about the artist
Ashlyn Dressman is a fiber and textile artist. She is currently based in Newport, Kentucky. She is a 2023 graduate of The Modern College of Design, where she obtained her bachelor’s degree in design leadership.
In 2021 while living in Dayton, Ohio she purchased a tufting gun and fell in love with the medium. Since then, she’s been tufting and selling custom floor rugs and tufted art pieces. She specializes in abstract and orphic designs. Her main inspirations come from works made by Sonia and Robert Delaunay in the Orphism art movement. What began as a bedroom operation soon turned into a full studio and shop in the art district of Dayton in 2022. Ashlyn held open studio days twice a month for the monthly art hops at Front Street.
In 2023 she moved to Newport, KY, and has a home art & textile studio. She has been focusing on experimenting with yarn textures, new styles of tufting, and elevating her craft.
The process
I feel the most certain about myself when creating. Tufting has become a form of creative therapy for me. Bringing a design to physical fruition with my hands gives me a sense of fulfillment.
My process begins with an idea that will get translated into a sketch; that sketch will then be mimicked onto a frame with tufting cloth stretched onto it. I then use my tufting gun to thread the yarn through the tufting cloth, following the design. To finish a piece, I add a thick layer of carpet adhesive to the back of the work and cut it off of the frame. The most time-intensive step is the final shaving of the textile works, where I use tufting shears to carve the yarn fibers.