Studios
Fringe Benefits Weaving
Megan Rothstein is a weaver, explorer of natural dyes, restorer of looms and general fiber artist. In her production weaving practice she forages natural dyes from the Portland landscape in order to dye natural fibers. After the dying process she weaves shawls and scarves with a focus on twill weave structures which she sells at craft sales through out Oregon. One of her woven naturally dyed shawls recently won the award of “Grand Champion” in the weaving division at the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival and her handspun blanket received a first place ribbon at the Black Sheep festival. Her fine art weaving practice focuses on re-using materials from her production weaving process and upcycling synthetic fibers into hanging tapestries. Megan is also an Ikebana (Japanese floral art) artist. She holds a 3rd grade teaching certificate with the Sogetsu school of Ikebana. She focuses on teaching workshops to those interested in incorporating the concepts of Ikebana to their fine arts practice and ongoing classes to gardeners interested in using the gardens to create Ikebana. Her Ikebana practice focuses on found plant material, rather than relying on flower shops, and re-using materials such as cardboard, plastic pieces and other discarded materials. She teaches classes throughout the Portland area and has done several demonstrations at the Portland Japanese Garden. She also holds a masters degree in folklore and has done research on roadside memorials and multimodal communication in 911 call centers. In addition she has a collaborative installation practice focused on re-used materials with Adam Rothstein. She also co-runs Weird Shift an ongoing project, twice funded by the Portland Institute of Contemporary Art’s precipice fund, with Adam Rothstein and Carl Diehl.