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Artist Salary: Textile Designer & Tattoo Artist Apprentice

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Name: Heather T.
Job Title: Master Artist, Textile Designer, Tattoo Artist Apprentice
Where: Quaker Fabric Corporation, Fall River, Massachusetts
Works: Full-time
Years of Experience: 8
Education: BFA in Textile Design/Fiber Arts
Salary: $55,000/year

What does a textile designer do…

As a textile designer, I create patterns for woven upholstery fabric. As a true artist, my job is to generate ideas, from reference materials or verbal instructions, and create artwork that gets woven into fabric. The fabric is then used by furniture makers to upholster couches and chairs. So I guess one measure of success for me as a textile designer could be the number of people that sit on my work.

I chose to be a textile designer because…

In art school one semester, I needed an elective and the only class I could get into was Textile Design. I hated the class all the way through—but when I looked at all of my textile designs together at the end, I really loved it. I had a kind of awakening, and decided to change my major to textile design. I’ve been a textile designer ever since.

Who said being a textile designer was enough…

Right now, I’m apprenticing to be a tattoo artist. I’ve also studied to be a yoga teacher and I make screenprinted cards and crafts.

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Adam Phillabaum
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