Tiernan Alexander is an artist, educator, and writer. She has taught tufting, design, and ceramics in the United States and Mexico. Her commitment to art as a tool for self-expression, community, and healing informs her mixed-media artwork and has led her to conceptualize and oversee nationally recognized large-scale community art-installations. She received an MFA in ceramics from the University of the Arts and an MA in Material Culture from the University of Delaware’s Winterthur Program.

Tim Eads is a mixed media artist, designer, entrepreneur, and Founder of Tuft the World. He received an MFA in ceramics from Cranbrook Academy of Art and is a master screen printer who trained and worked at the Fabric Workshop in Philadelphia. He has taught courses to budding and professional artists for many years. In 2019 he was selected as a member of the fall cohort for Goldman-Sachs’ 10,000 Small Businesses initiative, where he received training and support to launch Tuft the World.

Trish Andersen is an interdisciplinary artist born and raised in Dalton, Georgia "The Carpet Capital of the World”. Her initial attraction to the process of tufting was a means to reconnect with and explore her roots. She began using the medium as an examination of the elusive authentic self. The unexpected and varied tactile quality of her painterly tufted pieces speaks to the truth that boundaries between us inevitably bleed.

Jongbum Kim is a New York-based designer / artist / illustrator who explores the ideas of gender and multicultural communities through the medium of cloth. With a strong belief in seeing the world and experiencing it firsthand, Jongbum’s designs are filled with color and symbolism, both literal and figurative, engaging the viewer and provoking them to respond. They strive to create paintings and fiber artwork that are an expression of their personal voice and life’s journey.

Tonya D. Lee is an award-winning art, design, and humanities instructor, instructional designer, and color theory subject matter expert. She holds an M.Ed. in Learning, Design and Technology and MFA degree in painting from the University of North Carolina – Greensboro. Her artwork had been exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the U.S.

AJ Peterson is the designer, tufting artist, and educator behind Magic Carpets. She teaches workshops in Los Angeles, creates rugs that explore themes of spirituality and queerness, and is passionate about sharing the craft of tufting with others.

Aliyah Salmon is a textile artist and designer that uses her extensive knowledge of complex color relationships and composition to illustrate her captivating narrative work. Aliyah often uses hand tufting and bead embroidery in her work as a nod to the slow crafts often associated with feminine roles.

Her pieces highlight everyday objects associated with beauty by giving them as much importance as a portrait. These objects such as a wide tooth comb are used prevalently in her work as symbols of Black femininity. 

Through her work, Salmon seeks to engage us in larger conversations about the nuances within Black experiences and of Black women in America as well as intimate themes of childhood, isolation, and the subconscious.