The summer I was 15, I wanted to take a sewing class. The deal I cut with my mother was that I had to take typing as well. I still can’t type. I took up weaving as a new Mom. My baby will be 54 in 2024, so it’s been a long time that I have been playing with fiber.

Through most of my many years, I have been a weaver of rugs, wall hangings, clothing and accessories. My palette tends to be hot, my surfaces textural. I have been called a yarn junkie, but I think of my studio as a creative mess with its stashes of yarn, fabric, buttons, found objects, dyes and paints, old T-shirts, jeans, tweed jackets and neckties. I believe in happy accidents, get inspired by the work of others, and love to upcycle and repurpose materials.

All these elements want to be something new, to be transformed in some way. Initially, I was drawn to the symmetry and mathematical discipline of weaving and knitting, but more and more I want to push the structure, soften the edges, break up the vertical and horizontal and combine techniques. My studio now shows fabric “paintings,” “quilts,” necktie art. Dyeing, painting, photo transfer and felting techniques are regular additions to my work.

With a floor loom, serger, sewing machine, fabric paints and an outdoor dye vat, I can mix it up. There are a few practical genes in my make-up, so I tend to make things that are functional as well as tactile and visual: rugs, art panels that double as thermal shades, clothing, accessories, soft throws or shawls.

I have studied at Penland School of Craft, North Carolina; Haystack, Deer Isle, Maine; Brookfield Craft Center, Ridgefield, CT; Guilford Arts Center and Creative Arts Workshop, New Haven County, CT. My work is in many private collections, at Smilow Cancer Center and Calvin Hill Nursery School, New Haven, CT. I am a member of the Connecticut Surface Design Association, and a founding member of the Shoreline Arts Trail, an annual Open Studio tour In Branford, Guilford and Madison, CT which is now in its 24th year.

— Carol Grave