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Trish Anderson is a fiber and installation artist who has fully embraced machine rug tufting. Her work is vibrant, larger than life, bursting with texture and color. Her rug pieces - especially the stair runners - are perfectly practical but feel like installations, and her installations feel otherworldly. Andersen is a native of Dalton, Georgia, who earned her BFA in fibers at the Savannah College of Art and Design. She now lives and works in Savannah and Brooklyn. As one of the early adopters of tufting in the U.S., Anderson is at the center of the burgeoning tufting community, giving advice and helping people troubleshoot their machines, set-ups, and designs. 

How did you find your way into tufting?

I was searching for a new process to inspire my personal studio practice and my friend happened to send me a link of a viral video of people creating tufted rugs in India. It was so intriguing to me and I became obsessed with finding a gun and learning how to use it! This was pre-Tim (I feel like this should be an official term in the tufting community) so there was little info or resources out there. When I finally got myself set up, I literally burst into tears after the first line I was able to successfully tuft. I was HOOKED.

When you are working, do you plan or are you more improvisational? Does this change for your larger scale/installation work?

I go back and forth on this. I usually have some sort of idea of what I want the initial language of the piece to be. I use Procreate on Ipad to sketch ideas and have found it very helpful. My work is so color-focused I was finding that I wasn't sketching as much as I wanted to because it was such an ordeal to get out all the paints, etc. I keep a running bank of ideas on there so I can draw upon it when I start a piece. Once tufting, I either sketch onto the backing cloth or paint on it with watercolors. More often than not, I let myself respond to what is happening and add as I go. I like that freedom. I work on the first floor of my house so my frame is only around 7.5' x 7.5', so for my larger work I have to piece it together. For those large pieces, I use Illustrator/Photoshop to break up my sketch and then project it on the cloth. This insures that the lines all register when the parts are finished.

There's a lot of repetition in your work, in shape (referencing specifically the “drips” series) and in color. What does repetition mean to you?

I have always found repetitive processes meditative and healing. It is my "yoga" of sorts. I have been exploring lately how this repetitive "flow" state can be shown through line and form. Much of my career was doing large-scale installations for commercial events and interiors. Each project was different and new because no one wants the same thing. This could be exhilarating and inspiring at times, but I was never able to really expand on ideas. Now that I am more focused on my own studio practice, I want to take the time to really delve into an idea...repeat, change a bit, repeat...until I've exhausted my interest in it.

You do commissions; many artists have a love/hate relationship with commissions. How do you feel? What is your favorite type of commission?

I do take commissions and, in the right situation, I really enjoy them. I find the back and forth motivating and it challenges me to push myself. I am still trying to figure out how to navigate it all, though. I think my best work has come when I can just make decisions without considering what someone else would think, so I find it is important to be working with people that are coming to me for my specific perspective and voice.  Not to plug Procreate again, but it has helped immensely in communicating my ideas/sketches for commissions. I love to work large, so those projects are my favorite! I would love to do a big piece for a hotel, an airport, or a fun restaurant one day.

Are there any projects or ideas on the horizon that you're excited about?

Many! I am currently creating work for my first gallery show ever (eeek!) at Spalding Nix Fine Art in Atlanta, GA, to open on June 14th. A rug line based on my rainbow runner is in the works, and I hope to launch that in the next few months.I have several commissions to complete including a 22' long guy! And I have some thoughts on tufted furniture I hope to get time to explore when I find the time. All in all, very very thankful to have the opportunity to keep tufting because I love it to my core. 

Learn more about Trish’s work at trishandersenstudio.com or follow her on Instagram @trishandersonart

 What inspires you?

A lot of my aesthetic inspiration comes from my childhood home in Miami. In my designs, I remove vibrant, romantic things from their original context and transplant them to classic, sterile environments. This juxtaposition makes me uncomfortable. But that’s a good thing! I also am inspired by carnival chalk ware figurines that I once hated. When you start to love things you despised, that love becomes deeper. Here is a list of some of my most favorite inspirations:

Fancy Leaf Begonias

Cable Knit Texture

Chenille Bedspreads

Stripes, Checks, Houndstooth, Polka dots, Camouflage 

Animals

Over-loved flocked tin wind-up toys  

Vintage handkerchiefs

What was your background in fiber arts prior to starting your own business?

My comfort with fiber arts definitely stems from my mother being a textile artist. Fiber arts first emerged in my practice when I began using resist techniques such as Shibori and Katazome. I fell in love with indirect methods of creating an image, which lead to a new interest in textiles and screen printing. Textiles have been a parallel practice to my painting studio for many years. As a painter, my styles have varied from figurative to abstract. Even though I create paintings, I am inspired by textile artists.

I love how people are disarmed by textiles: so intimate as they are to be touched and worn. I am interested in capturing a relief surface that isn’t quite 2D or 3D. I think all fiber art has this quality that it presents very different views if you look at it close-up or far away. I love how textiles figured in history of digital technology. I love learning to use machines and using all my senses to create something.  

How do you design your patterns?

My designs and patterns are usually a mash-up between something vintage like a handkerchief and a contemporary snapshot. I source various patterns from my collection of textiles and scan or recreate them with Photoshop. I develop a surface design by combining digital photographs. Even though I have screen printing facilities, I use the print-on-demand website Spoonflower to digitally print one-of-a-kind and micro batch designs. Spoonflower allows me to utilize a broader palette in custom work and allows me to have a more personal experience with the customer.

Currently, I am thinking about pattern scale especially concerning the body. It’s one thing to design a pattern and a second to see it in proportion to the body. I am interested in creating a design that is perceived as an abstract pattern from a distance, but up close it emerges as a figure. 

What is the significance of color in your work?

 I love color. It is the first thing that attracts me to something unusual. It doesn’t matter if it’s an ugly color or a sophisticated one. I’m especially conscious of color when using the tufting gun. For me, the worst example of rug color is one that covers a cat scratching post. Tufting can be so luxurious when you use the right colors and textures.

Your Etsy and Instagram feature a wide array of products, from bandanas to scarves to bathing suits. How do you decide which products to make?

I started with scarves because they are essentially the same as paintings: textile and ink to canvas and paint. Eventually people started asking me to make something specific. For example, a long-time client asked me to make underwear with her dog on it. I was intrigued by the specific and interesting challenge. It took me about two months to figure out to design, source and construct it. She loved it. 

I recently created the angry cat bathing suit for performance artist Ayana Evans for her New York debut at Medium Tings. I prefer collaboration to the standard retail market. I’m not too fond of that side of business, in which people are primarily concerned with bargains. 

Your business, “Diane Hoffman Textiles” has a “pet portraiture component” in which you create designs using photos of your customers’ pets. What is your favorite part about this process?

I love toile and animals prints. I think customization with specific and beloved animals is my way of updating the idea of the bucolic or exotic landscape into something contemporary and perhaps critical. I think a lot about John Berger’s observation that most figuration points to wealth consolidation. A landscape painting is property that is owned. An exotic animal skin is another region exploited and dominated for pleasure.

I want my designs to be joyful, vulnerable and funny; but also a commentary. I hope they can be a kind of relief to the political rhetoric that uses animal references as a form of degradation. Before the 2016 election, I created the ninety-nine rescue cat scarf as a method of processing my feelings at the time. It can be so hard to find humor in things, and I felt like that was something I needed in my life. 

There is a very modern component to my animal-focused textiles. I crowdsource other people’s pet photos in my designs. It’s hard to get photos of cats, so their owners have better luck getting the images I want! In a similar vein, I’m currently working on a “belly up” project, in which I’m making a mock bearskin rug, but imitating a dog laying on its back. 

P.S. I love dogs and cats and all animals so much. After spending 9 months grooming dogs, I have to say the tufting and grooming have a lot in common.

Why were you interested in buying your own tufting gun? Has it changed your practice at all?

I have experimented with rugs before and tufting has always been in the back of my mind. A few years ago, I was looking for a tufting gun but they were too expensive of an investment. This spring, I saw Tim Eads’ video on Instagram and I was intrigued. I bought a gun a few weeks later. I love tufting because its results are directly visible. Every experience with the tufting gun is an exciting and informative one. I am in the process of bringing the tufting and painting worlds together. It is a rich territory for exploration.

In the fall, I will be teaching “Transparent Media” in the Illustration department of Lesley University in Cambridge, and a Winter Session “Monumental Drawing” course at Brown University in Providence. I plan to do a tufting demonstration at both universities as it would lend itself to both curriculums. 

How do you maintain your creative practice in conjunction with running your own business?

The urge to make art and make money is often on opposite tracks. I want to make exquisite, fragile and complicated things. Often it takes an extraordinary amount of time to design, source, create, produce and sell any product. Our consumer culture is bargain oriented and assumes everything mass produced and is made by a machine. My challenge is to find the right customer. The joy of creating can be consumed by craft and business. It is essential to remember the spark that makes you passionate about creating and use it to drive you forward. 

Learn more about Diane Hoffman through her Instagram and Facebook pages. Her email is dinodianehoffman@gmail.com



What was your first experience with fiber art?

Knitting - my grandma taught me to knit a long time ago, and I still remember everything. I used to make clothes for my Barbie. My dad also taught me how to use a sewing machine and I had a lot of fun with it.

What inspired you to start your business, Myra & Jean?

I was laid off in September of 2016 and trying to figure out what to do with myself while looking for a job. Art was a natural outlet - I’ve always loved it and done various versions of it from drawing, painting, to knitting…I loved making something with my hands. I actually just started an Instagram account for fun and not for business. Over time it has evolved into a business and I am beyond grateful.

So, where did this passion project get it's name?

The name came to me randomly one night and I loved it. Then someone told me their grandma was Myra and she had a sister called Jean and I thought that was both trippy and cool and I took it in a sense that it was meant to be.

Myra & Jean your full-time job! What is your day-to-day life like, running your own business?

As unbelievable as it still is, yes Myra & Jean is my full-time job. I am very fortunate! Normally, I wake up, check unread messages and my Instagram feed. After I take my son to school I make myself a matcha latte and look at my weekly calendar to see how many kits are due on which day. I work on kits in bulk because it goes faster that way. I make sure to not work on batches that are too big because I can only stretch certain amount of fabric on a frame before my hand starts to ache. Throughout the day, I photograph and post projects I’m working on Instagram. I try to post at least once a day. In the afternoon I fulfill punch needle orders and walk to the post office on the way to pick up my son from school. When we come back I try to work on either a project or kits, depending on the deadline and my energy levels :) Before going to bed I check Instagram again to make sure I engaged with people I follow as well as my followers. I answer every message and comment on social media.

How do you create your kits?

The designs usually come to me out of nowhere and the inspiration is instant. I get an idea and know it will become a kit. I draw the image on my iPad and transfer it to fabric. I like to check in with my followers to see what they think of the colors, shape and the size. I love getting their input. Mostly it’s them who get me very inspired!

After I’ve decided on a design, I carve it out into a stamp pad, which speeds up the production process a lot. I look for yarn that’s the best color-wise and texture-wise. I weigh every yarn ball based on the amount needed for each design and put it in a hand stamped bag. I stretch fabric on a frame, stamp it with the design and add it to the box with yarn and punch needle if one was ordered.

What are you excited for at this moment?

I am very excited about people enjoying my kits and creating something on their own. I’ve recently started doing workshops and the satisfaction I get from watching someone else working on my kit is indescribable. It’s so much joy! There are a couple of very exciting news coming that I can’t share yet, but I will as soon as I’m able to :)

What influences beyond art and design are crucial to your work?

I am influenced by my interactions with people and watching others create something and grow from it. Being told that I inspired someone to create something makes me very happy and it assures me that I’m doing the right thing.

What made you want to try a rug tufting gun? Do you think it will change anything in your practice?

The idea of creating even loops and being able to work faster is very appealing, especially when it comes to working on larger areas with one color. I really want to try the cut pile one! I have been hand-cutting loops for now and I love the look :) I am not sure how using the gun it will affect me yet. I couldn’t work on anything for a while because I was waiting for fabric, but now that it’s here I can’t wait to get back to it!

Your punch needle kits make fiber art accessible to those who don’t have access to studios or school. What do your accessible designs mean to you?

That’s exactly my goal! I want people to have access - that was why I started making kits in the first place. I love that people get to make something by themselves and the pride and sense of accomplishment they feel afterwards. Most importantly, I want everyone to have fun and be able to relax when working on the kits. I also don’t want them to feel intimidated to start which is why I stretch the fabric and stamp it with the design myself instead of asking them to do it themselves. All they need to do is open the box, instructions, thread the needle and go.

What is your hope for Myra & Jean’s future?

I hope to continue this journey and to keep learning from others as I have been until now. The community on Instagram is truly amazing - so inspiring and encouraging. We’re all just trying to learn and have fun so the fact that it’s “community over competition” is very important to me.

Visit Andie’s website for punch needle kits and wall hangings at https://www.myraandjean.com, or find her on Instagram @myraandjean. 

Kate Garman is a carpet designer, an MFA graduate from Tyler School of Art’s Fiber & Material Studies Program, and a rug tufting expert. 

When did you first become interested in the process of tufting?

I used to be a designer with a rug company in Grand Rapids, Michigan. After I got into grad school I really wanted to learn more about the processes we were using within the company. Because of proprietary conflicts I wasn’t able to learn rug tufting there, but it was something I was eager to learn during my two years at Tyler School of Art.

How did working for a commercial rug design company inform your art practice?

When designing rugs, I created patterns within the grid structure of monk’s cloth [a loosely woven cotton used as a backing in rugs]. It made me interested in ways I could mess with the grid in my art practice. I was obsessed with repeating patterns, especially in black and white, and created a lot of them my first year of grad school. Moving from Michigan to Pennsylvania, I was away from my friends and family for the first time. The move brought up a lot of homesickness which I translated into my drawings. Because I was missing the rug company I decided to create a rug, but this time it was a drawing of a rug. In this process I recreated textile techniques in the form of hand-drawn marks, that for me, were part of a similar meditative process. Working as a rug designer allowed me the opportunity to learn about a niche market, understand the rug-making process, and make lifelong friends.

How did you first learn about Tuft the World? 

I came to Tuft the World because my amazing mentor, Tim, became just as excited about tufting and rug making as I was. In his studio I was finally able to tuft on my own, which has been both overwhelming and challenging. And now I’m the resident rug tufting expert!

As of now, how would you describe your art practice?

I’d consider my practice a material-based one. As of now, that material is the creation of fabric into clothing. Since graduating with my MFA from Tyler, my practice has shifted into translating my hand-drawn designs into garments.

Where do you see the intersection between your “artist” self and your “design” self? Is there a difference?

I think my design self determines whether or not something is visually working, and my artist self determines that “yes it’s art”. I mean they’re one in the same, because really it’s all me.

What are you most excited and inspired by?

Right now I’m most excited about making my own clothes. Having just started making clothes within the last six months, I’m still surprised and shocked that I can make something that fits my body and that I want to wear everyday. I’m constantly inspired by the city. Since it’s gotten nicer out, I really enjoy taking walks and I’m always taking pictures of patterns within everyday life that excite me. 

To see more of Kate's work, visit kategarman.com, or find her on Instagram @kategarman. 

Persian Rugs: Knots of Identity

Hand-tufting has an extensive global history. Although believed to originate in nomadic tribes in what is known today as Iran, hand-tufted rugs exist in many unexpected corners of the globe. The world’s oldest existing carpet is dubbed the “Pazyryk Carpet”. It is classified as a Persian rug dating to 5 BCE. Within the compactly knotted rug, a hunting scene depicts images of deer and men riding horses.

Throughout Persia, the practice of hand-tufting existed in nomadic tribes, village workshops, and royal manufacturers alike. Each region had its own distinctive patterns, wool quality, colors, and even knots used to secure wool to the knitted cotton cloth. During the Safavid dynasty in the late 15th century, a more defined partnership emerged between artists and weavers as they created the most detailed Persian rugs to date, introducing the arabesque style to textiles. Previously, these designs were only seen in tiles and book covers.

Centuries later in 1925, the Pahlavi Dynasty originating with Reza Shah once again changed the course of rug making in Iran. The Pahlavi Dynasty encouraged and marketed rug makers in effort to legitimize their regime and establish a strong national identity. However, over the next twenty years a series of monarchs following Reza Shah outlawed nomadism and enforced rigid land programs that decimated the communities in which traditional rug-making flourished. Today, hand-tufted rugs have a small but dedicated client base in Iran. Traditions such as natural dye are continued, as materials like madder root, onion, chamomile, oak, and indigo are used to dye wool vibrant colors.

Detail of a Persian Animal Carpet, Safavid Period, Persia, 16th Century >

Knotting New Traditions

Persian rugs were and still are immensely influential in rug making traditions all over the world. During the crusades in the Middle Ages, hand-tufted rugs were introduced to Europe and Asia. Persian rugs were popular items of trade and have been discovered in Renaissance paintings, Tibetan monasteries, and burial sites along the Silk Road.

< Bakhtiari Girl Hand-Tufting a Traditional Persian Rug 

The Scandinavian tradition of Rya rug making composed of thousands of knots originated from Vikings trading with Ottoman Empire textiles. In the 1800’s and 1900’s, future brides would hand knot Rya rugs to stand on during the wedding ceremony. These rugs would then be repurposed as insulating duvet covers on the couple’s marriage bed.

Across the pond, the first mechanized tufting machine was developed in Dalton, Georgia in the 1930’s. Thanks (or not thanks!) to the original tufting machine, chenille rugs and wall-to-wall carpeting became hugely popular in the United States. However, the recreational practice of hand-tufting did not rise to prominence until the 1950’s. When latch-hooking became oh-so-popular in the 70s, hand-tufting lost some of its appeal because its materials were more expensive.

Which brings us to today! Through social media, artists, rug traders, collectors, and fiber fanatics can swap hand and machine-tufted inspiration. It’s safe to say that the rich history of tufting is still in the making.