Sugarcreek Artist to participate in Great Lakes Fiber Show

Feb, 2000

By Betsy Bower

Staff Writter

Photo: Mike Schenk

    Necessity is sometime the mother of invention, but in the case of Jan and Bob Cox, necessity was the mother of inventiveness. "We were poor as church mice," said Bob. "Jan had one crochet needle and some thread and she made doilies and tablecloths just to make enough money so our kids could have a Christmas."
    That was 26 years ago. And even though family finances are no longer at the church-mice stage, Cox continues to creae a variety of needlework items. She has become a fiber artist who crochets, knits felts, spins and weaves. She dyes some of her own yarns and even makes the ceramic buttons for her sweaters and jackets. Cox uses a lot of natural-colored wool and llama fleece purchased locally, as well as silk blends and cotton-rayon blends to fashion sweaters, jackets, shawls, scarves, hats, socks and "bizzers".
    Bizzers are comfy, soft slippers which bear a remarkable resemblance to sheep because of the added ears and curly hair adornment.
    "I couldn’t say ‘slippers’ when I was little," says Jan. "Bizzers just stuck."
    She’ll have bizzers (and other creations) available at this year’s Great Lakes Fiber Show to be held May 27-28, (2000) at the Wayne County Fairgrounds. The show will again be held in conjunction with the Great Lakes Sheep and Wool Show and Sale.
    Cox began her business in West Virginia, but she and her husband moved to Sugarcreek several years ago. They participate in in the Swiss Festival in Sugarcreek. Last year was their first experience at the Great Lakes Show in Wooster.
    The couple have, literally, built their own business.
    Jan explained that her very first spinning wheel was made by her husband with of pieces of PVC and a bicycle wheel.
    "It was a real workhorse," she said. "It was heavy!"
    Now, Bob Cox writes software that allows his wife to create unlimited patterns on her 16 harness loom.
    But while computerized software permits her to set up her loom, Cox creates and retains almost all of her patterns in her head. She has shared her bizzer pattern with only one other fiber artist – a friend from Morgantown, W.Va.
   Cox is pretty much self-taught in all of her endeavors. She says one day she decided she wanted to knit and so she just began. Her mother watched her knitting for quite awhile, attempting to figure out what kind of stitch her daughter was using.
   As it turns out, she was doing a twisted stitch, which is normally a more advanced stitch.
"Mom bought me a Reader’s Digest book, " she laughed.
   Cox doesn’t do production pieces and all of her items are limited editions and designs. The sweaters and jackets she’ll bring to the Great Lakes Show will have designs relating to the sheep industry, but she also makes clothing decorated with other animals, farm scenes, covered bridges and more.
   And if you have made your own sweater, but want a unique closure, you can also purchase her hand-made buttons.
   Growing weary of searching for just the right buttons for her sweaters and jackets, Cox decided to simply make her own.
   She rolls clay, cuts it with custom-designed cutters made by a Dover tinsmith, and then paints and glazes the buttons. And then she fires them in her own kiln.
   Jan explained that she approached a neighbor about firing the buttons for her, but because the woman was moving, she wouldn’t be able to help out. So, out of necessity once again, the Coxes purchased one of the woman’s kilns, sit it up, and set about figuring out how to use it.

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