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Siobhán
Thomas has been drawn to textiles for as long as she
can remember. Some of her earliest memories are of
trips to the yarn store with her mother, where she
would contently browse the endless variety of yarns
and embroidery floss. As a child she expressed her
opinion about fashion and design, dreading the '70's
hand-me-downs of polyester cloud-print shirts and
plaid wool pants from the neighborhood kids, preferring
to choose her own patterns and fabrics for homemade
dresses and skirts. She doubted the yellow and green
daisy "feature wall" in her bedroom, but
chose the sunshine yellow paint for the remaining
walls.
This early interest, leading to years of craft projects
and art classes, and degrees in painting and design,
culminating in an MFA in Textile Design from Rhode
Island School of Design, have allowed Siobhán
realize her design dreams through her line of hand-made
textiles.
Her influences include: the freedom of décor
in her '70s childhood home; the game Memory, growing
things in her garden, the simultaneous beauty and
nervousness of chickens; the abstraction and power
of modern dance; and food, from her extensive cookbook
collection and her years as a cook for both intimate
cafes and big corporate parties. Pastry cases; grocery
store shelves; and the pink paper of a Dunkin' Donuts
display all inform her design aesthetics and feed
her creative energies.
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Siobhán
thinks about her work in terms of "capturing a
moment in time". The moment might be physical or
might be a moment abstracted by memory. She shares this
moment through the visual and tactile medium of textiles,
made for both fashion and interior design applications.
Each of Siobhán's pieces are one-of-a-kind, using
a range of techniques, including freehand drawing, painting,
dyeing, silkscreen, batik, and embroidery. Her process
insures each piece is unique and individual. Textiles
for interior design applications can also be created
in short-run and one-of-a-kind series.
Siobhan's work has been sold in boutiques, galleries,
and museum stores on the east and west coasts. She has
created costumes for modern dance and ballet productions
in Western NY and New York City. Her work was recently
featured in Connection 2005: the Roycroft/Chautauqua
Conference Artisan Show and Sale.
Siobhán now works out of her Brooklyn studio
near Prospect Park. She can be reached at siobhan@siobhanthomas.com.
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