The Fabrics of a Craft: Quiltmaker Sarah Nishiura

Design Textiles Sarah Nishiura

Quilts by Sarah Nishiura in our shop ->

When I first saw a photograph of an inventive quilt made by the Chicago-based quilter Sarah Nishiura, I thought I was looking at an abstract painting. The fascinating geometry, surprising lines, and the hues of colors enticed me to feel something completely new.

2017 Quilt by Sarah Nishiura.
Photo courtesy of Sarah Nishiura

Sarah, who is both an accomplished painter and dedicated quilt-maker, distinguishes between the two forms. “A painting is flat,” she observes, ”a quilt on the other hand is never flat. It may be presented that way in a gallery or in an image on-line, but the surface is textured from the stitches. There is always some kind of wave or wiggle to it, and, if it is used on a bed or a lap, it changes constantly as it is folded, draped, or left in a lump on a piece of furniture.”

quilt by sarah nishiura
A quilt changes constantly as it gets used in our everyday life

A quilt has much more purpose than a painting in Sarah’s view. “Quilts are meant to be touched while paintings are generally not. As a painter, the brush was always an intermediary between me and the thing I was making. When I quilt, I touch every inch of my work as it evolves. And similarly, touch is a very important part of the viewer/user’s experience,” she explained.

Sarah was taught to quilt by her mother, whose own mother made quilts by piecing together feed sacks during the Great Depression in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Sarah’s Japanese-American father’s family was held in an internment camp during the Second World War, where they gathered wood scraps to create altars for people.

Sarah hand-quilts all of her work instead of by machine because she likes the way the lines look. It is a slow process but she feels that the pace of quilting is what makes the final product so special.  
Photo courtesy of Sarah Nishiura

By creating beautiful quilts that provide warmth through the piecing together of otherwise discarded fragments from the past, Sarah finds a connection to the ingenious creativity of her ancestors who created useful and beautiful things out of nothing.

Sarah Nishiura and her shelves of inspiration at her studio in Chicago
Photo courtesy of Sarah Nishiura

Sarah gets her greatest inspirations from quilt history. “I love looking at quilts made in the past, analyzing their designs, how they were made, and also thinking about the context in which they were made”. She occasionally takes a deep dive into the collections database of The International Quilt Study Center in Lincoln, Nebraska where traditional quilt patterns can be searched with examples of hundreds of variations of the same pattern.

“One thing I love to do when designing is to challenge the geometric relationships that have traditionally been used in quilting. Figuring out how to warp a grid or shift proportions within a composition is a really fun puzzle and can open up endless possibilities and create some really dazzling effects,” she said. Indeed, a quick Internet image search of Sarah’s name will pull up quilts with numerous innovative designs that she has created. Given Sarah’s gift and passion for geometry, it is no coincidence that her father was a mathematician.

Quilt designs by Sarah Nishiura. She loves figuring out how to warp a grid or shift proportions.
Photo courtesy of Sarah Nishiura

Yanagi Muneyoshi, the founder of the Mingei movement once wrote in an essay titled “Nature of Folk-Crafts” that the most essential quality of folk-craft is its nationality, because it directly reflects the life of that nation. When Sarah remarked that  “a quilt is made of many different materials that all have to be made to play nice together”, this made me think about the openness and inclusiveness of quilts and how synonymous it is with America, where the quilting tradition thrives to the present day with more than 16 million quilt makers.

A quilt’s most special quality is its intimacy. “The desire to play with geometric pattern is only one part of the game” says Sarah Nishiura.

I understand why Sarah does not want her quilts high up on walls, but want you to keep it close and take them into your hands. It is because the most special quality of her beautiful work is in its humility and intimacy.

Mastering Simplicity: Ceramics by Bill Geisinger

Bill Geisinger Ceramics

Wood-fired ceramics by Bill Geisinger in our shop ->

Ceramic works by Bill Geisinger are a poignant reminder of our love for simplicity, natural materials, and the personal connections that are all too often overlooked in this instant technology-driven world.

A simple vase made by Bill Geisinger with beautiful natural ash landscapes

Bill’s works are made using local clay that he dug up himself and fired using eucalyptus wood in his beautiful off-the-beaten track studio and kiln in Sabastopol, California. The fallen ash on the earthy surface of the clay creates exquisite natural landscapes that are surprising and mysteriously captivating.

Over 40 years ago when Bill was an aspiring painter and art student, he visited San Jose State University’s ceramics studio and became enthralled by the tactility of clay and its unique ability to connect with our lives. He went on to study under Professor James Lovera and Harry Nakamoto, who was his teaching assistant at that time. One day in class, Harry showed a film called “The Potters of Japan” by Richard and Marj Peeler. The sound and images reminded Bill of his days growing up in Japan in the early 1960s. “Maybe this was the beginning when I became a potter” Bill muses.

Potter Bill Geisinger’s rustic kiln and studio in Sabastopol California

So began Bill’s life-long love affair with clay that continues to the present day. Bill was hired to establish the clay department at De Anza College, which also played a big role in shaping his growth as an artist as he points out that “there was continual interaction to learn and grow from the many visiting artists and the students themselves.”

As an addition to his learning, Bill also regularly takes groups of people who are deeply interested in Japanese ceramics over to Japan to visit with local potters. In the past few years, I have traveled with the group as its interpreter and on each trip, we visit over 15 potters in various regions.

Bill discussing firing techniques with Japanese potter Kohara Yasuhiro in Shigaraki, Japan

Bill must have visited over a hundred Japanese potters by now, and I am amazed at how his love of the material and process continues to keep him curious and intensely interested in what others do. He says that he is most fascinated by how they work, generate ideas, and motivate themselves.

Bill aims to create work that is quiet, simple, useful, and that has a meaningful connection to nature. To me, it is notable that a potter like Bill who has seen so many alternative processes and techniques tested by others wants to create ‘simple’ work using traditional methods.

Bill introducing charcoal to his kiln at the last stage of firing. Charcoal increases the temperature and deprives oxygen, causing the clay surfaces to reduce. Bill says it is his way to add “touch” to his work, because reduction changes the texture and color

In a world where 3D printers can create complex and fascinating ceramic forms from your imagination, and kilns can be controlled to exacting temperatures with a computer, what is the significance of digging up clay and chopping wood to fire for 4 days in a self-built kiln? Simplicity is a concept that is seemingly easy to understand but remarkably difficult to practice these days.

Two small vases by Bill Geisinger that accidentally fused together during firing

Perhaps the significance lies in the fact that any vessel can hold water, but a quiet vessel made using natural materials and with attention to the process provides us with space and allows us to dream. Like the time when I looked at Bill’s vase and imagined how the ashes flew around in the hot kiln. Or another time when I felt inspired to put a flower bud in the vase and self-reflect, or invited friends and prepared some tea. Because even in this age where the Internet is always within reach, our most important connection to beauty is personal and emotional.