St. Brigid’s Cloak—a Common Threads Project

Join us for a special viewing of the "Common Threads" project—a celebration in textile form of St. Brigid, the Patroness Saint of Ireland. Meet our local artist, learn about the project and see some exquisite textile interpretations of St. Brigid, then stay for the Saturday Seisuín for live Irish music to round out a wonderful cultural outing at the Irish Center.

Supported by Ireland's Department of Foreign Affairs, the Common Threads project brought together 40 textile artists from around the world (including San Francisco) to imagine a re-creation of St. Brigid’s legendary cloak, in celebration of her patronage of artisanal and cooperative work. The individual pieces collected were assembled by the Irish Patchwork Society and first made available for public viewing at the EPIC Museum in Dublin.

The cloak has now become a sought-after traveling exhibit and will be on display in the St. Francis room at the United Irish Cultural Center in San Francisco, on Saturday, February 8, 2025 from 2–4 pm. LisaRuth Elliott, San Francisco's representative artist, will be on hand to talk about her work as a contributor to the work.

More on the Cloak: https://www.ireland.ie/en/st-brigids-day/common-threads/

ABOUT ST. BRIGID

Brigid was the triple goddess of poetry, healing, and craftwork, and St. Brigid’s cloak is central to the story of how she became one of Ireland’s patron saints. Her legendary cloak is often depicted as a patchwork of colors and materials, reflecting the diversity and inclusivity of Brigid’s values and her work

February 1 is St. Brigid's day, or Imbolc. Long celebrated as a feast day and festival that honors Bridget, and her fiery spirit, Imbolc marks the day that winter gives way to spring, and the first flush of life returns to the land.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

LisaRuth is an urban farmer at San Francisco's Alemany Farm. “Brigid and Imbolc have figured into my sense of the turn of seasons from winter into spring for many years,” says LisaRuth. “The areas of which she is a patroness align with the layers of meaning I work with in my artistic practice.”

Bridget's cloak made Kildare a powerful place, an idea that LisaRuth understands immediately.

“As an urban farmer, I steward the land and soil of the peninsula of Yelamu, the homeland of the Ramaytush Ohlone,” LisaRuth observed. "I am deeply interested in place. The return to an urban garden each week through the seasons gives me a unique understanding of place, and how I am situated within it."

"I'm a very tactile person who finds it satisfying to work with textiles and explore their basis in natural materials," she added.

LisaRuth cultivates a dye garden onsite at Alemany Farm that she uses to color her handmade textiles, growing traditional dye plants like woad, weld, and indigo and sustainably explores native plants less well known for their ability to impart color, like manzanita, which produces a pale pink tint.

LisaRuth used California Sagebrush, California Poppy, Red Flowering Currant, Purple Sage, Elderberry, and other native plants for her patch on Bridget's brat to create a subtle but striking color pallet reminiscent of the rosy warmth of the spring sun, and the rich brown of the soil.

"I chose a selection of dyed silk and cotton dyed with plants endemic to this place—San Francisco/Yelamu."

LisaRuth, who has worked with fiber arts for nearly twenty years, cites her international travels as a teenager as a wellspring of inspiration.

"I became fascinated with the beauty of handmade textiles in each cultural context I was in. I began to study techniques and patterns, and how they related to the specific landscape and culture."

It was through participating in the Common Threads project that LisaRuth was able to re-connect with her roots in the north of Ireland where, fittingly, the manufacturing of linen textiles was a social and economic force.

"The Elliotts I come from are of Antrim and Donegal, and emigrated to the North American continent in 1730," she said. "Participating in “Common Threads” has allowed me to understand more about my family history, from which we have become disconnected from over the generations."

Host or Publisher United Irish Cultural Center