Susie Taylor has an extensive background weaving on shaft looms and has 11 years experience designing high-end jacquard fabrics for the upholstery market. She has spent many years hand manipulating yarns, on the loom, to produce multi-layered structures and in 2012 she received the Handweaver’s Guild of America’s Certificate of Excellence in Handweaving, Level 1. Her work is exhibited extensively.
Susie combines hand-manipulated techniques with loom-controlled structures. Currently, she creates dimensional textiles that incorporate origami and weaving techniques together to create new woven forms without any cutting or sewing; only weaving and folding are used.
This work originates on the loom where discontinuous pleats are engineered and constructed as the groundcloth is woven; everything starts as a single layer of handwoven cloth.
When the fabric is taken off the loom, the discontinuous pleats become the folded origami shapes that seem to hover over the surface. Linen yarn is an obvious choice to weave with; its natural characteristics produce and hold the folds nicely.
As an accomplished weaver, she explores the limitations and pushes the boundaries of what can be produced on the loom. Her work celebrates the joy of producing basic cloth that transforms into perplexing, dimensional compositions.
She lives and works in San Jose, California.
Text and images: Susie Taylor
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