When students consider becoming a visual art major, many overlook the option of taking the fiber class. They just assume it’s a part of the apparel class, but in fact, it’s not. The nationalmaster.com encyclopedia defines fiber art as a sub-classification of fine art defined by the usually exclusive use of fabrics, yarn, other natural fibers, and now synthetic fibers to focus on the properties of the material as well as the hand-on work intensive process as part of the significance of the piece.

In the class, students do a variety of projects such as papermaking, bookmaking, and silk-dying, but the projects continuously change. This is due to the diversity of the art of fibers and the teacher’s preference. “I would get bored year after year doing the same thing. I attend workshops year after year to learn new techniques and ways to do things. That way it’s interesting for me and interesting for the students,” says teacher Holly Johnson.

The class is very small and holds Fibers 1, 2, and 3 in the same room. This small size makes it ideal for hardworking students that need some personalized help from the teacher every now and then. Much of the work in this class has to be done in many steps and takes a lot of time in and out of class. So to excel in this class, Johnson is looking for students with “the ability to work on something tedious with previous design work experience.” In the end, most of her students’ hard work definitely pays off. This year two of her students, senior Karla Garcia and junior Chris Wilson, won gold keys in the Scholastics arts and writing contest for their fiber work. So if you’re a committed, hardworking visual art student, fiber class might be the class for you. Also, a final note from Johnson: “This is not a sewing class!”