Artist, designer, educator.
All of the above, and let me say first:
From early on I felt for how women work, in skill, with their hands.
Heads bent. Hands with a needle, a knife, spoon or spade.
Formidable women. Of the mountains. Lively and imperfect and present.
Hands that created and measured and cut and smoothed and soothed.
Tending and mending and chatting and gardening and world-building.
Hands in the soil in summer! Dirt under the nail ( — there are those clear good summer evenings when my friends know I won’t be too quick to answer the phone).
Hands in the dough, in the bed, in air, along the cloth.
Not just doing but feeling. Not just feeling, but thinking. Through the unknown, in and out of doors.
Not lost, but searching.
I was raised in Grayson County, Virginia, in a pretty mountain area. I now make my home and studio in Asheville, North Carolina, with my family.
I hold a commitment to the handmade and craft as key to community life. In this commitment I have served as Education Coordinator for the Carolina Textile District, Development Director at Sew Co. and co-founder of Open Studio Patterns.
From 2010 to 2021, I launched and led The DryGoods Shop/Studio, a collaborative, plant-filled, mixed-use space and store in the old Meadows building on Haywood Road in West Asheville, NC. Key in the revitalization of the neighborhood, DryGoods hosted workshops for adults and kids in sewing, bookbinding, and other skills in the course of my time tending it.
As an artist and designer I continue to evolve. I still work with leather and cloth, although no longer primarily as Overlap Sewing Studio, the brand I launched for my bags and limited-edition garments. Overlap developed a global following with wholesale accounts including Goop, William Sonoma, Martha Stewart’s American Made Shop, and Kaufman Mercantile. My waxed canvas lunch bags were also featured in Gwyneth Paltrow’s It’s All Easy cookbook.
In the early aughts I lived out west where I served as costumer for the UC Berkeley School of Theater and Dance and for productions with the San Francisco Opera and Ballet. I also taught and curated works at Creativity Explored, a visual art center for adults with developmental disabilities.
*Writing, in collaboration with Backstroke Social. Photo, Evan Anderson w/ AVL Lifestyle Magazine
WORK:
Carolina Textile District, Education Coordinator, Morganton NC, 2018 - present
Open Studio Patterns, Founder, Online, 2020 - present
Sew Co, Development Director, Asheville NC, 2015 - 2023
The Drygoods Shop, Owner, Asheville NC, 2010 - 2021
Overlap Sewing Studio, Owner, CA and NC, 2000 - 2021
Open Hearts Art Center, Asheville NC 2009-2010
Creativity Explored, Teaching Artist and Gallery Curator, San Francisco CA, 2004-2008
UC Berkeley School of Theater and Dance, Costume Shop Assistant and Historical Costume Curator, Berkeley CA 2000-2003
TEACHING:
Carolina Textile District, 2018 - present, Industrial Sewing
AB Technical Community College, 2021 - Industrial Sewing
Penland School of Craft, 2015, 2019, Surface Design, Sewing, Bag and Leather Work
The Drygoods Shop, 2010 - 2021, Adult and Childrens Art Classes, Sewing, and Mixed Media
Francine Delaney New School for Children, 2014, Painting and Drawing Elective
Open Hearts Art Center, 2009 - 2010, Mixed Media Arts, Ceramics
Creativity Explored, 2004 - 2008, Mixed Media Arts, Textiles
UCB School of Theater and Dance, 2000-2003, Costume Shop, Crafts, and Theatrical Hair and Makeup
PRESS:
Verve Magazine, 2010 : Goods and Plenty
WNC Magazine, 2010 : Back to Basics
Asheville Citizen Times, 2011 : Don’t Call Her ‘Old Fashioned’
Gist Yarn Podcast : Revitalizing the American Textile Industry
Asheville Made : w/ Sew Co
Asheville Made : Ladies Who Lunch