|
For several years I've been exploring image transfer, surface design and mixed media techniques, both for fun and to cross-pollinate ideas I wanted to approach through looping and coiling. In the past, I was known primarily for the use of homegrown natural materials in my vessels. I still love those materials, but lately I have spent more time working with fabric to create pieces I call Fusion Vessels.
It all started because I wanted to be in a fashion show. Every other year there's a Gathering at Sievers School of Fiber Arts, and people proudly present their creations. You don't see a lot of basketmakers wearing their work in fashion shows, but I tore strips of fabric into core material for coiling, added some looping and created an excuse to get on the runway. I'll do almost anything for applause.
While I enjoy making wearables, my heart is really in vessels. So I started playing with more ways to use fabric made interesting through surface design in vessel forms. Fusion Vessels.
Fusion Coiling, for example, combines open-core coiling, surface design, looping and embroidery in simple vessel shapes with rich surfaces. In Constructive Vessels and Art Cloth & Story Vessels, on the other hand, I'm not cutting fabric into strips to use as core material. Instead, the fun comes from transforming beautiful flat fabric into a three-dimensional form.
Right now I'm having a ball dyeing, painting and embellishing fabric to cut up and reform in story vessels, which I stitch by hand. There are just some things you can do by hand that are difficult to achieve with a sewing machine. I get a kick out of tugging on a thread and seeing how it changes a surface or shape, changes the way light plays on the form, changes the way your eye travels around the piece. There's a lot of serendipity in the creation of these vessels. That's even better than applause.
I'm also incorporating a lot of imagery onto the vessels, applying transfer techniques and altered image concepts that introduce text, collage elements and other imagery. I started exploring transfer techniques as a way to make gifts for family and friends. I probably get more enjoyment from the process of making those gifts than people do from receiving them. And because I enjoy it, I've spent a lot of time sampling and learning different ways to move my ideas out of my head and onto my fabric. Along the way, I also got hooked on a slew of other art cloth and surface design techniques, including dyeing and printing with natural materials.
What's the next step? Fusion vessels with panels of looping and looped vessels with art cloth elements? Stay tuned.
Fusion Vessels Workshop Topics
Imagery & Surface Design Workshop Topics
Coiling Workshop Topics
|
|
