About Mihoko
Mihoko Wakabayashi was born and grew up in Japan. Her major in college was education. She learned weaving by working with young people (K-12) who had difficulties in school in Japan and continued learning weaving for seven years. Since she opened her studio SAORI Worcester in 2000, she has taught many people including people with various disabilities and got involved in the community.
Besides regular classes, she has taught many workshops at different organizations, such as one-week fiber art program for children and NEWS (New England Weavers Seminar). She has developed a program Seed to Fashion to teach weaving with yarn dyed with indigo that people grow together since 2018, which is funded by Massachusetts Cultural Council &Worcester Arts Council.
She continues sharing her skills of freestyle weaving, spinning, dyeing, and sewing through Loom in Essence, Freestyle weavers co-op at her studio, and creates her art as Mihoko Textiles.
Artist Statement
Since Mihoko Wakabayashi discovered a freestyle weaving as her media to express her creativity in 1996, she never stopped weaving. Her interest expanded o dyeing and spinning which are both for making her art through weaving.
Her education background supports her as a teaching artist. While she ran a weaving studio, she conducted many workshops and presentations throughout Massachusetts. In 2010 and in 2021 she organized and displayed over sixty hand-woven banners at Elm Park Bridge for a public art.
Mihoko has always experimented with expanding possibilities in colors, materials, styles as her curiosity floats by. Every piece is unique although she loves purple and blue on herself. She enjoyed making her own unique yarn by dyeing with indigo, natural dyes such as onion skins, marigold, and mud dyed called Bengala dye, and chemical dyes as well as by spinning wool fiber. She often gets inspired by nature and being in nature. She weaves as she meditates. She practices this art form as her spiritual training of letting her ego go to create as her heart sings. She keeps a beginners mind as a guide to challenge mixing different fibers and color combinations.
When she dyes, spins, and weaves, she usually doesn’t have a specific goal in her mind. When she designs a garment, she looks at the woven fabric carefully and move the fabric around to see what part matches other part, and slowly decide the shape and style. Unexpected things are embraced as a happy accident.
She enjoys making scarves, shawls, hats, tunics, jackets, jumpers, pouches, and more.
