Featured Artist : Gayland Preacher

My name is Gayland Preacher.  I have been working as a fiber artist for about forty years.  I design and produce one of kind pillows. 

I begin with a design and then decide on fabric.  I use a combination of store bought fabrics, hand dyed and or hand painted fabrics, sometimes Airbrushed, and sun painted fabrics.  Which ever fabric is the right one for a particular pillow is the one used. After hand piecing the fabric I draw on a design to be embroidered.  I hand embroider the design then add embellishing threads which I Couch on to the pillow top by whip stitching with invisible thread.  I then add the piping and any beads or buttons that are going to be used. I make a lined double backing for each pillow so that the pillow form can be removed for cleaning.  I always suggest washing and drying by hand Due to the glass beads used and everyone knows that your item will look better longer if hand washed and dried. 

I use Dharma fiber reactive dyes for the hand dying of fabric, Setacolor transparent paints for the sun painting and Fabrico pens for any detail work.

I am inspired by nature.  There seems to be an unlimited source available.  What I do is extremely time consuming so I will never be able to do every design I would like to.  However, I will keep at it until no longer able to.  Hopefully that will be a very long time off in the future.