Author: Strongfelt

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Fabric Felt Fusion and Encasements

Close-up of white mesh over bubble wrap

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The two main reasons I encase beach glass in fabric pockets, aside from the conceptual nature of the inclusion, is to give weight to the textile and to see the color and shape of the glass. With the beach glass spaced evenly in a pattern across the surface of the otherwise light and flexible fabric, the textile takes on a quality reminiscent of the movement of a reptile’s skin or the movement of a spine.  In order to also see the beach glass I tend to use a lower momme weight of silk with more transparency.

For this project, I requested Dyeing House Gallery’s 3.5 mm and 6mm silk chiffon as well as their wool gauze pictured.  I was curious to experiment with the wool gauze as it has an initial open weave structure which would close up depending on how much the surrounding felt was fulled. Gauze fabric has medical associations as well, making it an appropriate fabric to employ in this  piece for the DHG Charity Auction to benefit the Anna Meyer’s Children Hospital. I developed a deep connection with gauze material after a terrible burn to my right arm had me in a routine of swaddling my arm in medicated gauze for weeks on end.

For context of this project please read my first posting and those that followed about the DHG Charity Project in STRONGFELT’s Blog, INTRIGUE.

 

 

 

 

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Beginning the Surface Designing

photo-25I have been incorporating fence patterns in my work for sometime now as well as other protective imagery such as stone or brick walls and wood grain. I began placing pieces of beach glass encased in silk in the fence’s negative spaces as a symbol of light, clarity, and transparency. You can see this way that I work felt in my body textiles as well as my recent neckpieces at www.strongfelt.com.

Considering the work for Dyeing House Gallery’s Charity Auction was benefitting the Anna Meyer Children Hospital, fence patterning seemed an appropriate place to begin my designing… thinking about eradicating or blocking their dis-ease. Also, I had been gifted a collection of beach glass from Murano, Italy by a former student, Terry Heintz. It included a grouping of blue glass that I couldn’t imagine a better purpose for…to symbolize hope and clear blue skies. My intention was to create jewelry for the project and a piece that would present on the chest protecting the heart. I began cutting the negative spaces out of the stack of both partial felt I had made from DHG’s Merino top and a layer of both DHG’s white and black needle felt. Interesting that the design I cut referenced the spinal column. More on that in the next posting….

For context of this project please read my first posting about the DHG Charity Project in STRONGFELT’s Blog, INTRIGUE.

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An Invitation I Could Not Resist

I was contacted by Annalisa of the Dyeing House Gallery in Prato, Italy back in January 2015 about a special project that they had initiated and asked if I would like to participate. The basic concept was that I would have choice of the company’s products to create with and would then donate some of that work to DHG for an online auction to benefit the Pediatric Oncology Ward of the Anna Meyer Hospital in Florence, Italy. A nice idea, no? My style of working wool would reach new audiences through the DHG website, other felters would see that I am working with DHG products through my blogging and I would receive a variety of DHG products of my choosing to continue to work with. What really locked me in to participate in this project, however, was the idea of my work being auctioned off to help fund this well-known Children’s Hospital that was built in 1884 and that offers its services free of charge. That is what the name STRONGFELT is about…not just quality of material, but integrity in actions and communications.

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I requested a selection of colors of DHG’s extra fine Merino top (L to R: storm, white, coffee, dune, beaver, tulle, dark) and wool nepps. Here, the fibers are laid out in my STRONGFELT STUDIO to make wet felted sheets of partial felt with a potential of some 90% shrinkage and sprinkled with wool nepps to offer some random surface texture that I can play off when free-motion stitching.

 

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I always make my own partial felt as I can control the thickness of the layout and how much I felt/full of the potential shrinkage of that weight of wool per area before I cut up the sheets to use in my designing. I realized that DHG also sold needle felted sheets so I requested some yardage in black and white to incorporate in my design work. I was curious to see how my wet felted partial felts compared with the thicker needle felted sheets when incorporated in the same piece. I stacked all the sheets together and began cutting out some shapes for my jewelry pieces I was envisioning. Stay tuned for the projects development….

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Refined & Consistent..Small Scale Solid Form Felting

Five white fuzzy craft sticks on grid

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The next class running in the STRONGFELT STUDIO in Asheville, NC is Solid Form Felting Techniques, June 19-21. We will be working small in this class so there is room for a few more participants if you think this direction in felting will be advantageous to your creative envisioning! We’ll first focus in on the dry fiber preparation for specific forms like balls, hoops and cords (the components these pieces are made from) and learn methods for repeating the same forms. By creating systems, a foundational understanding of the materials is established that allows us to reach further… to experiment with success…to innovate.

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Then learn different ways to connect these basic components together to begin the designing process. How thick will a cord be? Will it taper or have a dramatic change in diameter? Will it undulate between cord and form components? What will the spacing be between components? Will the components be intersected by the cord or hang from it? And so on…

These four neck pieces have an encased mirror as the centerpiece. This is one of the topics of focus in the Resist-based Pendants workshop, June 26-28. In that class we learn about small scale hollow form sculpting using interior an exterior resists. For the encasement study, we use resist material around the object to enlarge the surface area so the wool fibers can shrink snug against the object.

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From the Solid Form class in the STRONGFELT STUDIO last summer, Susanna Hohman is seen here designing a piece with repeating cords of the same diameter and skillfully keeping all the ends dry so she can connect the cords to other components. Tinker Toys really…what can you build from the basic forms? Want to come study & play! Send me an email…

 
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TBT The Envisioning of the Studio!

Person gesturing outside rustic log cabin

I came across this shot last night from March 2013. I was sharing my vision for building the STRONGFELT STUDIO with local photographer Michael Mauney who had been assigned a shoot for a story in American Craft. It is so dramatic to see such an empty lot as I can hardly imagine my home without the south facing studio whose windows I would be touching had it been built at the time of the photo. 20130301_5d_0125

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Sculpting Hollow Form, April 23-26, 2015

Four women sitting on terraced stone wall

It had been just a few weeks since the first STRONGFELT STUDIO class in early April, but this crew got to see all the terraced beds blooming with color and texture. From the left: Karin Fish, myself, Susan Kaplow and Nina Denninger.

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Nina’s hands are in action below, exploring the raising of a form from a 2-D plane by fulling the differential shrinkage into the third dimension. The ladies then employed the same concept of placing partial felt density into the layout, but this time while wrapping a resist. The increased area from both sides of the resist provides more height for the form’s walls as well as an ability to close the mouth of the form. Karin and Susan are refining their fiber layout around the resist, so to not bulk up the area at the edge, which would impede the raising of the form once the resist is removed.

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My demonstration piece showing the art of less, is more! Negative space, or areas of thinner layout, result in more dramatic forming as these high shrinkage areas can undercut the low shrinkage partial felt leading to concave and highly protuberating form.

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Nina’s form below and to the left, in the process of being fulled by using the STRONGFELT tool to not only agitate the concave areas but also to block and stretch the protuberations. Of course, this level of muscling the felt is in response to the strength of the fulled felt and shouldn’t be applied when the felt has less integrity or it will tear up or pill the surface. It’s all about intent…you have to prepare the form you are wanting by how you lay out the weight of fiber and on what shape resist and then think about how you agitate the wool from the beginning of the process to the end! Lastly, a little refining by way of steaming, shaving, stitching and applying shellac. Great class ladies!! Next course on Sculpting Hollow Form, Sept 17-20, in the STRONGFELT STUDIO, Asheville, NC!

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Seasonal Changes of the Dogwood-Artist Residency

Blue canvas wall art with white blossoms

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The piece created during my Vance Elementary School Residency with 5th graders last week, April 7-10, 2015, has been completed today! I stretched it over a 28″ x 38″ x 3″ frame, which resulted in a lovely effect of several of the Dogwood blooms wrapping around the sides and sitting on top of the frame.

A special thanks to the Asheville City Schools Foundation for funding my TAPAS Residency at Vance, to Brian Ballenger for providing time in his science class for such a project, to Mark Schieferstein for cranking out a frame for me and to Steve Mann who made time today to photograph the piece. I look forward to sharing more about this residency and posting a collection of images on my website’s residency page in the next week…

Now I am on my way to the school’s open house so to be present to hear the kids talk to parents about their experience!

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Fabric Fusion April 2-5, 2015

Three people making colorful handmade paper

A rather joyful group started off the 2015 workshop schedule at the STRONGFELT STUDIO last weekend with a course on all things related to the coercing of wool fibers through pre-structured fabrics.  We isolated variables in the fabric fusion process through a variety of studies to learn the range of possibilities that each variable offered. For instance, how much hair the hand of the maker allows to penetrate the fabric when the area and type of fabric and the amount and type of wool are the same or the control….the scientific method in action!

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Then there is the density of fabric as a variable shown here by Elaine Evans…

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Also the integration of partially felted sheets of wool! Depending on the integrity, partial felt can create a resist to hair grasping the fabric allowing the fabric color and pattern to be more bold and can also be used to refine the edges of the fabric as demonstrated by Becky Hope Mallory below. Structural design in wet felting is all about ‘hair availability.’

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Oh and can’t forget to mention the wonderful linear effect of the hairs of the partial felt edge navigating to the surface shown in Elizabeth Childers sample….nor the simplicity of solely edging the fabrics to create a stain glass effect.

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So, so many aspects of felting to grasp and there is nothing like a hands-on workshop to get a feel!  Check out the STRONGFELT STUDIO, workshops topics and the remaining 2015 schedule…

 

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Findings on the Gulf Coast

Beige brittle star on sandy beach

The days were at first calm and pleasant and the beaches offered very little in the way of shells and other visual delights to scavenge. After a tremendous storm of wind and rain, however, the ocean churned and churned for two days and on my last sunrise walk I found a visual and metaphorical playground to propel my return to the studio.

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April 2015 Elementary School Residency

Botanical craft materials and wool roving

photo-14I am officially on vacation this week, from making at least, but of course I have many things in the works…on the mind! I am very excited to get back in the Asheville Schools this April for a week long residency at Vance Elementary School in West Asheville. I have received a TAPAS grant (Teaching Artists Present in Asheville Schools) to work with three classes of 5th graders. The 65 kids will all have an opportunity to learn to felt by making a sheet of partial felt from which they will cut shapes of branches, buds, leaves and flowers of the NC State Flower, the Dogwood, Cornus, florida. I was working out the colors and amounts of wool, how far we will felt the sheets before cutting and the sizes of the shapes before I left town on Monday. The classes will organize the components into a composition illustrating the seasonal gradation of growth which will be backed by silk fabric and wool fiber in a gradation of color related to how high the sun is in the sky. The piece will be stretched on a canvas and exhibited in the school. I love the idea of working with seasonal changes as the kids can relate to the physical changes of the environment and how those changes can effect their energy and emotions. A special thanks to Ginger Huebner, founding director of Roots +Wings School of Art and Design, for helping to bring this residency into fruition and of course for funding by the Asheville City Schools Foundation and LEAF in Schools and Streets.

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New 2015 Works on Site!

Antique embroidered textile collar with lace detailing

N201_SS_2015I have just completed uploading the most recent photography of the work I had created this past winter. This neck piece is one of my favorites from the new series. It incorporates a stainless steel wire form skinned with very thin felt and threaded onto an undulating cord. The cord has been free-motion machine embroidered to compress the remaining air from the felt creating an embossed surface and a stiffer felt. I have found that by allowing my stitching to be guided by the random incorporation of novelty thread on the felt’s surface, a visual and energetic balance is created with the controlled parallel lines of stitched thread.  Please have a look at the new images in the Bracelet and Necklace galleries.

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Another Fluffy White Medium

Snow-covered drain grate and circular outline

photo-10photo-8After driving back 9 hours from Baltimore on Wednesday night, I arrived to a quiet landscape in the process of being carpeted in snow . With my body craving to be moved and my mind soothed after such an expedition, I began walking the streets of Asheville and did so, unknowingly, for three hours. I captured many images that night finding visual inspiration in the way the white snow patterned the dark ground and sky and I was reminded of my most recent body of work…high contrast and defined structure created with a soft white medium.

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James Renwick Alliance Award 2015

Four people smiling at craft award ceremony

JRA AwardThis past friday, February 20th, I was incredibly honored to receive the James Renwick Alliance Award of Excellence for Innovation in Craft along with Stacey Lee Webber, pictured to my right at the American Craft Council’s Baltimore Show. It is the first year that JRA has presented this award with the awards juried by JRA board members, Judy Wiesman, Marc Grainer and Sean Hennessey. The Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum showcases 20th Century American Craft and the Alliance’s mission is to celebrate and foster scholarship, education and public appreciation of achievements of American Craft Artists. Of course, it is so very gratifying to have my work acknowledged, but I am also so pleased for my work to be a conduit for broader awareness of the felt medium. Many thanks for the capturing and sharing of this picture on the JRA Facebook page with American Craft Council Executive Director, Chris Amundsen and JRA board member, Rebecca Ravenal.

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New Solid Form Felting

Brown fabric straps with oval openings

newI am excited about these new solid felt form elements in some of my felt pearl cords. They offer little windows that bring whatever color you may be wearing into the composition and the interior shapes play nicely with the undulating oval shapes throughout the cords.

Registration opens today around 2pm for classes at this years Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival!  I will be offering a two day class in Solid Form Felting Techniques there or sign up for a three day course at the STRONGFELT STUDIO June 19-21 with an expanded offering including the incorporation of partial felt to achieve more defined shapes and the lovely color bleed effects you can see here as the yellow core fibers travel to the surface of the black felt skin on top.

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A Journey

Sun and moon face sculpture with acorns

A JourneyMy most recent figurative piece and many image details have now been posted in the FIGURE gallery at www.strongfelt.com. I had shared several process images of this piece, A Journey, on Facebook during the fall of 2014, prior to its completion in November. Sharon Nugent, a long time patron of STRONGFELT had commissioned this very personal work and I would like to acknowledge her patronage here as it was this commission that funded the rebuilding of my website this winter. As has been the case for many years now, Sharon has serendipitously supported my work at very crucial times in the development of STRONGFELT, inc. A strongly felt thank you to Sharon and her family for their support!

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New Website!

Artist hand-felting wool art at table

Strongfelt StudioIt’s LIVE!!! With this first blog from my newly launched website at www.strongfelt.com I not only invite you to spend some time wandering through the new site but I would like to pay homage to my old site pictured.

I developed the concept for that site while I was a resident artist at the Appalachian Center for Craft in Smithville, TN with the intention of sharing the images of my work and my growing passion for the felt medium. I was far from tech savvy and it was a leap of faith to put myself out in the world in such a way. The site developed over the years to promote a plethora of workshops I had designed to address various techniques I implemented in my work, tools I designed and Moroccan olive oil soap that I imported. I have deep gratitude for the connections made through that site over the past decade: sales, opportunities for publication and exhibition and sharing my approaches in workshops and teaching residencies. Thank you! Then the inevitable happened…

CHANGE!! The site’s operating system had become dated and it was a challenge to find those knowledgeable or willing to modify the site. It began to not function properly on some browsers as well as the images in my gallery not being viewable on mobile devices. Soooooooooo, I finally stepped it up and designed a site with new aesthetics, a gallery with larger images and ease of navigation, with images to illustrate my workshop descriptions and a page dedicated to the STRONGFELT STUDIO where I now create my work and teach workshops from in Asheville, NC. AND in the future I will be able to set up a shopping cart on the site. Thank you to The Pixel Princess for her assistance in this process! Here’s to another decade of making and sharing….