Hegira: A SHIFT dress

 
Hegira

He·gi·ra

hiˈjīrə,ˈhejərə/ : any flight or journey to a more desirable or congenial place. 

Usually an exodus or migration.  C16: from Medieval Latin, from Arabic hijrah: emigration or flight

This is the sisterdress to Migration.  I wanted to take the wishbone sculptural elements and use them in larger, more transparent forms.  An individual path compared to that of the many in Migration.

  Hegira was a watery dress from the very beginning. The large sheer panel in the middle of the dress, both front and back, illustrates a journey, broken at times, and coming from or starting with a fork or confluence...Rivers with portages, canals with locks, seas with storms...this was created with layers of silk gauze, with resists to prevent the one superfine merino wool layer from obscuring the path.  This dress is lighter than light.

 

  Different materials mirror the motif; resists, 3-D sculptural elements and silk organza.  The journey can look different but we can arrive in the same place....some are more obvious than others...The forms are like tracks...not continuous...they would take great observation and patience to find and follow.

  This dress was dyed on a full moon dyeing day this summer, which makes it feel just right to tell it's story on another full moon indigo dyeing day today. It is always a wonder-filled to experience to pull the textiles from the indigo vats...

  Hegira had many dips into the indigo vat....developing an intense deep blue...
I added pathways of stitches...but I think there are still more to come ....

  This dress looked wonderful exhibited as a scuplture, but it's story feels even more complete when shown worn on our beautiful island....reflecting the journey by water we all take to get here...

  How can I resist adding more pictures...so beautiful....shades of indigo captured by Amy Melious...(and the model's name is Indigo also)...created and engaged with water...and the moon and some ocean stars....

  Hegira....the lightest definition of this word sums up this process...a journey to a more congenial place....
Warm wishes, 
Fiona

Rift : A SHIFT dress

  The layouts in this series of dress sculptures were so complex. There were often multiple layers of resists, or else multiple layers of patterning. The designs had to be thought through in that reverse thinking way required when working with resists, and also with transparencies, opacities, and inclusions.  My brain was burning with keeping it all held in order to get to the end result. Thinking through on what will show on which side of the garment and where, and what will happen if it is overdyed. Where would each design element fall on the body when shaped into the 3 dimensional and worn. Left and right, front and back, inside and outside....all parts were relevant...all at one time. 

 

 The lightest layers of wool roving made me think of skin tissue healing. So relevant to this dress full of (beautiful) scars and my intentions. 

   This dress is made of shadowy shards. Like flakes of obsidian. But cradled within a softer surface....Black and white forming shades of grey over time.  Geology is just so prominent in many of the SHIFT dresses. This piece has elements of all rock formations, sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic; tectonic shifting, escarpments...  It is hard, sharp and cut, but softened around the edges in overall dress form, like a tumbled stone.  Geode like inclusions; seams of precious earth....scars, dreams, wishes...life in general. Not simple.
 They are pushed up and out of the base textile; carved and twisted through the fulling.  Complicated, (if you chose to think about it) like the shadowy base.

  This dress is sinuous and feminine on the wearer, and full of tactile metaphors.  I like that it can be just a beautiful dress, and can also hang as a sculptural form filled with intention.  

  The techniques used in this piece will be part of the Fall felting retreat in Quebec this October. I'm trying to get the details posted about this as soon as possible....there's lots going on right now...lots of big events vying for my attention...but this is up next! 

  It's not all serious thoughts and introspection! I've got lots of plant dyeing lined up for the next few days...some summer lightness...warmth, sunshine and flowers; folly and experimentation!
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!

Celestial Jacket 1

 This coat made it's first appearance in my sketchbook early in the year. Once I had opneed up some creative time this week, it positioned itself determinedly in the forefront of my attentions, allowing for no distraction.
 It is a felt jacket, created all in one piece, with lots of surface texture in the form of nuno craters, and stitching both at the prefelt stage and after dyeing.

The craters are still sealed in this picture. The coat has been prefelted, then dried so I could add all the stitches, that will all later be overdyed and become more subtle shadings in the coat. I had never thought before about felting on one piece and the relationship this can have with knitting and steeking. The jacket is designed to have a zipper opening, but the opening will only be cut at the very end, after dyeing.

 Opening the craters.....

And the coat...ready for dyeing. I had always thought this coat would be deep reds and ochres, but something changed during the dyeing day and it became oceanic blues and greens.....finished images tomorrow....

Preparing for a modelling shoot with this and a couple of other new pieces....fun, fun....just waiting for the rain to clear up!

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

Inspired by Joomchi

  I recently came across two books...images on the covers that stopped my steps and set my heart beating a little faster....
Yesterday's studio inspiration came from Joomchi and Beyond by Jiyoung Chung.

 It is an enticing craft form....similar to felting, but also different.   I love finding a medium new to me, and letting the inspiration trickle into my own work....sometimes it happens...sometimes it's time is not yet ripe....

  As of yesterday I have completed most of my "required" work.....gallery restocked....fibre shows done.....retreats planned and almost full.....and now I can just be creative.....and yesterday became about starting a relationship with Joomchi....
Spaces...openings....screens and obscurities....layers and layers...what can be seen and what can not....the idea of "pockets" and what they may hold....

Openings cut, and pulled and formed at prefelt stage.....

And felted.....I love the random relationship of the spaces....

  It will became a part of this dress (that may became a short sleeved cardigan/coat).....probably dyed in shimmery underwater hues.The bodice is knitted and fulled cashmere and silk, the felting of which was a once very unhappy accident- but that was two or three years ago now, and the knitwear just presented itself again last week, ready for transformation! Now it's just exciting!....an underlayer of handdyed silk, nuno felted into ripples....

  This dress is the piece I am working on primarily this week....It still has many layers to be added to it before it will be finished...and creating every layer is pure pleasure!  Such a luxury to be able to spend the time desired fully devoted to a single project! Oh! Happy fall studio time!

  Read more about joomchi, and the work of artist Jiyoung Chung at http://jiyoungchung.com/
  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