I've always loved color and was trained as an abstract painter. But once I discovered Fair Isle and stranding techniques in knitting, a whole new world of creativity opened up to me.
My love of world travel has led me to study ethnic knitting motifs and their inter-connectedness through historic trade routes. After my first visit to Turkey I fell in love with both Ottoman and tribal textiles as well as the open-heartedness of the people. I love translating ethnic textile motifs into knitted patterns and experimenting with color. My other love is teaching knitting and encouraging the artist in each of us to come out and play.
Artist's statement: My goals are: to inspire other knitters to experiment with color and pattern to create their own unique designs; to translate traditional ethnic motifs into knitted patterns and publish them in a variety of media.
I am available to travel to teach workshops on Intro to Stranded Knitting, Designing your Own Vest, Interpreting Ethnic Motifs into Knitting Designs and Knitting a Turkish-inspired Stranded Hat. I can also work with your yarn to design sale-able knitting patterns.
These pants are made with soft waterproof breathable fabric and partially lined with recycled cotton t-shirts. The combination
keeps your little baby dry and warm. I designed these pants after
noticing that my baby’s legs were always wet and cold during our
Portland winter walks. All the pant legs would become too short
when sitting in a stroller or hiking back pack.
Hedgehog Hiker pants are designed to fit extra long. For everyday use, wear the folded cuff up. When it is time to venture outdoors, wear the cuff down. This extra couple inches really helps keep little ankles cozy and provides parents confidence to enjoy some fresh air. There is an adjustable waistband and awesome big pocket for treasures.
A sustainable product and business; “Hedgehog Hiker” pants are made using material milled in the USA, recycled fibers, and eco-friendly print methods. 80% of the materials are purchased from vendors in the Pacific Northwest.
So grab a pair and get outside!
Available at:
Milagros Boutique, NE 33rd (Portland, OR)
Piccolina, 26th and Clinton (Portland, OR)
Polliwog (Portland, OR)
Bug a Boo of Ashland (Ashland, OR)
Bambini of Eugene (Eugene, OR)
Artist's statement: My name is Emily Purdin of “Hedgehog Hiker”, hiking clothes for children. The “Hedgehog Hiker” clothing brand is designed to keep children dry, active, and comfortable. As a textile artist, I felt compelled to make a product that is 100 % unique. Every last detail has been designed by me, right down to the printed fabric. My customers really appreciate this attention to detail. Best of all, the clothing is made specifically for the rainy Pacific Northwest! You know if it works here, it will wear well anywhere! Thanks for continuing to support locally made and sustainable products.
(No hedgehogs have been tested in the making of these clothes.)
After many years of teaching and advising students on campuses including the University of Wisconsin and Stanford, budget cuts left me without a classroom. Finally, I could focus full time on my inherent artistic interests dyeing and weaving yarn.
Today I design and weave one-of-a-kind textiles using traditional looms, respecting and preserving an ancient form of art. I have four looms in my home studio and use only natural fibers: cotton, silk, tencel (fiber made from wood), bamboo and soy.
My website, annrobinsontextiles.com, serves as a gallery and as a direct communication link. The interactive process between the artist and the interested party begins with a communication (personal, telephone, email) outlining what s/he has in mind, a piece on the site or a custom option.
Artist's statement: My goal is to teach the art of weaving to as many people as possible because weaving teaches us much more than how to make cloth. Learning to weave provides focus and discipline and allows us to practice patience and endurance. These skills, I believe, are necessary to maintain one's sanity in this chaotic world.
Studio fiber artist. I create free-standing three-dimensional fiber art made of thread (once I realized I loved thread so much, I figured out how to drop out the fabric). I also create landscape art quilts (with lots of threadwork).
I founded Doughty Designs in 1991 and have been creating commissioned work in the textile medium ever since. From 2002-06 I was a regional co-representative for Studio Art Quilts Associates and am now the Website Coordinator. I have taught and lectured on various aspects of art quilts in several states. My work is in private, public, and corporate collections, and has been exhibited on five continents.
Artist's statement: I love the concept of ""place"" and so my preferred subject matter is the landscape. Often my inspiration (and sometimes even my materials) comes from the trees I know so well, in my own yard and neighborhood. Currently my work focuses on exploring what makes fiber art so unique: texture, freedom of shape of the ""canvas,"" and employing three rather than two dimensions.
After creating art quilts for many years, particularly utilizing thread-sketching techniques to ""draw"" on the surface, I came to realize that I love thread even more than I love fabric. This led to my exploration of machine-stitching sculptural objects made only of thread.
I am a textile creator who believes in the power of community involvement. My gallery (www.galeriaoctagono.com) is a community-based collective atop the northern mountains in Costa Rica, where I work with seven women and their families. I provide materials, design, and educational opportunities as well as an equitable distribution of proceeds. All our work is handmade, free-style, and original. My husband, Rich, and I enjoy practicing alternative tourism as a B&B, and our log cabin is available to travelers wishing a personalized experience in Costa Rica.
Artist's statement: There is no limit to the versatility of textiles. Learning and experimentation allow me to be aware and keep myself open to change. To be creative I must lose fear of being wrong. To be correct I must make sure that my art has social projection.
I work with interior designers, art consultants, art collectors, and art lovers wanting to create an uplifting and colorful living area or work space that reflects their personality and inspires them to make their dreams come true. My art quilts add color and vibrancy to your home and office.
I also teach workshops for quilt lovers who love to make quilts and expand their creativity.
Artist statement: The walls are covered with art, and everywhere you look, there is some sign that art quilts are being made. I love the idea that "Home is where the Heart is" and I also feel that "Home is where the Art is". My Art is from my Heart, most definitely. I also believe that art is for healing. Each and every one of us is creative. Each child is born with creativity. This is part of who we are. Each person is unique and capable of expressing something which reflects his/her own individual quality. There is a Creative Spiritual Energy which flows through us all, and which connects us all together. I believe that we can use this energy to create whatever we want to experience in life. Some of the tools that I use for my creative expression are meditation, prayer, and journaling, drawing, and painting, quilt making, and working with clay. I truly believe that I am fed by Spirit when I do these things, and that over the years, my life has been transformed because of my creative and Spiritual practice.
Hi! I'm Christine and I'm a resident artist at Williams Mill Visual Arts Centre in Glen Williams, Ontario (near Toronto). I'm now in my 7th year there as a professional fabric artist and my work has evolved dramatically over time. I often create my fine art pieces improvisationally, however I still enjoy traditional quilting from time to time.
I'm addicted to shiny things so I create a lot of beaded jewelry as well, often incorporating fabric and fiber whenever possible. My latest addiction is bookbinding. I create a lot of leather bound, hand stitched journals these days. I also like to create fabric art journals in my trademark style of fabric collage as well.
Prior to being a visual artist, I worked for over 20 years as an actress and singer, working extensively in theatre, TV and film. I still enjoy performing onstage from time to time and sing regularly in an acoustic band called "Random Roads".
I think my performance background has influenced my artwork which tends to be bold, colorful and dramatic.
My work can be found in the shops below and at The Silo Weavers, St. Jacob's Ontario.
Artist's statement:
To strive for high quality workmanship while continuously spreading my wings artistically and technically.
To elevate the status of art quilts to that of any other artistic medium ie. oil paintings.
To provide my clients with "red carpet" treatment and to guarantee my work.
To be guided by my principles and not my necessities.
“We can no longer sit by silently as we witness atrocities, genocide, abuse, man’s inhumanity to man, destruction, starvation and corruption. We must speak out ...we must demand change, and we must become part of that change.”
I am a contemporary artist with a fondness for fiber in all its many and varied forms. I create 2D and 3D mixed media fine art pieces, and fiber in some configuration or the other can usually be found in my work. Fiber speaks to me because it is so basic and because it seems to have the ability to do things artistically that other materials cannot: I appreciate its ability to be flexible both in application and appearance, implying or creating movement in one piece, yet being strong and robust in another piece. I find its chameleon-like qualities to be well suited for my work and vision.
I maintain a working studio in Sacramento, California, USA, where I create, display my work, teach classes and mentor other artists (realizing, of course, that I learn every bit as much from them as they might from me---artistic and professional growth is wonderful, as are the personal connections made).
My work is available to individual art lovers, collectors and corporations, as well as to galleries that share my fascination with and appreciation of, fiber in contemporary art.
My studio, ITSA Studio, is at 4330 24th Street, #2, Sacramento, California, 95822 USA. Visitors are very welcome at the studio, whether they want to look at or purchase art, shop art supplies or the other treasures offered on my ITSA Studio site, or just have a leisurely visit discussing art and fiber. A cup of tea is always ready for you, but I ask that you contact me through my website(s) to make an appointment so I will be available when you wish to visit.
Artist's statement: My work is my visual response to the world around me, whether it is the political, social, natural or ethereal world. Whether I am troubled, happy, perplexed or enchanted by something I see, hear or experience, my feelings and reactions to that event will eventually find their way into my art. To me, art is communication at its most pure, whether it is in the form of dance, music, the written word, the visual arts, or some other artistic format, it is a way to be authentic, honest and real, and above all, to be heard.
Despite my high energy level, there is never enough time to create all the ideas bouncing around in my head!
Fiber and creativity have been a part of my life since a very young age. I created a pattern from newspaper then sewed my first garment on a Singer Featherweight at around the age of eight. An undergraduate degree in home economics and a master in art lead to a twenty-five year career teaching art and life skills (current idiom for home economics).
Although, I enjoy crafting traditional quilts, dolls and holiday items, my passion is fiber art. A perfect day is one spent in my home studio with fabric spread far and wide creating confetti art. Confetti quilts bring together color and texture with the skill and methods of stitching layers of fabric. Each confetti quilt has thousands and thousands of tiny bits of batik fabric “painted” on quilt batting and backing. Inspiration comes another pastime; hiking trails and beaches here in Michigan or on far flung family vacations.
My confetti quilts have been in several juried local quilt shows here in northwest Michigan and Wisconsin. Additionally, my quilts have been selected for display at the International Quilt Festival in Chicago, Long Beach and Houston. I teach at quilt shops and quilt guilds.
Artist's statement: My mission it to delight others with textile art that allow for my joyful, creative expression with color and texture.
Las Rancheritas is a rug hooking cooperative in a rural village high in the mountains of central Mexico. Their folk art designs are of the life around them: chickens, pigs, mountains, cactus, farming and whatever their imagination creates. The wool used to make their rugs is donated from rug hooking groups throughout the USA and Canada. Sales from the rugs are contributing to a higher standard of living in this subsistence farming community.
Las Rancheritas, a rug-hooking cooperative from Central Mexico.
Mission: To provide funds to a financially disadvantaged community and promote self esteem through development of a craft.
Shani is a handspinning, dyer and weaver, who produces textiles with a "twist".
DyeVerse, her company, runs courses in colour, writing and textile construction, beginner through to experience, located in Wales and the South West.
Artist's statement: I am an established writer and practicing crafts person with a passion for exploring/challenging the possibilities of textiles. I specialise in combining arts and crafts with contemporary design to produce textiles and objects that are both practical and desirable.
I don't use complicated looms, techniques or equipment to produce my garments and installations, preferring to create work with simple constructions. This way I enjoy and engage fully with the process, rather than drowning in technicalities, and the finished item is something which has come into being "through" a slow and deliberate production journey not "because" of it.
Simplicity of construction along with quality of materials will ensure a welcome addition to your wardrobe or wall, or a bespoke present for a treasured friend or that special occasion.
My work has been featured in the Yarn Forward Magazine and various other periodicals and exhibitions throughout the UK, and I was involved with the creation of the SpinDyeWeavers, a textile workshop project in 2009.
The Southeast Fiber Arts Alliance, a non-profit, provides seminars, classes, and workshops in a wide variety of fiber art disciplines.
In July 2011, when we open our fiber arts center, we will also host exhibitions, provide low-cost studio space, and provide low-cost rental space for meetings, classes, workshops, and events. We are open to everyone with an interest in fiber and we aim to engage, educate and inspire!
Mission: We celebrate, support, promote and perpetuate all fiber art forms and connect the fiber arts community. We do this by addressing the following goals:
Connect the fiber arts community;
Promoteand support fiber artists, teachers, organizations, and businesses;
Support the display and appreciation of fiber arts and artists;
My work in textiles has definitely been an extension of my life so far. I'm very comfortable breaking the rules and challenging myself to see what's possible! From my portfolio of eclectic mixed media pieces, my art quilts that always tell a story, and my felted wearable accessories, one can be sure to find just the right piece to add to a collection, or to share as a gift.
Having sewn most of my life, it was about 15 years ago when the light came on and I knew that I needed to get my work out of the studio and into the fiber art world. No regrets, I am not looking back!
If seen in my studio at home, I am usually adding color or stitch to materials that sometimes border on the unusual. A friend once told me that I was a ""deconstructionist"" and to that end, I am proud to say that I have a ""healthy disregard for materials!""
I love dyeing fibers - cotton, silk, rayon, linen and wool roving. I have a passion for adding color with artists' crayons to whatever comes to mind and can spend a whole afternoon doing this, wondering along the way what to do with these interesting pieces!
As a part-time volunteer curator for our church's art group and together with artist friends, we have hosted 6 exhibits each in the last two years. This has been a wonderful experience and is so inspiring to me to see our members and other local artists come forth and share their beautiful art with us.
One of the other sides of life involves teaching what I have learned - I teach art classes for adults and children at the Rockford Art Museum and at other venues. It's wonderful to experience that ""a-ha"" moment when students realize that they are indeed artists.
I am inspired by life and the movement all around me, whether it is in the people I love and meet, in nature and spirituality, and always humor. This sometimes mature woman seeks and finds the little girl inside and is always ready to play.
My work can be found at:
Celebration Room Gallery at Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Rockford, Illinois
Fiber, textiles, yarn and color have always been an integral part of life for Pamela Penney. Her mother was an accomplished seamstress and quilter and had a large trunk of fabric that Pam would explore as a young girl. She loved playing with the colors and the textures. Pam soon begged her mother to teach her to knit and sew at a very young age and both have been a passion for Pam ever since. In high school Pam began to design and create her own garments combining sewing and knitting techniques. Her interest in art, color, design, math and physics led Pam to study architecture and get her BA degree in Interior Design. After several years designing corporate interiors Pam chose to develop her textile art business while at the same time raising her two children and doting on her husband, dog and cat.
Pamela Penney started her business out of her home when her children were young, designing and creating one-of-a-kind garments for women and children. Using hand and machine knits, hand dyed and hand painted fabrics with crocheted edgings and beaded embellishments, each item became a work of art. In 2003, after several years working at home, Pam opened her studio on Harrison Street in Oak Park, Illinois. This gave her the opportunity to expand the gallery space to show the artwork of several regional artists as well as offer more classes and improve her own studio working space. She continues to grow and develop her business in the vibrant and funky Oak Park Arts District just outside of Chicago, Illinois.
Artist's statement: Finding time to create is essential to my health and well being and I believe it is for everyone. That is why I feel strongly that I must share my passion with others through teaching the textile art techniques that I find so enjoyable. I’m interested in exploring a wide variety of techniques and looking for ways to incorporate them together in new and unique ways. My work combines hand and machine knits, crochet, embroidery, fabric and yarn dying, wet-felting, needle-felting and salvaged woolens and cashmeres. My credo: Don’t box me in to one technique! My current work combines the eco-friendly salvaged fabrics and the beauty of wet felted wools. I love adding a dimension of hand and machine stitching and beading to give more texture and interest to my felted pieces.
In addition to producing her own artwork, Pam has been teaching for over 25 years to both children and adults and loves to ignite the spark of creativity in others. She finds teaching is a path to continual learning for both her students and for herself.
