All Things Fiber

Several months ago I joined TAFA, the Textile and Fiber Art List.  It is an online community of international artists and small businesses who focus on textile and fiber. The website is a great resource whether you are looking for art quilts, art cloth, textile wall hangings, or functional fiber art, such as clothing, accessories and furniture.  It is also a great place to find hand-spun and dyed yarns and hand-dyed fabrics. Even if you aren't looking to buy, it is inspiring to browse the list and look at  the beautiful work of its members. With over 400 members, you are sure to see some familiar names.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

Fiber Art Smorgasbord

I'm flying half way across the country next month just to look at art.  It seems rather extravagant and is out of character for me.  But I can't pass the opportunity to see cutting edge fiber art from artists around the world. This weekend is the opening of FiberPhiladelphia, an international biennial and regional festival for innovative fiber/textile art. Exhibitions are planned for 40 locations throughout the city. They will include work by renowned international artists and a new generation of artists breaking into the field.

View the FiberPhiladelphia website to see all the exhibitions that are planned.  You can also view photos from one of the main exhibitions, Outside/Inside the Box. Several of my pieces will be on exhibit as part of the ArtCloth Network's Lines and Numbers exhibition. (More on that next week.)

I'm really looking forward to it.  If you're going, maybe I'll see you there!

New Small Works

In between my other deadlines this month, I have finished two smaller pieces from fabric I created at the ArtCloth demonstration I gave last month. The above piece, Bamboo Sunrise, was created from half of the cloth pictured below.

I added three additional layers to it - brown stamped bamboo leaves, some yellow screenprinting and a bit of gold leaf.

I overdyed the other half of the fabric, to tone down the orange. The first overdye was in a pale tobacco. It was too dull and didn't move the piece forward. I overdyed it in orange, but I discovered that the yellow dye I purchased on clearance doesn't seem to work well on cotton, so it turned pink! I think it has some potential, but now there is very little value contrast, so this might be a good candidate for screenprinting with bleach.

The second piece, Texas Wildflowers, was created with two fabrics from a deconstructed silkscreen. I layered the silk organza on top of the noil to print. I forgot to add soda ash to the print paste, so the colors on the organza are very pale. The noil is darker because I screened through the deconstructed silkscreen with thickened dyes.

I overdyed the silk in orange and printed it with a new thermofax I created that looks (to me) like a flower. This is one of the thermofaxes that came out of my design explorations days. I added a little bit of copper leaf to the noil (using the same flower screen) and layered the silks over a wooden frame. Both of these are already spoken for, so you won't see them for sale on my gallery page.

Fiber Art - Call for Entries

The Fiber Artists of San Antonio are holding their annual exhibition on October 6-29. Any resident of Texas can enter the exhibition. The exhibition is hosted by Gallery Nord, a beautiful gallery with lots of natural light and high ceilings that are great for artcloth! It is a great opportunity to showcase your work in fiber. All of the rules and qualifications are listed in the call for entry, which is available as a Word document download. The deadline to enter is a month away, so there is plenty of time to get your entries finished.

Below are some photos from last year's exhibition.

Art Quilt by Maryann Johnson

Artcloth by Lisa Kerpoe

Art Doll by Linda Rael

Silk/Cotton bowl by Sarah Burke

Art Quilt by Laurie Brainerd

Artcloth by Susie Monday

Art Doll by Su Cooke

Small Works

Here are photos of the smaller pieces I've been working on this past week. They are all stretched over a canvas frame and are 12" x 12" or 10" x 10". The first four are a series using silk organza with a variety of resist and screenprinting techniques. The image above, Fingerprints, employs flour resist, screenprinting and metal leaf.




Cell Dance, was created with several resists, paper lamination, screenprinting, metal leaf and appliqued organza.






The Colosseum, was created with several layers of flour paste resist, paper lamination and hand painted with silk dyes and paints.

Secret Whispers, was created with flour paste resist, soy wax resist, screenprinting, discharge and metal leaf.

Beginnings was created a year ago, and I finally got around to the beading. It is cotton, dyed and overdyed with a metal leaf image.




Cool Breeze, is one of the 10 x 10s. It is cotton that has several resists, screenprinting, and metal leaf.


I have a few more in the works, but need to get started on a class assignment, so I probably will abandon them for a few weeks.


Some of these pieces are available for purchase on the ArtCloth Studios website.

Twelve Voices From One

Work by Jane Dunnewold

A new fiber exhibit opened up June 5th at Gallery Nord in San Antonio. The exhibit features the work of 10 artists - Jane Dunnewold plus 9 of the 12 participants in her ArtCloth Mastery Program, a study of advanced education in surface patterning techniques, design concepts and color theory. The group has been working together for the past two and a half years, learning new techniques and building their voice. The exhibit reflects the transformation in their work over that period. Because the classes are held in ArtCloth Studios, where I am a member artist, I have had the opportunity to see how each individual's work has progressed. I was so impressed when I attended the class presentations last fall, that I decided to take the class this year. (More on that later.)

Each artist created four 12 x 12 pieces and several larger pieces. The work is stunning. Here are just a few pieces.

Joanne Weis

Patt Wilson

Kathleen Williams

Laurie Dodd

Laura Beehler

Mary LeBlanc

Patti Pitts

Annette Blair

Cathy Stechschulte

The exhibit showcases many styles and many approaches to artcloth. I find it fascinating to see how each individual took essentially the same surface design techniques and created such a varied body of work. If you have the chance to go, I highly recommend it.