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

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

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

Joomchi Felt Reflections

This is my most recent in the series of scarves/wearables I've been making, inspired by the Korean art of Joomchi- a paper art form and process.  The exploration has culminated in pieces that hold three aspects of surface

design...all of which have a basis in geology.... a relationship between rock and water....Erosion and the forms it leaves behind....and leads into thoughts of the land and how it shapes us....

 In the midst of this felting exploration, we spent an afternoon on a local beach at low tide...and these beautiful rock formations were exposed. I'd never seen them at this location before....and what an amazing mirror they are to the joomchi/felting process...plus the symbolism inherent in the eroding of rock....

 

And in the same place...the simple layering of shales....

 Worn edges in the stone....layers....and like a topographic map of our well earned experiences.....and in felt, still reflecting the ideas of pockets...long sinuous veins of space....

And then the conglomerates...composites of materials bound together by pressure and time....how perfect! In another beautiful island spot, there are amazing examples of conglomerate rocks...when I get back from the retreats, I'm going to take some pictures....and explore these ideas some more....

So very much enjoying this thought/felt play.....a perfect lead in to the upcoming retreat sessions!

Warm wishes,
Fiona

Sea Constellations

  The last two weeks have been the most delicious, intense, creative times...My cousins/kindred spirits have been visiting from New Zealand. Family that I have only met a handful of times, often with a decade in between visits, but who travel with me always and close by!  While Erica was creating at the Global Mural Conference in Chemainus, I had the delight of spending more time with my young cousin, Isla, visiting our favourite island spots, and making some felt for her to bring back to loved ones at home.

 

Felting together.....Isla is working on her bag....Finnish wool, felted on a resist; a starfish souvenir of our sharing of this special place and time....

  

Isla with her finished Starfish Bag. Plus some of our other makings/inspirations in the background. The studio/classroom was transformed this week...the display units came off the walls to open up mural spaces....the big table and surrounding floor was full of felting and the small tables were in full use for painting/drawing/writing and the making of shimmery mermaids....

  A bag for Tarn in NZ with one of Isla's Starfish felt charms. Felted in white Finnish, then immersion dyed.....The charm ring is felted directly into the bag, as are the handle rings....I love the colours and potential for adding changeable tokens by using the rings....

  Happy, happy felting....and chatting, and laughing and tears.....big ideas imagined, and resolve well planted.....A stillpoint of a visit in which we grounded ourselves, gathered our momentums and energies and now propel forward....with hopes of connecting our spaces across oceans before too long....

Warm wishes,
Fiona

SaltSpring Island Fall Felting Retreat

Foxglove Farm, SaltSpring Island, British Columbia

 

October 19/20/21st, 2012  10:00am-4:00pm + evenings

  

The British Columbia retreat will be hosted at the very beautiful and charming Foxglove Farm. The farm is located on one of the original homesteads on the island, surrounded by hundreds of acres of protected forest and agricultural fields, bordering Maxwell Lake. An idyllic, inspiring and very relaxing natural setting.  There is accomodation available for up to eight people in the three cottages.

 

All of the retreat details are available on my website here and on the retreat page of the blog here.

It's going to be a beautiful woolly October! I can't wait!

Warm wishes,

Fiona

New Felt Market Bag

  
The day started out with this...a blank canvas...perfect white simplicity.....ready for some colour play...Two layers of blue faced leicester, then two layers of Finn...BFL on the inside for a soft hand as you reach in and Finn on the outside for more durability. The finished texture is very nice....an inside pocket, metal rings felted directly onto the bag, and some ties for closure, also part of the one integral whole....I love this... that the structure is complete at the end of the felting....

Then I hit the dyepots...It was a good dyeing day....three separate immersion dips, creating bold patterns with subtle shifts....Mmmmmm....

  And then the stitching...so simple...some running stitch and french knots...hard to do because I cut off the tip of my thumb last weekend.....A thumb is pretty important to french knot making...I must be more careful when cooking when hungry! I have a lot more french knots in my future!  Warm and delectable....a little bit Autumnal....a departure in colors for me...and such a welcome change...inspired by a commission for a customer in Germany...it is good to stretch...
  Warm wishes,
Fiona

Small Things

  It's been busy, busy in the studio the last few weeks....and maybe more busy in my head as I clear house and make way to fulfill my destiny (doesn't that sound grand! It just popped into my head.....You could also read.... solidify my Fall/Winter/Spring creative calendar....Shuffle the deck to create an order that allows me room to achieve my dreams and ambitions....hmmmm...that's rather grand too.....maybe that's just the way of things.... It's a day of good air, clear thinking and aspiration!)....

 Now while the head is busy with it's big goals...little projects emerged from the hands....I was making very thick, firm felt for a table top, and made a smaller piece alongside.  The wool was about 4 inches high, about 8 layers deep....first two layers of Finn wool, then 4 layers of Friesian, then two more layers of Finn....I used the Friesian to create a more "bouncy" layer in the middle....It worked well for the intended purpose......I decided to cut the small piece up into simple shapes....

  Then dyed and overdyed....and hand embroidered.  And I loved having these tiny projects to work on in the evening....Handstitching is so serene...so slow and peaceful... it feels like the perfect ending to a feltmaking project...the closing of the creative circle that starts with a meditative, quiet laying out of the fibres...then gets physical...more and more so, with the feltmaking....then slows down again through the dyeing and comes to a meditative resting place once again, as the the last stitch is made and last french knot snipped!  My stitching is simple...but paying attention through the process adds a lot to the work for me....so very satisfying.....

  These have all been delivered to ArtCraft here on Salt Spring and I'm making more for Knotty by Nature in Victoria.....and I hope they sell well.....simply because it would be pure pleasure to make some more!

  In balance to these small makings, I'll be posting about my upcoming plans....
tomorrow...just a few more pictures to find, and a couple of details to be arranged....and 5 scarves on the felting table needing to be finished! On we go!
Hope your having a sunny, wool filled, creative weekend (maybe full of good air, clear thinking and grand aspirations too!)!

Warm wishes,
Fiona

Summer Colours-July

So it's not quite tomorrow, as in when I said I was going to post the finished pictures of these.....but taking into account summer time, island time and Fiona time...I'm feeling pretty happy to be only a day out!

The dye pot called for a bright poppy.....a blend of orange and pink....that I can only call Happy....If I wanted to wear something that perked me up on low days, or reflected my spring on up days...this would be it!

And one scarf in a blend of purples into greys....it's quite rich and delicious! These will all either be available in the studio, or at ArtCraft....

The bag I started off dyeing in bright chartreuse and Happy coral.....But it just did not feel right and I couldn't live with it...

I overdyed the red side with some turquoise and purple and.....voila.....

Luckily this  bag was created with very durable Norwegian C-1 and Icelandic wool, and very thoroughly fulled.....because....my special felting and dyeing guest, Ginny Huber, arrived in the midst of the process and I completely forgot it was boiling away on the stove! I usually do all my dyeing and steaming outdoors, but I've run out of propane and all the island visitors are scooping it up as fast as it arrives! Lucky, lucky, lucky.....that I remembered...later than sooner! The bag was quite happy, simmering away...no harm done, and it is very well fulled...and the dye is very well set! Grin!

I'm liking these simple stitch patterns these days, and this bag just called for a few stitches.....I really like it.....but it's for the shop! More dyeing tomorrow (which may be anytime in the next week, in case you're just getting to know me! )...

Warm wishes,

Fiona

Sculptural Scarves

This summer I'm exploring ways to incorporate as much three dimensional texture as possible into my work. It such a fun experiment...I love that I can be making items to sell, while playing..... These experiments often involve trips to the hardware store...hardware and building materials seem a good combination with feltmaking! And lead to some very interesting conversations in the shop, which I'm sure they are quite used to on an isalnd of artists! For this texture it involved finding wiring that would hold it's shape while being very lightweight.  The scarves can be folded, twisted, wrapped and crimped into any shape the wearer desires...simple...dramatic....traditional or wild.....The wool is ultrafine organic merino....and it is so soft and luscious...delightful!

A few wearable sculpture possibilities....I like to think that the wearer can feel like an artist when they put on this scarf....that they can take a moment to create a wearable art piece that reflects their mood in that moment... or maybe where thay want that mood to go...That the wearer gets to partake in the creative process, as well as a the maker....

As always, these are all handfelted in white, then overdyed...I love this process....I love the whiteness, and everytime have to re-commit to myself, my sensibilities, and my love of colour...

I want to make an extra large version of this scarf for myself, for exuberant wearing at shows...and just for when the mood strikes...Plus I'm seeing sculptural bags and jacket lapels....so much to make! But first I have to finish my fibre art bike....next posting!

Warm wishes,

Fiona