Fiber Alchemy

Friday, August 31, 2012

The Fiber Alchemist works in the garden to create a water feature. Inside the structure the water dances.

Racheal Alexander Scott: Growing up near the Maryland Institute, Racheal was exposed to numerous art mediums at an early age. Her first experience in the arts and crafts field was as a teen, working as an apprentice weaver during the summers, giving demonstrations and attending shows and festivals. After graduating high school she attended the Maryland Institute, Penland School of Crafts, and the Instituto Allende in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Coming from a family of traditional craftsmen, her father was a green wood worker and her mother a quilter, it was natural for her to move into traditional fiber arts. Today she occasionally breaks with tradition using new materials and forms but her methods remain classic; her work can range from the purely whimsical to the strictly traditional. Racheal’s traditional Amish-style quilts are featured in C. Stapleton's book Crafts In America (Harper & Row; New York, 1988), and she has exhibited her various works in Maryland, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, and San Miguel de Allende Mexico.