This week we are speaking with John Paul Morabito of Chicago, Illinois. John Paul is a transdisciplinary weaver who engages the medium of tapestry reimagined in the ditigial age. Their work outputs woven forms, moving images, and relational actions to imagine queer grace. Their work has been exhibited internationally, including but not limited to the Zhejiang (zhuh-zhong) Art Museum in China, Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Projects in New York and the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas. They also have work in collections like the Textile Resource Center at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. They have presented papers at the College Art Association Conference and the Textile Society of America Symposium, published essays with Art China, the China Academy of Art Textile Reader 2, and the Journal of Textile Design Research and Practice. Morabito holds a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where they currently serve on the faculty as an Assistant Professor, Adjunct of Fiber and Material Studies.

This week we are speaking with Erin Riley from Brooklyn, NY. Erin is a tapestry weaver who has dedicated her time and life to creating tapestries that portray different aspects of culture that are either overlooked or are difficult to confront. Since receiving her MFA from the Tyler School of Art she has done many solo and group exhibitions all over the country and the world and has received many awards. Her work often focuses on the darker side of our culture. A few of the subjects she has covered have been nude figures from pornography or selfies, drug paraphernalia, and mental illness. The tapestries she creates has evolved over time to showcase her skills as a weaver, but also her eye as a dedicated artist.

This week we are talking with tapestry Weaver, Tommye Scanlin, who resides in the Southern Appalachian region. Tommye is an artist who observes and responds to her surroundings for inspiration. Her primary artistic medium is handwoven tapestry, an ancient method of working with fibers to create images. As she seeks images and ideas to interpret into tapestry she experiences her surroundings as closely as She can. Photographs, sketches, paintings, and writings all are part of the research she puts into her work.

This week we are speaking with Tien Chiu. Tien is a textile artist, a teacher, and a writer. She has achieved many awards and achievements with her weaving work, including such honors as her handwoven wedding dress as part of the permanent collection at the American Textile History Museum and her Kodachrome jacket being featured on the cover of Handwoven magazine. In her studio she is primarily a weaver, dyer, and couture seamstress, producing artistic garments, accessories and wall hangings.

This week we are speaking with the Sean Dougall and Andrew Paulson of the design studio Dougall Paulson, based out of Southern California. As co-founders of the multi-disciplinary art and design studio, they seek beauty through new forms of weaving, furniture, lighting and objects. Using narrative as the thread that binds ideas together, their unique take on visual storytelling is the starting point for the creation of objects that straddle the fine, decorative, and graphic arts. They approach their practice with a focus on curiosity and discovery. Specifically speaking about their handwoven work: the art textiles explore the ways in which light appears through absorption, reflection, and transparency. Which, under the right lights, look like the pieces are glowing internally.

This week we are speaking with Jenny Shulkin of OoLaLoom Handwoven from Kingston, NY. OoLaLoom was founded in Savannah, GA in the fall of 2013. Jenny creates microbatch handwoven textiles with handdyed, high quality natural fibers and intricate weaves with a focus in baby wrap and ring sling carriers. She also produces multi-use fabrics, scarves & apparel fabric, and throw blankets. OoLaLoom is a member of the Baby Carrier Industry Alliance and Consumer Product Safety Commission compliant.

This week we are talking with Margaret Fischer of Greentree Weaving from Yellow Springs, Ohio. Margaret has been fascinated by the craft of handwaving since she first saw a weaving demonstration at a county fair in California when she was just 9 years old. Since then weaving has dominated her life and has brought her great joy. Her studio has grown and evolved from working out of her home in California, to a barn in Petaluma, moving to New Mexico, and to a multiple building workshop in Colorado. The size of her team ebbing and flowing with every iteration of her business.

This week we are talking with Margaret Fischer of Greentree Weaving from Yellow Springs, Ohio. Margaret has been fascinated by the craft of handwaving since she first saw a weaving demonstration at a county fair in California when she was just 9 years old. Since then weaving has dominated her life and has brought her great joy. Her studio has grown and evolved from working out of her home in California, to a barn in Petaluma, moving to New Mexico, and to a multiple building workshop in Colorado. The size of her team ebbing and flowing with every iteration of her business.

This week we are speaking with Daryl Lancaster from New Jersey. Daryl Lancaster, a hand-weaver and fiber artist known for her award-winning hand-woven fabric and garments, has been constructing garments for more than half a century. She gives lectures and workshops to guilds, conferences, and craft centers all over the United States. The former Features Editor for Handwoven Magazine, she has written more than 100 articles and digital content, frequently contributes to various weaving and sewing publications and including Threads Magazine. She now has a YouTube channel, The Weaver Sews where she shares her extensive experience sewing handwoven garments. She now offers a complete line of digital sewing patterns for handweavers.

This week we are speaking with Daryl Lancaster from New Jersey. Daryl Lancaster, a hand-weaver and fiber artist known for her award-winning hand-woven fabric and garments, has been constructing garments for more than half a century. She gives lectures and workshops to guilds, conferences, and craft centers all over the United States. The former Features Editor for Handwoven Magazine, she has written more than 100 articles and digital content, frequently contributes to various weaving and sewing publications and including Threads Magazine. She now has a YouTube channel, The Weaver Sews where she shares her extensive experience sewing handwoven garments. She now offers a complete line of digital sewing patterns for handweavers.

This week we are talking with Janet Phillips from England. Janet has been designing and weaving for over 40 years after studying Industrial Textile Design at the Scottish College of Textiles, graduating with a First Class Honors Degree. Color and texture are still the foundations that keep her weaving. She dyes most of the yarns she uses and she is continually experimenting and sampling to find new weaves and textures.

This week we are speaking with Rachel Snack of Weaver House Co from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Weaver House is a project that Rachel created as an intuitive response to returning home after living in Peru, and the continual longing to be at the loom. She received her Bachelor of Fine Art in Fiber and Material Studies from the The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and her Master of Science in Textile Design from Philadelphia University. She can normally be found in the studio or nearby in the woods, always inspired and constantly creating.

This week we wanted to continue the conversation about how we got to where we are and take the opportunity to answer some questions along the way. We are sharing the audio from our presentation at the Careers in Textiles Symposium that was hosted by the Handweavers Guild of America this past Friday.

This week we are speaking with Crystal Gregory in Kentucky. Crystal Gregory is a sculptor whose work investigates between textile and architecture. If the nature of architecture is fixed and permanent then the opposite would be a textile, collapsible and movable. Both mediums define space, create shelter, and allow privacy. A textile, however, has the advantage of flexibility. It is a semi two dimensional plane that has the ability to fold, drape, move and change to its surroundings. It is pliable.

This week we are talking with Peggy Osterkamp. Peggy is the author of the New Guide to weaving series, Weaving for Beginners - An Illustrated Guide, and has a prolific blog available to share tips, stories of her travels, and artistic discoveries. She has found great joy in sharing her love of handweaving with students near and far and has a wealth of knowledge to bestow upon them.

This week we are talking with Anne Low from Canada. Anne Low is a multi-disciplinary artist who uses sculpture, installation, textiles and printmaking to explore the relationship of historical contexts of contemporary functional objects and themes that occur, such as the domestic and the decorative. Her works highly focus on the physicality of an object and utilize her historic knowledge of weaving and various methodologies.

This week we are talking with Lucy MacDonald of Arra Textiles from Scotland. Arra Textiles is named after Lucy’s great grandmother, Arra MacDonald, born and brought up on Orkney, she passed down her love of textiles to Lucy. After graduating with a degree in textile design at university, Lucy worked for a range of different companies before deciding to invest in a loom and start her own business.

We were recently asked to give a presentation about what we do and we thought this would be a good opportunity to share it with you. We talk about how we were ramping up our business before the pandemic, how we pivoted, and how we are working on growing our business and our weaving skills today. 2020 was a doozy for all of us, but somehow we managed to not only survive, but our business started to thrive.

This week we are talking with Bridgette Extraordinaire of Raanu Handwoven from Oregon. Raanu Handwoven is a closed loop production, meaning that Bridgette will reuse material waste created during the production process for additional products. She begins with mill end yarn, which is rescued from large manufacturing houses where they were destined for the landfill. That yarn is then woven by hand in the US without the use of electricity, utilizing mechanical Dobby looms to create beautiful patterns and textures. Each garment is woven to size, which significantly reduces the amount of scrap left on the cutting room floor. What remains will then be transformed into additional product. A trademark of her work is that the warp threads are plied, producing a beautifully subtle gradient in the cloth. Raanu came about from the master passing along their knowledge and tools to their apprentice, continuing the weaving legacy.

This week we are speaking with Margot Becker from Hudson, New York. Margot Becker is an artist, weaver, and educator.  Margot Handwoven is her line of functional, versatile textiles that playfully explores the intersections of art and craft.  Each one of a kind piece is created by combining traditional patterning and techniques with intuitive design. All of her textiles are one of a kind and designed on loom to be worn and loved in your everyday.