Sarah Saulson, Handweaver

Gallery

I am fascinated with the process of making cloth, and I want the bones of the process to show in the finished work. Weaving is nearly unique among mediums in that the structure and the surface are one. Thus, there exists the opportunity to preserve the history of the making of the piece in its final form.

Several themes have been my constants even as my work has evolved. As a weaver, I have always been drawn to natural fibers and using them to create soft, pliable cloth. This is cloth that invites itself to wrap, shelter and envelope the human body, as cloth has for thousands of years.

I have long been fascinated by the loom’s ability to create woven patterning that is intrinsic to the cloth itself. Because I also love color, one of my abiding passions has been designing and creating cloth with a meaningful dialogue between these two powerful visual statements. My explorations in woven structures have been supported by a loom that interfaces with a computer that I use to design the structure of the cloth.

For many years, I have also explored painting warps with dyes before weaving occurs. This opens up opportunities to establish a visual dialogue between the color, scale and imagery of the dyed warp with the woven pattern.

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