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About MeA maker of unique natural dyed embellishments for your body and home. Fabrics include natural cotton, linen and silk. I am a writer, visual storyteller, dreamer, working traveler, Pow Wow dancer, sharing maker of objects -- dyeing cloth on the Coastal Plains and Outer Banks of Eastern North Carolina. Mixed blood Algonquin Native American descendant from Toisnot Tuscarora and Seminole bloodlines.
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Links to My CV: Professional Summary | Education | Computer Skills | Grants & Awards | Teaching Experience | Presentations & Workshops | Shows & Exhibitions | International Experiences | Memberships & Professional Affiliations
About
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The Fibershed is a working studio that seeks to bring back an Algonquin natural dye garden to reconnect with the history of the land in Coastal Carolina. It comes out of a promises made to my mother and two grandmothers to tell our stories of survival, love and lost through dyeing cloth and stitching. We are the children of the remnant of the Tuscarora Confederacy known as The Gatekeepers. We remained on the land so that others could escape. We survived by hiding out in plain sight after Fort Neyuheru:'ke in Snow Hill was burned to the ground at the end of the Tuscarora Wars in 1713. My handmade objects are sold at regional art shows and at Pow Wows.
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My History
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I'm a Teaching Artist from a family of teachers and women who loved sewing, quilting, natural dyeing, rug twining, embroidery and crochet. I grew up in a multi-generational home where handmade was a way of life. I earned a BFA at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Studio Art with concentrations in Ceramic Sculpture and Painting. I have additional educational experiences at East Carolina University in Ceramics, Painting, Art Education and Textiles and graduate work at Western Carolina University and Penland School of Crafts. My teaching experiences include K-12, community college and university. I received a 2017 Summer Certificate of Completion for The Natural Dye Studio from Penland School of Crafts. The two-week class was taught by Charllotte and Sophena Kwon, renowned worldwide for reconnecting indigenous cultures with natural dyeing. They also own Maiwa, the leading source of natural dyestuffs.
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Improvisational Modern Quilting
I'm back to quilting to honor a promise to my dying mother to share the stories of my many mothers through dyed cloth, quilting and embroidery. In the last two years of my mother's life, she and I made bundles for dyeing cloth and recounted all her memories of natural dyeing with her mother and grandmother. "Making color on cloth," she told me describes the women in our family. Over and over Momma repeated that "dyeing fabric, sewing blankets and embellishing them with embroidery communicated our feelings, our struggles, our ups and downs, our joy, our sorrow, our love and our heart breaks." My mother was proud of me as an artist, but this was the first and only time she asked me to use my creative hands for a specific purpose. So, I'm back where I was 50 years ago, living in the house and sleeping in the bed where I grew up, indigo dyeing cloth, making quilts and embellishing them with embroidery.
My quilting process is improvisational accidental geometric piecing which I learned during the 5th Summer Session at Penland School of Crafts with LUKE Haynes. I create the quilt tops using all hand dyed or over-dyed cotton fabric. Indigo is the dominate color representing 1) the waters of the Pamlico and Atlantic Ocean surrounding the Outer Banks; 2) the ever changing Carolina blue sky that still manages to take my breath away by its brilliance; and 3) The Blues and growing up on The Blues Trial in Eastern N.C. One of my grandmothers told me a truth that sums up my love life, "You Don't Know What Love Is Until You Know The Meaning Of The Blues." I grew up in a musical family, where singing and piano playing was gospel and the Blues depending on the day of the week.
My quilting process is improvisational accidental geometric piecing which I learned during the 5th Summer Session at Penland School of Crafts with LUKE Haynes. I create the quilt tops using all hand dyed or over-dyed cotton fabric. Indigo is the dominate color representing 1) the waters of the Pamlico and Atlantic Ocean surrounding the Outer Banks; 2) the ever changing Carolina blue sky that still manages to take my breath away by its brilliance; and 3) The Blues and growing up on The Blues Trial in Eastern N.C. One of my grandmothers told me a truth that sums up my love life, "You Don't Know What Love Is Until You Know The Meaning Of The Blues." I grew up in a musical family, where singing and piano playing was gospel and the Blues depending on the day of the week.
