Weave

In this week’s episode, I’m speaking with Indigo Farmer, Textile Artist & Dressmaker Leigh Magar. Leigh’s textile design studio Madame Magar is inspired by art, nature, folkways, and history. Her studio embraces a seed to stitch design philosophy that explores the history, a rich yet tangled past of place; while living and working on a former indigo plantation in Charleston SC. Show notes: www.gis...

In this week’s episode, LaChaun is speaking with Chawne Kimber an African-American mathematician and quilter, known for expressing her political activism in her quilts. In Chawne’s quilts, she interprets traditional forms in an improvisational style using vibrant modern colors of commercially available American-farmed, processed, and woven cotton. Some of her designs are geometric romps that empha...

In this week's episode, LaChaun is speaking with Jessie Mordine Young. Jessie is a textile curator, teacher of traditional textile techniques, and maker living in New York City. She is an MA candidate in the History of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture at the Bard Graduate Center in New York City. She also graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) with a...

This week on the podcast LaChaun is speaking with Lauren B. Fay the founder and executive director of the New Fashion Initiative. The New Fashion Initiative is a foundation creating interdisciplinary education and communications initiatives to promote circulatory collaboration, and accountability in the fashion industry. Lauren Fay is a connector and producer committed to creating a paradigm shift...

In this week’s episode, Sarah is speaking with Angela Kelly and Kim McCollum the founders of Gather Textiles. Gather is a yarn shop and textile studio in Edmonton Alberta. Their aim is to bring people together to exchange ideas, learn from one another, and to celebrate making things with our hands. We are thrilled that Gather is a Canadian stockist for Gist Yarn carrying our lines of Duet and Mall...

In this week’s episode, I’m really excited to speak with Kenya Miles. Kenya is a textile artist, farmer, and the alchemist behind the Traveling Miles Studio. Kenya has a wealth of knowledge and expertise in natural textiles which she has applied to the Blue Light Junction Project, a natural dye studio, alternative color lab, retail space, dye garden & educational facility in central Baltimore, Mar...

In this week’s episode, I’m speaking with Sydni Gause, an interdisciplinary artist and Adjunct Professor in Sculpture at Alfred University. Sydni works with an array of materials that she uses in her sculpture, installation, and fiber-based practice. She uses her work as a means to respond to issues between power structures and gender inequality. Working with text and gendered iconography Gause ex...

On this week's episode, I’m speaking with Kendall Schauder. Kendall received her BFA at, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She’s worked on a number of interesting fiber-based projects where she deconstructs and re-interprets the fiber making practice. I’m excited to speak with her about her “How to Grow Denim Project” where she works with salvaged raw cotton and indigo in order to docume...

Yarrow Magdalena lives a soft, slow life in Scotland and creates rituals and ceremonies for the big and small milestones in life. They also write, make textile art, host a podcast, swim in the sea all year, and do a lot of queer dreaming. Yarrow shares their practices as an offering that you can receive and make your own – they are woven together from independent celebrancy, European folk magic, e...

On this week's podcast, I’m speaking with Tammi Williams. Tammi is a fiber artist based in Brooklyn, New York. Her fiber practice incorporates an array of fiber making mediums from weaving and knitting to sewing and construction using beautifully patterned and colorful fabrics and materials that are inspired by African patterns, prints, and textiles. Tammi recently embarked on a new business ventu...

This week on the podcast Sarah is excited to welcome Stephen Hudson to the podcast. Stephen is the Senior Vice President of Sales at Meridian Specialty Yarn Group and has held a number of roles in Operations and Sales throughout his tenure at the mill. Meridian is a mill and dyehouse in North Carolina that we partner with to make our Duet and Mallo yarn collections! Show notes: www.gistyarn.com/ep...

In this week's episode, LaChaun is speaking with Cynthia Alberto, founder, and director of The Weaving Hand, a weaving and healing arts center in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Cynthia has graced this podcast once before in Episode 17. We invited her back on the podcast to talk about how she’s cultivating a healing environment using weaving during a time when I think we could all use some healing inspira...

This week on the podcast LaChaun is speaking with Amalia & Grace of Echoview Fiber Mill. Echoview is a spinning mill, knitting operation, and design house based in Weaverville, NC. They make exceptionally high quality and beautifully designed home goods, accessories, and craft knitting and weaving yarns using natural fibers like wool, alpaca, silk, mohair, and organic cotton. They also support loc...

This week on the podcast Sarah is talking to Susan Snider, the founder of Mad River Fiber Mill. Mad River Fiber Arts & Mill is a full-service fiber processing mini mill in Waitsfield, Vermont, working with wool, alpaca, llama, mohair, and even angora fiber! In their conversation, they talk about Susan's journey into the world of fiber, what it was like to start a mill, and some of the challenges a...

This week on the podcast I’m speaking with Lisa Shobhana. Lisa is a Saori weaver, designer, instructor, intuitive, and astrologer. She is the author of Yarnplay: Colorful Techniques + Projects For The Creative Knitter and Yarnplay At Home: Handknits For Colorful Living. She’s contributed her design patterning and beautiful colorways to a number of popular fiber media outlets and I’m excited to sha...

This week on the podcast LaChaun is speaking with Wouter de Vries and Dorothe Swinkels of Textile Plus magazine. Textile plus is a Dutch magazine and website that’s published every three months showcasing works of textile artists around the globe. In their conversation, they talk about their recently published weaving focused issue, their online exhibition that focuses on art in the times of the c...

This week on the podcast, I'm excited to be talking to the team at Muezart Yarn. Muezart is a small business in Northeast India that focuses on making and selling handspun, naturally dyed Eri Silk to weavers, knitters, crocheters, and other fiber artists. I first found out about them about a year ago when they mailed a sample card to our studio, and I was absolutely captivated by the rich and vibr...

This week on the podcast LaChaun is speaking with Michelle Brooks a Chicago based fiber artist and owner of the Stitchering Shop. Michelle creates custom textile art pieces using a variety of fiber techniques such as tufting, embroidery stitching, and weaving. In our conversation we talk about how she began working with fibers, the fiber making community in Chicago, and how she is using her artist...

Today on the podcast, LaChaun and I are talking about issues of racism and White Supremacy, and the ways they are deeply embedded into our textile industries and communities. This country and the world and all of us are reacting to the murder of George Floyd and so many other Black people at the hands of the police. White folks are being called upon to deeply examine and work at rooting out the ra...

a short message from Sarah

This week on the podcast LaChaun is speaking with Judy Martin. Judy is a full-time professional textile artist in Ontario, Canada. She uses dye, thread, and cloth as primary materials to produce works through stitching these materials by hand. The process is time-consuming, but the healing meditation inherent in the method gives her the vitality to fulfill her large scale projects. In 2010 Judy be...

This week on the podcast, Sarah is talking to Liz Sytsma, the founder of Wild Hand, a supply shop for fiber folks in Philadelphia. They talk about her journey to starting Wild Hand, the beautiful community they're cultivating there, how they are adapting in this time of social distancing, and lots more. Show notes: www.gistyarn.com/episode-107

This week on the podcast LaChaun is speaking with Stephanie Pinerio of Shed Textile Company. Shed Textile Company focuses on the art of hand weaving and local fibers in New York State. The fibers used in her pieces are hand-sourced locally from farmers, spinners, shearers, dyers, makers, tradesmen and the countless regional fiber festivals that dot the countryside every year. Each artisanal design...

This week on the podcast Sarah will be talking to Ben Hostetler, the Operations Manager at Mountain Meadow Wool Mill. They will be discussing what it's like running a small family business in the wool industry, how ranchers and their own mill are adapting to changes brought by COVID-19, and about their Kickstarter for a new line of wool kids clothing. Show notes: www.gistyarn.com/episode-105

This week on the podcast LaChaun is speaking with Ashton Zager. Ashton is a fiber artist based out of her home in Asheville, North Carolina. She’s a self taught weaver, known for her beautiful circular weavings and woven jewelry pieces. Prior to weaving, she didn’t consider herself creative, but she quickly began to use weaving as a form of therapy through her personal grieving process. We are del...