Fiber
Fiber
Pensacola, FL
fringeartz.com
Artist Bio
I am a self-taught weaver and felter, in love with color, texture and form, especially free form as found in nature. I use acid dyes to color my protein fibers – silk chiffon and gauze and commercial permanent dyes for cotton harem cloth and cheesecloth. My dying method is a combination of shibori and space dying techniques. Texture results from using many different fibers such as merino, alpaca, llama, romney, silk and angelina. I also enjoy using remnants of old cloth such as antique sari remnants and other silk remnants from days gone by. I never use pre-made scarves or “upcycled” items.
My process involves soap and water and elbow grease. The soap solution opens the fibers and when they close around each other from the friction of rolling (elbow grease), they interlock forming a fabric. Natural fibers will adhere to each other, e.g., wool, silk and cotton. And that is the nuno felting process, meaning felting onto another fabric foundation (nuno means cloth in Japanese).
I also weave on a rigid heddle loom, the simplest table loom. I enjoy mixing up the yarns that I use, and often combine homespun hand-dyed yarns, silk handspun I dye myself, commercial fancy yarns, and recycled sari silk that has been handspun in Nepal through a fair trade women’s cooperative.
Each of my wearable art pieces is naturally a one of a kind original. I pride myself on the ethereal and ephemeral effect of my scarves and wraps, and I like to say that they are like women – delicate and fragile appearing but actually very strong, due to the strength of the natural fibers.
