Whimsical Wear by Kay Klose 

May 15 - August 2, 2026

In the Fiber Arts Studio/ Gallery inside the Lincoln City Cultural Center

Whimsical Wear -Fuses art with fashion. Kay's clothing and accessories are made with fine merino wool, silk and natural fibers. Her garments are not sewn but sculpted in a laborious process by hand using soap, water and friction. The four sacred elements in the tapestry of the universe can be seen in her designs. 

Kay has a BFA from the California College of Arts and has been an artist for 40 years and shown her work in various museums, galleries, and juried shows in the US and Mexico. Her passion to fuse art with fashion began in Mexico 10 years ago where she volunteers with Mujeres a Mujeres/ (Women to Women) a fashion show to raise money for young women to attend college. 

Kay has spent years perfecting her felt cloth from wool: it’s a complicated and fascinating process to sculpt fabric but the result speaks for itself! Kay credits having grown up in a more romantic time as the impetus of her fashion flair. “People dressed so nice back then (in the 1950s). I loved helping my mom dress up to go out, especially opening the hat box.” While hats in colder climates are utilitarian, in Kay’s hands they become gorgeous-beauty plus function.

“Art has always been in my life. It is my meditation. I have worked in many mediums for expression and enjoyed all of them,” explains Kay. She graduated from the California College of Arts and Crafts in 1983 and struck out for the wilds of Alaska with her photography gear. While growing up on a farm in northern California, Kay was selected for a work study abroad program in New Zealand for a year while in high school. It was in New Zealand that Kay worked as a shepherd and learned to shear sheep. This was her first contact with the merino wool which she uses today to make her original wearable art.

“Nuno felting is a fiber sculpting process that uses fine merino wool natural fibers, soap, water, and friction to get the wool to travel through cloth,” said Kay. The wool and other natural fibers are bonded together permanently via this process. It takes a lot of time to produce just one section of cloth; the final size is less than a third of the starting size. Full of texture and colors, Kay’s work has a wonderful visual appeal.