Okanagan School of the Arts Workshops 1

  I have been working in one version of my most perfect place... there are several variations on this... but this is definitely a good one. The Okanagan is beautiful. And home to Canada's best wines, including some amazing reds. I'm staying on the Naramata bench, right on the KVR walking trail, in a vineyard... overlooking the lake.... with fine sunrises and sunsets. It is heavenly...and that is just my mornings and evenings.

  All day I spend at the Shatford Centre, home of the Okanagan School of the Arts. Some days I am teaching... and then others I am there as Artist in Residence. I'm using this time to tidy up some old work, refine my plans and goals for 2015/2016 and then start to enter into the mindspace for my upcoming exhibition in February. It is a wonderful world! Even with a separate studio space at home, and older children now, who are pretty self-sufficient, it is still a unique experience to go to a different space and focus. I think that is the key....to have clear goals to work towards in this special time set aside....with some breathing spaces allowed for...of course...and a fine glass of local red wine.

  This weekend was a three day session on Joomchi Feltmaking. We had a small class, due to a few cancellations, so I had the opportunity to make my own piece as a demonstration. With experienced feltmakers in the class, we delved deeper into perfect fit in garment construction and with a focus on lots of surfaces and composition techniques. 
All of the pieces were beautiful and perfect for their individual wearer and creator...

 

  And my own, red study....working with a single colour to really highlight the textures in the piece.

   This is first class I have taught in years that was not full. It was a tiny ego hit...being honest with you... but not for long...this smaller class size opened up opportunity to go much farther with my students and create something alongside them. We had more time for discussion and even a short "felt clinic" looking at past projects and tips for improving each work. It was a great gift of space and time.... These were three calm, creative, wonderful days, in an incredible setting and facility. It was pure pleasure.

And there are still 4 more days to go....
Warm wishes, 
Fiona

Experimental Garment Construction Workshop

  I'm really looking forward to this workshop. We have a great space- very large, open airy and bright. Lots of room to move and work and think.  Plus it takes place at the same time as the opening of my upcoming exhibition at ArtCraft.  This exhibition is a collection of sculptural garments, accessories and small sculpture. The elements I am working with now in creating these pieces, will be those we'll view and explore in creating interesting shaping in our garments in the workshop. 

  Here's the workshop description:

  Sculpture for the Body explores the manipulation of the surface of a garment; building up organic shaping that alters the structural lines, beautifully, dynamically and unexpectedly.  We’ll create highly wearable art pieces exploring architectural and sculptural design in wool. Layers and shaping will be created with prefelts, cords and gathers, shibori, folding, cutting and stitching. We’ll cover seamless garment construction while making a garment design of the student’s choice-dress, jacket, vest or skirt.

  I am most excited about the range of possibilities in this class. You could come just for the basic garment construction and learn how to make a fit-to-you jacket, dress, skirt, vest, or....
  And then as much and deeply as you want to, we will cut and shape and manipulate to add new form and architecture to the garment. Clean, wild or elegant... 3 days of creative feltmaking.

  I'm so looking forward to sharing this time with some of you!
 
Dates: July 10, 11, 12
Location : ArtSpring, 100 Jackson Ave, Salt Spring Island
Fee:  $325.00 plus materials fee: $65.00

For more information and to register:
www.fionaduthie.com/experimental-garment-construction/

Warm wishes, 
Fiona

Felt Fashion-2013

This is a bit of a catch up post...Some work from 2013 I didn't share here.  Facebook friends will have seen these images, but I missed writing about them here in the midst of the busy-ness that was Fall.

 These pieces and the photographs were an important part of my creative evolution through 2013.  Moving into exploring more complex garment construction and the body as a canvas....lots of surfaces....and doing some photography with models. Rachel always looks fantastic in my work, and we are comfortable with one another and have fun doing the shoots. She gets to play model (stunningly) and I get to play photographer!

2014 holds lots more exploration of fashion...shibori work, origami in clothing, architectural shaping...sculpture for the body....lots of natural dye work as well...it's going to be fun!

The week of unfinished objects....

I did a quick tour of the studio today to compile a list of projects started in the last two weeks that are are waiting for finishing touches....It's quite a list!  
As of July 1st, I had absolutely not one piece of feltwork left in studio. I haven't been able to switch my sign to "open" as the studio is empty. Pieces are selling more quickly than I can keep up with making them.  A good problem to have, but still a little frustrating.  I've hired two part time assistants to help move things along-one to help in the dye studio and one to help with the feltmaking. All of the finished and partially finished projects are testament to the success of this decision! Now it's just up to me to add my final embellishments and add hangtags and move my studio sign to "open" each day!


The piece above is a wall piece, exploring sculpturally shaping felt. It is just waiting on it's frame.

Another wall piece....a bit of celestial drifting developing. This piece is now almost fully felted on the table...just waiting one more felting session this evening, then framing....

10 new pairs of earrings to keep my stock up....5 pairs almost done....5 more pairs to assemble...These are made of absolutely gorgeous ultrafine merino, with a thin layer of naturally black Finn wool felted in the middle for shadowing and firmness of structure. Nice to have some tiny projects to finish!

 
Three felt bags....The first two are both itajame shibori dyed...awaiting steaming, shaping and stitching...the last follows my recurring theme of striations and topography, awaiting overdyeing, shaping and then stitching? Maybe....

Oh my gosh...there's still more.....

Four nuno felted scarves....dyed and dried..only in need of a quick press with the iron..that's an easy task to check off the list!

Background layer is finally complete for the DEAR piece.....soft and ethereal blue tones with little seeds/bubbles of memory/thought planted between the sutures.....

A new adjustable tunic design. I want to do some silkscreening on this piece and I have my tools all out and ready...then some last stitch details in red.....mmmmm....red silk thread are already dyed and rinsed and waiting for me....This is a fun project- I'm looking forward to getting this piece completed and sharing the process here.

Oh...this is a sad, neglected project.....I still love the concept, but this piece drifted from my attentions. I think I will finish it...and come back to the original idea afresh another week....

And one more......

This is another large wall piece....felted to the prefelt stage and now dyeing...supersaturated reds....It is the next exploration in the sculptural felts series.....It feels unfinished enough at the moment that I can complete the other works and then move into this one with a fresh space...I was thinking of mental space...but the studio will also be fully refreshed with all of these finished pieces on the walls....

Back to work...lots to do!  What wonderful creative whirlwind this summer is!

Warm wishes,
Fiona

30 Minute Felt Project- The Mountain Vessel

Over the last few weeks I've been playing a new studio game.....15 minute felt projects.  Just once a week, as an opportunity to approach design work with a blank mental slate, no commitments to outcome and sense of fun experimentation.  This is actually the third of these projects.....the mountain vessel....

  It's so easy to head out the studio with the timer set at 15 minutes and just see what happens. It's allows a simple opening for some spontaneous creating.  This morning I had mountains in mind....and shadows....and laid out a circle of two layers of Norwegian wool.  Problem number 1 in meeting  the 15 minute felt deadline (Norwegian wool is not a quick felter!)! Problem number 2 was that I made my surface too large to complete in such a short time.....

Then I used some strips of resist material I had handy and started to alternate layers of resist, with triangles of merino prefelt. These were not pre-cut- just quickly cut randomly and added to the surface.

Wetted out and ready to felt...This is the point that I started to realize my folly in wool selection and size......

 I did get the piece designed, laid out, wetted out, rolled and hand rubbed....and then my timer went off! Okay...So a little ambitious...but it is an expansion activity not a limiting one,  so I gave myself another 15 minutes to finish up....since the purpose is to have a freeform felting session, but also to not let it take over the whole morning/day/week!

At 30 minutes I rinsed well and shaped the mountain spines....

 Then shaped into a vessel form using a steam iron.....and dried in the morning sun on a pedestal in my studio window....all morning it made me happy to look over at the finished form...

A great creative practise and one I plan to continue over the summer.....but with the expanded, but still limited timeframe of the 30 minute felt project!

Warm wishes,
Fiona

Kattikloo @ FibresWest

As usual, it's been a very busy few weeks!

I've rebranded my handyed yarn and fibre company, Kattikloo, all ready for FibresWest in Vancouver last week.  I still have to make all the website changes and load up the shop, now that I'm back...but it still feels like a major accomplishment to have gotten this far!

I was able to use most of my display units from the studio at the show...so wonderful and easy....and the show was a great success.....we doubled our sales from last year, with equal sales in yarns and felting fibres. I was so happy to bring all of the felting wools and prefelts....to have the intensely coloured yarns that I dye, and also the walls of felting supplies, which is most true to my creative heart! This was a dream from last years show...and so great to have realized that goal!

I hardly spent a minute in the booth though, as I was teaching all day on both days of the show. My wonderful friend Rachel talked with all of our fabulous customers, and I am so grateful for her company! Every other year all of my boys have come with me, and they don't enjoy fibre talk half as much as Rachel does...so all around a good plan! 

 I have no pictures from my first class in nuno felted vests....but my 10 students were wonderful, and their finished vests, amazing....We used sheer, handdyed silk gauze and extra fine 19 micron merino rovings in a vast array of colours....the finished results were superb and I think everyone was pleased with their results...and a little surprised at the ease of construction. Great students, great fibres and great felting.....

(In the getting to this class there was a little incident with a long train and a very large roll of bubble wrap that I may tell you about separately!)

The second class was a shibori class of 12. It is an idea I developed for an article in Living Crafts magazine last year.  It was quite delightful to teach....a refreshing departure from full on felting or dyeing, but a process which certainly has applications in both.  The last 30 minutes of fulling provided a fun balance to the time spent stitching traditional nui shibori patterns in the habotai and chiffon silk scarves. 

In addition to feltable yarns, we added silk organza, prefelt and silk ribbon elements. Experimented with shibori and yarn to create three dimensional shaping and texture.  One of the best parts of workshops- the new directions that emerge as we share...Lots of fun- room for creativity and application in other textile crafts.   The finished results were fantastic. No finished pictures- I'm sorry...It is a challenge to get picures while teaching, and also of finished items in thses short, one day classes.

Thank you to everyone who came...to my classes and to my booth at the show. Thank you to Rachel for being my super salesperson! And thanks to Brenda from Penelope Fibre Arts for organizing such a warm, friendly, and inspiring show once again!

Warm wishes,
Fiona

Upcoming Workshops at FibresWest

Nui Shibori Scarves- Creating Texture with Felting Yarns on Silk:

Shibori is a Japanese textile art form that has come to mean cloth that has been bound or compressed. This is accomplished through  stitching, clamping, knotting or folding, then processed through  dyeing or heating to add a new "memory" to the cloth and leave it  transformed in color or surface texture.
  For this beautiful scarf project, we are using the Nui Shibori method of stitching, but rather than pulling the yarns to create patterns with dyes, we are using a feltable wool yarn for our stitches,  then shrinking them to create new textural surfaces. We'll cover traditional stich patterns to create different shaping, yarn and fabric selections for effect, plus fulling your shibori scarf to  transform it from flat to dynamic!

Materials provided for supply fee of $15.00, payable at the beginning of the class.  No experience necessary, but a readiness to sit happily, chat and handsew-a must!   Please specify your main colour preference for your scarf at the time of registration.
9:30-2:30
Maximum Registration: 12
 

Nuno Felt Wrap Vest:
 
 Constructed all in one piece and completed all in one day, this is a unique and flattering wardrobe staple for all seasons. Perfect for layering, and customized to your own sizing and colour preferences. Using silk chiffon and habotai fabrics laminated through felting with merino wool  and accented with silk fibres, we will cover aspects of colour work, design, and nuno felting, while creating this fabulous piece of  wearable art.

Materials provided for supply fee of $25.00, payable at the beginning of the class.  No experience necessary.  Silk Fabrics will be custom dyed for this class- please specify your main colour preference at the  time of registration. We will use the wool to achieve patterns and  highlights in colour. Feltmaking is a physical craft- please wear  older clothing, and be prepared for some physical exertion.

9:30am-3:30pm
Maximum Registration:  10

FibresWest runs from March 22-23, 2013.  
For more information, pricing, and to register visit: www.fibreswest.com/

I'm so looking forward to heading to Cloverdale for FibresWest again this year. It's always so much fun- with classes full of creative people, and a show floor full of delicious fibre. In additon to teaching, I have a glorious 10 x 20 foot booth space that will be full of handdyed yarns and the best felting fibres.

See some of you there!
Warm wishes,
Fiona

Felt Armour

  Luckily for me, I had a board meeting to go to yesterday which got me out of the house, into the great bright, white outdoors early in the morning. I needed that reminder to stop working and get outside....

 So later in the day we went down to Fulford, to the beach....visited the petroglyph, and got blown away....

  It felt like emerging from a hibernation....and having all the cobwebs swept away....

   I wore my felt tunic for the first time yesterday...like an armour against the elements, both real and imagined... it's been billowly, blustery and snowy here....lots of it..and it's quite lovely....

  ...and a good day for some felt armour!  So here I am for those that wanted to see the tunic on....Not the best picture, but it does the job....the tunic felt is great to wear, soft, snug, warm, strong, and a little wild....
  I'm going to make some bags this week based on this design...linen nuno felted, racka locks, overdyed, stitches...I can hardly wait to show these this Fall.... 
Warm wishes,
Fiona