Experimenting with Functional Art

 I have been having an enormous amount of fun experimenting with different felting techniques. I prefer to make an object rather than just a sampler and pillows and tea-cozies work really well for this purpose. These pillows were created by laying down a dark background, laying bands of lighter coloured wool over top, cutting trees into the middle layer to expose the dark layer, and adding silk, bamboo and wool surface embellishments. The wool is laid onto turban cotton to provide additional strength without having to resort to very thick felt. The pillows are created as a one piece envelope that have button closures on the back.

In this tea-cozie, vertical light bands were "woven" with yellow and green horizontal bands. A resist was used under the vertical bands at the points were they overlapped the horizontal bands, emphasizing the weave.

 Felting seems to be becoming very popular and a surprising number of new techniques and ideas are out there. In the early 1990s, nuno felting was developed and fibre artists are taking it in many directions. In this technique, wool is felted onto a fabric with a fibre or weave than enables the wool to attach itself to the fabric. I took a nuno scarf workshop from Sue Scott, an amazing local felter. For this scarf, I laid black wool onto a very summery looking shear silk fabric (the silk fabric is exposed on the right had edge in the picture on the left which creates a ruffle once the wool starts to shrink). Picking up the colours from the fabric, I created geometric designs on the surface using wool, silk, ribbon, and bamboo embellishments as well as laying on small scrap pieces of the silk (encased in the blue diamonds and burgundy squares). Before and after pictures are on the left and right respectively with a detail shot below. It was a fun and valuable workshop experience. Just to give you an idea of the amount of work that goes into felting, this piece took about 6 to 8 hours to complete.

2D Felt - The Leap to Mixed Media

Woolly Lilies

I've been experimenting some more with 2 dimensional felt over the summer. I wanted to try more abstract shapes and images as well as surface techniques. In "Woolly Lilies" I used resists to lift the flowers and leaves off the surface as well as adding silk and mohair on the surface. I liked the result but was once again faced with the challenge of how to mount it. As I've talked about in other 2 dimensional felt posts I've tried a number of different approaches with more or less success. 

Detail - Woolly Lilies

In this one I decided to create a painted canvas that incorporated mixed media and ended up using wool, silk, thread, acrylic paint, rice paper as well as different glosses and gels to create a rich surface texture. And ... suddenly I realized that I should be thinking about a unified mixed media piece rather than something to support the felt. After adding wool into the paint (a very tricky process - it either looks great or like something hauled out of a bathtub drain) I added the diagonal stitches across both surfaces. Together, they tie the canvas and felt into a single integrated piece. I can't wait to try some more but with school ramping up, it will be a while - darn.

Art criticism - for the birds!

Relaxing in the shade and hauling out water colours is one of my favourite vacation activities after a hot morning at the beach. Fred and Franny Farkle, the resident mynah birds, took particular interest in pieces that I hung to dry. Apparently everyone is an art critic!

Bragg Creek Days Painters Show

What a beautiful day at a beautiful venue! Suncatcher's Gallery graciously hosted the Bragg Creek Painters for a show and sale during Bragg Creek Days. The rain held off, the music from the community centre was wonderful, and the company was great.

The only challenge was smelling the perogies from the food truck across the road - I eventually gave in and had Brie and Basil perogies no less - the ultimate upscale comfort food! Thanks to all who came out, to all the painters who participated, and particularly to Elizabeth for welcoming us to her lovely gallery in the woods.

A Horse of a Different Colour

 A great big thank you to Spruce Meadows for a creative fund raising idea to support groups impacted by last year's flood. The Bragg Creek Community Association was one of the successful candidates to receive a horse to paint. You can see all the completed horses currently on auction at Spruce Meadows Horses Leg Up. They are all amazing! I was out of town until the day before the deadline, but was able to do a little bit at the end (literally). This was definitely a first for me. I got to paint trees on a horse's butt! Kudos to the local artists who very ably created a beautiful beast who reflects the four seasons in Bragg Creek. Watch for these creatures around Calgary - check out Spruce Meadow's web sight for details of the project.

Calyx Sale was Wonderful Yet Again

The Calyx Sale was wonderful as always.  These are some of my stone and felt pieces at the sale.  So much wonderful art by so many different artists - my objective every year is to sell more than I buy.

Spring 2014 Calyx Show

The Spring Calyx Show is quickly approaching! I will be there on Sunday, April 27th with 2D felt, 3D needle felt Creektures, paintings, and stone pictographs. This is always a fun show with amazing art work. Hope to see you there.