On March 29, 2026, I chatted with Susan Gaire about the Tapestry Interest Group at Local Cloth. Their newly completed project had drawn my attention at the Local Cloth Studio in the River Arts District.
Susan led me through the group’s inspiration, her participation in organizing the project, and the group’s collaborative interactions in completing the work. Susan is highly energetic and enthusiastic about the tapestry project.
Blue Ridge Mountain Collaborative Tapestry Postcard
Location: Local Cloth, Asheville, NC March 17, 2025
Weavers from left to right:
Susan Gaire, Stephanie Lyons, Madeleine Hairrell, Betty Hilton-Nash, Susan Gaire, Kathy DeOrnellas, Anne Burg, Kathy Dennison, Jennifer Zia, Jaqueline Fay
Size: 7’ x 3’
Materials: warp: cotton seine twine, weft: wool, silk, assorted fibers.
First, Susan Gaire showed me the folder she created for this project. She had collected photos of a project in which the same city view was photographed at different times. Slices of the images were extracted and reassembled so that, from left to right, a progression from day to night could be seen. One common element in their composition is the water-land interface.
The tapestry project was also highly influenced by another tapestry artist collaboration, The Murmuration Collaboration.
Susan Gaire showed me the foldout page from the Murmuration catalog publication.
We live in the beautiful mountains of Western North Carolina, which provided the next major influence for the textile interest group project.
The group worked on colored-pencil renditions of a beautiful photograph of the mountains at sunset and chose three strong ridgelines to act as the continuity thread between the individual contributions of the tapestry members.
From there, full-size strips matching the actual dimensions of the individual contributions were drawn, and the three ridgelines were penciled in. They were cut out and handed to each of the participants. Betty Winters is shown holding her pattern piece.
Individuals created sketches and small samples containing the yarns to be used so they could compare them for compatibility. You can see that the textile group collaborators have strong talent in coloring and drawing the mockups.
A deadline was set for April 2026, and they went to work.
