Tininha’s career as a former swimwear designer had a surprising twist after 12 years of running a bikini store, staff and invigorating Seattle’s famously trigger-shy bikini wearers. During that time, she cultivated a passion for working with textiles through shape, color and material but eventually began to long for a more direct physical connection to her creations.  It wasn’t until 2018 when she moved to the beautiful Victorian Seaport of Port Townsend, where she discovered a hands-on response to her love for textiles through weaving.

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Five years ago, the self-taught textile artist decided to take up on a non-traditional form of weaving involving only a fairly basic homemade loom, hands and fibers. For the first time she experienced total control of her creations from beginning to end.

 

Her approach to weaving is instinctive and organic with no pre-plan or sketches beforehand with the hope to eliminate feelings of restriction or containment.

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Through her creations, Tininha manifests and recreates ecological harmony scenes as a way to address the instability of our ecosystem. She likes to work with natural materials like raffia, paper and wool to compose woven tapestries with lush textures of malleable chunks of woven sculptures that might resemble ramifications of roots, sandstone, coral reefs, barnacles, seaweed, and sea anemones.

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More recently Tininha has been exploring and experimenting with creating three-dimensional multi-part pieces that allow her to work more sculpturally... and it all requires a lot of trust in the process.

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