Thursday, February 21, 2013

What a Meeting!!

Odyssey Coat- of felted wool, silk and bamboo, lined with Dupioni silk
What a fabulous February meeting we had! An awesome program with such creative pieces of art by an inspiring guest, some good tips/demos, a "blow you away" Show and Tell, and lots of laughter. What more could you want?
Detail of Odyssey coat lapel
Our sincere Thanks goes out to Sharon Riley of Whisper of Spirit. She shared many of her wonderful pieces of felted fiber art with us. Sharon has been working in a wide range of mediums for over 40 years, including clothing design, fiber art murals, quilting, vintage restoration, Liturgical and costume design, mixed media sculpture, screen printing and dyeing, hand felting, needle felting, leather craft and painting.  Sharon's creations are deeply influenced by nature. She uses a wide variety of materials, including Merino, Corriedale, silk, bamboo, angora, alpaca, tulle and silk chiffon. She embellishes with  novelty ribbons and yarns, embroidery and metallic threads, seed pearls, vintage prayer beads, seed beads and Swarovski crystals. She also incorporates found objects - "gifts from Mother Nature", such as stones, bone, feathers, moss, seed pods, shells and driftwood.
Sharon shared with us a number of her felted creations, including cuff bracelets, garments, wall hangings, vessels and art dolls. Although our "topic of the evening" was embellishment, we were all very interested in the felting processes she uses as well - both Nuno felting and wet felting. She kindly allowed me to photograph her work to share with you here.

You can view more of Sharon's creations at   http://www.whisperofspirit.com/index.html
Thank you Sharon for an inspiring program!!

Luscious Lavender Morning Cuff bracelet
Hummingbird's Garden  Cuff Bracelet
Metamorphosis - Rebirth of the Phoenix art doll

Felted vessel
Felted Vessel
Felted wallhanging Earth Sky - 14" x 36". A celebration of the dance between Mother Earth and Father Sky
Detail of Earth Sky
Detail of Earth Sky




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