Design decisions

The fiber art in our gallery is one-of-a-kind.  Thought goes into creating each piece.  Eileen Doughty shared the decision process that went into making the silk paper earrings that won a jurors' recognition in our show this month.

Eileen said, "I was very pleased to receive jurors' recognition for my silk paper earrings, along with Janet and Ann.  Though my earrings are obviously smaller and less complex, the process still requires many steps and many artistic decisions. Like all of our gallery's fiber art, these are definitely not mass-produced.

"Like Janet, I learned to make silk paper from the master - Robin Russo.  I buy her dyed tussah in a variety of hues.  I choose which colors to combine into a paper, and add embellishments such as specialty threads or dried flower petals.

silk paper

"Deciding to make a set of earrings for our "Wondrous, Lustrous Silk" show, I chose a paper I'd made previously, in dark orange and blue (complementary colors), embellished with a shiny blue thread and copper gilding chips. Next I had to think about what the finished object would look like.  I opted for a 3D shape: cones.  And to make it twice as fun, two stacked cones.  Cutting scrap typing paper into sample cones let me play a bit in order to decide how big to make them,  and how much of a bell opening to have.  When satisfied with my test, I used that paper as pattern for cutting into the silk paper.  The next decision was where on the silk paper to cut, in order to make the most of the variations in its color and embellishment.

"Looking at the silk cut-outs, I thought it needed just a little more interest, and decided to free-motion machine stitch copper thread on the bottom edges.  The cones were stitched closed by hand, and strung on a fine wire with some beads to space them and allow them some movement.  One copper bead is added at the top.  The ear wires are copper, to mesh with the color scheme."

Eileen uses silk paper for other jewelry, such as the necklaces shown below:

Silk Squares

peach necklace

Eileen concludes, "Next time you see some hand-made fiber art, take a moment to think about all the steps and decisions that went into making it.  We love what we make and we hope it shows!"

A new "cloth"

There is more than one way to view/ use "cloth". This is a pin that my good friend Irene made in a class she took from Marilyn Moore. I believe that Marilyn started her art journey as a basket maker. I became aware of her work a few years ago at the Smithsonian Craft show--one of the most prestigious in the country. She makes and teaches jewelry and containers using woven metal cloth.

The "cloth" is colored using a torch instead of dyes but after that it is handled the same way as fabric--sewing (wire not thread), shaping (pliers not starch like liquids), etc. By thinking way outside the "fiber" box our members can come up with some very creative ideas of what constitutes "fiber and fiber techniques".



This is a piece of woven metal mesh (very fine weave) colored by gently heating with a creme brûlée type torch. It was then shaped, hemmed and embellished with pearls and crystals. A pretty pin in the making.

Location:Bead and Button Milwaukee WI

Scale drawings, thumbnail sketches, or no plan at all

Quilters vary widely in how much planning they do before they start cutting fabrics for a quilt. Sometimes a quilter who doesn't like to do detailed plans will depart from her preferred way of working to do a commission or a quilt that has strict constraints.

Our Gallery president, Eileen Doughty, has done a number of public art projects. These usually require lots of planning and coordination with the commissioning agency. For example, Eileen did a commission for the neonatal wing of a large hospital. They requested that the artwork have the four seasons, trees, lots of colors, and fit in a 5 x 14 foot niche. The glass to cover the niche was limited to a four foot width, and so the join lines had to be considered when developing the design. The room decor has 12 hues, around the color wheel. (And there was an extremely tight deadline.) Here is how the finished artwork looks in its location at the hospital:


Eileen discusses her design process for this quilt here.

I (Floris Flam) was commissioned to make a quilt for a residence. It was to hang over the breakfast table and needed to bridge the colors of the kitchen and those of the nearby sitting room. My client and I decided the appropriate size of the quilt and discussed colors that would be used, including the blues of the sitting room and the beiges of the kitchen cabinets. I visited with a collection of blue and beige hand-dyed fabrics and we picked those that were closest to those in her rooms.She didn't give me any other design constraints, so I decided to use as my starting point a collage of magazine illustrations I made some time before as a quick design exercise. Here is my paper collage:

And here is the finished quilt:


You can see that it bears only the most general resemblance to the collage, but having the collage helped me get started, often the hardest part of making any work of art.

Most often, I work without a sketch. I start by selecting colors and fabrics from my stash and begin cutting pieces and pinning them up on my design wall, a felt-covered pinable board. Here is a photo of Autumn View as I was designing it:


I've cut strips and rectangles of fabric and pinned them on my design board (I was at a quilt retreat and was working on a portable board with my pile of fabric on the table in front of it). I added and removed strips of various colors and changed their sizes as I worked, trying as each piece was added to see what seemed to be the necessary next step. When I was pleased with the design, I started sewing everything together. Here is the final quilt:


I've enjoyed this month as your blog editor and am passing the baton to Ruth Blau for the month of February. I'll talk to you again in May.