Nicole Asselin is a textile artist and educator, who moved to Winston-Salem a little over a year ago. Her work explores the intersection of craft, technology and the natural world. Nicole embraces and reimagines techniques and practices from fiber and textiles traditions. Her projects are narrative, telling the story of a material or material process and its’ potential both real and imagined. Multi-sensory, boundary pushing and concerned with the anthropocene, Nicole’s multimedia practice asks the viewer to intimately engage with a material, its history and applications inviting the discovery of its potential and value.  Her practice is narrative, telling the story of an object or material and its potential, both real and imagined. Her work utilizes magnification, abstraction, hyper-local material, and a hybrid digital/analog approach to making. She addresses and challenges themes of locality, tradition, innovation, handcraft, and sustainability.

Nicole holds a Master’s in Art and Design from North Carolina State University, and a BA in costume design and gender studies from Bennington College.She teaches courses in art and design fundamentals, textile design, weaving, natural dye practices, and leather working.  She has taught classes and workshops nationally and internationally at North Carolina State University, The Textile Arts Center in New York, The Cordwainer’s Garden at the London College of Fashion, The Here Today Here Tomorrow Studio Collective in London, Etsy Labs in DUMBO, the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, Brooklyn Grange Rooftop Gardens, The Queens Country Farm Museum, and West Elm.  Her work and research is published in Selvedge Magazine, Edible Brooklyn, the New York Times, The International Astronauitcal Congress, and The Textile Society of America.

Kelsey Brown is a textile artist and educator whose been in Winston Salem for a little over 5 years. She was born and raised in Kentucky, where she learned to sew and quilt from her mom. Kelsey is intentional about the materials she uses. She grows, finds, and collects a lot of her materials    Inspired by a love of the natural world, a lot of her art pays tribute to where is came from. From collecting natural dyes on hikes to weaving old cassette tapes, she loves the stories of items we own, use, and consume.

Kelsey loves learning and teaching. She volunteers with the Boys and Girls Club garden and the Children’s Home in WS growing natural dye and fiber plants, and teaching youth how to dye with the plants they grow. She has taught textiles at Sawtooth since moving to Winston-Salem. Kelsey loves making her own cloths, , building fires with her husband, Adrian, and being outside with their dog, Harper.