Women Fiber Artists Thread the Needle to Create Red Thread Art Studio

The Artists of the Red Thread Artist Studio. Photo credit POLMO Studio.

The latest buzz around town is the sound of success emanating from a group of Latin American women artists who have achieved their shared dream with the launch of Red Thread Art Studio Miami.

This new addition to Miami’s local artist ecosystem will host its grand opening on International Women’s Day, Friday, March 8th at 6pm in Coral Gables. The Open Studio will introduce and show the work of 18 female artists, Aida Tejada, Angela Bolaños, Anna Biondo, Bella Cardim, Debora Rosental, Fernanda Froes, Flavia Daudt, Flor Godward, Juliana Torres, Marcela Ash, Marine Fonteyne, Mirele Volkhart, Paola Mondolfi, Robertha Blatt, Sarah Laing, Valeria Montag, and Vero Murphy, all living in Miami, but primarily from Brazil and Argentina, plus Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Cuba, and the United States.

Red Thread Art Studio artists have all been brought together, inspired and empowered by fiber artist Aurora Molina, a fiber art expert, educator, the co-founder of FAMA, Fiber Artists Miami Association, and founder of ”Play Studio Atelier,” a hands on fiber arts educational program with workshops for adults and children, originally launched in 2020 as a Miami Dade County Public Schools Teacher Training Program.

Molina explained that Red Thread Art Studio has grown organically out of FAMA and Play Studio Atelier over two years, one day after the next with artists participating in fiber workshops, exploring fiber arts for their own work, and inspired by Molina’s dream to create a collaborative multi-studio space. They have also taken on her higher goal to help elevate fiber art from craft to art.

Entering Red Thread Art Studio the first gallery on the right is shared by Aida Tejada, an interdisciplinary artist from the Dominican Republic, and Debora Rosental, an Argentinian fiber artist and weaver, who is also a biochemist and pharmacist interested in nature. For the past two years Tejada and Rosental have examined over 200 local plants native to South Florida and are in the process of publishing a book focused on the natural dyes they have discovered while looking for native dye’s for their own fiber art and also to share with other artists.

Tejada shared her feelings about Red Thread, “I believe a lot in community and collaboration and I think our society is always in need of community…It is a wonderful dynamic here, we come from different cultures, each of us brings baggage – ideas, projects – to contribute to each other, I hope that together we can build something and take it out to other communities — working together to give back to community.”

Red Thread Artist Studio’s largest shared space with the six individual studios of Brazilian artists all incorporating fibre art into their work. Artists Studios of Bella Cardim, Robertha Blatt, Fernanda Froes, Flavia Daudt, Mirelle Volkart, and Juliana Torres. Internally and laughingly referred to as the Brazilian girls studio. (from left to right) Artist Juliana Torres, Visitor with Bella Cardim, Mirele Volkart, and Artist Flavia Daudt with visitors. (Photo courtesy of POLMO Studio).

The largest space in the Red Thread Art Studio is home to six separate artist studios around a communal area, with a shared work table and printer. All six artists are Brazilian, friends who met during their MFA program in Miami and all have all been students of Molinas’. Their space is open and inviting but also scrupulously laid out with attention to detail and expertly organized. This group is internally and laughingly nicknamed ‘The Brazilian Girls,’ and includes Brazilian artists Bella Cardim, Robertha Blatt, Fernanda Froes, Flavia Daudt, Mirele Volkart, and Juliana Torres.

There are 16 other artist studios and artists to meet and learn about, each with a story to tell and work for visitors to see and learn about. A few other artists include, Colombian Fiber Artist Marcela Ash, who summarized her overall impression about Red Thread artists, “I want to say that all the girls working here in this studio have this need, this longing, of what I don’t know, but we are searching, each one has their own way of expressing it…what makes us so special is there is no competition… I’m 60, at my age I have gone through a lot …and I am focusing on women, on a photograph of a lady and her story…a cutout of her story with textiles and embroidery and sewing and words.”

Interdisciplinary artist and arts educator Angela Bolaños in her studio at Red Thread Studio Miami. She uses embroidery techniques as a way to deepen her ancestral connections. Angela deploys the effervescent energy of bold colors as a tool to create emotional connections between her memories, ideas and concepts and the viewers personal lens. Artwork: Center “Operculum Colorum Textile,” acrylic, gouache (84”x35”) (2018). Upper right: “Today’s Yesterday” Gouache, embroidered thread on canvas (28”x28”)(2024) Lower right: “Denim Dreams: An Americana Story” Denim, gouache, embroidered thread on watercolor paper (30”x22”) (2023) (Photo courtesy of David Gary Lloyd).

Angela Bolaños, Honduran born and Miami raised, a multidisciplinary artist, museum professional and arts educator chose the space for her solo studio in the farthest, quietest corner of the Red Thread. She described how she uses embroidery techniques as a way to deepen her ancestral connections. From abstract patterns that evoke emotions to nature-inspired motifs, she aims to find balance between an intuitive process that embraces the flow of ideas as well as her need to communicate a specific narrative, often inspired by memories, the passing of time and transcultural identities.

Bolaños went on to explain what the visitors experience will be, and said, “The idea of going into a studio space is to go into the space and see the materials and think, ‘maybe I can do that myself,’ ‘maybe not as well as the artist, but as a way of discovering myself’… for me, as an arts educator and professional artist, this is what I live for and I hope that every single human being allows themselves the opportunity to be creative and to make things with their hands.”

Molina said that she can already envision the near future, with the studio artists hosting their own fiber arts workshops in her Playstudio, inviting the public into their working studios, and educating the community about fiber art as an art form. She shared her vision by saying, “It seems like this could be a good time in history to continue to create, advocate and advance fiber arts…to go past the bridge between the craft and the fiber and the art. When you see this professional group of artists move in between mediums, you see that there is a need to come back to the thread… to the thread and the needle as a tool that really speaks…that has something to do with gender…you can grab the thread and needle and you don’t feel like you are a seamstress. We can advance and elevate fiber arts.”

WHAT: Red Thread Art Studio Grand Opening
WHERE: Red Thread Art Studio, 283 Catalonia Ave., Coral Gables
WHEN: 6pm Friday, March 8, 2024, and then Studio visits by appointment
COST: Free
INFORMATION: (786)337-0929 or www.auroramolina.com/

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