived in the area for over 25 years. She was working at the when she was introduced to her first loom and she slowly taught herself the craft.

“I’m here six days a week now,” Liepold said with laugh and a sly smile before admitting she is ‘secretly’ also at the studio when it is technically closed on Sundays to work on her own projects.

“This is my home,” Liepold said. “I just go to my house to eat and sleep, even the cat comes back and before with me.”

The weaver guild meets at FiberArts Studio ever month and Liepold is planning a three-day workshop in the spring.

“It’s the chance to try different looms and meet different people,” Liepold said.

Something Liepold has got to do basically everyday since she found her own room in the Velvet Mill two years ago.