Mihoko Wakabayashi is a fiber artist who works from her studio in Worcester, Massachusetts, where weaving is both a personal practice and a way of bringing people together. With more than 30 years of experience, her work is rooted in SAORI weaving, a Japanese freestyle philosophy that celebrates individuality, spontaneity, and the beauty of imperfection.
Originally trained as an educator, Wakabayashi taught in alternative schools in Tokyo and later at Japanese schools in Detroit and Boston. After returning to the U.S. in 2000, she recognized SAORI weaving as a powerful tool for connection and opened her first studio at home. That spirit of accessibility continues to guide her practice today.
“I started weaving in 1992, learned spinning in 2005, and learned indigo dye in 2016,” she says. Over time, she has combined these disciplines into a deeply intuitive process, sometimes dyeing fleece to spin, other times dyeing yarn or even weaving fabric first and dyeing it afterward. “It all depends on the material I get and work spontaneously,” she explains, with some pieces traveling the full journey from “sheep to shawl.”
Wakabayashi practices freestyle weaving across all aspects of her work. “I try not to have a specific goal or finished product in mind when I start,” she says, instead embracing experimentation, trial and error, and the unexpected. Nature remains her constant inspiration: “I feel like walking in a summer field or snowy mountain while weaving.” Grounded in a beginner’s mind, her textiles and garments are made to surprise—bringing smiles, warmth, and happiness to those who wear them.
