Upstate Artist Collective

Irene Bebber
Taylors, SC

About Irene

Irene is a doll artist, fiber artist, and quilter who moved to Taylors, SC, in 2025 after living in the mountains of North Carolina for 15 years and all over the world as an Army wife for 25 years. Born in Spartanburg, SC, in 1947, she moved with her family to Decatur, GA, for 8 years before moving to Columbia, SC, where she went to high school and college. She has a BFA and an MAT from the University of South Carolina and studied at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, DC.

​

Irene has always loved three-dimensional artwork and fibers. As a quiltmaker she enjoys making thread painted art quilts, as well as quilted clothing. She became interested in making dolls as an art form in 2011.

She has explored a variety of mediums including fabric, wood, and clay in her doll making. Irene studied making air-dry clay and fabric dolls in 2017 under Ankie Daanen, an internationally known doll artist from the Netherlands. Doll making has become a passion. It allows Irene to explore texture, color, design, nature, the human figure, and emotions in a three-dimensional art form.

Irene has exhibited and sold dolls and art quilts at the Ashe County Arts Council in West Jefferson, NC, as well as at quilt shows and festivals. Her thread painted quilts and art dolls are in numerous private collections. She is a member of the Peach Patchers Quilt Guild and the Upstate Artist Collective in Greenville, SC.