Alexa Ginsburg

​​

My family have always been makers — jewelers on my grandfather's side, and a grandmother who could sew anything just by looking at it. My parents, uncles, and aunts were artists and designers. I grew up surrounded by art: from the paintings and collages of my uncle to trips to the Met and MoMA, books of Matisse's paper cuts, and a Klee postcard from the museum shop.

​

I thought I was moving to the Lower East Side when I went to Cooper Union, but it turned into the East Village while I was there — full of energy and distractions. I was looking for something else entirely, and found it in the bazaars of Iran and the dusty roads of Karachi, visiting dyers, weavers, and the women who sewed garments. I came home with natural dyes and thousands of hand-loomed skirts, but more importantly, a desire to immerse myself in color that never faded.

​

I had gone to Cooper wanting to be a painter, but it wasn't until years later that I discovered felt, something I could really get my hands into. The first time I took a feltmaking workshop I knew I had found my home: the feel of wool, warm soapy water, and all the possibilities of color, texture and form. I work from my studio in the Mid Hudson Valley.

​