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Category Archives: Fiber

jodi colella’s biomorphic abstractions

Written on May 3, 2012 by Susan Lomuto in Featured, Fiber

Jodi Colella uses traditional crafting techniques such as crochet, knitting, felting and embroidery to create structures that are anything but traditional. The needle felted and found driftwood sculptures pictured here mimic organic patterns found in science.

Nuclei II

Marrow

Blast

Diana

Nuclei I

Jodi Colella

In The Beginning

I create structures that can act as metaphors for being human often taking on anthropomorphic gestures and emotions. I want to inspire questions about where an individual ends and the world begins.

Jodi Colella’s website

Interview with Colella - many more pictures

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kate anderson, kate anderson, kate anderson

Written on April 26, 2012 by Susan Lomuto in Featured, Fiber, Glass, Video

While researching fiber artist Kate Anderson I came across several other artists from around the world who share the name Kate Anderson. Today’s post features three of them.

One name. Three artists. Three distinctly different voices. Enjoy.

{Click on each artist’s name to jump to their website}

Kate Anderson – Fiber Artist

O’Keeffe Brush Teapot, knotted waxed linen

O’Keeffe Brush Teapot, back

Jim Dine Teapot, knotted waxed linen, stainless steel, aluminum

“Making sculptural art forms by utilizing the repetitive basketry technique called knotting forms the basis of my work regarding content and the blurred edges where art and craft meet.

High-art/low-art references come into play by utilizing the teapot, a common craft object, as my sculptural archetype juxtaposed with images appropriated from the world of “high art”.

Quotation, allusion, abstraction, and art/craft references all play a part as the knotting process simultaneously creates both structure and image.”

Kate Anderson – Mosaics

Where Shadows Go

The Myth of Place

Kate Anderson, glass mosaic artist

“The medium of mosaic allows me to interpret themes beyond the purely decorative. I see the contradiction in mosaic – that of its being solid, fixed, and yet containing such an urge to movement in design as sympathetic to the language of symbols which I explore.

Symbols survive through cultural changes, but the movement of time adds layers to their meaning.

I aim to produce work that stimulates the imagination and is thought provoking.

Work for exhibition takes me from the illustrative to the semi-abstract. Ideas are constantly excavated and reassembled.”

Kate Anderson – Illustrator/Animator

Village

Still images from the animation “Displacement Song”

You can view all of the award winning artist’s animation shorts on her website.

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marina dempster’s yarn painting and beaded sculptures

Written on April 23, 2012 by Susan Lomuto in Featured, Fiber

I still get a thrill watching Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz click her heels together in those iconic ruby red slippers, whispering “There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home.” I can’t help but wonder where she might have gone if she were wearing a pair of Marina Dempster’s yarn painted shoes instead of the ruby slippers. I have no doubt they have the power to transport you to a magical place.

Ebullient
found shoe, bees’ wax/pine resin, glass seed beads, feathers

Voracious
found shoe, bees’ wax/pine resin, glass seed beads, threads, vintage false teeth

A Good Print
vintage shoes, bees’ wax/pine resin, glass seed beads, guilded thorns, silk threads

Ebullient
found shoes, bees’ wax/pine resin, glass seed beads, feathers

Dempster’s contemporary spin on the ancient Columbian Huichol art of yarn painting is mesmerizing. She takes found shoes, uses bees’ wax and pine-resin to form a new ‘skin’ over the shoe and then embeds the wax/resin skin with yarn or beads. And though shoes are a main focus for the Toronto based artist, she also adorns mannequin legs, glove molds, shoe lasts and other objects.

Self Portrait

Shoe Clips

“My current series draws from a fascination with the idea of shoes being an extension of the body through which we transmit information to the brain about the terrain over which we travel. The confounding high-heel, while being everything that pinches, elevates us in inches, and inevitably makes us more sensitive to the ground we walk on.”

Marina Dempster’s website

Interview with the artist here

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kathy hattori’s botanical colors

Written on April 20, 2012 by Susan Lomuto in Featured, Fiber, Paper

When Kathy Hattori signed up for my Teaching Art Online class I realized that this course is not just for artists, it’s great for suppliers too. Hattori is the owner of Botanical Colors, an online store offering vibrant natural dyes and pigments made from plants and other natural materials.

Cochineal dyed fibers

Textile, paper, basket and fiber artists interested in environmentally sound colorants for their art quickly discover that Botanical Colors is the go-to shop to purchase historic dyes that have been used for centuries by artisans.

Aquarelle liquid natural dyes

Based in Seattle, Kathy travels around the world visiting suppliers to ensure that their working environments and processing methods are humane and socially responsible. She brings to market high-quality products that are not only sustainable and environmentally friendly, they also support farming communities and small producers.

Sneakers (love them!) from last year’s Woad dyeing workshop

Hattori also hosts workshops, locally and around the country, teaching artists how to use the natural dyes and pigments (there are a few spaces left in this May workshop for Woad dyeing with master dyer Denise Lambert – check it out!).

“The colors are beautiful, rich and glowing and each color can be linked to a fascinating tale of discovery, ritual and use by different peoples throughout history. Every color in the natural dye palette has a story. Every purchase of our natural dyes benefits a small producer or community and helps maintain a traditional way of life.” Kathy Hattori

Artist Deena Schnitman uses Botanical Colors dyes to create wonderful paste papers and loves the results she’s getting: “If not for Botanical Colors I wouldn’t be nearly as far as I am using natural dyes in my work. Love, love, love the colors I can get with the naturals dyes/pigments.”

Paste Papers by Deena Schnitman

So why did this successful supplier with a compelling product line and a roster of workshops across the country sign up for the Teaching Art Online class?

Because online tutorials will allow Hattori to teach people around the world how to use her products.

Because Kathy understands this small investment has the potential to increase sales significantly. Simply put, when you show people how to use a product it generates excitement and sales. Though she’s already doing this with face-to-face workshops, adding digital download tutorials and possibly even interactive online classes gives her the opportunity to reach a much larger customer base.

Brilliant.

I can’t wait to see the tutorials Kathy Hattori creates for her customers!

Kathy Hattori

Botanical Colors website

Deena Schnitman

Woad Dyeing workshop

Paste Papers

Teaching Art Online – There is still time to sign up! Class begins on Monday, April 23rd. Students have unlimited, lifetime access to the online class and class materials. See you there?

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gillian lee smith’s clay characters (air dry and polymer)

Written on March 14, 2012 by Susan Lomuto in Featured, Fiber, Polymer Clay

Fabric, thread, air-dry and polymer clay, acrylic paint and a quirky, tender imagination are the tools in Gillian Lee Smith’s toolbox.

This mixed media artist’s cast of jointed characters tug at my heart with their melancholy expressions. I’m drawn in and my imagination goes into overdrive wondering about the little charmers.

Gillian Lee Smith’s Studio

Gillian Lee Smith in her studio

Smith also creates a line of embroidered brooches she calls Nature’s Fragments.

Gillian Lee Smith’s website

More of her clay characters here

Facebook page

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