Suzanne Tick

Suzanne Tick

Suzanne Tick (b. 1959) is an American textile designer, artist, and innovator based in New York City. She is known for her use of industrial materials in hand weaving, her work in commercial design for the architecture and interiors industry, and her integration of sustainability and spirituality into her design practice..

Early life and education

Tick was born in 1959 and raised in Bloomington, Illinois, where she spent weekends working at her father's scrap metal yard. Her grandmother was a portrait painter, her mother a set designer, and her father was a business owner and artist. Tick received her BFA in Fiber from the University of Iowa in 1981, and later earned an AAS in Textile Design from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. Suzanne also taught at Parsons School of Design.

Career

Tick began her design career in the early 1980s, first working with Boris Kroll at his textile mill in New Jersey. She was then Creative director for companies Brickel and Unika Vaev; she became Creative Director for Knoll Textiles (1996–2005) And contributing designer (2005-2010), where she pioneered sustainable textile innovations and built a strong reputation in the commercial design industry

In 1997, Tick founded Suzanne Tick Inc., a multidisciplinary studio located at 44 East 3rd Street in the East Village of Manhattan. The studio serves as both her commercial textile design firm and a weaving studio. She has developed glass, floor coverings, upholstery, and wall coverings for the contract textiles industry. She formerly served as Creative Director at Luum Textiles, Design Partner for Skyline Design, and maintained long-term collaborations with Tarkett (formerly Tandus Centiva) as Design Director for commercial flooring and carpet products.

Design Innovations

Suzanne Tick’s design career has focused on sustainability, material innovation, and integrated architectural application.

In 1996, Tick co-founded Tuva Looms with Terry Mowers as a niche alternative to mass-produced flooring. Tuva Looms offered custom-woven broadloom carpets for commercial interiors using yarns composed of 80% nylon and 20% wool, dyed with non-toxic, low-VOC chemicals. The company sourced only from existing specialty mills, minimized waste, avoided the construction of new facilities, and emphasized traditional weaving practices. Their design aesthetic centered on minimalism and grid-based patterning for the architecture and hospitality markets (Katherine, D. S. (1998). Green market: Tuva looms is dedicated to keeping the traditional art of weaving alive. Interiors, 157(10), 60.

At KnollTextiles, where Tick served as Creative Director (1996–2005) and a contributing designer (2005-2010), she was instrumental in developing solution-dyed materials, including Resolution, Clarity, and Weave Three. These used producer-dyed polyester that eliminated water pollution from dye affluents. Resolution became the first Knoll fabric to sell over a million yards—marking the first commercially viable use of such materials in contract textiles.

In collaboration with aerospace engineer Ray Goodson, Tick co-developed Imago, a resin-infused textile panel that embedded woven fabrics into translucent plastic . This innovation extended the role of textiles into hard-surface architectural applications, launching a new category of surfacing material . Imago allowed fabric to serve as both a soft aesthetic element and a durable architectural surface .

Since 2008, Tick has served as a Design Partner at Skyline Design, where she has created multiple etched-glass collections . Her first, Collection in Whites, explored the translation of textile qualities into glass through techniques such as double-sided etching and back-painting .

At Luum Textiles, where she served as Creative Director from 2012 to 2024, Tick solidified her reputation as a leader in sustainable innovation. In 2012, she approached David Feldberg, President & CEO of Teknion, with a bold proposal: to create the contract industry’s go-to sustainable textile brand. With Feldberg’s support, and in partnership with Dave White, President of Luum, she helped build the company into a global leader in environmentally responsible textile design .

Tick pioneered the use of biodegradable fibers in commercial fabrics—which break down under anaerobic conditions at rates comparable to wool (approximately 3.5 years) as well as recycled garment waste, post-consumer polyester, and renewable fibers . As of 2024, 80% of Luum’s inventory contains renewable, recycled, or biodegradable materials

Artistic practice

Tick’s artistic practice focuses on the transformation of discarded materials into large-scale woven sculptures and conceptual textile installations. Drawing on her background in commercial textile development, she recontextualizes industrial and everyday objects, such as dry cleaning hangers, Mylar balloons, shredded documents, cardboard, neon, and fiber optics into meaningful visual narratives that explore memory, ritual, spirituality, and environmental urgency.

In 1998 Tick made a stainless steel weaving using surplus material from the Bridgestone Metalpha Corporation in Japan, which had excess stainless steel following a tire recall. The fiber was developed by fellow textile designer Junichi Arai. The Museum of Modern Art contacted Tick about the material, and she imported it to weave a banner for the exhibition Structure and Surface: Contemporary Japanese Textiles. She also wove a large stainless steel blanket during this time, which was subsequently included in the exhibition. The piece exemplifies Tick’s transformation of industrial waste into sophisticated textile art.

Her Woven Fiber Optic pieces, developed in the early 2000s in collaboration with industrial designer Harry Allen, combined double-cloth weaving techniques with illuminated fiber optics, one of which is held in the Cooper Hewitt’s permanent collection. The 2004 piece Crossform Pendant Lamp, featured in Cooper Hewitt’s 2006 Design Life Now: National Design Triennial, was acquired by the museum for their permanent collection.

In 2010, RefuseDC, created for the Gates Foundation in collaboration with Gensler, reimagined waste from dry cleaners, including cardboard inserts and approximately 5,000 wire hangers.

Her various Fire Island Mylar Weavings make use of over a thousand Mylar balloons collected from the beach over a decade. These balloons—remnants of birthdays, graduations, and other celebrations—are sorted, stripped into long, continuous strands, and woven into complex, reflective compositions. The works consider the intersection of joy, waste, and memory, elevating celebratory detritus into contemplative objects of transformation and underscore Tick’s ongoing commitment to environmentalism by highlighting the persistence and beauty of discarded synthetic materials.

She investigates found materials. As Tick states, “weaving holds everything together, materials and life, successes and failures.”

In 2019, Woven Neon, a neon glass weaving commissioned for the Venice Biennale, was featured as part of the exhibition, bending the boundary between drawing, sculpture, and textile—illuminating not only physical space but also the emotional and conceptual landscape of transformation.

In 2023, Tick completed A Light Spanned, a commissioned woven Ark cover, the sacred cabinet that houses Torah scrolls in Jewish synagogues, for Temple Emanu-el’s chapel in Dallas, Texas. Created using Mylar balloons collected from the beaches of Fire Island, the work embodies themes of celebration, ecological waste, and spiritual transformation. Tick described the piece as a reflection on human disposability and redemption—material once considered trash reimagined as sacred cloth.

Tick’s Torah Series reimagines damaged or decommissioned Torah scrolls into woven artworks that explore Jewish mysticism and gendered readings of scripture. The series emerged from salon-style gatherings and discussions held in collaboration with Rabbi Zach Fredman, whose teachings inspired Tick’s interpretive and spiritual approach to the material.

Her studio is located in a building formerly home to the Reuben Gallery, a key site in the Happenings movement associated with Claes Oldenburg, Allan Kaprow, and others, whose experimental performances in the late 1950s and early 1960s challenged traditional notions of art, incorporating everyday actions and audience participation into immersive environments. In the same vein, Tick has hosted live performances in the space, including site-specific dance works that weave together the sound of her loom with movement.

Meditation practice

Tick is a certified teacher of Vedic Meditation, a practice rooted in the study of the Vedanta. She studied with Thom Knoles and completed advanced training in India. In 2020, she launched Fifth Floor Meditation, teaching courses and hosting retreats.

Legacy and Recognition

Suzanne Tick’s designs are in the permanent collections of the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, the Museum of Arts and Design, among other institutions. She was inducted into the Interior Design Hall of Fame in 2023 and named an Honorary Fellow of the American Society of Interior Designers in 2022. Her studio's interdisciplinary collaborations continue to set a standard for innovation, sustainability, and material experimentation in the textile industry. In 2024, Tick announced her retirement as Creative Director of Luum Textiles, stepping back from corporate work to focus on her art and meditation practice. Reflecting on her impact, Luum President Dave White said: “If you’ve ever met Suzanne, you’ll know there is no stopping her. Suzanne is a master of her craft. Her ability to create products, market her ideas, and work directly with our clients and their end users has made the brand what it is today.” Tick’s textile work remains deeply rooted in sustainability, innovation, and mentorship. She continues to work with corporations to identify waste streams and create custom woven art using recycled materials, while also teaching Vedic Meditation to designers and artists in her Fifth Floor Meditation studio.

Personal Life

Tick was married to Willard Cook from 1989 to 1995, with whom she has one son. She was later married to Terrance Mowers from 1999 to 2013. She lives and works in a historic live-work townhouse in New York City’s East Village, a space that also houses her studio and meditation practice. The building, originally home to the Reuben Gallery—site of the early “Happenings” performance art movement—has a storied legacy of creative experimentation. Her Midwestern roots and upbringing in a scrap metal yard continue to inform her approach to materiality, reuse, and artistic integrity.

Selected Exhibitions

• Material Meaning, Craft in America, 2024
• Threads of Power, BravinLee Projects, 2023
• Textile Design Now, Centre du Design, Montréal, Canada, 2023
• Textile Month, Textile Month NYC, New York, NY, 2020
• Venice Design, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy, 2019
• Material Meaning, Craft in America, Los Angeles, CA, 2019
• Design Miami/Basel, Cristina Grajales Gallery, Basel, Switzerland, 2012
• Design Life Now, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Triennial, New York, NY, 2006

Selected Awards

• Interior Design Hall of Fame, 2023
• ASID Honorary Fellow, 2022
• IIDA Titan Award, 2013
• Best of NeoCon Gold Award (multiple years)
• Metropolis Likes Award (multiple years)
• Best of Year Awards, Interior Design Magazine

See Also

• Fiber art
• Textile design
• Weaving
• Sustainable design
• Industrial design

Further Reading

• Design Milk. "Friday Five with Suzanne Tick."
• Interior Design Magazine. "3 Hall of Famers Pivot into Retirement."
• Architectural Digest. "Suzanne Tick Profile."
• Metropolis Magazine. "Suzanne Tick Ventures into Glass with Skyline Collection.
• TEDxAsbury. "Weaving Life and Happiness."

External Links

• Suzanne Tick official website
• Suzanne Tick on Cooper Hewitt
• Suzanne Tick on Artsy
• Suzanne Tick on Knoll
• Suzanne Tick YouTube interviews and talks
• OfficeInsight. "Luum Textiles Announces the Retirement of Suzanne Tick."
• Interior Design Magazine. "Suzanne Tick 2023 Hall of Fame Inductee."
• Love That Design. "In Conversation with Suzanne Tick."
• Wallpaper. "Perfect Foil – Artist Suzanne Tick."
• MoMA. Structure and Surface: Contemporary Japanese Textiles exhibition
• Textile TV (New York Textile Month). YouTube Interview with Suzanne Tick
• Onna House. "Suzanne Tick: Woven Neon."
• Cooper Hewitt – Event: Making Materials Matter
• Metropolis Magazine. "His/Hers: Designing for a Post-Gender Society"
• Love That Design – Profile Page
• District 87 Alumni Page
• Charm City Design – Fiber Artist Feature
• MAD Museum Video: Studio Suzanne Tick
• UI Stanley Museum of Art – YouTube Talk
• Design Milk. "Friday Five with Suzanne Tick"
• New York Times. "The Thing Dynasty"
• Cristina Grajales Gallery – Profile
• Cristina Grajales Gallery – Instagram
• Designed by Women Feature
• The Pantagraph – BHS Hall of Fame Article
• Village Preservation Article
• TEDx Talk – "Weaving Trash into Treasure"
• Luum Textiles Homepage
• Luum Textiles – Collections Page
• Skyline Design – Designer Page
• Skyline Design – Lineal Fade Pattern
• IEEE Spectrum – Fiber Optics Mention
• Eiko & Koma Platform Solo – Dance Collaboration
• ASID – 2022 Honorary Fellows Announcement
• IIDA – 2013 Titan Award
• Luum NeoCon Awards (2019)
• Metropolis Likes NeoCon Winners
• 2023 Planet Positive Award – Metropolis
• Interior Design – Best of Year Finalists
• Grey Art Museum – Downtown Artist-Run Gallery History
• Dwell Mag
• Chicago Tribune
• New York Times
• Azure Magazine

References

This article "Suzanne Tick" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Suzanne Tick. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

📰 Article(s) of the same category(ies)

• Marilyn South
• Istvan Szil
• Jason Innocent
• Lorin roser
• Susan Thayer
• Arthur Hammer
• Don Christensen (artist)

---