Marcie Ziskind

“Creativity begets innovation, and innovation fosters leadership!”

Marcie is a self-taught Fiber artist and business owner. She creates her art with ancient wet felting techniques, which use natural fibers, hot water, and increasing pressure to form strong cohesive textiles. Marcie loves the idea that a knowledge of math and science is used in the process to create intricate wall art and garments. In addition to her fabric art, Marcie has been the owner for 12 years of The Expressive Hand, the only paint-your-own-pottery studio in Philadelphia. This role allows her to use her business acumen and love of community to work with schools, youth programs, and various organizations, providing creative opportunities and exploration of art media in a safe, positive, and welcoming space. Marcie strives to lead her Expressive Hand team with kindness, compassion, respect, and transparency. 

What does leadership mean to you?

“As the owner of a small business, I am in a position to provide leadership to my staff. We must make choices about our image and how we present ourselves as a business. I choose to lead with kindness, compassion, respect and transparency. I believe that leaders should embrace the individual personalities of the people with whom they work, raising everyone to their highest potential. We must be willing to lead by example and through hard work, and be open to learning from everyone on their team. I think a successful leader should build relationships, foster communication and encourage people to share a unified vision and commitment to the common good. Leaders must also be resilient, as we see how the world is constantly subjected to change. I think that creativity means having the courage to think differently and to follow through with one’s ideas. Creativity begets innovation, and innovation fosters and leadership!”

Biography:

Marcie considers herself an Outsider Artist. Mostly self-taught, she has loved fabric art since she was a child, when she created wall hangings from swatches of fabric that her father brought home from his manufacturing plant. For the past 12 years Marcie has been the owner of the only paint-your-own-pottery studio in Philadelphia, PA where she has had the opportunity to use her business acumen and love of community to work with schools, youth programs, and various organizations to provide creative opportunities and exploration of art media in a safe, positive and welcoming space.
Marcie has been wet felting for about ten years, but she took the process to another level four years ago after a devastating loss in her family. She has found an outlet for her grief the meditative aspect of this craft.
Wet felting is a method by which one uses natural fibers, hot soapy water, and a range of applied pressure to form the loose fibers into a strong, cohesive fabric. This process requires knowledge of science and math to properly create a textile from the loose fibers and to achieve the proper size of each project. “I only started making felted garments about one year ago, and I instantly fell in love with the large scale of each project, the combination of silk and roving, and the ability to manipulate the fibers. I love the creative flexibility that wet felting allows – from the physical handling of the individual fibers to the addition of decorative details. I have created many vessels, purses and scarves-- each with very unique attributes. I love embellishing my pieces with hand embroidery and beading. Wet felting combines creativity, science, patience and discipline to produce a very specific type of art.”