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Category Archives: Fiber

verena sieber fuchs: crocheting bits of ordinary life together

Written on January 9, 2012 by Susan Lomuto in Featured, Fiber

Zurich based artist Verena Sieber Fuchs began her career as a textile artist creating large scale tapestries.

Spruengli Necklace, candy wrapper foils, wire

As early as 1973 she turned to jewelry making and a decade later began crocheting with fine wire, adding pieces of paper, candy wrappers, 16mm film, medicine packaging, antique newspaper pages, aluminum foil, firecrackers and other materials as she built each piece.

Film Necklace, 16mm film, wire

Cutting Pattern Necklace

Stamps Necklace, stamps, wire

The end result is almost always a texture rich bordering-on-too-lush-to-wear body adornment. Although there are no descriptions on her website, my research suggests that many of her pieces are intended as social/political commentary.

Check out her Firecracker Necklace here.

Verena Sieber Fuchs’ website

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shauna richardson’s crochetdermy

Written on December 27, 2011 by Susan Lomuto in Featured, Fiber

Borrowing from the world of taxidermy, Shauna Richardson crochets wool animals that are not your children’s stuffed animals. Richardson stuffs each life-sized animal and completes the sculptures with claws, jaws and glass eyes.

“In an attempt to remove the pieces from the realms of soft and cuddly, I use coarse wool such as mohair mixes, reproduction claws, jaws and glass eyes. My crochet technique is freestyle, one color, one stitch – the direction of the stitches highlighting anatomical features. All of the animals I make are life-size.” From Richardson’s interview on Dazed Digital

What began as an exploration of the theory that ‘anything can be art’ has turned into a full time, worldwide, event-making job. For the last two years she has been working on the Lionheart Project, the largest crochet sculpture in the world. Richardson is sculpting three 25 foot lions from polystyrene, setting them in steel skeletons and crocheting their ‘skin’. The project is her contribution to showcase crochet as a valid medium – her hope is to inspire a new generation of artists to utilize this ancient craft.

Shauna Richardson: Crochetdermy from Nick Hand on Vimeo.

Shauna Richardson’s website

Watch Richardson in action in this video

More about her Lionheart project here

Interview on Dazed Digital

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shannon weber: if it bends. . .

Written on December 9, 2011 by Susan Lomuto in encaustic, Featured, Fiber

When I first wrote about self-taught artist Shannon Weber back in 2007 (remember my Empty Vessel blog?) I loved her work, color sense and her sensibility regarding life’s obstacles – still true almost five years later.

Private Parties

Weber uses chewed beaver sticks, reclaimed metal, willow, sea kelp, sea grass roots, dyes and more to create her unique over-sized baskets and assembled collages. Her motto? “If it bends, I use it!”

Watch the excellent video above to get a glimpse of Weber’s world

Life Guard Towers, beaver sticks, kelp bulbs, beach glass, waxed linen

Weaving stitching and tying her materials together, one could say she does it in a fashion that mimics the way she weaves the obstacles life throws at her into the tapestry of her own life.

From my 2007 post: “The common denominator in moving this talented weaver’s career ahead might be dark clouds, but don’t discount Weber’s soul-shifting ability to laugh out loud and jump into the fray. After all, ‘it started with a giggle.’”

Orbit, 57″ in circumference. It’s almost as wide as I am tall!

Well Traveled

Shannon Weber, photo via Register Guard

Shannon Weber’s website

The video on ArtBeat

My original post on The Empty Vessel

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debbie smyth takes thread out of its comfort zone

Written on October 25, 2011 by Susan Lomuto in Featured, Fiber

More fiber art today, but this time it’s not knitting coming off the wall – it’s three dimensional images created with pins and thread.

Debbie Smyth is a young artist from Ireland whose work is buzzing all around the Internet. Smyth photographs and sketches her subjects, plots and hammers pins on the wall, then wraps threads around the pins to ‘develop’ the image. Her work literally “lifts the drawn line off the page.”

“On first glance, it can look like a mass of threads but as you get closer sharp lines come into focus, creating a spectacular image. The images are first plotted out before being filled out with the thread, the sharp angles contrasting with the floating ends of the thread. And despite the complexity of the lengthy process I try to capture a great feeling of energy and spontaneity, and, in some cases, humor.” Debbie Smyth

Watch Smyth in this video as she creates one of her large-scale installations. Want more? Here’s a video interview with the artist.

Debbie Smyth’s website. She’s on Pinterest too. How appropriate!

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rania hassan’s connections

Written on October 24, 2011 by Susan Lomuto in Featured, Fiber

I’m in Washington, DC for a few weeks to follow up with the artists I apprenticed to last winter. More about that later in the week, but first I want to introduce you to an artist I met yesterday.

Knit Circle, oil, fiber, canvas, metal

What do you do when knitting consumes you and painting is the driving force behind your work? If you are Rania Hassan, you combine the two and create paintings that move off the wall to become three dimensional mixed-media sculptures.

Knit Circle, detail

Hassan’s work represents the concept that we are all connected somehow. The painted fingers are her own, and as she explains, “In the needle, yarn and finger movements, I explain how the act of knitting connects us to our community and generations past.”

Anchored II, oil, fiber, canvas, metal

“This series started because of my fascination with knitting, love for painting, and intrigue in the community I’ve found online with knitters from around the world. I think about how it links me to my mother, her mother, and all the generations of women who came before them.”

Pensive I, oil, fiber, canvas, metal, wood

Ktog [Knit Together], 8′ x 4′, oil and knitting on canvas
Installation at Baltimore ACC show in 2009

Ktog 21, detail

Knit Dress

Hassan most recently completed a commission that is now part of the permanent collection at the National Institutes of Health.

Rania is thoughtful, with an easy smile and a refreshing sense of humor. I spent the afternoon with Rania, her husband (he deserves a post of his own so I’m leaving his name out of this one!) and the always fabulous Tim Tate.

Hassan’s work speaks to connections of all kinds and there are many to be found when artists come together in a city or town to work and live. Each visit to DC and the surrounding area makes this fact more clear to me. It’s great to be back.

Rania Hassan’s website

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