Why I love Hand Spun Wool!

I Love Hand Spun Wool! I love hand spun wool for its imperfections, for it's texture, because it comes from nature and a natural process; and most of all I love hand spun wool for it's stories. For example, The wool pictured below came from a young guy I met last weekend at a show in New Albany, IN.

 

He was 21-years-old, attending a local college, getting ready to transfer to an art school, to study fiber art. He had found an old spinning wheel at a yard sale, in desperate need of repair. He decided he could buy it, fix it, and learn to spin; which he did all based on YouTube videos. (This seems to be the way the next generation is learning, according to several young adults I've met lately.) He had several different types of hand spun wool, including those he had practiced using natural dyes. I ultimately chose this chocolate brown.

 

This ball of hand spun wool has a different story.

 



I had never been to Gatlinburg, but wanted to go because I had heard so much about it. After hanging around Pigeon Forge, hiking Cades Cove in the Smoky Mountains, we made a day trip to Gatlinburg. Fortunately we started on a side street in town, not realizing there was a whole commercial strip of shops. We first encountered The Salt and Pepper Shaker Museum. If you haven't been, it is definitely worth the trip and $2 admission. It was leaving the Museum that I spotted the Smoky Mountain Spinnery.  After wondering around the shop gazing at their beautiful selection, I asked the woman running the shop to show me specifically the locally spun wool. So that is where this ball of wool came from, which half of has already been turned into "sweater weather" accessories.

I love working with these kinds of materials, because I'm reminded as I work of the fun vacation we had with our five children, the joy of finding the Smoky Mountain Spinnery, and wondering around the shop talking fiber.

And on that note, my favorite place to talk fiber is The Clay Pearl in Nashville, IN. -Not that they spin their own wool, though they have plenty of hand crafted yarns, they love to talk fiber all day, are super helpful, and have many great stories to share of the yarn they carry. Just had to give them a plug here.

The Scarves relate to my Sculptural Woven Work

The scarves relating to my sculptural woven vessels and installations...

are now available at Craft(s) Gallery in Louisville, KY.

To create the scarves, I start with striping down yards of cotton muslin. Then dye them with coffee and fiber acrylic wash and dry them in the sun. I then rewash the strips to make sure the dye is set and there will be no shrinkage.



I give the strips a light pressing with the iron.

I make sure I have plenty of thread color choices.

Then I stitch the strips together, one at a time.

And in the end, the whole process creates a scarf with a unique raw quality. Super Fun to wear! Great Fashion Statement -wear art!

All scarves are slightly different in length, color choice of thread, and color choice of dyed strips combination. Sorry I'm not taking custom orders on these unless it is in bulk. Contact Crafts Gallery if your interested:
Craft(s) Gallery 572 South Fourth Street
Louisville, Kentucky  40202
502.584.7636 (SOFO)
http://craftslouisville.com/cms/

New Albany Farmer's Market Booth Pics

 

I'm really enjoying working the Farmer's Market every Sat 8am-1pm. I love the people I meet and talking about craft and basketry.

 

Late Spring 2013 Enchanted Forest Installation with Students

 







During my regular after school art classes, I talked to my 1st-11th grade students about doing an art installation together in our downstairs gallery. Because I am a fiber artist by trade, I asked the installation focus on fiber work. I taught them how to do twine method basketry and we looked at Appalachian basketry design for our form. I then gave them the option to make small people/animals out of Sculpey clay to include inside the baskets. Our theme was Enchanted Forest. Later I taught the modified twine method I use in my own work, and invited them to create vessels. The following images is the installation in the front two gallery windows at the studio.

How Teaching has renewed my interest in Functional Basketry





Student Weaving

I've been teaching basketry and fiber art as an Artist-in-Residence for six years; 

Blackacre Conservatory, 2007

and for most of those years I had been focused on sculptural work and installation art. Although my interest has remained constant in creating exceptionally well crafted pieces -with great attention to detail. I've had a conversion of sorts.

Student Work, Spot 5 Art Studio, 2010


I want to say it started with the amazing work my students have produced. -And I've been pretty infatuated with the materials, especially when they come in a big box full.



But I really think it came from working directly with the students, problem solving to create pieces they were interested in.

 

Most of my residencies are based in Public Schools, which involve requests for historical and/or cultural connections to our work; and most of the historical/cultural references to basketry are as functional art. Although I often introduce the concept of using basketry methods to create art object sculptures -with no functionality intended- the students often want them to have some sort of functional use. By the beginning of this year, I was becoming frustrated. I wanted to be one of the students in my class creating my own interesting, artistically designed, functional piece.

 

But one piece was not enough for me. I've started working on a whole series of funtional pieces. First it started small:

Just a few mini baskets. Then I started thinking bigger:

And then in functional multiples (nesting bowls):

Not quite sure what's next.