Myra Reichel - Tapestry Weaver, Bryn Mawr College McBride Scholar, Reiki Master
Brywn Mawr Alumnae Bulletin
2000 cover
Tapestry panels from 'Night Tales 1986' by McBride Scholar Myra Reichel '95. Photograph by Rick Echelmeyer
Myra Reichel has worn many hats through her life. She is a hand tapestry weaver, became a Bryn Mawr College McBride Scholar (for returning adult students), supervised construction for Habitat for Humanity, and is now a Reiki Master. Myra started the Reiki Healing Center in Media, PA in 2006.
Childhood dream reclaimed
A career in architecture, not weaving, was the childhood dream of McBride Scholar Myra Reichel ’95. "When I was 5 years old, I started looking at house floor plans in the Sunday newspaper," she recalls. "I paid attention to buildings I saw during my family’s Sunday afternoon rides and later learned architects’ names."
But when Reichel read a brochure in her high school library stating that the profession was closed to women, she was stunned and gave up her dream. She ultimately chose weaving as a satisfactory path while a student at the Philadelphia College of Art. [Bryn Mawr College Alumnae Bulletin, Spring 2000]
Myra was a McBride Scholar at Bryn Mawr College
Regaining a community (full article) by Lynne Litterine ’96
Bryn Mawr College doesn’t leap to mind as a site for vocational rehabilitation, but that is what it was for Myra Reichel ’95. This McBride scholar had been a full-time weaver, but the repeated physical stress of her work had left her with torn rotator cuffs and hip problems. She came to the college looking for a new career and for a renewed sense of community, something she had lost as her weaving was commissioned as corporate art. With financial help from the state Office of Vocational Rehabilitation, she found both...
Reichel graduated with a major in the Growth and Structure of Cities: Urban Public Policy. Until 1999, she worked for Habitat for Humanity of Delaware County. Her sense of community and her enjoyment of traditional students remained constants for her after graduation. Students from Bryn Mawr, Haverford and Swarthmore sometimes performed their community service at the construction sites she supervised for Habitat.
Myra Reichel is
listed in Who’s Who in American Art.
She was one of the top 500 American Craft Council crafts persons on the East Coast for at least five years and has exhibited in solo and group exhibits in galleries and museums.
Reichel still takes weaving commissions.
Myra Reichel - Reiki Master
Myra Reichel received her first Reiki
Healing during a massage in the early 1990's. Because Myra's hands
and feet were always cold, the masseuse suggested that she receive
a Reiki Session every day for 10 days. The Reiki energy improved
her circulation.
Before Myra was attuned to Reiki Healing, her puppy was attacked by another dogl. The puppy's leg was damaged. After several months, the puppy was still not using that leg and the infection was not healing. The Vet said that the leg would have to be removed. The puppy received a Reiki Healing and the puppy’s whole little body got hot. The next day she was walking on the leg and the infection had cleared up. Myra decided to learn Reiki healing herself.
In 1998, Myra received her Level I attunement from Marion Yaglinski, RN Reiki Master. In February of 2004, Myra was attuned as a Reiki Master. Myra can now offer all levels of Reiki attunements to those taking her Reiki Classes and Workshops.
Myra has a Reiki healing practice in Media, PA , at the Reiki Healing Center . Her tapestries are also on view there.