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Clara Kazarov

@useful_filth

1.2K

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tinkerer
chef/textile artist
She/they
@b.y.renovates

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I'm opening my pet portraiture books. I close them at Thanksgiving. I take 10 commissions a year to cover rent. $$ is negotiable and trade is rad.
If you make money off my paintings we have to talk about what you are doing to give back to causes I believe in. If you don't I'm awesome at heckling from a distance. by @useful_filth

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5 months ago

Birthday for N. Love her more than words. Our picnics and meanderings sustain me. Banded Stars trial with matches.

#quilting #quiltingresistence #banners by @useful_filth

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6 months ago

Story sale for rent and @mainesolidarityfund. Dm me if you're interested. taken in Iron Ledge Farm by @useful_filth

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9 months ago

Sweet migration. Entangled home. Flock.
This colossus could be yours. Dm for deets. taken in Iron Ledge Farm by @useful_filth

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9 months ago

by @useful_filth

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10 months ago

3 Sisters
July-December 2025
Linen, Cotton, Silk

This one is for my mother, Barbara.
It is a devotion to try to sit and pull someone’s sigils from the ether. My mother was near impossible to do this for, probably because of the mountain of feelings I have for her. My normal process wasn’t really applicable.

My mother is a soft and hard woman in the opposite way that I am. She is soft on the outside and fierce on the inside. She is a middle child, born between two sisters. They are all women shaped like birds, depicted here as 3 wrens. They are loud and vivacious together. They belong to one another. I wonder if, as mortality comes more into focus, if they worry about what will happen when one of them dies.

I don’t think that my mother has received enough acknowledgment for the great care and patience she has shown the world. I would like for her to feel that I see it. I like the idea of her spinning her magics and this quilt soaking up the excess tendrils for the rest of her days. I like the idea of if she is buried or burned with it that the world would get to reabsorb the magic.

For those who care, this is a variation of ‘Drunkards Path’ with an Amish sawtooth half square border. The wrens and oak leaves are appliquéd silk.

Fin. taken in Whitefield, Maine by @useful_filth

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10 months ago

Started work on this quilt for my mama. I often think about those who I have made quilts for, usually lovers, and how their magic continues even after our relationship ends. And on good days I'm happy about that but on most other days I'm kind of spiteful about it. So my rule is no more quilts for lovers, only loves and my mom is definitely one of them. She picked the block, but didn't know the name; drunkards path.

#quilting by @useful_filth

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a year ago

Tiny portal
2025
8"x10"

Sea Oats, tiny doorway. Small banner on found seafoam silk.

#banner #embriodery #reduction #applique by @useful_filth

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a year ago

For those TLDR -
Clara Kazarov 2025
'Sharpen Your Blade So You Can Keep Your Heart Tender'

This is my newest quilt.

I am in search of a place to display my quilts and banners, a barn would be cool.

I am also in search of a photographer who can photograph my work better than I can.

For the longer readers:
I have been working on this piece since January (I think). It is comprised of linen, cotton, seed pearls from my grandmother’s necklace, gold thread, thread from my first jeans workshop (with @lladybird) and is heavily inspired by the solid block quilts made by the Amish in my town.

The title belongs to my therapist who showed me the quote and drew a comparison to this season of my life. It has been a strange time of grief and betrayal and boundaries and newness. I do not claim the title as my own, but put it out to the universe to be claimed.

This quilt is both narrative and not. I cannot point to the symbolism present and tell a story, but rather I think they speak for themselves. I am not sure if it is finished yet.

The techniques present are appliqué, embroidery and standard quilting, though I think I have taken leaves out of @zakfoster.quilts book and cast a spell of ‘protection against perfection’ in all my work (thanks @reneezrblade) and mostly make it up as I go along.

Since Jonas’s death I have spent so much time with @chelseairisgranger ‘s book So Many Ways to Draw a Ghost that I would be remiss to not mention how much that work has influenced my stitches. If you don’t own it, go buy it.

I maintain that blankets are the perfect objects of grief, protection, haven and process. They are magic.

#quilt #quilting #applique #embroidery #stitching by @useful_filth

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a year ago

My love letter to those not close. Typos and all.
@sheawitzo @lynnebuschman (who will always be my mentor)

#embriodery #banner by @useful_filth

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2 years ago

Sigils for N

St. Johns wort, blue herons, stars

#embriodery #banner #quilting #reduction by @useful_filth

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2 years ago

This one is probably my favorite.

Inspired but a national geographic photo that @jed_crocker and I love in our bones.

Many layers.

#lace#applique#embriodery#banner by @useful_filth

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2 years ago