Textiles and Tea

 Yesterday's guest was great fun, 

Here she is, on the right,  in her studio with small box pieces on the wall behind her.

She's another of those artists who's traveled all over the world, following her husband's work, so there are the traces of many cultures in her work, which is playful and thoughtful at once.

Originally a painter, she works in soft sculpture, and has taken lately to photographing her figures and photoshopping them into images she prints out. 

But she still makes found object boxes of hand stitched figures, one of which was selected for the annual Handweavers guild small works show.  

She's also collaborating on a picture book with a writer. I can definitely see her work there. 

She commented that what she's making is something  like decorative art, something like craft, but neither really. So finding venues is tricky. Our passion for labeling leaves her in limbo. 

Photoshopped piece with images of earlier sculptures cut into a painted background.

This is her resume. She just couldn't write the usual artist one, had to illustrate it.

Anyway, here's some of her work. She freely acknowledges she's a beginner in embroidery, being more interested in the hoop as a stand for figures. I noted that!  About using hoops, yes, great idea. She uses embroidery to stitch messages into the work.

In the past she's made full-size figures which have appeared in stores as part of the decor. But the ones you see in these pictures are largely no more than maybe 15" tall.

And she reawakened a literally lifelong plan if mine, to make lifesuze soft sculptures. To wear my clothes. I can construct them using my Sonya Phillips pattern for pants and my own pattern for tops... Magpie was quite right when she said watching this series is enough to send you off in all directions! 

This is how I know Loren's good -- it's a sure sign when someone else's art triggers an urge to run and make your own. 

I hope you enjoy these images. It was a very fast hour.

Some of the posted questions were interesting, one asking if she was influenced by Joseph Cornell's boxes, and she said she needed to find out who he was! Her art history had missed him. If yours has, too, check him out. Not as playful but powerful.

When she mentioned having more boxes and raw material than she could ever get through, another questioner mentioned her SABLE. 

At this it was the host's turn to look baffled, showing she's not a knitter! And had it explained to her: Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy! She's a weaver and some of the guests outrun her knowiedge of textiles.

Worth going to Lauren's website to see more.  I find more and more that textile people seem approachable and fun. 

When I started saori, spontaneous, weaving years ago I thought traditional weavers would disapprove of the homemade looms,  wild colors, any old thing used for the weft, wavy selvedges. But the largely Indian ones who'd seen them were hugely supportive and really kind to my efforts.  So there's that.

Nice to assume the best of each other!

Speaking of which, Gary's over soon to replace my ceiling light and hopefully make my worktop less gloomy. He had a couple of my  blueberry muffins for breakfast to give him energy.

Soft sculpture, art doll style

For years I've been thinking about trying soft sculpture, maybe lifesize figures, using my own clothes, sculpting the faces by stitching. Then not wanting to have slightly unnerving large sculptures around. I've done miniaturized soft sculpture in the form of trapunto stitching, even literally miniaturizing kits for my miniature club long ago.

But I came around recently to thinking art dolls, maybe for exhibit, if and when that happens. Meanwhile it's an interesting artform to explore with the sculpting being done on the faces. It does squick me out a  bit, thinking about putting a needle into a face.  But I think I'll do it.

If you haven't made dolls you might not know how soon and how eerily they take on a personality. Even stitching the Dollivers faces felt intrusive.  And how often you reproduce your own facial expressions and physical build.

Anyway here's what I came across. Patti Medaris Culea. She was an exhibiting artist and portrait painter before moving into art dolls.

The thing I am liking about this current adventure is that I can use a lot of skills from other artforms, drawing, painting, spinning, embroidery, beading, knitting, dressmaking you name it. It's a journey of imagination.

One thing I don't plan on unlike a number of these artists, is using hot glue. I'll stitch.

As I read this book which shows other doll artists' work, I was reminded of what one of my sisters said when she got into miniature making, my fault, that it paid to have a lot of arts and crafts experience, and leftover materials available. Otherwise you'd spend a fortune getting started.

It also occurred to me that the bag of scrap fabrics still waiting in the car, too hot to go to the thriftie, might be pressed into service again..a Failed Winnowing.

Before i get us to now, here are some dolls and animals I've made, mostly knitted. I have a history, as they say of recidivists.

And here's the Dolliver luggage. 

Christmas dresses, felt and lace

Suffragists outfits.

Many permanent items, as well as scraps of exotic stuff for temporary clothes for photo shoots. A couple of the long skirts might work for the new, I hope series, depending on how it works.

We return to the drawer of embroidery things, silk and linen scraps, beads, butterflies. 

And I did retain a little supply of vital dollmaking materials through the breakdown of the studio. Including doll needles. 

Anyway here's what I'm trying. The raw base materials: trouser socks, white, tan, black, choices. Had them for years. I started with the white for easy visibility until I find out what I'm doing.

My idea is to create a doll from one sock, with moveable arms and legs, without cutting parts separately and attaching them. So this entailed little drawings and outloud discussions with myself as I went. Since the fabric is knitted, no fraying concerns. 

The doll book reminded me of teaching the proportions of the face, to disbelieving students who even after measuring, found them hard to accept! Almost impossible, too,  to realize what a small amount of the human head is occupied by facial features.

Handy grid, courtesy of doll book

And here's more or less what's happening.

The seam starts a ready made nose

See how soon she's sitting up and taking notice? Soon there will be opinions. And she doesn't even have legs yet.