When I first felt the smooth, delicious whirling of a drop spindle in my hands, my love for fibers and textiles unfurled from somewhere deep in my being.
I was amazed to learn, upon reading my great-grandfather’s memoirs, that this affinity was rooted in an Armenian family tradition of carpet making, wool and dyes.
The first time I experienced the alchemy of the indigo dye vat – wool transforming from yellow to blue before my eyes as it touched the air – my sense of wonder about natural dye colors was born. I’m most inspired by the spectrum of hues that can be conjured in the dye pot, and my love for color shapes my relationship with my craft.
I’ve spent over twelve years working with textiles in various traditions, including wet felting, spinning, knitting, sewing, shibori, paste resist, botanical printing, and most recently, weaving. My passion for textiles is rooted in my study of history, mythology, ancestry, and cultures of all kinds (human, plant, animal and otherwise).
I believe that each of us inherits a long history of kinship between our ancestors and the plants, animals, and minerals that give us fibers and colors, and that relearning these stories, or creating new relationships of reciprocity with the natural world around us, is vital to our true sense of belonging on the earth. It is this hopeful possibility that is at the heart of my work.
~Amanda
