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.