Every other Monday, Berkeley artist Toby St. John goes to the Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles, sits with her stitching and embroidery group, and works on her miniature Middle Eastern needlepoint rugs. Each rug takes five to eight months to complete and she’s made about 30 over the course of the past 25 years.
A selection of St. John’s rugs are now on display at Lacis, in a space usually dedicated to museum pieces.
“This will be the first time we’ve actually had a community member’s work displayed like that,” said Christine Krause, the museum’s manager. “I think what she’s doing is very interesting.”
“I find my designs in books featuring photographs of Middle Eastern rugs,” wrote St. John in an artist statement posted at the museum. “When I find an image I like, I enlarge and print it. This is my ‘pattern,’ and as I’m working, I refer to the image and correspond my stitches to the colors and designs of the photograph.”
St. John grew up in Denver, and in her late teens lived out many a person’s childhood dream: She ran away with the circus. She’d read an article in her local newspaper about a veterinarian who worked with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus that piqued her interest.
“He was talking about the elephants,” recalled St. John. “And I’m like, ‘Oh, maybe I could work with the elephants.’ So when they came and I talked to the elephant guy, he’s like, ‘Oh, we don’t let girls do that.’”
She managed to get a job as a circus vendor, and traveled on the circus train across the country with those elephants, and also lions, tigers, horses and chimpanzees.
After the circus, St. John lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and then Maui before settling in Berkeley, where she met a Texas musician named Powell St. John, who had written songs for Janis Joplin, Boz Scaggs and the legendary Austin psych-rockers, the 13th Floor Elevators, among others. The two married and raised two daughters in Berkeley.
St. John is also a professional photographer, a practice she took up during her time in the circus. These days she mostly photographs children. She also works with children, as a campus aide at John Muir Elementary School, and spends a lot of time with her six grandchildren, all while overseeing her late husband’s music publishing business, and making her miniature rugs, of course.
St. John’s rugs will be on display at Lacis Museum through the end of the year. The rugs are also for sale with prices ranging from $200 to $300 depending on the size. Interested parties should inquire at the museum or ask St. John herself. You can find her at the museum, stitching away, every other Monday afternoon.
“The Miniature Middle Eastern Needlepoint Rugs of Toby St. John” at Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles, 2982 Adeline St., Berkeley. Phone: 510-843-7290. Hours: Monday through Saturday, noon-6 p.m. Closed on Sundays. Connect via Instagram.