Liz Collins 
Rhode Island
USA Target Fellow, Crafts and Traditional Arts

Textile and clothing designer Liz Collins uses manually operated knitting machines to create garments that refer to the intricate structure of the human body, playing with the ideas of surface and anatomy and the process of knitting itself. Her experimental attitude toward materials and methods has led her to develop a unique technique of layering knits. She is also exploring the idea of knitting as a communal activity, staging performances and looking at the activity as a basis for intergenerational collectivity. Collins was trained at Rhode Island School of Design and spent several years running her own clothing label before deciding to switch to teaching. Although she occasionally creates freelance knitwear designs for other labels, her primary goals are to continue designing and making knits; to continue research into materials and manufacturing; and to sustain and develop site-specific performance collaboratives of machine knitters and stitchers (called Knitting Nation). 

More about USA Fellowships in Crafts and Traditional Arts

Portrait photo courtesy the artist
Pride, 2003, antique flags and polyester mesh with knit wool, cotton, and elastic; collaboration with designer Gary Graham; photo courtesy Karen Philippi