Who Am I

Let me introduce myself. I'm Angie Knowles, and while I've been around fabric since I learned to sew at age 9, it wasn't until 2008 when I found the Tampa Bay Surface Design that I discovered the world of surface design.

In my previous professional life I was a member of the US Air Force, retiring in 1995. I worked in the very technical field of finance and radio maintenance. Upon retiring, I went back to school for clothing construction and pattern making, but I never worked in that field. Instead I operated a custom slipcover business for 13 years. Since closing my business in 2014, I've focused on building my skills as a textile artist.

My adventure into the surface design world started with a screen printing course, and I was hooked! Screen printing is still my first love, but I've ventured into other areas: dyeing fabric, marbling on fabric, indigo resist dyeing and of course rust dyeing.

My quest at this point is to merge my 3 loves; screen printing, rust dyeing and indigo resist dyeing into a cohesive body of work. And speaking of body of work, you'd think I would have a lot to show for spending 8 years learning so many techniques.

But I don't. For me the process is more exciting that the final product. But this is changing. I feel I have enough processes under my belt and having narrowed down those processes I really love, it is time to bring it all together.

To help me make this happen, in March 2016, I started the 2 ½ year Art Cloth Mastery Program with Jane Dunnewold. So for the next 2 ½ years I will be discovering my strengths, overcoming my weakness and hopefully discovering how to blend these separate techniques into one.

So that is a little about me, where I've been, where I'm at and where I'm headed.

See you next post!