This year, we are delighted to work with Philadelphia-based textile designer and researcher Kelly Cobb as the 2025 WEM Artist-in-Residence. Kelly is an Associate Professor of Fashion and Apparel Studies at The University of Delaware and the Director of the Textile RAD Lab, whose past projects have explored the complexities of textile production and supply chains with a focus on restoring our connection to the origins of materials and to the human labor and environmental resources embedded in them. (You can learn more about her fascinating, process-driven past projects, like the 100-Mile Suit and Wearing Well-Being, here.) For her engagement with WEM, Kelly is centering her residency on the textiles and garments made by Letty Esherick.
Kelly Cobb examines a skirt woven by Letty Esherick during a visit to WEM.
Working at a Joyous Creative Thing
Kelly’s creative work is deeply rooted in research. In her earliest residency visits to WEM, she not only examined Letty’s textiles and garments, but also poured over the materials related to Letty that we hold in our museum archives, including letters, ledger books, and photographs. These resources revealed Letty’s creative interests to be interdisciplinary, extending from textiles to jewelry design, dance and movement, and even theatrical sound design. In Letty’s letters, Kelly quickly recognized the unfortunately familiar story of a wife and mother putting her artistic pursuits on hold as financial and familial pressures grew. Her 1947 letter to Wharton, written when the couple had long been separated and their children grown, says it all:
“…just now I want a chance to do what you have been doing all your life, – working at a joyous creative thing, which I hope will pave the way for my being self-supporting. This may be too late for me- but I still want to try”
Letty Esherick revisited the overshot weaving pattern “Honeysuckle Rose” numerous times, exploring variations in pattern, yarn weight, and color.
In tribute, Kelly is calling her research initiative Working at a Joyous Creative Thing. Her project allows us to contextualize Letty’s creative work in light of conventional gender roles, divisions of labor, and the joys and challenges of being a maker-mother.
Kelly’s material analysis of Letty’s textile and garment work is also illuminating her creative practice. Kelly observed Letty’s repeated interest in weaving an overshot pattern – known as Honeysuckle Rose – in vibrant colors and varied patterns, as well as the ways that the coded grids of weaving patterns echo the format of Letty’s gardening ledger. She also recognized Letty’s garment patterns as designed to be zero-waste, an approach that resonates with modern day efforts to create sustainable, resource-aware fashion.
Kelly is drawing inspiration from a vast array of collections and archival materials related to Letty, including her garden ledger which she formatted in a grid that recalls the structure of weaving patterns.
Connections Beyond Our Campus
Offsite research will also support Kelly’s project, made possible through the award of a CAS Go Grant from the University of Delaware (UD) for this project. The Go Grant will fund travel and fieldwork at Penland School of Craft, Crossnore School, and Hedgerow Theatre, three sites as integral to Letty’s creative life as WEM’s campus. Through these sites, Kelly will investigate Letty’s pursuit of a joyous creative life that was also self-supporting, exploring artistic networks and regional craft education.
Letty’s textiles and garments will be traveling as well, as collections objects head to the Textile RAD Lab this summer for further examination by University of Delaware textiles intern Sophia Gutman. Working alongside Kelly, Sophia will be examining the collections, using methodologies like those featured in The Dress Detective – a practical guide to analyzing fashion – to better understand Letty’s weavings, embroidery technique, and approach to garment construction.
We are thrilled to have Kelly Cobb digging deeply into under-researched textiles in our collection like this garment embroidered by Letty Esherick.
Creating an Ensemble
Process and collaboration join research as the three pillars of Kelly Cobb’s practice. Kelly describes the “outcome” of her project as an ensemble of both people and garments. She envisions reconstructing woven garments, embroidery, and other textiles Letty created, drawing them forward to our present day. Kelly is also exploring the creation of a wearable line with inspiration drawn from Letty’s textiles and creative story. Similar to her 100-Mile Suit, Kelly anticipates inviting regional artists and makers to collaborate on various aspects of these garments. In this way, the heart of the project aims to embrace communities from both past and present, allowing multitudes of inspiration to overlap.
An installation that brings visitors into Kelly’s process, juxtaposing Letty’s textiles and Kelly’s archival research alongside contemporary making, will open in the WEM Visitor Center in September. Because Kelly works both as an educator and multimodal thinker, creating projects that are alive and responsive to community, we expect the fall to include public programs and workshops offering hands-on engagement with the processes and materials that so captivated Letty Esherick. Recent conversations have included plans for a “Weaving Wall”—a participatory textile piece inviting visitors to contribute woven samples, public weaving and embroidery workshops, and a “Mothers Who Make” panel discussion to explore craft, motherhood, and making as a form of self-definition.
We are thrilled to have Kelly digging deeply into these under-researched textiles, as well as filling in gaps in what we know about Letty and her drive to live a creative life. Her work also broadens our understanding of Wharton Esherick’s creative world by recognizing the individuals and practices that shaped it. We can’t wait to see how this project continues to evolve!
» Kelly Cobb will also be joining us at Wharton’s 138th birthday celebration to lead a hands-on textile activity. Mark your calendars for Saturday, July 19th!
» You can explore Cobb’s past and ongoing projects on her website here, as well as through the Textile RAD Lab (Research Through Applied Discovery).
Post written by Katie Wynne, Deputy Director of Operations & Public Engagement
May 2025
