Textile Center

Thank you for supporting 31 years of Textile Center – Your home for fiber art! 

Dear Friends of Textile Center,

Before I moved to the Twin Cities from Japan in 2004, my Minnesota-born husband, Dan O’Brien (who lived in Japan for 12 years), found Textile Center. As we prepared for our move to his home state, I recall feeling as though I already had a friend waiting for me in the community I would soon call home. Ever since, Textile Center has been a good friend, giving me joy and inspiration.

During this season of giving, I am writing with a simple request: will you consider making a financial gift to support the Textile Center’s work in serving more people like you and me, encouraging them to grow and glow together through fiber art?

A little more about my background: When I was growing up in Japan, I admired my mother’s creativity. She was a great knitter, crocheter, quilter, and sewer. When I had sewing projects in school, she was always willing to help and encourage me, but in my youth, I remember being stubborn, thinking that sewing garments was not necessary because “you could just go shopping to get clothes.” I also wonder if my mother also didn’t encourage me to use her sewing machine because she was worried that I would break it!

Looking back, I realize my mother’s creativity sparked my curiosity about fiber art. In 1996, my life changed when I met Misao Jo and her family in Osaka, and she introduced me to the SAORI weaving movement she had founded 25 years earlier.

Misao Jo was a Japanese textile artist and educator who died in 2018 at the age of 104, and it was criticism of a mistake in her weaving that inspired her to launch the SAORI weaving movement. She found beauty in mistakes and developed a style of weaving that encouraged and celebrated imperfections. “The mistake is why this is beautiful!” Misao Jo would say, embracing a freer form of weaving. SAORI weaving celebrates individual creativity, allowing makers to create fabrics that are one-of-a-kind through the use of color and texture. The name SAORI comes from the Japanese word “ORI” (weaving), and “SA” (SAI), a Zen word meaning “Everything has its own beauty.”

As a SAORI weaving instructor, I encourage my students not to worry about trying to weave a perfectly rectangle shape. When I weave, one side of the selvedge may be looser than the other, and I tell myself: “That’s me! I am expressing myself.”

I am an appreciator of all forms of weaving and have been involved with the Weavers Guild of Minnesota for years. While I admire those who can meticulously weave beautiful fabrics, rugs, and table runners, SAORI is my passion, and I enjoy discovering how mistakes can be happy accidents and create beautiful designs.

We all have our unique connections to fiber art. SAORI is my first love, and when I earned a Jerome Foundation Project Grant for Emerging Fiber Artists in 2011 through Textile Center, I explored Bengala Mud Dyeing, applying the principles I learned from Misao Jo and SAORI weaving.

Many hundreds of people have found their joy at Textile Center throughout its history, and I’m confident that some reading this letter could also share stories about how fiber art has changed their lives. Textile Center thrives thanks to your support. 

I hope you will join me in making a contribution to our 2025 Fall Appeal to support our continued work to change lives and share joy through fiber art.

Thank you,

Chiaki O’Brien
SAORI weaver/certified instructor, Bengala dye artist/teaching artist, member of Textile Center’s Board of Directors, and a person who has a curiosity about many other forms of fiber art