SLO Review

San Luis Obispo County's Connection to Arts and Culture

Toni Pruett Bouman

Toni Pruett Bouman is a true California Girl who needs regular contact with the Pacific Ocean. Raised in San Diego, she migrated to Los Angeles to attend design school and become a fashion designer. Quickly discovering she wasn’t cut out for mass-produced clothing, she changed course and began a 35-year career as a real estate broker. Wanting a slower pace, she and her artist husband moved to the Central Coast 30 years ago. While enjoying real estate, Bouman’s true passion is textiles. She now specializes in Japanese Shibori and other ethnic textile techniques, creating hand-painted silk wearable art under the name Slo Silkworks (now on Etsy). Her work has been displayed at the SLO Museum of Art and the Mingei International Museum in San Diego. Active in the SLO arts community, she is a past president of the SLO County Arts Council, and has written articles for SLO Journal Plus on arts and fine craft.