Podcast · Arts & Books
by Gist Yarn · English · Arts & Books
The weave podcast, a project of Gist Yarn, brings together a community of fiber artists and people who love weaving, farmers and mill owners, textile artists and loom manufacturers, to tell the stories of the threads that bind us together.
3 Nov 2025 · 1 hr 18 min
In this week's episode, LaChaun speaks with Jamila Norman a.k.a (Farmer J), Lauren Soleil, and Keisha Cameron of the Black Sheep Fiber Circle, a maker-style sista' circle and fiber arts gathering dedicated to BIPOC land stewards and agrarian artists who love to create, enjoy, and explore the legacy of African and Indigenous-American textiles. Show notes: www.gistyarn.com/episode-149
19 Oct 2025 · 57 min
In this week's episode, LaChaun speaks with Aliana Grace Bailey, an interdisciplinary fiber artist, designer, and care worker whose practice combines art, healing, and social impact. Through her ongoing project Soft Gather, Aliana crafts immersive healing environments that invite Black women and gender-expansive communities to rest, reflect, and connect through the language of color and fiber. Show notes: www.gistyarn.com/episode-148
22 May 2023 · 1 hr 1 min
In this week's episode, LaChaun speaks with adé Oh (they/themme/àjé) an afro surrealist, animist, and multimedia healing artist. Their creative fire is nourished by earth-based textile crafts, sound arts, experimental and abstract visual arts, nature writing, poetry, capoeira Angola, good food and healing herbs, river time, belly laughter, money, healthy relationships, and peaceful rest. They are a returning generation slow craft artisan and in 2014, made a lifelong commitment to cloth and tapestry weaving. In 2020, they founded dièdiè textile farm and production studio which is currently…
23 Dec 2022 · 53 min
In this week's episode, LaChaun speaks with Sobia Ahmad, an interdisciplinary artist whose work explores how our deeply intimate struggles of belonging can inform larger conversations about migration, the tenuous notions of home, personal memory, and cultural porosity. While exploring her ancestral knowledge, Sobia reimagines craft rituals and intergenerational storytelling as acts of liberation. Show notes: www.gistyarn.com/episode-146
26 Sep 2022 · 1 hr 6 min
In this week's episode, LaChaun speaks with one of our artists in residence Kesiena Onosigho. Kesiena's thought-provoking mixed-media collages and installations are informed by her lived experiences, curiosity, and the historic influence on arts & crafts from people within the African Diaspora. Show notes: www.gistyarn.com/episode-145
6 Sep 2022 · 56 min
In this week's conversation, LaChaun is switching roles to be interviewed by Michelle Brooks of The Stitchering Shop. You may remember Michelle from episode 110 where she talked about her practice of creating custom textile art pieces using a variety of fiber techniques such as tufting, embroidery stitching, and weaving. In this week's episode, LaChaun gives an update on her fiber and farming journey as well as some insights into her experiences in fiber and how they relate to Michelle's experiences as well. Show notes: www.gistyarn.com/episode-144
18 Jan 2022 · 10 min
Our WEAVE Artist in Residency program is a 12-week long remote residency that aims to support weavers and fiber enthusiasts who engage in community-based fiber practices. Each participant will receive a $1,500.00 cash stipend to use with no restrictions, and a $1,500.00 materials budget to shop for materials on the Gist Yarn website. We will select three Artists in Residence in 2022. Shownotes: www.gistyarn.com/artist-residency-2022 Residency Application: https://forms.gle/dfAcFhuPpJ1uL3X29
22 Nov 2021 · 50 min
In this week's episode, LaChaun speaks with author and maker Melanie Falick. Melanie traveled across continents to meet quilters and potters, weavers and painters, metalsmiths, printmakers, woodworkers, and more, all to uncover truths that have been speaking to us for millennia yet feel urgently relevant today. In revealing stories and gorgeous original photographs, Making a Life captures all the joy of making and the power it has to give our lives authenticity and meaning. Show notes: www.gistyarn.com/episode-143
1 Nov 2021 · 45 min
In this week's episode, LaChaun speaks with Melvenea Hodges. Melvenea is a Fiber Artist residing in South Bend, Indiana. She was born and raised in Benton Harbor, Michigan where she began learning about fiber arts through experimenting with hair braiding, beading, and weaving. It was through these experiences she found joy and realized her talent in creating with her hands. She creates clothing and accessories using traditional techniques such as block printing, sewing, weaving, spinning, knitting, crocheting, and embroidery. On a small scale, Melvenea grows processes and spins naturally…
6 Sep 2021 · 36 min
In this week's episode, Sarah speaks with Tommye Scanlin. Tommye is a well-known tapestry weaver, tapestry teacher, and the author of The Nature of Things: Essays of a Tapestry Weaver, as well as her newest book, Tapestry Design Basics and Beyond. In their conversation, Tommye talks about how she began teaching weaving, and what inspired her to write her latest book. Show notes: www.gistyarn.com/episode-141
9 Aug 2021 · 36 min
On this week's episode, Sarah speaks with Rebecca Mezoff. We are really thrilled to welcome Rebecca Mezoff back onto the podcast. Rebecca is a contemporary tapestry weaver in Fort Collins, Colorado, and a tapestry weaving teacher, both in-person and online. She's written books about tapestry weaving, including the recently published book The Art of Tapestry Weaving. We first spoke for the podcast in 2018 for episode 11 and since then, Rebecca and I have stayed in touch and Rebecca has been really instrumental in giving feedback throughout the development of our new line of wool tapestry…
28 Jun 2021 · 34 min
On this week's episode, LaChaun speaks with Lea Thomas. Born in Hawaii and based in Brooklyn, Lea Thomas is a multimedia artist with a focus on music and weaving. Her woven work is centered around hand-looming natural fibers that she dyes with botanical pigments. Her frequent use of indigo is symbolic of her Japanese heritage, honoring a lineage of kimono makers and textile artisans in her immediate ancestry. Show notes: www.gistyarn.com/episode-139
19 Apr 2021 · 20 min
On this week's episode, LaChaun speaks with Christine Jablonski, the Director of Operations for Gist Yarn, and designer of Twofold, our upcoming subscription box for rigid heddle weavers. Her theme for this project is double weave. Over the course of a year, she will take you step by step through this exciting technique to weave four projects of setts, textures, and widths not available with single-heddle weaving. In addition to her duties at Gist, Christine has taught extensively and is also a weaver and exhibiting fiber artist. You can find her on Instagram as @soulspaceart. Twofold…
5 Apr 2021 · 44 min
In this week’s episode, LaChaun speaks with Shanel Wu. Shanel is a Taiwanese-American, nonbinary, queer, maker who uses their fiber skills to entangle craft and tech. Shanel works with smart textiles, weaving, computational craft, and hardware hacking all while pursuing a Ph.D. in Creative Technology Design, at ATLAS Institute, University of Colorado Boulder. www.gistyarn.com/episode-137
22 Mar 2021 · 37 min
In this week’s episode, LaChaun speaks with Maud Lerayer. Maud is the founder of Behind The Hill, a textile company based in Brooklyn, New York. Behind The Hill creates unique and contemporary pieces for home decor using a variety of heirloom cotton which grows wild in shades of pink, terra-cotta, green, beige, and white in Mexico and Guatemala. They are partnered with three communities of Indigenous people in Central America who still grow, spin, and weave color-grown cotton, the same way it has been done for centuries. They work directly with their artisan partners, to strive to keep…
8 Mar 2021 · 30 min
In this week’s episode LaChaun speaks with Bryana Bibbs. Bryana is a Chicago-based textile artist, painter, and art educator who earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts with an emphasis in Fiber and Material Studies at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is the founder of the “We Were Never Alone Project, a weaving workshop for victims and survivors of domestic violence. She is a current artist in residence at the Chicago Artist Coalition HATCH and serves on the Surface Design Association’s Education Committee. Bryana’s work has been on view at the Evanston Art Center, ARC Gallery, and…
22 Feb 2021 · 29 min
In this week’s episode, LaChaun speaks with Carolina Jimenez a Mexican-American textile artist and designer living in Brooklyn New York. In Carolina’s weaving practice she makes monuments as memory signifiers, and vessels into which the past is poured, molded or reshaped (woven, unraveled, or stretched). These monuments reference the body-her body and ours-they speak to the magnificence of our daily lived experience and the monumentality of the mundane. Show notes: www.gistyarn.com/episode-134
8 Feb 2021 · 58 min
In this week’s episode, LaChaun is speaking with Amy Dufault. Amy is a sustainable textile industry writer. She works as the sustainability and communications Director for Botanical Colors as well as the Communications Lead for TS Designs. Amy also co-runs the Southeastern New England Fibershed, which has goals to create a digestible dialogue with farmers about climate change in order to create a regional supply chain that supports Massachusetts and Rhode Island textile businesses. Show notes: www.gistyarn.com
27 Jan 2021 · 30 min
We have a special episode for you today, a conversation between myself, LaChaun, and Maggie Putnam, that will be a peek behind the scenes at GIST Yarn and what we’ve been up to. Maggie Putnam Studio is a one-woman creative office that crafts refined brand systems for conscious, intentional brands. And for the last seven months, we have been working on redesigning our GIST Yarn and Weave Podcast brand identity and rebuilding our website to better reflect the company we’ve become, and to better share our podcast episodes, and to better serve our community. Maggie has led that process for us,…
28 Dec 2020 · 36 min
Our team put together a really special episode for you to ring out this year, sharing some of our favorite customer stories that came into our email inbox this year. Show notes: www.gistyarn.com/episode-131
7 Dec 2020 · 44 min
In this week’s episode, LaChaun is speaking with Lydia Wendt, the Founder and Design Director of the California Cloth Foundry. Originally from New York, Lydia trained at the Fashion Institute of Technology and worked with some of America's top fashion designers and brands, including Tom Ford for Perry Ellis America, Calvin Klein, Jones New York, and The North Face. Before founding CCF in 2014, she was a member of the faculty of the Academy of Art University's internationally recognized fashion department. There she taught graduate and undergraduate courses in textile design and sustainable…
23 Nov 2020 · 44 min
In this week’s episode, LaChaun is speaking with Sarah Gotowka the founder and director of Luna Fiber Studio, A textile studio specializing in weaving and natural dyes, rooted in sustainability and social justice. Sarah is a Korean adoptee and also works part-time for the Adoptive and Foster Family Coalition of New York. There she mentors youth adoptees, and advocates around trans-racial adoption issues. Weaving and dyeing have been a powerful healing tool in Sarah’s journey of exploring her roots and connecting to her ancestral knowledge. Show notes: www.gistyarn.com/episode-129
18 Nov 2020 · 3 min
Hello, I hope all is well. Before I get into this week’s episode I would like to start out by expressing my excitement and gratitude for the recent election results. I’m glad we voted and I’m excited about the changes that are to come! While we are on the topic of the future I’m excited to introduce you all to a new project that we are working on at Gist. As part of my new role at Gist as director of partnerships and collaborations, I’m working on our very first Open Call for Gist Yarn Pattern Designers. The theme of our first Open Call for Designers is Hope. This past year has been hard for…
2 Nov 2020 · 9 min
In this week’s episode, LaChaun and Sarah give a short personal account of why they feel it is important to vote in the 2020 Electoral Campaign. Show notes: www.gistyarn.com/episode-vote2020
26 Oct 2020 · 31 min
In this week’s episode, LaChaun is speaking to Torrey Beckham. Torrey is a Texas-born Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary artist who weaves, uses plants, and many other creative mediums as outlets of expression. Torrey’s palette, texture choices, and subject matters all have their roots in Torrey’s personal experiences growing up Black. Torrey’s work aim's to create a space where Black and Queer folks encounter the work, seeing themselves in the lines, and feel "home" emanating from the textures. www.gistyarn.com/episode-128
19 Oct 2020 · 34 min
In this week’s episode, I’m speaking with Indigo Farmer, Textile Artist & Dressmaker Leigh Magar. Leigh’s textile design studio Madame Magar is inspired by art, nature, folkways, and history. Her studio embraces a seed to stitch design philosophy that explores the history, a rich yet tangled past of place; while living and working on a former indigo plantation in Charleston SC. Show notes: www.gistyarn.com/episode-127
12 Oct 2020 · 35 min
In this week’s episode, LaChaun is speaking with Chawne Kimber an African-American mathematician and quilter, known for expressing her political activism in her quilts. In Chawne’s quilts, she interprets traditional forms in an improvisational style using vibrant modern colors of commercially available American-farmed, processed, and woven cotton. Some of her designs are geometric romps that emphasize the complex forms of negative space that naturally arise, while others utilize unusually small scaling to exaggerate shapes and tonal sequences. She uses the quilt medium to respond to current…
5 Oct 2020 · 31 min
In this week's episode, LaChaun is speaking with Jessie Mordine Young. Jessie is a textile curator, teacher of traditional textile techniques, and maker living in New York City. She is an MA candidate in the History of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture at the Bard Graduate Center in New York City. She also graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) with a dual degree in Art History and Studio Art in Fiber and Material Studies. Show notes: www.gistyarn.com/episode-125
28 Sep 2020 · 48 min
This week on the podcast LaChaun is speaking with Lauren B. Fay the founder and executive director of the New Fashion Initiative. The New Fashion Initiative is a foundation creating interdisciplinary education and communications initiatives to promote circulatory collaboration, and accountability in the fashion industry. Lauren Fay is a connector and producer committed to creating a paradigm shift in the fashion industry. As a sustainability consultant, she’s developed initiatives and strategic planning in order to improve the transparency of her clients’ supply chains. Show notes:…
21 Sep 2020 · 36 min
In this week’s episode, Sarah is speaking with Angela Kelly and Kim McCollum the founders of Gather Textiles. Gather is a yarn shop and textile studio in Edmonton Alberta. Their aim is to bring people together to exchange ideas, learn from one another, and to celebrate making things with our hands. We are thrilled that Gather is a Canadian stockist for Gist Yarn carrying our lines of Duet and Mallo. Show notes: www.gistyarn.com/episode-123
The weave podcast, a project of Gist Yarn, brings together a community of fiber artists and people who love weaving, farmers and mill owners, textile artists and loom manufacturers, to tell the stories of the threads that bind us together.
Weave is a English arts & books podcast from Gist Yarn. Melo plays each episode straight from the publisher's own feed — no ads added, no account needed — and remembers where you stopped, in this browser only.
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