Cathie Wier: Weaver and Silk Artist

Cathie has lived on the Salish Sea since 1997, first on Orcas Island and now in Port Townsend. She is fascinated by what she sees along the shoreline: piles of kelp glistening in the sun, rocks and pebbles washed by the waves, waves crashing on the shore, and sunsets on the water. At low tide, seaweed of all colors and textures are laid out on the sand in beautiful compositions. All of these inform her art.

Once she arrived on the Olympic Peninsula and became an avid hiker and backpacker, the mountains and forests were added to Cathie’s regular meditations in nature. Her subject matter expanded to snow-covered peaks, mossy and lichen-covered rocks, wildflowers, roaring rivers, and forests green and fire-scorched. 

Just as seaweed changes color and shape as it dries, Cathie weaves with yarns and structures that change shape when she takes them off the loom, washes, and dries them: some yarns shrink, some bubble, and some twist. Although many weavings have strict horizontal and vertical lines, she loves to break away from those structures and find ways to create angled or undulating lines.

Most recently, Cathie has been exploring shibori (a Japanese stitch-resist dyeing technique). She discovered that unlike most shibori artists who appreciate the designs that can be created with this technique, she loves the textures that are created when a piece of silk is stitched, dyed, steamed, and dried before taking out the stitching. The textures are permanent at that point and Cathie now combines these in wall hangings. Through this work, Cathie explored pleating and has taken the fascination with pleats back to her loom. She creates pleats in her woven work by using a fine silk yarn that shrinks when it is steamed. Because of the woven pattern,  peaks and valleys are formed when the finished piece is steamed and the silk shrinks. She then manipulates the woven pieces to create intriguing wall art. Cathie frequently enters juried shows in the Northwest and also shows with Tangled Fibers and Peninsula Fiber Artists.