Jessica Bovert weaves for art and function at a Carmel Valley textile studio guarded by alpacas.

Originally from Los Angeles, Jessica Bovert is a textile artist who settled in Carmel Valley in 2019, just months before the pandemic began. There, she found a private farm, where retired veterinarians keep alpacas. They let her use the yarn they make and rented her a space to keep her sizable looms and work.

“And a loom is not something you can just keep in your living room,” she explains.

Bovert studied fashion at San Francisco State University and spent 12 years in the Bay Area before leaving. “I learned how to weave in college,” she says. “I continued with that while working in the service industry.”

Her current studio is about 10 minutes from where she lives, on a farm with “all sorts of animals,” she says, her voice on the phone interrupted by the bray of a donkey. “Two alpacas are pregnant,” Bovert says. “So soon, there will be 15 alpacas.”

Some of the material she works with comes from their fleece, like the blanket she just finished, but she also uses organic cotton, linen and wool.

Weaving is process-based, according to Bovert. It can be very strict, but allows for a lot of creativity, too. A very old form of art and production, the basic concept is pretty universal among cultures. Bovert works with floor looms, but there are tapestry looms, table looms and backstrap looms.

Bovert weaves for both practical and abstract purposes. Some of her pieces are pure art – wall pieces of cotton and alpaca elements that hang like paintings. Sometimes she paints first to envision future pieces. Another important part of her production is kitchen and bathroom items, like napkin sets and towels to make the experience of cooking or bathing special. “We spend so much time in the kitchen and the bathroom,” she says.

Patterns are important to her, she likes clean lines. She also likes to color her products with natural dyes like onions or black beans, even seaweed. But she rarely dyes alpaca fleece because it comes so beautiful naturally: cream, white, light and dark browns.

The best thing about alpacas is that they want us to use their fleece. “If we wouldn’t shave them, they would pass out of exhaustion,” Bovert explains when asked if alpacas mind. They have a good life. “I wish I was one of those alpacas,” she says.

JESSICA BOVERT does commission work, gives weaving lessons and appears at local art fairs. Visit jbovert.com for more.