Obviously I couldn't explain all this to the judges.
The Amanda dress from Episode 1 on Making The Cut was made here in Franklin before leaving for Los Angeles. This process began to tell the tale.
The letters below correspond with the letters on the tarot card
1st. The dress is being worn by a weaver named Elizabeth Goody - shown here on the card. She makes this dress as a replica of one of the many 1940's vintage pieces she collects. She is an expert weaver and clothes maker and lives in Cherry Valley, NY, establishing a textile Mill.
She is also a veteran of the war in Vietnam. She represents the alchemist for sometimes better and sometimes worse. This can be considered an Alchemy card.
A. The cone of yarn symbolizes the palette for the weaver. It is the color, weight, texture we choose to spin our stories- our fabric. Every day we make yarn choices that make up the fabric of our lives. Elizabeth uses yarn to recreate history and, in some cases, to bring life back to earth.
B.The shuttle for the loom is what shoots the fabric in and out between the warp threads. The shuttle can represent the energy of others or within ourselves. It's also one of those "what we do with it" symbols that can generate positive energy or chaotic, disruptive force.
C.Elizabeth begins to research the story of Amanda Pepino, whose gravestone she discovered while visiting her best friend, another Vietnam veteran and mechanic Michelle Watts. Michelle owns the Army surplus and garage where the grave is found at the church next door. The gravestone on the tarot card can be interpreted in many ways, but here it symbolizes not only Amanda but Elizabeth's interest in the stories of others and the history of places. The Freemason symbols of the square and compass represent the tools that are not always available to everyone, and therefore this allows us to acknowledge our unique advantages and disadvantages.
D.The punchcard is the map for the jacquard loom that Elizabeth uses
to design the patterns in her rugs and textiles. The punchcard was invented in 1804 by Joseph-Marie Jacquard and was the beginning of the information revolution and early computer programming. The punchcard is the design map that we create.
E.The Alien Fauna is a species that Elizabeth unknowingly brings back from Vietnam and specifically the laboratory she would work in when she wasn't practicing as a nurse. It starts to grow around the Mill, and she becomes obsessed and begins to weave graphic representations of it in her 19th-century rug commissions. This image taken from the back of the Amanda coat was put into a silkscreen for the Amanda dress. It represents the "other" while also symbolizing the female.