The Art of Bringing People Together

From pottery and punch needles to downtown murals, Mandy Alsager is building a community one art project at a time

Mandy Alsager wears many hats: healthcare worker, mother, wife, and, more recently, artist. But perhaps none defines her better than her dedication to Cadillac’s growing arts community.

After more than 30 years working in healthcare in the Big Rapids area, Alsager moved to Cadillac in 2022, returning to a community she had come to love decades earlier. After graduating from high school in 1994, she briefly moved to Cadillac and attended Baker College.

“I remembered how cool and welcoming the community was,” she says. “I remembered the lakes and the nature—it was just so beautiful.” When her husband retired and she gained the flexibility to work remotely, returning to Cadillac felt like the right next chapter.

Alsager and her husband are avid cross-country cyclists, swimmers, and outdoors people, and Cadillac offered plenty of ways for the couple to follow their passions. They joined the local YMCA and became regulars in its large indoor pool. In the warmer months, they biked along the White Pine Trail, exploring Wexford County’s forests and small communities. It quickly felt like home.

First: Pottery

As Alsager and her husband explored Cadillac’s trails and community, she began noticing something unexpected for a rural northern Michigan town: art seemed to be everywhere. Though she had no formal artistic training, a difficult period in her family’s life inspired her to try something new. Drawn to the creativity she saw around her, she found Clay’s Healing Power in Lake City and signed up for classes.

“The moment I touched the clay, I knew I was addicted,” she says.

In subsequent classes, she started wheel throwing and learning the delicate rhythm of a potter’s wheel. Soon, she was hand-building, shaping clay by hand, and using the oldest pottery techniques.

She started creating more complex pieces and sharing her creations on social media. “People started saying, ‘Oh, I want to buy that, or ‘you’re really talented,’” Alsager says. “It quickly grew from just doing stuff for my home into something much bigger.”

Cadillac’s art scene was small but diverse, bringing together people of different ages and backgrounds. Alsager saw an opportunity to contribute, joining the Cadillac Arts Council as its secretary. “I thought this would be a small way to get myself involved,” Alsager says. “In a good way, it just kind of snowballed from that.”

Soon after, Aslager joined the non-profit Friends of the Cadillac Library as its secretary and Up North Arts (UNA) to teach pottery classes. She joined the 2025-2026 Cadillac Leadership Class with a scholarship from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.

Then: Rug Hooking

During this time, her artistic journey took another unexpected turn. While following pottery teachers and art influencers online, she stumbled across a teacher demonstrating punch needle rug hooking. “I’m like, well, what is this thing?” she says. “That ended up leading me down a rabbit hole.”

Punch needle rug hooking, Alsager learned, is a textile art that uses a hollow needle to push yarn through fabric, creating textured designs for pillows, rugs, wall hangings, and furniture. Vermont rug maker Amy Oxford developed the technique in 1995, and her company, The Oxford Company, continues to offer tools and educational resources for aspiring artists. Intrigued, Alsager signed up to become an instructor herself.

Starting with the basics, she learned how to trace the design onto monk’s cloth and linen, stretching it over the frame until it’s taut enough for the needle to push through with ease. She perfected threading and punching the needle, letting her designs come to life.

“Instead of traditional rug hooking where you work pulling loops through the front of the material, you’re punching the loops into the backing material, and working from the back of the project with the front on the opposite side,” says Alsager. The punch needle rug hooking method was faster, easier on the hands, and allowed artists to create denser patterns that resembled intricate paintings.

When it was time for her final piece to earn her certificate, she had to create a two-by-three foot design of her own. Drawing on memories of mountain-to-coast bike rides she and her husband had taken in North Carolina, she began punching. Slowly, the faint outlines of the Blue Ridge Mountains emerged in the background. The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse took shape along the shoreline, while the state’s state bird, the Northern Cardinal, perched above a bicycle on the shoreline. Biking had meant so much to her and her husband and now she had captured those memories in a rug.

With her submission of "Carolina On My Bike," Alsager earned her Oxford Certified Instructor certificate from the Oxford Rug Hooking School in January, 2026, becoming one of two instructors in Michigan.

Now: A Business

As her skills in punch needle rug hooking and pottery grew, so did her desire to share them with others. She launched her own business, Fiber Arts and Pottery by Mandy, and began finding new ways to bring people together through art.

One project took place in an unlikely place: a graffitied alleyway between Harris and Cass streets in downtown Cadillac. Working with MSU Extension, Cadillac’s Downtown Development Authority (DDA) Arts & Beautification Committee envisioned a series of murals on the alley’s historic facades. Alsager was eager to help.

To raise funds and involve the community, the DDA proposed a tile mural featuring a “unity tree,” with two connecting trees representing the changing seasons, one in spring greens and the other in vibrant autumn colors. With Alsager and her fellow advocates rallying support, the idea quickly caught on, and the team began selling tiles to fund the project.

As the project takes shape and her teaching, volunteering, and family keeps her busy, she continues to find new ways to connect with others through art. “My goal is to build a community where we meet, and we talk, and we just exchange,” Alsager says.

Her newest venture is a book club organized through the Oxford Rug Hooking School. “We read a book ahead of time and then get together and punch along as we're talking about it,” she says. Whether someone knits, crochets, quilts, or punches, Alsager welcomes anyone interested in the textile arts to join. “I hope we can gather, share each other’s skills, and just become a good support group for each other.”

Learn more at amyoxford.com/pages/mandy-alsager.

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