Ishraq is a Jordanian textile artist, weaver, and wool researcher. She has an undergraduate degree in Architecture from Virginia Tech and a master's degree in Textile and Material Design from NABA-Milan. Her research-based practice bridges various design disciplines through a fundamental appreciation and craft of fiber and textile media. Her work strives to unveil the sophistication of traditional handcrafts- not through historicism- but as part of an affective economy that continues to be driven by everyday necessity, human innovation, and our eternal pursuit for beauty. An interdisciplinary practice built upon such critical reflections of process and material technology; and palimpsest of a journey through architecture, fashion, and textile design.
Ishraq specializes in sustainable practices of processing wool from animal to finished product and is currently involved in textile-related initiatives in the Hudson Valley region (NY) where she maintains a residence, and in Jordan where she lives and works.
A word from Ishraq:
“I consider myself a student of fate, never a victim of chance; a Jordanian textile artist, weaver, and wool consultant fortunate to have had a journey spanning many industries and across several continents. I have always sought to carve a path towards a unique creative and cultural self-expression, bridging various design disciplines through a fundamental appreciation and craft of various fiber/ textile media.
My collaborative and interdisciplinary practice is not a combination of my past lives in architecture, fashion, styling, journalism, and textile design, but a palimpsest of the journey which traversed them. Evolving self-determination and critical self-reflection, continuously recycled or altered, but forever bearing visible traces of each earlier form.”