Alicia Scardetta is a Brooklyn-based, Texas born artist. She was first introduced to weaving through a studio internship at the Textile Arts Center in 2011. Later, she attended workshops at Haystack School of Crafts and Penland School of Crafts, where she further honed her technical skills in fibres.

Alicia’s work is largely comprised of one of-a-kind woven wall pieces that explore the structural variables of tapestry weaving. The vibrant colours, wrapped elements and unexpected compositions found in her work are largely drawn from objects associated with girlhood; including friendship bracelets, jump ropes and hair braids. By weaving these elements associated with her personal memories and identity into her work, Alicia achieves a unique, playful quality with every piece.

How did you get into weaving?

I went to college for Fine Arts at Pratt in Brooklyn. During my junior year of art school I was creating a lot of drawings on paper and was taking a lot of 2D classes – painting, drawing and printmaking. It was during this time that I started to become curious about taking the line off of the page in order to create a physical object. Fibre and thread felt like the most intuitive way to interpret a line. While I was enrolled, Pratt didn’t offer fibre or textile classes to fine art majors, so I sought out opportunities outside of my coursework. I held a studio internship at Dieu Donne Paper in Manhattan, where I learned how to process flax fibre and cotton pulp into finished sheets of handmade paper. Then, I interned at the Textile Arts Center, where I learned how to operate a treadle loom and weave tapestry. I later went on to take workshops at both Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine and Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina, where I further honed my technical skills in fibre.

Where do you get your materials from?

The materials I use the most are cotton rope and wool yarn although I do use yarns with other fibre content from time to time. I purchase most of my rope from an Ohio based supplier called Knot & Rope supply, they have many options for all types of rope. For my yarn, I purchase from a few different online suppliers. One of my very favourite yarns is Maysville, they create an 8/4 cotton rug warp yarn that is perfect for tapestry warps but also great for wrapping and weaving. They offer many different colours; all are colour fast.

How do you start a new piece of work, what’s your design process?

I’m interested in exploring the structural variables of tapestry and experimenting with colour in my work, so I usually start each piece with an overall structure in mind and colour palette. From there I may make sketches of what I want the finished piece to look like or create some colour studies. My work is created on a frame loom. To begin each piece I warp the frame and start weaving. I make a lot of colour decisions while I’m actually weaving the piece, seeing how one colour interacts with another and making changes as I go.

I primarily use two techniques: wrapping and tapestry weaving. Tapestry is defined by weaving short lengths of weft, rather than using continuous weft to weave as you would to create woven yardage. A good portion of the weaving I do is with short lengths and at times only between two or three warp threads.

Are you overwhelmed with designs and ideas or does it take time to find new weaves to create?

The process of creating and completing a piece is very time consuming, coming up with ideas is the fast part. I think the most challenging part for me is that I can’t construct every idea I have because it requires a lot of commitment on my end. The challenge is editing down my ideas and only moving forward with the most resolved ones.

Do you weave for fun or is it a full time job? If not what’s your day job?

I do have a full-time job but I also wouldn’t say I weave for fun. It’s entirely possible to be a serious artist or designer and have another means of making a living and supporting yourself. I do not subscribe to the idea that in order to be a successful artist or designer you have to monetize your practice and live off of it. That said, I would love to one day take my art practice full-time but right now I’m really happy with my current work/life balance. I currently work four days a week for a small home decor company. I do many different things there including social media and marketing, exhibiting at trade exhibitions, pitching press outlets and more. There’s never a dull moment when you work for a small business.

How do you find using Instagram? Do you ever worry your work will be copied?

I’m a millennial so I grew up with the Internet. I had a Geocities website in the late nineties that listed my favourite books on a sparkling night sky background and have been online ever since. Presenting myself and documenting my work on the Internet is second nature to me. I do think that Instagram is problematic on many levels and I often feel existential dread about my small contribution to further perpetuating the attention economy and the corporations who benefit from it. So I guess you can say it’s complicated.

As for copying, I’m lucky to have never been knocked off by a large company however individual makers have copied my work which is disheartening in its own way. At least with a larger company you can feel mad at a capitalist behemoth but when it’s an individual it tends to feel deeply personal. I try not to let it get to me but it is weird to see a messier version of a piece I made reflecting back at me on my phone. I am also not the first person to weave and wrap yarn around another piece of fibre, so I do try to take these things with a grain of salt and continue to push myself in new directions.

Do you ever feel nervous or anxious your followers won’t like your work?

Not really, I don’t make work for Instagram but that’s not to say that engaging with the app doesn’t stress me out in other ways. It is fascinating to me that a slow and thoughtful art form like weaving has developed a popular niche on a platform that values speed, instant gratification and monetary profit. I do feel pressure to continually post to my account but at the end of the day (or in my case end of the week or even a full month) I don’t always have finished Instagram ready images to post because my art practice requires time and patience.

Do you ever feel pressured to post images that you know will get lots of likes instead of simply posting what you like?

My Instagram account isn’t a personal account so I don’t feel pressure about the type of content I post. The content I share is focused on my artwork and maintains that consistency. From time to time I do share more personal images that do not involve weaving. I know these posts will have lower engagement rates but it doesn’t bother me. It’s an account that has my name on it and I’m going to post what I want to post and not feel bad about it.

What do you love about weaving?

Let me count the ways! One thing that draws me to weaving is the grid structure, I love to push and pull at that grid as much as I can. I enjoy working within a set of parameters and seeing how I can explore every possible thing I can think of within those limitations.

Weaving has a long, rich history and is one of the oldest forms of making. The techniques and practice are found anywhere that humans are found. Weaving is a deeply human act and I feel really grateful to engage in it.

Follow Alicia on Instagram here.