Chie Hitchner is a textile artist working in a variety of media including silk, linen and wool, and uses natural materials as dyes whenever possible, working extensively with plants from her yard and neighborhood.  

Chie’s work is a modern reinterpretation of Japanese weaving and dyeing techniques that are hundreds of years old.  Many of her pieces use Japanese ikat weaving techniques including tate-kasuri, in which the warp (vertical) threads have been dyed more than one color prior to looming; weft kasuri, in which the multi-dyed weft threads are placed into the fabric with each pass of the shuttle; and zurashi-kasuri, in which these multi-dyed threads are intentionally offset from one another to create a dreamy effect or a specific design.

Another technique in many of her pieces is nui-tori, a form of weave lacing where the artist manually inserts extra weft threads in the weave to create a design or image.  Its effect is often similar to that of embroidery, but the image is created during the original weaving process.  

Chie has a Masters in Design from the Tama University of Art, and a BA from the Arts & Crafts Department of the Joshibi University of Art and Design, both in Tokyo.  She is an Associate Member of Kokuten, which is one of the longest-standing associations of artists in Japan, and she exhibits regularly in their annual, juried exhibition in Tokyo.  In 2010, she was recipient of the Kokuten’s Newcomer’s Award in the Crafts Division of the exhibition.

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