Artist’s Statement
I am a dyer. People call me on the phone and ask, “What are you doing?” I say, “I am dyeing.” They hear, “I am dying,” and I hear a deep intake of breath from the other side. And I then quickly say, “No, no. I am dyeing yarn (or fiber)” and I hear a sense of relief on the other side of the phone.
I have been on a circuitous path to becoming a fiber dyer over time. I absolutely adore color. I absolutely love developing my skill with color and as a dyer. The benefit is better colors, surrounding us. Many people have been on this path before me, and many will come after. This makes me feel connected to the past and to the future.
I often wear basic black, so that my accessories of color show to their benefit. I make centerpieces of dyed yarns and fibers as eruptions of color on tables.
I want to give the world color. Color to play with, to wear, to enjoy as eye candy. It simply serves, for me, as soul candy. A good color brightens up my day.
My history as an artist has been mixed. As a youth, I was a vicarious artist. I had siblings who were artists; I went to museums and saw creations. I often thought, “I could do that.” But I never thought I would be good enough. Doubt was a part of my life. I became educated as a business person, I worked in business, I experienced life and death, and as I got older, I turned back to color – alone. I watercolored – on my own. I played with color in my house, painted walls over and over again until I got the “right” color. I began to play with fiber again. I wove, I dyed, I spun, I knitted, I felted. Dyeing gave me a sense of pleasure that lasts through dyeing, into spinning and then knitting and felting. Again I say, I absolutely adore color.
I am now finding myself developing more monochomes (single colors) and at the other end, colorways with many colors.
Regardless of where you are in the creative continuum - Enjoy yourself. Surround yourself with the colors that make your soul sing! You will live happier!
Development and Training:
My career with fiber started when I was approximately 6 years old. I sewed and knitted for dolls and then for myself. Throughout my life I have always had ongoing fiber projects. These include quilting, knitting, needle pointing, rug hooking, and silk screening. I became more active with fibers when we returned to the Appalachian Mountains in 1999. Since then, I have learned to weave, taught myself to spin, knitted extensively, and felted handbags, and rugs. Most of all, I began playing with dyes in 2003 and have hand-dyed and hand-painted with Kool-Aid, acid dyes, MX reactive dyes, and natural dyes.
I have been dyeing fibers full-time now since 2005, selling my products at a local yarn store, on-line, and through fiber shows.
Craft Workshops that I have attended include:
- Weaving Courses- Introduction and Beginning Level
- Numerous spinning workshops focusing on such things as novelty yarns, silk, spinning for specific projects, using down breed fleece.
- One week intensive, spinning and dyeing with Lynne Vogel, author of Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook
- Natural Dyeing workshops including with a Turkish dyer and Michele Wipplinger, an internationally recognized dyer.
- Felt Rugmaking with a Mehmet Girgic, Turkish rugmaker, and Theresa May-O’Brien, feltmaker.
Products include:
- Hand-Painted Yarns
- Hand-Painted Fibers
- Kettle-Dyed Fibers