VIVA’s Featured Member Artist for April is weaver Kathleen Aaker!

Meet the Artist, Kathleen Aaker of Riverweave Studio

I am a fiber artist working on a handloom.  Weaving is an unplugged and earth-friendly art.  It is slow cloth. Fabric from my loom is designed and woven with intention, each pieceunique.  Garments I make feature relaxed lines that can be worn with elegance and ease, comfortable and flattering at the same time. Shawls and scarves combine beautiful texture and color.

I also delve into more structured weaves such as table runners, rugs, and wall hangings.  I relish the process of making something that will bring beauty to the home environment.  A handwoven piece can dress up a room.  Anywhere it lands, it will be a delight to look at.

This has been my art and craft for years.  I’ve taken some classes, learned from friends and others.  There is an adventure to any craft, taking on the challenge of following in footsteps of others, finding your own style and always learning.  

Fun Questions:

What is influencing your work at the moment?

I can’t pinpoint one thing that is influencing my work but there is inspiration everywhere. I am attracted to color and lines and their interaction. I can see colors or dream colors, go to the loom, work out the colors of fiber I want t use and then try it. I learned long ago though, if you’re not sure of what the color interactions will be when you make your warp, the long threads that wrap around your loom beams from front to back, you may end up with a big mistake. I admit I’ve cut whole warps off my loom when the colors don’t jive. And I hate waste but if it doesn’t work it won’t be any better tomorrow and I just wasted tons of time!

If I could have one piece of art from a museum, what would it be?

The work of an artist that I have fallen in love with is Sonia DeLauney. She was an artist of the early 20th century working in Paris. She was a clothing designer and an abstract painter. I love her big, bold design and use of color especially in her fashion styling but, also her paintings. I would treasure a piece of her work. I think she likely would have been a delightful person to know.

Why did you decide to work in your chosen medium?

My mother and grandmother were sewers, we always had fabrics around and a sewing machine. My mother made lots of mine and my sisters clothes until we took on that task, happily I might add. I don’t know where the idea of making my own fabric on a loom came from - in my genes somehow? I know I have ancestors that worked as tailors, as any professional or hobby sewer must also be. I just became fascinated with the craft and then began to explore it first renting a loom, having someone teach me how to warp a loom, and there it slowly begin.

What does your studio look like?

My studio is a small room in the upstairs of our house. There is good light most of the time. There is my Glimakra loom, about 50” wide, a large bookcase full of spools of fibers, a warping reel - on which you spin your warp threads after you have decided the length, and other tools of the trade and lots of lint!

I love to have a warp on the loom, then at any time I can sit down and weave, as long as the design and colors are sort of figured out. Preparing and threading the warp is the necessary work that can take two days, maybe more before you can sit down and make the cloth, and put the colors together … finally.