About Robin Webb-Bransky

Robin Webb-Bransky Describes Her Art Quilt Process


The best way to describe an art quilt would be a personal work of art made of cloth and other found objects put together like a traditional bed quilt. The cloth can be designed and manufactured by others and put together in the art quilt or the cloth can be surface designed or dyed by the artist. Anything goes with an art quilt; it is very much a collage in my mind. I always have a camera with me and like to think of myself as a nature photographer. Taking pictures of my flower garden is something I live for.   Most of my ideas come from photographing nature and using those ideas to compose and complete a quilt. What I have done in most of these art quilts is to hand apply a resist and then hand paint the fabric. I do a whole cloth quilt style for most of my current work. The borders are made of hand-dyed, sun-printed and hand-painted cloth. I like to do a series of work to really focus on a style and learn what I can from each piece and the series as a whole. I try to put all my own surface-designed fabric into a piece but often use a small amount of just the right touch of other fabric if needed. My current work ranges from about one foot by one foot to about two feet by three feet. I also do a type of quilt in which I use one of my pictures as a guide, gather all the colors I will need, and then free hand cut the quilt pieces and attach them in collage style. I use a sewing machine with a regular stitch and free-motion quilting stitching.  When I put together the quilt sandwich (quilt face, batting, backing) the quilt takes on the feel of a traditional bed quilt. I love that feeling. I grew up sleeping under just a quilt in my teen years and the feeling is very comforting. There are many ways to finish an art quilt. I prefer the traditional method, and enjoy making bed quilts as well as art quilts.  Color, nature and composition inspire me. I see compositions everywhere I look.

Bio of Robin Webb-Bransky




Robin Bransky, R.N, is an avid photographer, fiber artist, watercolor painter and potter. Whatever media she finds herself working in, she draws her inspiration from the natural world. She is adept in all areas of photography but has a specialty in Macro (Up Close) photography. Her original photos and watercolors are featured on cards suitable for any occasion that can be ordered directly from Instinctive Art or soon on Etsy.com.  In addition to creating her own work, Robin has taught children and adults in areas of clay, print‑making, fabric arts, and photography for the past 30 years, and loves it all.


Here Robin describes in own words the evolution of her artistic pursuits:

When I was a young girl we often traveled to southern Missouri to visit my dad’s extended family. My first memory of being awed by color came when Great Grandma Grace opened her pantry/closet to reveal 25 beautiful homemade hand sewn quilts. Grandma Grace used her quilts to make my family pallets on the floor (yes, that term from the old folk songs is one I grew up hearing). She also had wonderfully colored fiesta ware dishes on which she served the family fresh eggs from the chicken coop just outside the house.  Throughout childhood I lived and played in the country, had many animals and spent most of my time outdoors.

My mother Jane is a seamstress as was my Grandmother Hazel, which influenced me to become involved in the sewing section of 4-H during my teen years. I participated in fairs, and won some blue ribbons for my work.

I also bought a 35mm camera during my last year of high school, which I lost in a house fire a few years later.  Although I took family pictures with point and shoot cameras while my children were growing up; 25 years later I suddenly recalled that I had bought my first camera on my own, from a classified ad because of my desire to be a photographer.  That rekindling of my original dream uplifted my spirit and led to my taking about 100,000 photos over the past ten years.  I love to take the ephemeral: a flower in full bloom, the best minute of an amazing sunset or rainbow, butterflies, birds with their young, etc., and capturing the scene so it can be viewed and cherished forever.

I became a potter at a young age, made a studio in my home, and sold my pottery at art fairs, specializing in useful pieces.  I developed my pottery skills through an apprenticeship with Pipigwa Pottery in the late 1970's. I also took art classes at Northwestern Michigan College in Traverse City in addition to working on my nursing degree. I worked as a nurse at the Migrant Clinic for a couple seasons in the early 1990's, and then moved my work back home to focus on art and raising Jim’s and my new baby.

Watercolor painting has become another passion over the past eight years, which fits together nicely with my photography. I like to compose paintings from my photographs, taking multiple pictures of the same subject to give me lots of material to choose from. I have printed 55 of my favorite paintings into cards, and 25 into 11 x 17 posters. Images are available through Etsy by clicking on the store front button, or can be ordered by contacting me through this website.


Coming full circle to Great Grandma Grace in southern Missouri, I am an ardent fabric artist
and traditional quilter. I often use my photos as inspiration for my art quilts. Traditional
quilting is still one of my favorite pursuits, and I recently acquired a long arm quilter that I
am getting to know and love. I have also worked with perhaps the oldest fiber art: felting.

Over the past 30 years I have taught classes in many of these media to the young and old.
I’m very excited to be working with my husband, Jim, in our new adventure, Instinctive Art.