Surface Design, now and in 2014

 

These last two weeks I've been making the last arrangements and samples for my 2014 classes, which will have a strong emphasis in surface design.  This is such an exciting topic, and my favourite theme for exploration in the studio. 
The spikes above are a new addition to the curriculum and one I love...sharp metallic gleamings in a landscape of soft, matte fibre.

 It is a challenge to fit in all the design elements covered in the course in a single piece. Just in the actual physicality of making it all fit, but also from the design aesthetic of having some cohesion and a beautiful finished project. These island samplers really do feel like maps of mythical worlds....

The Surface Design book will be at the printers by the first week of February (I shudder to say anything about this project after picking it up and leaving it multiple times over the last two years...but this time- it is for certain!) I'm finishing one chapter per week over the next two months.... I'm also building online classes that will be available next spring.

 This was my 30 minute felt project for this week...playing with surfaces and resists....I think I'll call it Territory.  A little soft and welcoming, a little threatening and unknown...a space to be navigated with attention.

  Next year is coming together beautifully, with a nice mix of teaching, exhibitions and creative breathing spaces.  
Surface Design classes upcoming in Texas, Colorado (Full),  Vancouver, Salt Spring, Wisconsin, and Ontario so far...
A post is coming with all the dates, details and links....

Warm wishes, 
Fiona

30 Minute Felt Project: Brachyura

These 30 minute felt projects are an opportunity to come to the creative table with no expectations- just a short intensive, mind-wide-open exploration...It can be easy as a craftsperson to get stuck in a productions mindset, and this is an exercise to give ourselves permission to play within our medium. This is not about creating felt quickly;  it is about setting aside an amount of time that feels reasonable in our busy days to create freely.

  In my studio I have a whole collection of bones and shells, hairs, and glass....beach and forest collections of natural forms....Today's 30 minute felt project is inspired by one of these....a simple crab shell picked up on a beach walk one afternoon....

I've been working on a lot of white, very large pieces recently, and colour called for this little project. Funny how we need creative breaks even within our creative days....I felt that I really needed a 30 minute felt project today as a treat from making big, new, (exciting) other felt projects...I used some C1-Pelsul from New England Felting Supply. Absolutely a dream fibre; an all time favourite...so gorgeous to work with....

I cut a simple crab inspired resist from laminate flooring underlay foam, laid out an underlayer of the wool, and wetted out.

 Some natural black Finn wool for shadowing on the tips...

I rolled the wool into cords over the interior resist for the tips and then rolled on the bubble wrap surface to round the tips out to the points. 

And then I hit the question mark point as I often have in these 30 minute felts....I wanted to have a lime green shell interior, with a silk layer and silk resist pockets...but in my quick initial layout I wasn't certain about the placement so rather than spend time thinking about it, I decided to move on and add it later, at the prefelt stage....

Once at the prefelt stage however, this delay in design placement seemed very complicated...as things often get when I put things off! I carefully lifted my overlayers and resist and laid out the green wools, resists, and then the silks.  It would have been much easier to do at the beginning...and usually with a project- thought out and sketched and with no very short timelines, that is how it would have happened...but this 30 minute felt challenge is not about getting everything right...just doing something creative....it's all fine!

I completed the design for the outside, and started rolling....first gently over the top with a pipe....

...then rolling it up within the bubble wrap....

 Continuing with this rolling, rubbing and tossing on the table....along with working on the tips, until my 30 minutes ran out....

 In my usual work process I would continue to felt this for another 15-20 minutes....to stay in keeping with the 30 minute felt concept, I did stop, but did get that extra fulling time in during the rinsing process! A little cheat maybe, butI've never great at following rules...even when they are my own!

I steamed the finished felt, shaved some parts, clamped pleats into the surface to add shaping and rolled and pulled the felt into it's final form and left to dry.

And...taa daa.... the finished felt....

Quite different form the original crab shell..but that's just how inspiration goes...and I like that the shell still has so much to offer in ideas for future projects...

It takes me about 3 times longer to write about making this than it took to make it! How funny! But there is pleasure certainly in this process also and sharing these ideas!

Back out to the studio for me, and back to the great white silent project on my felting table....plus the creation of the Joomchi Felt workbook.....

Warm wishes,
Fiona

From Vessel to Light

As I was working on yesterdays 30 Minute Felt Project, I kept thinking about about felt lighting and how interesting this piece might be turned into a lampshade.

I love felt in lighting. There is nothing so soft, warm and inviting as the way light travels through the wool fibres.  I have made many pieces , small and large, contemporary and whimsical, and once showed my felt lighting range at the Interior Design Show in Toronto. I have a whole new series designed...just need to time to make them...

This piece is more in keeping with the playful and experimental....I may hang it up in our living room for a little refreshing change of inside scenery.....

Lovely and light!

Warm wishes,
Fiona

30 Minute Felt Project- Stacked Vessels

These 30 minute felt projects are an opportunity to come to the creative table with no expectations- just a short intensive, mind-wide-open exploration...It can be easy as a craftsperson to get stuck in productions ruts, and this is an exercise to give ourselves permission to play within our medium. This is not about creating felt quickly;  it is about setting aside an amount of time that feels reasonable in our busy days to create freely.

This mornings inspiration came from a stack of handmade ceramic bowls that my sons made in a brilliant class with super talented Julie MacKinnon. They are so beautiful in their form. 

I knew this was going to be a bit of a challenge, but also an exciting pursuit!

I started off with my two wools- Norwegian and Finn, some pencil rovings, two round foam resists and my hot water/felting solution ready to go.

I started with the smaller resist and laid out the wool to cover both sides.

Hand-dyed silver pencil rovings wrapped around the form. I am using these almost everyday in the studio right now. I am so drawn to very simple white and grey shadings.  I was not entirely certain on how they would be positioned once I attached the two forms together and later shaped them, but that's part of this exercise- it doesn't matter too much how the end result will look...so I let go of that wondering and moved on...

 Covering the second resist with two layers of wool rovings.

And now I hit an A-ha kind of moment. If I laid my smaller vessel on top of the other, they would be joined to form a shape like an insect body or two bubbles attached together....not the intention...( although a fun one for another day!)...
What is the inside-out-backward way of thinking with resists to get them to create the form I wanted them too?  Ah yes.....A little cutting was necessary, but first I felted the vessels to the prefelt stage.

To create the correct form for this experiment, I needed to nest the one resist within the other, with only a small area of wool in direct contact.  I cut away an opening of wool, and also the underlying resist.

 ...then laid the second vessel form on top, wool now in contact, with some bubble wrap around the edges to keep them from joining completely.

Lots of rolling and rubbing and kneading....

I decided to make some openings in the larger form, so that the inner felt form would be revealed.

Time to get the resists out, and felt fast....

 Time is up and the double form is revealed.  Very fun....It's interesting like this. Reminds me of those dolls that can have their skirts turned to reveal a second figure. The two vessels are now felted together, one inside the other, in a seamless whole.

Rinsed, shaped, stuffed and drying.

Quite a fun experiment! In the next 30 minute felt project,  I think I'll scale back my scope...as these last two "small" projects have been a challenge to finish, and something a little less complex would make the whole exercise even more light and interesting! Definitely successful in achieving the goal though- I'd love to make another dozen of these, giving them more time to create more complex forms, layout the wool fibres more evenly, and full the felt more thoroughly. Most often when working off an image or object for inspiration, I don't want to have that around me when creating, so that it has inspired the piece but only as a notion. In this case I actually wish I'd kept the bowls in front of me, as I wanted to achieve those very simple, shallow forms and smooth surfaces. I got a little carried away! Next time..

Sharing these projects here has got me thinking about how great it would be to be able to share them in a video format...and that leads on to another topic for another day!
Happy fibre play!
Warm wishes,
Fiona