Welcome, I’m Elaine.
Artist and teaching artist. Transforming vintage linens with cyanotype and light reactive dye. Lots to say about women’s history and lives. Learn more.
Photo by Dulce Rodriquez of XOL Photography.
Public Art Project at the Library
View from under the pavilion at the Orland Park Public Library, front entrance windows. Public art installation by Elaine Luther, September 2025. Photo by Dulce Rodriguez.
Ruth Asawa’s Technique has a Name, Here’s Why We Should Care
There's a Problem with How Museums Talk about Craft Museums honor the techniques and materials used when it comes to paintings and sculptures. They...
Experiments in Natural Dyeing
The dyes in the photo above are mud dye - the reddish one; on the right is kakishibu persimmon dye that's been shifted to gray, and the blue is a...
Are the highly specialized Japanese Shibori Tools Worth it?
I couple of years ago, I took an "Art on the Meadow" workshop at Ox-Bow School of Art in Michigan. The Art on the Meadow classes are the shorter,...
The Books I have been Waiting for on Cyanotype and Shibori
Here are two terrific books that I wish had been available years ago, each on a subject of turning things blue. One is on cyanotype and one is on...
What *have* I been up to?
I've just scrolled through my photos for the whole year - here we are, more than half way through the year already - looking for ideas of what to...
Please, don’t buy this sewing machine!
As a teaching artist who teaches a minimum of 3 sewing classes a week, and sometimes as many as 6 - I get asked a lot "What sewing machine should I...
Elaine Luther: Available Works
This blog post is to be helpful to curators putting together shows, and to collectors looking for which of my artworks are available for purchase....
Where to See my Art in Person, Trailside Museum of Natural History, Oak Park Art League
Cyanotypes Large and Small Unusually, I'm in three shows at once right now, all in the near western suburbs of Chicago. I've just installed my solo...
Call for Art: Group Micro Show at the Oak Park Art League in 2026
From the Oak Park Art League website - How small can you work and still maintain your style? After last year’s Microcosm Exhibit, you know what to...