Secret Santa Supercoils

No, this post is not about a new tongue twister!

If you remember, we have a (new)  Secret Santa tradition chez Wild Onion, and my super secret Santa bought me some beautiful BFL roving from Artisan Acres.

Here it is, all spun up into supercoils:

In other fibery news, I have been working with my drumcarder to create some super secret (not really– just keeping the sibilance going) art batts.  If you like to spin, felt, or play with my Trapped Fiber technique, stay tuned!

Leanne Marshall and De-Construction

Spoiler alert for Project Runway fans who tivo-ed the finale and haven’t heard the outcome– go read your other blogs, and come back here when you’ve seen PR at Bryant Park! I don’t want to spoil the finale for you!

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Congratulations, Judy Noodles!!

For those of you who don’t watch Project Runway (WHAT?? It’s fabulousness!!) Leanne Marshall, aka Judy Noodles, won Season 5 with a stunning, wave-inspired collection of clothing. I was (and still am) a big fan of Leanne’s work; I hope that DH will read this blog post and get a big hint about what to get me for my birthday or Christmas!

Follow this link to see Leanne’s collection, and then come on back and see what I made last month after I first went to her website and saw her previous Winter collection!

I love texture and monochromatic color schemes, and so it was no stretch for me to love Leanimal clothing. I was noodling (get it? I’m so funny!! I crack me up!!) around her website, when I peered past a gorgeous outfit to the wall behind the model. Shizam! I found it interesting to learn last night that Leanne’s Bryant Park collection featured mainly sustainable fabrics. My work seems to uphold and reflect my passionate interest in the environment as well, and this piece was no exception. Leanne and I are so alike! Except for the tv show. And the clothing collection at NY fashion week. And the $100,000 prize.

Warning: you’ll have to pardon the HORRIBLE photo– it’s full of shadow and yuck, and I couldn’t get a better photo because it went off almost immediately to a show and hasn’t returned. I was waiting to show y’all until I got a better photo, but with Judy’s win, it felt right to post my work, inspired by her beautiful choice of location. But be forewarned, this is a horrible photo. The work itself is crisp and clean, very light looking and not all dingy and sad, like in this photo:

Here are a few close up shots:

Here’s the artist’s statement:
De-Construction

Upon first glance, De-Construction appears to reflect the frilly froth of a summer sun dress. Creamy white lace underscores pearly beads and buttons with seeming innocence. A driftwood hanger recalls light hearted days at the beach.

Closer inspection of the work reveals the darker meaning of the piece : lace is hard and scratchy, silk roving remains un-spun, buttons are askew instead of marching in an orderly line, patches are distressed fabric coming unwoven.

As consumers, we must begin to make better choices in regards to our buying habits . An article of clothing worn for one season, lives out the remainder of its life in a landfill. Throw away fashion is not innocent or light hearted.

Techniques and materials include heat distressed Kunin felt “lace”, crushed polyester, unspun silk roving, recycled vintage beads and buttons, distressed woven linen patches, found driftwood.

Close up photos of fiber “roof tiles”

I did take some close up photos of the Tyvek/fabric fiber roof tiles. I don’t have a lot more to say about them, so I’ll just get on with the show! I do want to add that the color from my photo is not the same as the rich color in real life– nor is it the rich color from Judy’s photo. So I apologize both to you and to Judy– somehow I managed to dull down the colors when I shrunk the file to post here. Please use your visual imagination to enrich the photos!

**ps–if you look closely, you can see some of the zapped Tyvek “knots”– I didn’t have a closeup of that technique to post on the previous entry.

More tyvek experiments

Here are some more examples of my Tyvek experiments. First up is a pin-tuck square.

I started with painted Tyvek, then layered on some dyed cheese cloth. I took this combo to my sewing machine and proceeded to sew in small, parallel pin tucks:

I took it back to my cutting board, and cut it up at random angles. If you’ve ever made a slice and dice type quilt block, you are familiar with this technique. If you aren’t following what I’m talking about, study the photo where the pin tucked pieces are re-assembled, and you will hopefully understand what I did.

Don’t forget to start with a much larger square to accomodate the amount of “yardage” you’ll lose not only to the pin tucks, but also to the seam allowances for the random angles.

Here’s what the resulting square looks like:

It’s interesting, but needs some more work before I’ll use it.

Another experiment that I plan to use in a fiber piece was accomplished by weaving in a grid. First, I created a frame using a cut apart wire hanger (see, Mommy Dearest, wire hangers are good!) I created a warp and weft by wrapping the wire frame with ribbon:

Into this, I wove yarn, fabric strips, and painted Tyvek strips in a random pattern:

Out came my trusty hot air gun, and ZAP! I like the resulting texture, even though it didn’t belong in my roof tile piece. Below is the zapped grid:

Below is a close up of the above zapped grid:

One final Tyvek experiment was working with knots! I cut strips of painted Tyvek, and made simple knots. Some strips were long enough for one knot, some got two knots. One strip had some ribbon knotted into it.

Again, the strips got zapped, and the results got added to some of the roof “tiles”.

Finally, some fiber content that you don’t have to eat! Tyvek art

It’s been forever since I’ve posted something fiber related– that didn’t begin with “wash a bunch of kale leaves”! I’ve been meaning to share this new art piece, and just never got around to it.

The piece is part of a series I’ve begun, based upon my fall trip to Italy. While there, I was inspired by all the rusty, decomposing doors, tiles, and gates (texture-laaaaaa!). Not long after my return home, I participated in Fibervision’s art show at a gallery in Santa Barbara. The show featured fiber art based upon the artist’s interpretation of a photograph. (aside: It was a spectacular show, and I was very excited to be a part of it! Our next show will be at the Cabrillo Art Pavillion, again in Santa Barbara, in October.)

Here is the photo I took at a castle in San Marino– roof tiles.

Here is my full piece (photo courtesy of the amazing Judy Rys– thanks again, Judy!) The title is Umbria: Roof I:

The piece measures only 17″ x 20″, pretty small for me. It also has (gasp!!) HAND QUILTING stitches! Admittedly, they are randomly placed scatter stitches (I think this type of stitching has a name, but I have no idea what it is!) It was refreshing to work by hand, for the first time in a loooong time.

Here’s the breakdown of the parts:

• The background is a commercial batik, stitched with a muted hued, variegated thread from Valdani.
• The “tiles” are individually created fiber pieces, made of hand dyed cotton, silk, cheesecloth, baby wipes, dryer sheets, and painted tyvek.
• beads, both commercial and hand-made from painted tyvek knots. Oh– and a wrapped washer. Said washer was discovered on the floor of my studio under a bit of fallen fabric, and I wrapped it up in some ribbon and called it art!
• rusted, overdyed lace as a frame.
• rusted, overdyed silk wrapped lollipop sticks with wire/beads.

Keep reading my blog for some tutorials about tyvek! I’ve shared some close up photos of the work, plus some how-to photos I took. I was inspired by the process, and have begun to add more ideas to my journal for future projects!