Meet the Artist: Molly Fitzpatrick, DittoHouse
By Kelli Comer
Local textile designer Molly Fitzpatrick, of DittoHouse, loves to boldly go in the direction of her dreams. She turns her ideas into a tangible reality with her bold, colorful and unique collections of textiles. Inspired by the pioneers of the Op Art movement, Inuit printmaking and weavings of the Bauhaus, Molly brings to the table sustainable textile design that will thrill and delight for years, as lasting as the quality of the products they adorn.
“My goal has always been to bring a vibrant connection to a space through bold textiles,” Molly comments. Her aim is to design and operate her business with the bigger issues of the world in mind, such as human dignity and the effects on the environment. She is especially aware of the history of the craft of textile design.
Molly studied textiles at the Cleveland Institute of Art and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Fiber and Material Studies. She began working as a textile designer in a mill in North Carolina upon graduation.
“I am lucky to have continued working as a textile designer since then,” she explains. “I began my own textile design studio around 2010 and consulted on textile design projects with manufacturers, as well as licensed my textile designs to companies, including CB2. I started my product line, DittoHouse, in 2015, in an effort to bring more meaningful textiles into my home and the homes of others.”
With her latest collection, Molly had the opportunity to resurrect her hand weaving practice after almost 15 years. “First learning to weave in art school in the early 2000s was magical,” Molly says. “I found a way to create pattern through woven textiles in the most poetically perfect way.”
Molly measures the success of DittoHouse by her ability to leverage her resources to build systems of solidarity to do good with her textiles. “However small my contribution, I am strategic about where I put my efforts and money when creating a collection of textiles,” she says.
Up until recently, Molly solely worked with family-run mills in the United States. With her latest collection, she saw an opportunity to redirect her efforts to Indigenous communities in Guatemala and work on more intentional textiles.
“Over the past six years, my textiles have been included in so many spaces,” Molly smiles. “It is my joy to know that people all over the world choose to bring DittoHouse into their homes.”
DittoHouse is a textile design studio based in Cleveland. To reach Molly, email info@dittohouse.com. To shop online and learn more about the artist and her work, visit DittoHouse.com.