Marta Shannon
Tactile Sensations

 

About Me

 

My textile curiosity was piqued growing up in the Midwest surrounded by bolts of fabric used in my mother's interior design business. Later, my undergraduate focus in Latin American Studies kept the flame alive until I finally was given a loom in 1974. After a one-year apprenticeship with an established weaver in Sag Harbor, New York, I headed to Texas to “be a weaver”. In 1981, while living in Austin, I co-founded a retail weaving store and gallery, Hill Country Weavers, which is still going strong today. It was in Austin that I first began showing and selling my own work in retail stores and craft shows. I also began to teach weaving while living there… still an important component of what I do.  A mid 80’s move to the Bay Area eventually brought me to Petaluma where I have had a studio, located in an old chicken coop, since 1996. My studio is in a serene, bucolic location where I have been weaving scarves, shawls, ponchos, and throws to sell or as custom orders ever since. I like to pursue the limits of what is traditionally considered “cloth”…exploring and challenging the outer edges of color, texture and pattern on my loom and in my finishing techniques. I love what I do and I get immense satisfaction in the process and in the crafting of beautiful fabrics from threads.

 

I have been a participating artist in the Sonoma County Art Trails Open Studios program since 2002.  I teach weaving classes in my studio, at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts, and at local knitting stores. My work is available for sale by appointment at my west Petaluma studio.

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