
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.
It wasn't until years later that I discovered felt, something I could really get my hands into, with all the possibilities of color, texture, and form. The first time I took a feltmaking workshop I knew I had found my home. I work from my studio in the Mid Hudson Valley.
