In the Studio Archives - Strongfelt https://strongfelt.com/category/studio/ Works & Workshops of Lisa Klakulak. Mon, 11 Sep 2023 20:02:16 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://strongfelt.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/cropped-screenshot-1-32x32.png In the Studio Archives - Strongfelt https://strongfelt.com/category/studio/ 32 32 83073170 GRATITUDE FOR MY HANDS…KINKY PINKIES AND ALL https://strongfelt.com/where-i-am-at-fall-of-2022/ https://strongfelt.com/where-i-am-at-fall-of-2022/#respond Wed, 12 Oct 2022 19:23:28 +0000 https://strongfelt.com/?p=8870 Greetings. Doing that intro thing for folks new to following this website and to share where I and STRONGFELT are at these days…autumn 2022. I’m Lisa Klakulak and evidenced by my kinky pinky, I like to work with my hands…following in the tradition of the farming/gardening/project-doing side of my family (the kinky arthritic hands too). […]

The post GRATITUDE FOR MY HANDS…KINKY PINKIES AND ALL appeared first on Strongfelt.

]]>
Greetings. Doing that intro thing for folks new to following this website and to share where I and STRONGFELT are at these days…autumn 2022.

I’m Lisa Klakulak and evidenced by my kinky pinky, I like to work with my hands…following in the tradition of the farming/gardening/project-doing side of my family (the kinky arthritic hands too). I have been sculpting wool fibers in the wet felting process and hand/machine stitching now for over twenty years and not as a side gig or a hobby, but a full-time hustle. Years of my making can be viewed in the WORKS galleries on this website.

As time has passed, it became more and more apparent that, like the felting process, I was sculpting my own body via shrinkage and compression, through repetitive and directional agitation. I have focused more and more on teaching, finding joy in encouraging others making and the passing on of my approaches to material and process. I no longer do craft shows to spare my joints the agitation of production, as I want to use these hands for intentional projects and conceptual explorations and less for cranking out 20 bracelets, 20 sets of earrings, etc. You can view my most recent, small collection of WORKS from 2022 under ADORN:NECKLACES & EARRINGS.


Since beginning to teach my Online & Onpoint! Coursework, I have very much appreciated having my making filmed one time with a broad and detailed camera and therefore cutting back on using my hands for every demo also. The structure and length of my online courses allow participants to learn techniques AND apply them in a design/idea while supported by my mentoring and other participants encouragement. I love it and am excitedly working on the content of the next 10 week course for release in the spring of 2023. Images below are from Course 1, Foundational Structure.



That’s not to say I won’t be out and about in the world offering Face to Face Workshops, in fact, I am reserving my energies for just that…going all out when I choose to travel to teach and when I have a strong idea to make. You can check the TEACHING SCHEDULE at www.strongfelt.com for both Online Courses and F2F Workshops. I’ll be in the Pacific NW, Belgium and Switzerland late summer/early fall of 2023.

Felt the need to post about gratitude for my hands today in all their kinky glory.

The post GRATITUDE FOR MY HANDS…KINKY PINKIES AND ALL appeared first on Strongfelt.

]]>
https://strongfelt.com/where-i-am-at-fall-of-2022/feed/ 0 8870
Intertwining Lives & Lines https://strongfelt.com/intertwining-lives-lines/ Tue, 27 Sep 2022 20:30:14 +0000 https://strongfelt.com/?p=8603 I’ve been working in the studio on additional adjustable clasping necklaces in my Mechanoreception Series that I started this past July 2022. I began conceiving of this work, however, when I came across masses of worm tubes on Florida’s gulf coast beaches in December of 2021… my first excursion during the isolating COVID restrictions. Not […]

The post Intertwining Lives & Lines appeared first on Strongfelt.

]]>

I’ve been working in the studio on additional adjustable clasping necklaces in my Mechanoreception Series that I started this past July 2022. I began conceiving of this work, however, when I came across masses of worm tubes on Florida’s gulf coast beaches in December of 2021… my first excursion during the isolating COVID restrictions. Not familiar with the word mechanoreception? It’s an animals reaction to external stimuli such as touch, pressure, vibrations and sound or rather its ability to react to such. I’m a little preoccupied by the anthropomorphic behaviors of the Annelid class of tube building worms as related to their dwelling in dense masses, yet each in an isolated silo as well as their quick recoil to external stimuli. The meshwork of their tubes is also a fantastic representation of the intertwinement of wool filaments in felt that is otherwise hardly visible with the human eye.

Mechanoreception 3, extended vs closed

The choice of an adjustable clasp that opens up the neckpiece to a larger circumference and also closes it down is informed by the operculum of the Serpulidae family of Polychaeta tube worms, a little door that blocks the entrance to their silo when they retract. 

I was paying particular attention to the extended state of the cords before introducing my external force to act out their knotting and recoiling. It reminded me of a country road with quite some space between where smaller roads intersect, like out by my maternal grandparents farm in Avoca, Michigan or the roads that rambled off from highway 522 north of Taos, New Mexico where I lived in the late 90’s. I associate the dominance of space between lines in real time or when viewing a map with sparse populations and calm. Some people feel vulnerable in open space, but it is there that I feel possibility, the possibility of movement.

It is no wonder that I have a fondness for laying my filaments of wool ridiculously thin to felt a 2D plane, like the country roads on a map. It is the space between those filaments that allows for the extraordinary movement and intertwinement that results in high shrinkage, strong, yet still flexible felt. I’ve always preferred living in the small towns between those spacious lines on a map and travelling inward to the denser population grids upon occasion. I’ve always felt a bit sensory sensitive, more of a country mouse if you will.

The post Intertwining Lives & Lines appeared first on Strongfelt.

]]>
8603
TBT The Envisioning of the Studio! https://strongfelt.com/tbt-the-envisioning-of-the-studio/ Thu, 30 Apr 2015 12:13:33 +0000 https://strongfelt.com/?p=1919 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 post TBT The Envisioning of the Studio! appeared first on Strongfelt.

]]>

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

The post TBT The Envisioning of the Studio! appeared first on Strongfelt.

]]>
1919
New 2015 Works on Site! https://strongfelt.com/new-2015-works-on-site/ Sat, 07 Mar 2015 19:59:58 +0000 https://strongfelt.com/?p=1710 I 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 […]

The post New 2015 Works on Site! appeared first on Strongfelt.

]]>

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.

The post New 2015 Works on Site! appeared first on Strongfelt.

]]>
1710