Avant Guardians

AVANT GUARDIANS

By Leticia Gonzales

Dream WEAVER

Caitlin Heyer began in ceramics, now considers herself a weaver

Caitlin Heyer, a 30-year-old art work I could do in ceramics.” fiber technician at the Arts Center of teacher and kiln tech, always After graduation, her husband Saint Peter, caring for the looms and has gravitated toward the encouraged her to find a studio teaching weaving. She still manages arts. at the Arts Center of Saint Peter. to find about 10 hours a week to

“I spent a lot of time drawing and Although she had been a potter, work on her own art. coloring and playing with clay and Heyer said that her pregnancy in In her show last year, Heyer said beads as a little girl,” Heyer said. 2018 prevented her from bending she found herself including more “I started weaving in high school over the pottery wheel. She also had fiber in each piece. when a friend gave me a set of cards to limit her glazing because of the “I ended up using a floor loom for tablet weaving. I loved it, but toxic chemicals. for one project and loved it so cards are kind of limiting because “So I started incorporating fiber much that it was kind of a natural they’re mostly for making narrow to my work as a way to add color, transition into weaving.” bands.” and I had so much fun exploring that While she still includes ceramic

Heyer said she fell in love with relationship between the softness of elements in her woven work, she ceramics while studying studio art the fabric and the hardness of the considers herself a weaver now. at Bethany Lutheran College, where ceramic,” she said. “Both materials “My most recent and biggest she ultimately earned her degree. are so strong in their own ways.” exhibition was last October,” Heyer

“I started as a painter in college In addition to being a stay-at- said. “It was called ‘Holding Space,’ and worked mostly with oils but home mom, Heyer works part time and I was really fortunate to be able found I was drawn to the surface at Artifact, firing the kiln and as a to join my fellow potters Jan Waller and Stephanie Bové to explore how people deal with and approach death. Recently, I started dying my own yarn and rags for rugs. I have two hand-dyed rugs on my loom that I’m working on right now.” Finding inspiration for projects has been a challenge due to the ongoing pandemic. “COVID has really thrown a wrench in my flow, though, and I took a three-month hiatus to sew masks,” she said. “Now a lot of my work has to do with protection and protective barriers. I tend to work in blues when I weave and with neutrals for my ceramic elements. I love the interplay between the rigid permanence of the clay body and the softness and fluidity of the fibers.” She isn’t letting any materials go to waste either, as she is also making ceramic beads to add to a warp for a round rug made out of mask scraps. “I find lots of things inspiring, and something that seems unrelated can really make a connection. Making masks has made me think a lot about the ways we protect ourselves both physically and emotionally.” Caitlin Heyer studied studio art at Bethany Lutheran College. The artist works with ceramics and fiber. | Submitted photo