Felting

FIBER ART 101: FELTING
Featuring artist Lucy Sparrow (@sewyoursoul on Instagram).
Is it felt or food?

Felt is a type of fabric that can incorporate both synthetic and natural fibers. Unlike most fabrics, felt is not woven. Rather, it is compressed at high pressures and temperatures to create a dense fabric of matted fibers.

Felt is one of the oldest textiles; however, felt production through used plastic bottles is a relatively new development. These bottles are often made out of the same material as polyester clothing, known scientifically as polyethylene terephthalate. Thus, plastic bottles can be recycled and processed back into polyester fibers, and this can be used to create felt. 

One of our favorite felt artists is Lucy Sparrow (@sewyoursoul on Instagram). Her creative work is incredible and makes us take a double look.

Are you using felt in your art practice?

Quilting

FIBER ART 101: QUILTING

We love quilting! Hence our name. Featuring contemporary quilter Bisa Butler @bisabutler.

A quilt refers to a textile composed of three layers of fibers: a quilt top, batting, and a layer of fabric as a backing material. Quilting refers to sewing through all three layers to make one fabric, using a needle and thread or a sewing machine in a functional or decorative stitch. Historically, quilting goes as far back as 3400 BCE though remnants of these quilts don’t exist.

Portrait of Frederick Douglass,
Cotton, silk, wool and velvet quilted and appliqueìd
Approx 4ft x 9ft
2020

Quilting is an art form from around the world! In the United States it took off starting in the late 17th century. Quilting has a wide history with many lenses! At its beginning quilts were made for warmth but have transcended to an exquisite form of artistic expression. 

One contemporary Quilt Artist we love is Bisa Butler (@bisabutler on Instagram). She creates incredible quilted portraits that both honor the African American tradition of quilting and reveal a vision of her own expression. This piece, The Storm, The Whirlwind, and the Earthquake, is of the American abolitionist, social reformer and statesman Frederick Douglass. This artwork is 100% quilted fabric, zero paint. Acquired by @toledomuseum and will be a part of their upcoming exhibition in November, “Radical Tradition: American Quilts and Social Change”.

Crochet

Since you loved her first work, we are once again featuring Fiber Artist @kjcardigan using creative crochet techniques.

Crochet uses a small hook to interweave fibers such as yarn into a fabric. Although it is likely a practice that dates back a few hundred years, it is not known exactly when crochet began as a craft or art form. It is theorized that it evolved from Chinese needlework, a very ancient form of embroidery known in Turkey, India, Persia, and North Africa, but there is no decisive evidence of the craft being performed before its popularity in Europe during the 19th century. It may have originated from the art of tambour, a kind of embroidery that was practiced in ancient times that used a hooked needle. Irish Crochet, which resembles lace, developed during the Great Potato Famine as a means for poor families to make money. Crochet has developed since into an incredible art form. 

 Among many other fibers, crochet can utilize wool yarn, cotton, and silk. Needles are often made of wood, metal, and bone. Crochet can be used to create anything from rugs to sculptures.

🔸 Did you know crochet can’t be made from a machine?🔸 

That means any items that use crochet have been made by hand! Support incredible artists redefining their craft like artist Kate Jenkins @kjcardigan.  

Artworks featured are “Hand sequined prawn, egg, sliced tomato,cucumber, leaves and lemon garnish”, “Croque Madame 201”, and “Self Isolation Uni-Corn 2020” made from knit and crocheted lambswool. All credit to the artist.

Knitting

Fiber Art 101: Knitting, Featuring Textile Artist Kate Jenkins 

Knitting is an incredibly beautiful and functional form of fiber art that is used inter-generationally between all age groups. Knitting refers to the process of making fabric using at least two needles. The process begins by casting stitches with yarn, which appear as loops, onto one of the needles. The number of stitches determines how wide the finished product will be. Then, the other needle is used to draw more yarn through these loops, and the stitches get transferred to the second needle. The process then repeats with the free needle. Two main types of stitches are used in knitting: the knit stitch and the purl stitch. Knitted stitches appear as a row of “v” shapes, whereas purled stitches look more like rows of rounded bumps. One exciting thing about knitting is that it can be utilized as a functional art form- from creating a scarf or sweater for a loved one, or it can be for creative purposes or as some artists suggest “subversive knitting.” Since the 1970s artist have used knitting to have discourse around “women’s work.” Today, many contemporary artists have built on the work of their feminist predecessors, using knitting to mine a wide range of themes from food to politics.

One of our favorite Textile Artists using knit and crochet in her work is Artist Kate Jenkins @Kjcardigan. Her creative and vibrant work, "Hand crocheted beaded bagel with lox, dill, sliced onion and lemon garnish" and "24 Assorted Yarn Burgers 2019" above makes us want to take a bite out of them! Who else is hungry now?! All credit to the artist. 

Dyeing

Fiber Art 101: Dyeing

Dyeing (no not of boredom!) is the application of pigments or dyes on textiles such as yarns, fabrics, and fibers with the goal of achieving color that lasts. Historically, the main source of dye has been from natural pigments extracted from plants or animals. Some natural dyes can be made from avocado, turmeric, walnut, red cabbage, hibiscus, and marigolds just to name a few. The possibilities of natural dyeing are endless with using leaves, plant materials, nails, and wax to create unique designs.

Since the mid-19th century artificial dyes became the dominant use for textiles. They can offer a broader range of colors and the dyes can be more stable to washing.

There are many ways to dye cloth and many cultures have created beautiful distinctive techniques. Ombre dyeing creates a gradient, whereas water immersion can be used to create solids. Fabric can also be hand-painted with dye. Resist-dyeing applies pigment to some areas of a textile while preventing the color from reaching other parts. There are several traditional methods of resist-dyeing. Ikat refers to a method of dyeing in which yarn is tied and resist-dyed before it is woven into a textile. Batik uses wax to prevent dye from soaking all areas of a textile. The Shibori dyeing method is from Japan. In Shibori sections of cloth are tied, clamped, and folded off before a textile is dyed, thus creating patterns. Do you want to learn how to use natural dyeing? Let us know!

Embroidery

Fiber Art 101: Embroidery

Embroidery is a decorative process of stitching yarn or thread onto fabric. Embroidery is an art form that takes precision and often quite a bit of time. While embroidery is practiced around the world, it originates from China and the Near East, dating as far back as the Cro-Magnon days. It is believed that the process of embroidery began to mend, patch or reinforce existing clothing and objects. Later in Medieval times, embroidery became a sign of wealth and power from tapestries to elaborate clothing.

Today most contemporary embroidery is stitched with a computerized machine using patterns from computer software. However, there are many artists keeping up the hand-embroidery tradition from spectacular artworks to DIY projects. Some popular stitches are the running stitch, blanket stitch, chain stitch and cross stitch.

Weaving

Weaving is a very old technique used to create fabric or cloth. Weaving is a simple process of interlacing two discrete threads. A woven object contains a warp and a weft. The warp refers to the threads that run vertically in a woven piece, whereas the weft is the horizontal threads.

Weaving is done around the world and created in many ways! Traditionally, weaving is created on a loom, which holds the warp threads in place while the weft threads are woven through them. However, weavings can be created in many ways from hand weaving, weaving with sticks, to creating your own loom with a picture frame. In these pictures, you’ll see examples of hand weaving from one of our Community Days, a small loom a staff member is weaving on, and traditional Mayan weaving from one of our live demonstrations during our Mayan Traje exhibition. Do you weave? Share you photos with us!