Watch our video above OR listen to the podcast below!
” Weaving is just my soul, you know.”
– Christine Miller
For Christine Miller, weaving is a mystery.
Miller took a continuing education class at the University of Texas Austin. It was a weaving class. Because of that experience, she changed her major to art to learn about design.
There she overcame her childhood art block and dove headfirst Into weaving.
What attracted Miller to weaving is its mystery. As she says, you never know the end result, no matter how much planning.
Also, it’s repetition, it’s meditative processes that is both peaceful and physical.
Miller left UT Austin only to return at 47 to earn her art education license. She joined her daughter as a full-time student to help support her family.
The cowgirl art teacher..
But her full-time life as a professional artist complimented her classroom experience. Eager to bring fiber to the K – 12 classroom, Miller merged traditional studio practices with her textile processes that she taught her students.
To this end, her website, explorefiber.com, helps bring fiber arts to the masses.
Miller and I met in 2011 during a Surface Design Association conference. She was one of ten K – 12 are teachers who won a full scholarship to attend.
As she put it: “My conference experience was the most fabulous conference ever in my life!”
It inspired her to design the website, explorefiber.com, as a resource for all —-to bring fiber to the streets! Since the pandemic, Miller teaches leaving with wire online continuing her evolution as an artist and art teacher—-
and sharing her soul’s passion with others across the globe
My Art sisters give me honest feedback about my work
Miller’s relationships in fiber art span for decades. Her connections include guild members, five art association members, and people she met during her years at the University of Texas Austin.
She serves on several boards including the surface design association.
But she turns to a handful of art sisters for a constructive critique concerning her work.
Be honest with your students.
Miller cautions against too much backward instructional design and other curricular planning. Be careful of being stuck with sequencing let’s surprise overtake the art process.
Her motto with her students is “I don’t know let’s figure this out together.
When teaching an unfamiliar media – ceramics – Miller took the high road.
And admitted to her students that she didn’t have all the answers. So they collaborated together to solve problems in their work.
Reach out to your textile community for supplies and money. They are so generous! 
Tight budgets didn’t stop Miller from incorporating weaving into her curricula. She received supplies and money to buy floor looms – from local guild women who were ready to donate money or‘s supplies while downsizing.
Miller has multiple projects in process, often overwhelmed on which ones to focus upon – but she follows her deadlines and completes her work with ease.
Join Christine Miller and me as we discuss:
- Her coral reef collaboration with her husband
- Her cowboy boot collection
- The juice of art teaching
Find Miller at christinekmiller.com
Christine Miller Bio:
Miller has been exploring fiber her entire life through many processes and techniques. She has been weaving for over 45 years, and for the last 30 years she has been weaving with wire to create sculptural expressions. Other techniques and processes dance into her work, but sitting at the loom and weaving is where she feels her heartbeat. In addition to weaving, she has experience in sewing, basketry, embroidery, felting, dyeing, knitting, crochet, and fiber sculpture. She is currently launching a new online course about Weaving with Wire.
Miller has been creating collaborative Coral Reef installations with her husband beginning in 2019. Keith Miller creates the 2D resin watery painted backgrounds and Christine contributes the coral sculptural fiber forms. This collaboration is a dream come true after they both retired from their day jobs, and keeps the creative flow alive in their joint studio.
She is a former visual arts educator with local and national arts education recognition. Miller continues bringing fiber arts into the educational world with Visiting Artist programs and workshops. She serves on several fiber art organization boards, including sitting on the Education Committee for the Surface Design Association.