Felt folding at Fibres West 2017

Felt Folding with Andrea Noeske-Porada

FIBRES WEST 2017 is a residential program over five days and 6 nights at Muresk in Northam. Reputedly the coldest place in winter in Western Australia. Not that we noticed too much as we quickly became engrossed in learning felt folding origami type techniques with Andrea Noeske-Porada.  A truly unique felting workshop experience with a dozen equally enthusiastic participants. Andrea’s technique of taking felt to another dimensional level requires some intense attention to detail. My cutting board is yet to recover as there was a lot of very precise cutting. As a result, my pieces below may not seem much for 5 days effort, but it is a technique that requires some thought and patience.felt folding

In order to understand the basic technique, we had some paper folding practice  before embarking on complex projects. Making a Kaleidocycle is a fascinating exercise. Being a three-dimensional ring, it can continually turn inside out to reveal the different coloured facets. Making it is felt is therefore more challenging. One has to first convert wool fibre into a fabric, so it can be cut, reassembled and shrunk.

Most of all, it was a wonderful week of creativity with presentations by all the Fibres West tutors, as well as a trade hall, evening activities, installation artist and displays. Despite the wonderful distractions (including all meals), the results from my fellow participants speak for themselves. Click on images below to see larger images and the amazing variety of items.

 

Armatures for 3D textiles

Sara Quail wire textile
My cornucopia in progress

Armatures with Katrina Virgona
(Or what the heck do I do with an armature?!)

Using armatures in textiles is one of those techniques that is a little out of the norm for many textile artists. But this kind of workshop is right up my alley considering my love of 3D work and using alternative materials. Continue reading “Armatures for 3D textiles”

%d bloggers like this: