The Cocoon Index

The Cocoon Index is a social engagement art project by fiber artist Susan Allred that gathers cocooned objects and maker narratives from workshops on emotional labor. Visitors can find out how to attend a workshop, explore artworks from the solo exhibition Outsourced, and read each maker’s story. The project invites participants to transform care, memory, and weight into embroidered forms, making emotional labor visible and shared.

Explore the cocoons, narratives, and artworks.

Coming Soon!
A wall-mounted fiber artwork, hung from a tree-branch slice. Strips of fabric-covered wire hold coiled baskets, which in turn hold cocoons filed with the artist's forebears' jewelry.

Workshops

Makers wrap emotionally significant objects in yarn and embroidery, then share the stories inside them. Fiber artist Susan Allred then gathers the cocoons and narratives to create the artworks that will appear in Outsourced.

While creating their cocoons, makers reflect on the labor of care, memory, and protection that may go unseen or unreciprocated. Each cocoon becomes both a vessel and a record— this handmade form shaped by the maker’s story and the object it holds.

About the Workshops
A person embroidering a laceweight-yarn covered item with pink and cream yarns, surrounded completed cocoons, scissors, and embroidery supplies on a white surface.

Find out more …

Ask us your questions about the art exhibition or the cocoon making project.