Artist Bio

Sam Elkins

“Sam” (an early childhood nickname) Elkins is a contemporary fiber artist and weaver in the Hill Country village of Wimberley, Texas.  A native of northern New Mexico, her art reflects an early awareness of natural fibers, a lifelong respect for traditional weaving techniques, and a beloved vision of the beauty of the sheep ranch where she spent her childhood in the blue shadows of the Sangre’ de’ Cristo mountains.

Her textile work has been varied and has traveled from simple sewing to professional tailoring, to wearable art and traditional weaving, to contemporary off-loom fiber construction, to quilting and 3-dimensional fiber sculpture. However, Sam always returns to the loom and the simple act of weaving where her roots began.

In addition to a career as a social worker and therapist, Sam studied fiber arts at Texas Women’s University, completed a tailoring course at the Apparel Institute in Dallas, Texas, and has studied weaving, dying, and spinning with various fiber artists/weavers in New Mexico, Texas, and California.

Elkins’ work has been shown in galleries from Santa Fe to Boston. She has participated in curated exhibits in New Mexico, Dallas and Austin, and today continues her studio work in a small community near Austin, Texas. (But each fall she packs a small rigid heddle loom and heads to northern New Mexico to just to revive her vision.)