FELT IT workshop at ARTS GARAGE

Please join me in my workshop

FELT IT!  

A free createIt@ARTSgarage seminar 

for "educators of all stripes"

on March 24th from 1 until 3:30 PM

Felting is the oldest textile process and one of the easiest textiles to create. 

Wet felting is the process of physically manipulating wool fibers with water and soap. 

Over a short span of time the fibers enmesh and get tangled together, shrink and create a solid and dense fabric.  Felting is also versatile in that it can easily be shaped over forms of all kinds resulting in forms of three dimensions.

Dry felting utilizes sharp barbed steel needles that required aggressive punching into the surface of the wool fibers in order to get the fibers to become entangled resulting in a solid and dense fabric. Dry felting is also versatile in that the fibers can easily be shaped into unique figurative elements both flat and three dimensional.

In my  2 and 1/2 hour workshop you will learn both wet and dry felting methods to create a simple 3 dimensional form (pocket/pouch) that will become a purse or eye glass case.  Then you will have the opportunity to embellish the surface with multicolored threads and give it your own unique expression. You can set rivets into the surface and attach a leather cord to create a purse for carrying your smart phone.

please see photos below

Please register by email to cameron@camerontaylor-brown.com and put  “createIt registration” in the subject line. I will confirm your spot and include directions to my Los Angeles studio along with the confirmation.  I look forward to creating with you! 

createIt@ARTSgarage offers "educators of all stripes" an opportunity to nurture our own creativity through collaborative work. We use the fiber arts as our vehicle of expression, working with simple processes and materials on hand in my mid-Wilshire Los Angeles studio. These quarterly peer-to-peer sessions are free of charge and are offered in a spirit of celebratory sharing. 

Signs of the Forest Exhibit

Here are some images of my piece, Naughty Knotty, at the Arena 1 Gallery, in Santa Monica.

Images include the progression and process of the work.

Naughty Knotty, is informed by the fact that I live in the city. The city is in fact a manufactured landscape, an urban environment.

During a walk through my neighborhood adjacent to Handcock Park, I encountered several redwood trees hundreds of miles away from their natural habitat. I was drawn to the rugged surface of the trees, which was a counter point to all of the concrete and asphalt surrounding me. My piece, Naughty Knotty, is a tree manufactured out of a single photographic image taken of a section of bark. The multi-shingled image of the bark echoes the experience one would have walking amongst a grove of redwood trees. Because of the scale you cannot see the forest through the trees. What you can experience is the tactile quality and the physical presence of the bark of the tree.

In Naughty Knotty, the use of printed cloth, transforms our notions of bark as hard and tough, the protective outside layer of a tree. The soft, pliable and lightweight qualities of the cloth express an idea of bark and tree as a gracefully draped feminine sheath. The formidable scale and girth of Naughty Knotty and the bold image of bark paired with the suppleness of cloth contradicts our perceptions of what a tree is supposed to be.

Process: I began taking photographs of trees, used photoshop to transform the photos for screen printing, screen printed over 450 prints in 2 colors, cut and sewed the single prints onto 5 panels. The under structure of the piece is created from PVC pipe, 3 tiers of hexagons held in place with poles. The cloth panels are attached to the structure with velcro.