Meet the Maker Creating Macramé Wall Hangings Inspired by the Sea
A former pre-med student who made an unexpected pivot into fashion, Erik Speer constructs intricate works that land somewhere between textile and sculpture
Erik Speer’s wall works are layered, tactile constructions that occupy a space somewhere between textile and sculpture. Sometimes called “fiber collages,” the compilations are handmade from wool, alpaca, leather, reclaimed yarns, and whatever else catches his eye. The melange of materials are then combined into intricate compositions through knitting, crochet, macramé, weaving, and other techniques. Despite their elaborate appearance, Speer works completely intuitively. “I don’t use any sketches,” he says. “[The works] really do come together on the fly.”
The route to becoming an artist came after a decidedly non-linear approach. The Roswell, New Mexico, native originally aspired to be an anesthesiologist and enrolled as a pre-med student at College of Charleston, where his parents moved when he was 15. But he became disenchanted, put his studies on hold, and spent 2.5 years traveling the world as a nomadic scuba instructor, stopping in exotic destinations like Honduras, Croatia, and Malaysia.
Speer ultimately did earn a degree in marine biology, but became dismayed after exploring career options. “You can either work at Sea World, or you can move up to Alaska and count fish on a boat,” he recalls.
Fashion was always in his back pocket. “I was obsessed with women’s fashion, and a lot of my sketches would turn into dresses,” he recalls. “After studying marine biology, I realized I missed sketching. So I told my parents I want to move to New York City and go to Parsons.” He got in on his second try and earned an associate’s degree in fashion design. While there, he interned at Timo Weiland and Oscar de la Renta before freelancing for J. Crew and Rachel Zoe.
At Zoe’s studio, he was asked to make macramé trims. “I didn’t know what macramé was, so I researched it, and became really enthralled.” Looking over the boards the team had put together with various hand-made trims that employed a range of styles and techniques, he had an epiphany of sorts. “I wondered if I could do that as an art piece,” he says. “I’m going to mash everything together and see what it looks like.”
Soon after, his then-boyfriend, influencer Patrick Janelle, asked him to make a macramé piece for a pop-up shop in Los Angeles. Speer went wild—combining macramé with weaving and other techniques, filling the wall with texture. “This was not what he expected but even better,” Speer recalls.
Janelle photographed the piece and posted it on Instagram. Commissions followed.
Speer taught himself to knit and crochet, experimenting with different materials and techniques. He still prefers to work with what he calls “scratchy” wool because the fibers stick together and give his three-dimensional forms structure. He also seeks out excess and discarded materials, including yarn left over from factories in Peru and shoelace leather from Kentucky.
For years, he kept the palette neutral, because he didn’t want to dye yarn in his tiny New York City kitchen. The color restraint forced him to focus on what the materials themselves could do. “It was going to be all about the texture and techniques,” he says.
His marine references became more obvious once Speer began experimenting with color, but he’s not trying to accurately reproduce a coral reef. Instead, his pieces draw on his memories of diving and the awe he experienced while pausing over a small section of reef, observing the vibrant ecosystem. “I never set out to create a marine environment inspired piece,” he says. “It was what happened naturally.”
More recently, Speer has begun translating his techniques onto furniture. The idea started with a chair he bought and began experimenting on, weaving directly onto its frame and hand-stitching fiber elements into place. The response was immediate, and the experiment has since grown into a series of swivel chairs called “Sit Down, Do Nothing.”
Today he works from his home just outside Seattle, where he lives with his boyfriend, two dachshunds, and a cat. Currently, he’s relishing some time off after installing a work that took 18 months to produce and used over a thousand pounds of yarn. “I think people are starting to see fiber art and craft as more of a fine art now. It takes time, it takes human hands and human thought to create it,” he muses, adding, “Crochet cannot be replicated by a machine. I think there’s value in that.”
Erik Speer is represented by Todd Merrill.