New Work and Upcoming Exhibitions

I've been working on a new series of sculptural wall pieces that draw from a wide range of previous explorations, many of which have been featured on this blog in the past:

My studio wall of samples.

By looking at all these separate explorations at once I was able to begin to make connections between inspirations that felt quite separate at the time.  The work that has resulted feels almost like tactile collages.  

I am drawn to the way similar patterns re-appear again and again in the natural world and I address this by layering and combining similar imagery executed in different materials and processes, which lends the work an abstract quality.  The forms are still familiar, but they can be interpreted in many different ways.  There is a tension between structure and chaos in nature, in which very precise processes on a microscopic scale create unique, organic forms perfectly suited to a specific purpose.  I see a parallel between this construction of the natural world and construction in textiles, which often require tedious and precise actions, but result in soft and pliable objects.

 

Two of these new sculptural pieces, Emergent Geographies III and IV are part of a group exhibition up this month at Ground Floor Gallery in Nashville, TN.  The exhibition is called Touched and features a great collection of soft sculpture from some really amazing artists, all of whom I'm very honored to be showing with.  It opens tomorrow, Saturday October 3rd.

I will also be showing this new series as part of a solo exhibition next month at Blick Art Materials here in Savannah, opening November 13th.

Etsy Store Open for December

I've dusted off my etsy shop and added my felt and sterling silver jewelry just in time for the holidays.  Several old favorites and a few never before seen pieces are up!  It's been a fun challenge to get back to some of the jewelry designs I was working on before starting grad school 2 years ago!

Felting Fun: Mittens and Slippers at SCC

One of the things I love most about working in fibers is how versatile the medium is.  While in most of my work I use it for expressive purposes, it's also very nice to be able to make functional items, especially at this time of year.  When it starts to get chilly and I begin to make holiday gift plans I really enjoy using my skills to make cozy, one of a kind gifts for the people I care about.

This year I'm also excited to share a couple of my favorite projects with a workshop at Contemporary Craft in Pittsburgh.  I'll be teaching a class December 14th called Felting Fun: Mittens and Slippers. I'll be teaching the basics of wet felting and then showing the specific techniques needed to make a custom pair warm and cozy mittens or slippers.  It's a super fun project and easy as well, everyone will leave with a completed project to keep for themselves or give as a gift.

Also, on Friday night I'll be teaching Ugly (Or Not so Ugly) Holiday Sweaters as part of SCC's first Crafts and Drafts.  Participants can bring an old sweater from home or a thrift store find and I will be demonstrating needle felting customization techniques just in time for holiday parties.  Throw in some Local Beer and cheesy music and it should be a fun time for all!

Natural Dye Experiment: Black Beans

I've been trying lots of new plants for natural dyes for my installation.  Between the river trail and the nearby markets the Strip District of Pittsburgh provides a bounty of color.  Even so, getting a nice true strong green is very difficult.  My best chance is going to be getting a blue and over dying with yellow.  So I've been experimenting with black bean soaking water and getting good results. Below are some images of the process using a silk scarf:

First I soak black turtle beans in water over night. I use about twice as much water as black beans, and stir ever so often as I walk by. Then I scoop the now dark purple water off the beans and into a bucket to dye in.  (The beans made delicious burgers).

 I added a splash of vinegar to the dye bath, since silk as a protein fiber tends to take up color better in a slightly acidic bath.  This also has the effect of turning my dye a brighter, magenta purple.

And here is the scarf after spending the night in the cool black bean dye.  Very pretty magenta, but not the blue that I'm looking for.  To correct this I have to adjust the PH back to the other side by soaking it for a few minutes in a water and baking soda solution.  Its pretty amazing to watch actually, as the color changes right before my eyes.  Here it is after just a few seconds in the baking soda wash.

 The final color is this beautiful steel blue.

 I've got about a half a pound of wool still in the dye, since it doesn't take up color as quickly at cool temperatures as the silk.  It will spend another night in the dye, and once I take it out tomorrow I will be able to over dye the blue wool with some yellow from turmeric and hopefully get a nice range of greens for my installation.

Workshop Postcard

Information on my workshops at Contemporary Craft

June 25th

Just a quick update on the progress of the installation at SCC.  I've been making lots of felt and dyeing lots of wool.  The bright yellows and oranges are coming from turmeric, and I've gotten a pale minty green from spinach and a blue/grey from black beans, all sourced from the markets just around the corner from SCC in the Strip District of Pittsburgh.  Its been a lot of fun exploring the city and my to-do list just keeps getting longer.

June 10 2013

I've just finished the first week of my residency at Contemporary Craft here in Pittsburgh.  I'm working on a fiber installation that's inspired by natural processes of decay. The installation will grow over time to completely engulf the space by the end of August, and is made up of a couple different components. One component is made up of these felted cup forms inspired by moss, lichen, and mold, shown here at the end of day two:

There just so happens to be this lovely tree outside my workspace, which provided me with my color palette. I'm doing a bit of natural dying using locally foraged plants to get some of my colors.  Shown below are samples dyed with a mixture of Queen Anne's lace and Golden Alexander, using Iron and Copper Mordants. 

This yarn is going to be used for another component of the installation, a large vine that will grow across the back wall and into the space, which just got started today.

 I'm hoping to make weekly updates on the installation as it grows, so check back often, or follow the Contemporary Craft Tumblr which will also be posting updates.

Rusting and Felting

Sometimes I need to take a break from all the weaving and do something a bit more physical.  I've purposely avoided doing much felting while in grad school since I've done so much of it before, and because its so low tech and I feel I need to take advantage of all the great facilities at SCAD while I can.


A couple weeks ago I just got tired of staring at a computer and at my tapestry warp and had to do something different. I did some early experiments with felting and steel wool, and I wanted to get back to that and try to have the rust appear in just portions of the felt.


I'm not to sure of the forms these are taking, it was really just the first shape that came to mind, one that I've made in felt in the past.  But I'm happy with how the rust and the color turned out, and I think this process will come up again in some future work.

Capillary Action - Final installation shots

Its finally done!  It ended up being just over 11 feet wide, 9 feet tall, and took over 6,000 yards of yarn.

Here's a picture with me in front of it for scale.  As a side note: my dress was dyed at the workshop a couple weeks ago, which I blogged about here. It was a light yellow to begin with, and I over dyed it with Iron and Tea to give it this nice grey/green.

I leave Paducah tomorrow evening. Its been a great, busy, productive, fun month. While I'm excited to get back home to my kitties and a certain bearded fella, I will defnitely miss all my new friends and the lovely studio here!

Coming together

Getting closer, about 3/4 complete as of yesterday:

And the poster I made for my reception next week:

Day Whichever Progress (I've lost count)

Here's a Progress shot from a couple days ago, at from outside last night:

Another fun thing about the studio is there are always toads outside at night.  I almost stepped on this little guy when I went out to photograph.

Natural Dye Workshop

This weekend I hosted a natural dye demonstration/workshop in the A.I.R. studio here in Paducah.  On Saturday we started out by mordanting our fiber - treating it with Alum or Iron in order to help the fiber take up the dye and make the color more permanent.

Our fiber after they came out of the mordants.

We also cooked our dyes on Saturday, using local Blackberries, Black Tea, Brazilwood and Turmeric.

The dyestuffs

The dye baths

In order to keep the blackberry dye from going grey we didn't simmer our fabric in it, but let it sit overnight. On Sunday we dyed the rest of our fiber.  The participants were able to get a wide range of colors depending on the choice of the Alum or Iron mordant, the amount of time in the dye baths and the fiber they used.  Many people brought natural wool roving but we also had some silk scarves and some recycled material from wool coats.

The range of colors for each dye were:

                                Blackberry: Light purple to lavender to grayish purple

                                Tea: Warm tans to grays

                                Turmeric: Bright yellow to gold to brown

                                Brazilwood: Mauve to magenta to dark purple

Our dyed fabric drying outside

The two tones from the different mordants are easy to see in Tina's samples

Showing off the difference between silk and wool.

Georgia knotted her silk scarves before putting them in the
dye bath in order to get these beautiful textures.