A rich weaving of traditions
- Amber creates layered pieces of wall art that thread together multicultural influences
- Her sculptural compositions employ techniques from weaving to appliqué
- She teaches weaving classes in her studios in Minneapolis and Marshall
For Amber M. Jensen, weaving offers a portal for uncovering her Scandinavian roots. Coming from a line of Danish and Norwegian seamstresses and tailors, she took a post-graduate weaving class after studyig drawing and painting at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. “It sparked the artist in me that I always knew was there,” she says. Amber moved to a small town in western North Carolina to explore authentically explore American weaving traditions. She is interested in the intersection between Scandinavian, Appalachian, Indigenous and Germanic textile traditions. Amber’s signature style involves weaving a first layer of fabric, then incorporating additional layers through an improvisational process of darning, stitching, needle felting and appliqué. She crafts rugs, wall hangings and accessories whose bright colours, nature motifs and geometric patterns evoke her varied, continent-spanning influences.
Interview
- How does your background in painting and drawing influence your weaving?
- In my textile pieces, I try to recreate what I can do with a pencil and gouache. For example, I think of weaving as replicating colour wash and embroidery as replicating organic pencil lines. I consider my first layer as a blank sheet of paper and I use these different techniques to add layers.
- What was a key turning point in your career?
- Living in Appalachia for a decade was a formative experience. A group of local women once stumbled into my studio and recognised the weaving patterns of their grandmothers and great-grandmothers in my work. That was a pivotal moment because it made me realise the way that weaving connects us.
- Which lessons have you learned that you now pass on to your students?
- An elder once told me that the cloth really comes to life when you pull it off the loom. On the loom, it is perfectly tensioned on the loom, but when you pull it off it, it loses it and becomes something else.
- Why is your craft so important to you?
- Weaving is my meditation. It is also a way for me to understand myself and the world. You can really only see about six inches at a time when you are weaving, so you have to let go of a lot and be present.
Amber M Jensen is an expert artisan: she began her career in 2006 and she started teaching in 2020
Where
Amber M Jensen
