Art in Old Main 450

Fiber Art on Display in Old Main 450, President/Provost Offices
Works in fiber created by students in
Professor Seiko Atsuta Purdue’s classes
during fall 2007
Art 363 (Multidimensional Forms in Fiber)
ART 260 (Fibers/Fabrics)

The artistic challenge:

Felt-Making

Create a felt piece incorporating the idea of “nomadic”. As a traditional example, Turkoman and related tribes have been making yurts (felt tents) for over 1,000 years; felt-making is still important for some nomadic tribes. They make not only tent coverings but also floor rugs, wall hangings, and all kinds of carriers and clothing.  Think about “nomadic” aspects of your contemporary lifestyle and what kinds of things could be useful to make out of felt.  It should not be purely functional but should express your original artistic idea. It can be either two- or three-dimensional. Think about the suitability/necessity of felting.  After you see some examples and a demonstration you must get excited about various possibilities of felt-making. Start by brainstorming with lots of sketches and plan for the processes and the time involved. If you like it is possible to use this opportunity for a test piece for the wearable project. 

Wearable Art

Think about the theme of “Identity” and create a wearable art expressing own interpretation of the theme.  Any techniques and materials can be used for this project.  Please conduct research on the theme and collect many ideas first.  You need to focus on one idea to create the piece.

It all started with the sheep

Sheep Shearing

                                    

The Felt-making Process (more information is provided at the end of this page)

We will learn how to prepare the wool for felt-making and the processes of felt-making.  Cleaning sheared fleece is time consuming but it is worth doing from scratch at least one time. You can purchase already carded fleece called “rovings” from the stores. Felt making is a wet job; please prepare a working space and covering for yourself.  Felt-making involves cleaning, dyeing, carding, layering, felting, fulling, and drying.  There is a way to fix details by felting needles after the piece is dry.  Although felt-making is an old technique it has been used by contemporary artists and craft makers.  Recently, knitters also started felting and knitting felt has been popular in order to make neatly finished craft products.

Student Projects

Magon May
Dress water
Mixed Media, Felting, Wearable Art, 2007

 

Breanne Gearheart
Packet Dress, Curtain, Thread
Mixed Media, 2007

The concept of identity is embedded in the design of this dress. I wanted to disrupt the distinction between the inside and outside, the personal and social. The dress’s surface is interrupted by gaping pockets that descend and pucker in unruly ways. Using sheer curtain material was another way to signify the supposed separation of our personal and social identities.

Sara Parrett
Sleeves from Female Identity
Felting, Wearable Art, 2007

Breanne Gearheart
Seed Jars
Felting, 2007

For this project I felted wool around seeds and glass jars. This entails cleaning and carding the wool and then agitating it until it forms solid fabric. Inside the jars are seeds of different food plants (peas, Swiss chard, lima beans, etc.) felted into colorful orbs. Drawings of the plants identify each jars contents. These objects were made to function within a fictional society. I imagined a seed keeper who could sling the felted jars over their shoulder. This figure would be the keeper of knowledge of growing food for the society.

Elizabeth Cardarelli
Woven Sandals
Raffia, Wool, 2007

Sara Parrett
Female Identity
Mixed Media, Felting, Wearable Art, 2007

 

Briana Hibert
Felt Scroll
Felting, Stitching, 2007

 

Janelle Ronning
Norwegian Weaving/Felting
Felting, 2007

Heather Hayward
Dress by Katazome
Fabric, 2007

Magon May
Baby Carrier
Felting, 2007

Rachael Sofian
Survival Mask
Felting, Mixed Media, 2007

Amanda Pennock
Tapestry
Weaving, 2007

Kristine Babcock
Zodiac with Four Elements
Felting, 2007

 

Jaycie Lewis
Uncle’s Ties
Mixed Media, 2007

Jaycie Lewis
Felt Umbrella
Mixed Media, Felting, 2007

My Umbrella:  I took the raw wool straight from the sheep (stinky and dirty) cleaned it, carded it (means lots of brushing basically), then turn it into felt by using heat, moisture, soap, and pressure. Just the outside of the umbrella took twelve hours.  This was an interesting craft to learn.  I spend a lot of time walking a long distance to and from school in which it rains a lot of the time. This is my personal alone time where I can be alone with my thoughts, my music (ipod), and my umbrella. I wanted to create a beautiful world inside the umbrella to not only escape from the nasty weather, but be connected with my husband Jeffrey who climbs trees as his profession.  He is at work all day in the trees, so the tree in the umbrella is my connection to him, and if you notice there is two peas in a pod, which also represents us.

Elizabeth Cardarelli
Doorway of Yurt
Felting, 2007

                                               

Carolyn Luksic
Felt Hats
Felting, 2007

Elizabeth Cardarelli
Body as Landscape
Bustier Dress
Coiling, 2007

“The Body as Landscape” illustrates the concept of spiraling inward; a shamanic technique where one enters the sub-conscious and returns with gifts from the spirit.  I constructed an upper-body garment by spiraling outward along one continuous line using the basketry technique of coiling where yarns are wrapped, and bound around another stronger fiber--in this case, sea grass covered with wool, cotton, synthetics and raffia.  In this bustier, each distinct component is a phenomenon occurring in nature and in this way it expresses the Gaia principle, the earth as a Goddess, alive. I selected a color combination of teal green for the vegetative earth, and sepia brown for the earth’s mantle, rose for the heart center and other complimentary colors to harmonize my expression of love for her beauty.  The piece contains the wisdom of a female warrior in a symmetrical, powerful design.

Bronwyn Pavia
“The Map”
Tapestry Weaving

 

Cassie Gendlek
Tapestry Weaving

 

Carolyn Luksic
Tapestry Weaving

Jaycie Lewis
“Self Portrait”
Tapestry Weaving

HsiuChing Lin
Sebastian Mendes, Professor
Reflection of Light
Glass sculpture, 2007

Felt-making Process (Continued)

Cleaning: Remove straws or any other linters and prepare enough soap and hot water for washing. You can use a washing machine or hand washing but you should not agitate by rubbing.  If you use a washing machine, set the water to hot, add soap and fiber and leave it 30-45min without running (you will need to close the lid to keep the water warm). Then, spin. Repeat until the fleece gets clean (about 3 times) and do the same process 2 times without soap for rinsing. If you wash by hand use a large tub and follow the same way as with machine washing.

Carding:  Wool has to be completely dry for carding. There are hand cards and drum carding machines. Please don’t use dyed wool for drum carding.  See the demonstration for both. (Instructions are posted in the classroom.)

Laying the Batt: The felt batt needs to be laid on the backing material (nylon fabric, nylon window screen, or bamboo mats).  According to the Cross Lapping method, you need to lay the batts perpendicular to the previous layer.   You need to prepare the batt 10-15 times as thick as your finished thickness.  You need to think about the design at this stage. The top layer will show as a surface. You can decorate using colored wool.  When you finish laying, cover the layers of batt with another piece of nylon netting. If you want to secure the batt you can sew along the edges of the wool (finished shape) over the netting.  If you need to resist please insert the calico in between the layers.

Felting: Prepare a big pot of hot water and set up a working space for the wet job.  You may want to use a large flat vat. Pour hot water on the piece over the netting and rub with soap. (It is hot: you need to use gloves!) The pieces have to be all wet and flat. Start rubbing gently and gradually increase the pressure. If you have a stiffer screen on top of the nylon netting it is easier to rub harder.  Try lifting the nylon and see if the piece is getting hard.  Turn over the piece and do the same process.  Repeat the hot water & rubbing process for about 10 min.   Pinch the surface and lift for testing. If it separates, keep felting. If the piece lifts, you are ready for fulling.

Fulling/ Hardening:  This is the final stage and involves the use of friction by rolling the piece wrapped up within the bamboo (rush) mat. You can place the piece on the bamboo mat and roll the piece like sushi. (The netting can be included). Hold the roll upright and squeeze out the excess water. If you have a sponge tube to roll with it, fulling will be easier.  Roll the mat using palms and arms about 10 minutes and make a one quarter turn.  After rolling in all directions, flip the piece and continue rolling as you did with the first side.  Rinse out the soap, wring out and leave the piece to dry. If you use a mold, dry it on the mold. (Calico fabric can be removed.)

 3D form

Use the fabric to resist, or cast using molds such as stones, bottles, bowls, etc.   Also you can stuff the fleece in the nylon stocking /bag and felt it using hot/cold soapy water, then harden in the laundry dryer. 

Coloring

You can dye wool with acid dyes or Kool-Aid powder. You can also use natural dyes as well. Decide when you would like to dye, before or after felting.  You may lose some color by rubbing with soap if you dye before felting.  Painting is not recommended.