Warm and fuzzy: Artist Grace Holden’s vibrant take on fiber arts
When Grace Holden was working toward her fine art degree in sculpture at LSU, she felt most drawn to metal. Cast metal, to be precise. The idea of shaping liquid metal in a mold intrigued her more than any other medium.
But the more she worked with metal, the less inspired she felt. “There was nothing I was excited to make,” Holden recalls. “I also didn’t have the resources to continue casting metal once I graduated, but I had a sewing machine.”
Metalwork’s loss is now Baton Rouge’s gain, as Holden’s second passion of fiber art has resulted in an expanding repertoire of compositions that, as she puts it, “take the tradition of rug making from the floor to the wall.” Using a hand-tufting tool and an automatic tufting gun—the same tools a rug maker would use—she creates mirrors and other wall hangings that are organic in shape and vibrant in color.
“I believe in daily practice when it comes to art,” says Holden, who sells her creations via Etsy and at local pop-up markets under her Stuff & Co. brand. “Most of my ideas come while I’m making. I’ve been excited by finding new ways to incorporate my tufted work, and my mirrors come from that excitement. I love the idea of looking into a mirror and seeing yourself surrounded by all these fun colors and shapes.”
