Sara Gilfert

Sara "Sally" McCalmont Gilfert (June 1, 1929 – March 15, 2024) was an American hand papermaker and textile artist.

Early Life Gilfert was born in Tarkio, Missouri but spent most of her early life in Janesville, Wisconsin. She graduated from Janesville high school and then moved to Yellow Springs, Ohio to attend Antioch College. At Antioch she met her future husband, James Gilfert, and they married at the Antioch College chapel in 1949. After James graduated, they moved to Columbus and continued their studies at The Ohio State University. She worked with textile art and weaving and submitted her Master of Fine Art exhibition in 1979. From 1980 to 1985 she taught at Ohio University in the Textile Department until it closed.

In addition to textiles, Gilfert discovered paper making in 1979 and found her true artistic passion. In 1983, she travelled to Japan for a three-month apprenticeship focused on traditional hand paper making techniques. In the village of Obara she learned a paper making technique invented by Andō Kazuhisa, from Andō himself. In the early 1980s Gilfert also taught natural dyeing, spinning, and weaving classes at Ohio University, including at satellite campuses in Lancaster and Chillicothe, and at the University of Rio Grande. Paper Circle was a nonprofit organization that was dedicated to the celebration, advancement, and preservation of paper and book arts. Paper Circle became not just a place to work and sell products, but a community gathering place where artists could exhibit and teach. Each summer for 15 years, Paper Circle ran a summer art program for children called The Circle Round the Square. Gilfert was an active member of the Friends of Dard Hunter, now the North American Hand Papermaker’s Association.