amy P U T A N S U

Amy has been making cloth since she began her textile education at Rhode Island School of Design in 1991.  This pursuit has been mainly in the form of hand weaving on Macomber looms.  However she has also designed cloth for jacquard that was woven at the Oriole Mill, designed and woven interiors and garment yardage on AVL dobby looms, and even took a machine knitting class once.  Her passion and area of expertise is weaving by hand, particularly multiple layer fabrics and ondulé. 

Other techniques and ideas have captured her interest since she became a full time educator in 2008, at Haywood Community College in the renowned Professional Crafts Program: a unique college experience in existence for over 40 years in the mountains of western North Carolina.  These techniques focus around the Japanese art of shibori, and can be combined with carefully constructed hand woven or well chosen commercial fabrics to produce striking and original textiles. 

Amy grew up on the rocky shoreline of coastal Maine, her family is deeply rooted there for generations.  The stark and raw nature of the coastal environment has influenced both her aesthetic sensibility and her approach to materials.