Kathryn WettLaufer

Fibre and textile art is a natural extension of the skills I have been gathering all my life. My love of textiles began early, taught by the women in my family. As a child of six or seven, my grandmother encouraged me to sew with her fabric scraps, and later my mother taught me to knit, cross-stitch, and do needlepoint.
In high school, I began making costumes, seeding a lifelong enthusiasm for theatre that continues today with the Goderich Little Theatre, where I work as a costumer, props maker, and stage manager.
As an adult, I learned to quilt, and an early project used my father’s silk ties to create Christmas stockings for our family. I have little interest in making the same thing twice, which has led me away from traditional quilting toward a more improvisational, almost “crazy quilting” approach.
Felting has captured my imagination, and learning the process was so much fun. I often describe it as “mud pies for adults.” Try as an artist might, the wet felting process resists exact repetition. My current work explores felting with paper, cotton, or silk layered over wool fibres, along with materials that do not felt. By incorporating light, I am beginning to use wool felt and these fibres to create luminaries.
Through this evolving practice, I continue to gather skills while finding joy in each creative encounter.