About Artist Jean M. Judd
Jean M. Judd, NSA of Cushing, Wisconsin, has been creating contemporary textile art since 1990. She has been selected for several significant cash awards for her work in the fine art arena. In October 2013 she was awarded Signature Member status in the National Society of Artists.
Jean is a self-taught textile artist who uses dense, intricate hand stitching in her work. The starting point for her artwork is cloth. She has been making commission quilts for clients since the beginning of her career. In 2004 Jean's business name, Sisters In Stitches, was formally registered as a business in the state of Wisconsin and has been growing steadily.
In addition to fine art commissions and exhibition work, she does custom hand dyed fabrics for other artists as well as custom hand quilting for private clients and art collectors' completing family heirloom quilt tops.
All of Jean's work is created from original designs, some using updated traditional quilt blocks from the 1900s; others being contemporary abstract art quilts and non-objective wall art. Rust pigmentation and nontraditional dyeing techniques are a staple of her more recent work including Suminagashi marbling.
She does not use thimbles while hand quilting as she feels her stitches are more consistent and smaller without the thimble. It is difficult for her to feel the needle when using a thimble. She uses dye on some artwork, which allows the "hand" of the fabric to remain as originally intended. She experimented with airbrush paint on one series, Aged Psychedelic. All applique is done by her own hand with a milliners needle. Many of her pieces have been over 100" x 100" in size with more moderate sized quilts coming into her series work for exhibitions.
Over 300 textile artworks reside in homes across the US, Europe, South America, and Canada. Many of her textile artworks are in private fine art collections. Recent commissions have been made for contemporary art collections, retirement presentations, and for new home construction.
Jean designed her dream studio in July of 2007. Go to the Studio page to see full details. She relocated to the 1st floor walkout of her home and took over the two largest rooms. She now has a 12 foot by 8-foot design wall, 14x12 foot office space and a huge studio space with Full Spectrum Lighting right off the office area. She can enjoy the beautiful view of the lake and can walk right out the sliding patio door. See the article about the evolution of her studio in The Professional Quilter Journal Fall of 2007 and in Art Calendar magazine December of 2007. As her needs for space have grown, a third room was taken over for a wet studio to use for dyeing and rust pigmentation.
Jean's Philosophy: "Not everything in life is about speed, quantity and immediate satisfaction. I could make hundreds of pieces a year by machine quilting instead of hand quilting. It is NOT about how many pieces I can produce quickly; it is about making a quality piece with old world craftsmanship and details that are uniquely mine. Each piece is designed by me. I select the fabric to be used or dye what I need. I piece it all together into a one-of-a-kind, unique contemporary textile artwork. Every quilt stitch is made by my two hands and a part of me resides in each piece. The design evolves as the process continues to completion."