You never know what you might find at a church rummage sale, and what you might learn about someone you have never heard of before.
Take Harwood Steiger. I didn't know a thing about this textile designer until I came upon 3 yards of mint-condition, hand-printed pink cotton fabric from Harwood Steiger Studios that dates to the 1970s. The pattern is called "April" and it shows images of foliage and birds.
Steiger was best known for his desert-inspired textiles. With his wife, Sophie, they produced silk screened styles (36 yards at a time for each pattern). The company was in existence in Tubac, Ariz., from 1956 until the 1980s.
Steiger was born near Rochester, N.Y., which is about 70 miles from where I live. He went to the Rochester Institute of Technology. In the 1920s, he moved to New York City, where he opened his own art studio and taught classes. In the '30s, he opened a summer art school at Martha's Vineyard called The Steiger Paint Group. His paintings were primarily watercolors and his style was similar to other artists of the Works Progress Administration.
The Steigers lived in New York in the summers and returned to Arizona for the winters. There, they would print their fabrics, which in addition to overall yardage, included table linens and 2-yard dress panels.
Steiger passed away at the age of 80. The Tubac studio was later run by his sister-in-law. It closed in the 1980s.
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