Allie Dudley

Allie Dudley (they/them) is a textile artist, working within multiple traditional Appalachian handweaving styles. They first learned to weave as a college student and, since moving to Western North Carolina, have joined a community of weavers from whom they continue to learn.

Allie weaves tapestries on a frame loom they built out of galvanized plumbing pipe. “Before starting to weave,” Allie describes, “I usually create a design for my tapestry, which I translate into a stenciled outline, also known as a cartoon, that I secure to the loom in order to have a layout I can follow. I then insert wefts in varying colors and textures to create an image.” Allie also weaves historical overshot drafts, or weaving patterns, on a counterbalance loom, a type of floor loom that was the primary tool for Appalachian weavers prior to the twentieth century.

“For a contemporary audience unfamiliar with the process of weaving, producing cloth can seem like a mystery, or like magic,” Allie explains. “For most of history however, weaving was so central to our survival that looms were a commonplace household item. Decades ago in Appalachia, before mill-woven cloth was readily available, local weavers produced all the cloth that their household would need, including yardage, linens, and bed coverings. People were able to produce what they needed for their families and communities. Many people today have forgotten we do not need to rely on industry for something so basic as cloth. I want people to see and understand the way cloth is made, to bring it within the grasp of everyone as a means of self-empowerment.”

As the Resident Artist in Weaving at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, North Carolina, Allie manages the Folk School’s weaving studio and assists with teaching classes in tapestry and needlework. Allie’s work also appeared in the 2021 exhibition, Pulling the Thread: A Brief Survey of Appalachian Textiles, at the Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School in Clayton, Georgia, alongside the work of their mentors, Tommye Scanlin and 2020 In These Mountains Folk & Traditional Arts Master Artist Fellowship recipient Susan Leveille.

With their Emerging Traditional Artists Program award, Allie will pursue new opportunities to learn about historical weaving techniques, such as studying the collection at the National Museum of the American Coverlet in Bedford, Pennsylvania. They also hope to hone their skills in spinning yarn and blacksmithing, to be able to create the tools they need to weave themselves.

“In short,” Allie says, “the history of weaving is the history of humanity, as well as its future; losing the knowledge of handweaving would mean losing a part of our human selves.”