Welcome to the TextileX resource guide—a growing effort created to map out and connect the vibrant textile community and resources in the Portland metro area and beyond. The foundation of this guide was built from the diversity of organizations that participate in the Portland TextileX Month festival every October.
Development of and funding for this guide have been provided by Textile Hive with additional funding from a RACC catalyst grant in 2019.
We encourage you to contribute additional resources through this form and consider becoming a member of TextileX to help further develop this resource guide as well as Portland TextileX Month.
Businesses
Altar
Altar is a clothing company and retail store with a brick-and-mortar location in Portland, OR. We initially opened a business in 2010 (under another name in the same retail location) with a focus on supporting independent artists from our immediate region, and by 2015 when we became Altar, we had grown that vision into the beautifully curated and ever-changing space it is today. We celebrate independent manufacturers and artists from across North America, with a focus on the stories that are woven into their work. We use the phrase, “objects with meaning” because we believe in sharing the unique stories behind these pieces.
Our clothing brand, Altar Houseline, is proudly made in America using deadstock materials and serves size gradations from size small to 6XL.
Cassie Ridgway opened her shop in 2010 with less than $3000 in the bank and a night job. Owning and operating this small business has been defined by labor of love and perseverance. Cassie's passion for sustainably produced and ethically manufactured apparel was a driving force, and has kept her laser focused on making this company better by the year. Her aesthetic sensibilities are always sort of changing (ok, sometimes all over the place), but she has always consistently been inspired by desert color-stories, moody floral motifs, art deco filigrees, and modern art.
Studios
Amy Reader
Amy Reader is a fiber and installation artist based in Portland, OR. Her primary interest is in using fibers and textiles to create sculptural forms. In 2015, Amy facilitated a large-scale, collaborative crochet installation that received international acclaim. In 2016, Amy traveled to Peru for an artist residency in the Amazon Rainforest where she built a permanent sculpture in the jungle. From 2016-2018, Amy was a Display Artist at Anthropologie where she created large scale installations and window displays. Currently, Amy splits her time between sewing her own artwork, teaching workshops, and writing educational blogs. Amy is a member of the Society for Embroidered Work - an international honor society promoting the best stitched art worldwide. She has been featured on local news segments like Wilson’s World on WCCB and on the art blog Brown Paper Bag.
Studios
Ariane Mariane
Ariane Mariane is a German fiber artist living and working in Paris. Trained in architecture and graphical textile design she felt in love with textile arts in 2004. Since 2008 she runs her own textile art studio, creating wall-hangings, sculptures, home decor, wearable art and accessories. In her work she combines graphical design and several textile techniques to make outstanding pieces in a fancy and playful style. She paints with powerful colored fibers and creates little stories in a poetic and humorous way. Each item is unique: created by hand, in a time-consuming and artistic process. In each piece Ariane Mariane explores new techniques, association of colors and materials. She describes her process as involuntary, deconstructed and messy. "My workshop is filled up with fabrics, wool fibers, pigments, papers and findings of all kind. It’s my kingdom from where I travel to imaginary countries, enjoy great adventures and often come back with marvelous treasuries. My best creations "just happen or as Picasso pointed out:"Inspiration exists but it must find you working."” In Ariane Mariane’s world, clothes and accessories stand side by side to wall hangings and sculptures. "I do not see any difference in making a garment or a picture," she explains. "My approach is always graphical and somehow storytelling: a combination of colors, shapes and materials. In the beginning“ making art for art seemed pretentious to me and I needed a function to authorize myself to create. Nowadays I play around with both. I may even feel freer when doing wall hangings and sculptures. On the other hand it’s so exciting to see a creation transformed by another human. I love the sparkling eyes when a woman tries out an art vest, a hat or accessory. Something’s happening –the art work and the woman are transformed.” The artist’s goal? Spread good vibes and color life.
Organizations
BASIC NEEDS food shelter clothing
foodshelterclothing.squarespace.com
BASIC NEEDS is about making things whose beauty is intertwined with their utility and sustainability. Sometimes it takes the form of a small collection of unique pieces, like hand felted sheepskins or botanically-dyed textiles, other times it may be a garden, designed and cared for over many years.
Studios
Carolyn Hazel Drake
Carolyn Hazel Drake is a third-generation Oregonian who works with textiles, ceramics, and domestic materials. She references devotional objects and archetypal imagery to create objects and installations that are familiar yet cryptic. Drake studied literature & architecture at PSU’s Honors College and has an M.Ed. in art education. She has been awarded residencies at GLEAN, Leland Ironworks, Suttle Lodge, and Sitka. Her work is represented by Carnation Contemporary and Hanson Howard Gallery. Drake is an assistant professor of art education at Arizona State University. She divides her time between Phoenix and Portland. www.carolynhazeldrake.com / @carolynhazeldrake
Studios
Emily Pacheco
www.instagram.com/emilypoprocks
Emily Pacheco is a multi-disciplinary artist creating wearable art, soft sculpture, illustrations and papier-mache work. Her practice is a middle school love letter asking DIY, arts and crafts and outsider art if they'll go to prom.
Organizations
GLEAN
The GLEAN Program invites artists to push the boundaries of material exploration. With a stipend to support their practice and seemingly endless materials to work with, artists are challenged to expand their existing studio practice by making work from the materials gleaned from the Metro Central Transfer Station (aka, “the dump”). One of the goals of this program is to introduce established and emerging artists to the wealth of materials available to them through the GLEAN. With the ultimate goal to reduce waste and raise awareness with this program, no prior experience with discarded materials is required. All artists in the Portland area are encouraged to apply.
Studios
Heather Watkins
Heather Watkins’ work explores the nature and possibilities of the drawn line – materially and symbolically. Working with ink, cord, thread, cloth, and paper, she submits these materials to many cycles of saturation, compression, intertwining, and transference. Through these physical processes, she investigates phenomena such as flow, stasis, circulation, and gravity. Her work takes many forms: sculpture, drawing, text-based work, printmaking, and artist’s books.
Her work has been shown in numerous exhibitions, at venues including: PDX CONTEMPORARY ART, Portland, OR; Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR; Planthouse Gallery, New York, NY; the lumber room, Portland, OR; Front of House, Portland, OR; The Art Gym, Marylhurst, OR; and Nine Gallery, Portland, OR. Her work is held in private and public collections including the Portland Art Museum, the Miller Meigs Collection, the Regional Arts and Culture Council’s Portable Works Collection, the Collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer, Portland State University, Reed College, and Rhode Island School of Design Artist’s Book Collection. She has been the recipient of grants from Oregon Arts Commission, The Ford Family Foundation, and Regional Arts & Culture Council, and has been awarded residencies at Caldera; Sitka Center for Art & Ecology; Oregon College of Art and Craft; and at Em Space Book Arts Center. Watkins holds an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, and is represented by PDX CONTEMPORARY ART.
Studios
Jeanne Medina Le
Jeanne received her BFA in Fiber and Material Studies (2001) and Post-Baccalaureate in Fashion, Body and Garment (2009) from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), and her MFA in Fiber (2013) from Cranbrook Academy of Art where she was awarded the Toby Devan Lewis Award. The award enabled her to pursue research in Antwerp, Belgium at the ModeMuseum (MoMu), and to work with fashion designer, Christian Wijnants. In 2018 she was awarded the Fountainhead Fellowship in Craft & Material Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). There she worked with the Highland Support Project and fair-trade weaving organization, Pixan, in Xela, Guatemala to develop textile designs with indigenous Mayan weavers. Her collaborations include a 2019 Bessie Award winning project with choreographer, Ni’Ja Whitson. She has been Artist-in-Residence at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Caldera, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, and Pine Meadow Ranch. Jeanne served as a Visiting Assistant Professor in Fibers at Oregon College of Art and Craft (OCAC) in Portland, OR. Her exhibitions include Interpretive Center for Embodied Textiles solo-exhibition at the Alice Gallery in Seattle; GARB at ArtCenter Pasadena; International Fiber Art Fair in Seoul, Korea; Ancestral Offerings solo-exhibition at Reynolds Gallery in Richmond, VA; and Discursive at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum in Eugene, OR. Her work is in the permanent collection at Cranbrook Art Museum in Bloomfield Hills, MI and the Oak Spring Garden Foundation Rachel “Bunny” Mellon Collection in Upperville, VA.
Studios
Keeva Moselle
www.instagram.com/realmandreigndesignstudio
Growing up Keeva Moselle made all of her Halloween costumes from age nine on, repurposing items from around the house. Keeva learned to work with her hands and a myriad of materials and techniques to create wearable art. These skills eventually translated into fashion design and garment construction. Today Keeva is a Portland native artist creating large scale interactive art installations, immersive beauty experiences, costumes, and multimedia art. All of her endeavors primarily use post-consumer waste & salvage materials. Keeva is a graduate of Oregon State University Graduate School, where she studied socio-political ethics. Keeva is an environmentalist and a Black Feminist thinker and author; her art reflects that same powerfully dynamic voice. In 2011, Keeva created an original character “The Queen of Unicorns”, as a public persona to inspire imaginative play and give young girls, especially those of color, representation in the cosplay and festival community.
Studios
Mo Geiger
Mo Geiger is an artist. Her work includes sculpture, performance, and experimentation, with a focus on interdisciplinary processes. Trained as a theatrical designer and technician, she values tactile learning in collaborative environments. Living material histories, scavenge, discard, and transformation connect all of her artwork and research. She develops projects using context-specific perspectives, which consider active and potentially overlooked elements wherever she is.
Mo’s artwork, research, and designs have appeared in public spaces, local organizations, galleries, theaters, and museums. In each of her projects, she uses de-centralized collective methods to make space for art in unconventional places. Recently, she received an MFA in Art and Social Practice from Portland State University, where she honed skills in collaboration and site-awareness. She makes work within a personal art practice and as a member of the south-central Pennsylvania performance collective Valley Traction.
Studios
Niky Kuzma
www.instagram.com/dirtysunshinepa
Niky moved to Portland to study Craft and Design at PNCA in August 2019, and finished her MFA in June 2021. She designs workshops to share her passion and belief that hand work positively impacts the maker and everyone should have an access point to the techniques. She identifies as differently abled resulting from a brain injury and experiences life through the lens of a low income individual. These are her motivators for designing free and inclusive workshops to invite a broader audience that may have felt discouraged to learn craft techniques due to cost or ability. Niky believes that we can create a stronger community through the act of making together in the same way our ancestors had. She wants to encourage folks to reconnect with their hands to discover an outlet for exploration, creativity, and a space for connecting with those who share our world.
Studios
Orquidia Violeta
Orquidia Violeta is a Salvadoran-American textile artist. Her art expands on traditional indigenous weaving with new techniques and current themes, using only salvaged materials and found objects. She incorporates sewing, embroidery and fiber-collage to tell stories about strong people transcending existential challenges. Her work shows how mythical heroines have found balance by following the guidance of the natural world.
cooperative embroidery fashion sculpture textile art wearable art
Organizations
Portland Textile Club
www.instagram.com/portlandtextileclub
Portland Textile Club is a social club that meets on occasion to talk all things textile, fabric, design, and printing practices. Established in 2014, Portland, OR.
Organizations
ReClaim It!
ReClaim It, is a place where the creative citizens of Portland can find unique materials to reuse, repair, and reimagine.
Businesses
Reclaimed Wool
Heidi Leugers created her brand and studio, Reclaimed Wool in 1998 with one guiding principle: to turn her artistic practice into a business only if she could "reclaim" all the waste she (also) had created in the process of making adorable or functional items - whether for exhibition or for sale. Her studio has been zero waste for over two decades. The 8K - 12K hotpads, coasters, holiday ornaments and pincushions she makes, are limited to what she can produce with her own hands and can be found at museum stores, craft galleries, and specialty retailers. In 2007, her zero waste practice received critical, scholarly attention in the college teaching text, "Cycle-Logical Art", by Linda Weintraub. Heidi firmly believes that "zero-waste" is a practice, not a purchase.
Businesses
Renewal Workshop
The Renewal System takes discarded apparel and textiles and turns them into Renewed Apparel, upcycled materials or recycling feedstock. Data is collected on everything that flows through the system and is given back to our brand partners to help them improve the production and design of future products. It is a zero waste system that recovers the full value out of what has already been created as a way of serving customers, partners and planet.
Businesses
Revive Upholstery
Revive Designs and Upholstery was established in Portland, Oregon in 2011. Specializing in heirloom furniture, including vintage re-upholstery, mid-century antique commercial design, bespoke product.
interior design sustainability textile design textile reuse upholstery
Organizations
SCRAP PDX
portland.scrapcreativereuse.org
SCRAP PDX is a nonprofit creative reuse center specializing in reused materials for the arts, education programs, birthday parties, and more.
Studios
Stashia Cabral
Stashia Cabral is a visual and performance artist from Portland, Oregon. She works in movement and traditional media such as sculpture, and painting, she has a passion for ready made and assemblages. Muchof her workincludes the use of saved family artifacts, including textiles, letters and photographs, and navigates the storeie (real and imagined) of her family's flight from Germany and their love (and hate) stories. Her performance pieces range from traditional belly dance, to butoh or burlesque and feature beautifully handmade costumes and props. Quirks and oddities are her happy place. Stashia has shown work at galleries and cafes locally, and performed at venues ranging from cafes and theaters to big stages, like the Northwest World Reggae Festival. Stashia received her MFA from Pacific Northwest College of Art.
Organizations
The Soul Restoration Center
www.thesoulrestorationcenter.com
The Soul Restoration Center is housed within the location of the former Albina Arts Center, which was established in the 1960s after Black youth advocated for a safe gathering space where they could take free creative arts, dance and music classes, taught by Black professionals. The building became a significant Black community hub until the 1970s. Several organizations occupied the building over the decades. Yet, it had been completely closed for about 16 months before it was temporarily reactivated by a few Black artists in late 2021 through January 30. In February 2022, I Am MORE signed a 2-year lease and transformed the neglected space into a healing-centered, arts-focused Black respite that collaborates with heart-centered individuals, donors, organizations and other partners who value Black lives.