Esther was born in the Fraser Valley of British Columbia surrounded by the natural world.  Her family was of farming and craftsman stock, and she learned early on that what was done with the hands was of particular value and worthiness.

In 1972 she graduated from Simon Fraser University following four years of courses which included English, geography and languages, as well as procuring a fifth year Professional Education Certificate.  She then relocated to Nelson, B.C. where she taught school from 1972 to 2005.  Through this period she established a weaving business where her main focus was designing and weaving saddle blankets which she exhibited and sold at the Masters Event in Spruce Meadows just outside of Calgary.  Her new home on the banks of Kootenay Lake continued her lifelong contacts with Nature, which in turn further ignited her creative endeavours.  In 1975/1976 she attended Kootenay School of the Arts where she studied colour, design and the fibre arts.  Throughout these teaching years she continued to immerse herself in the dying of fibre with both acid and natural dyes as well as further mastering and refining the crafts of spinning and weaving.

In 2005 she moved to a small farm in the foothills of Alberta with her husband Phil where they built up a homestead and set about raising livestock and establishing market gardens. This dramatic new landscape gave Esther further inspiration from which to draw in her quest for new forms of expression to represent the surrounding natural world, including now entering the world of wearable art.

And so the journey continues to this day.

Esther Neufeld CV

2012 Pincher Creek Fibre Arts Week. First Prize awards for her functional and non-functional felted pieces.

2016 Crowsnest Pass Public Gallery. Pieces ‘Garden of Delight’ and ‘Heading North’ shown at a juried presentation titled ‘As We Live and Breathe’.

2017 Lebel Gallery, Pincher Creek. Solo exhibition titled ‘Heart Felt Images’ featuring an eclectic assortment of both flat and sculpted pieces – landscape, portrait and tactile.

2017 Crowsnest Pass Public Gallery. A piece called ‘The Voyageur’ in juried show themed ‘Interpreting Canada’.

2018 Crowsnest Pass Public Gallery. A piece of whimsy called ‘Whoosh, Flap, Flutter and Snap’ for a show entitled ‘Soundscapes’.

2019 Crowsnest Pass Public Gallery. Solo show called ‘Birds of a Feather’ running from July 6 through August 5 which represented a new body of felted works including several larger 3-D sculptures.

2021 Crowsnest Pass Public Gallery. An installation called ‘Isabella and the Virus’ shown at a juried show titled ‘Room for Thought’ running from July 17 to August 22.

• also at Crowsnest that year various pieces in the yearly ‘No Particular Topic’ show.

2022 Helen Schuler Centre in Lethbridge. Solo show called ‘Birds of a Feather’ from April 3 to May 17.

2022 Crowsnest Pass Public Gallery. ‘Skies a Blaze accepted for the juried show ‘Exploring the Unexpected’

2022 – 2023 Alberta Craft Council . White Flying Pelican accepted for the juried show – ‘Albirda – Put a Bird On It Call’.

2024 Crowsnest Pass Public Gallery. Booked for a summer solo show August 24 – September 22 entitled ‘Wearable Art’.