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I discovered fiber art through knitting, but when others noticed a tendency to create 3-d sculptural pieces rather than sweaters, they suggested I skip the yarn and go straight to the wool. Within a year, I had traded in years of work and degrees in science to pursue a full time career as a feltmaker.
Felt is a thrilling medium in which to work because it’s at once deceptively simple and unexpectedly complex. Because the medium is still relatively new in the United States however, it’s still very process-oriented. As a response to this, I created Magpie Designs Felting Studio in 2002 in order to promote the understanding of the material nature of wools and fiber in addition to simply learning steps in a particular technique. In 2006, New England Felting Supply became the outgrowth of rapidly expanding retail sales at the Magpie studio.
 Originally self-taught, I’ve worked with a number of well-known feltmakers including Beth Beede, Chad Alice Hagan, Polly Stirling, Sharon Costello, and Ewa Kuniczak, but have been particularly influenced by study with Mehmet Girgic and Jorie Johnson. In the first years of making felt, I devoted much of my time to promoting the medium and helping to establish feltmaking as a professionally recognized field within fiber art. In 2002, I founded the Northeast Feltmakers Guild and served as director for 3 years. Through articles, lectures and workshops, I’ve joined enthusiastic feltmakers across the country in educating the public and ourselves about this fantastic art form. Although still dedicated to that mission, I now concentrate more on my own work but still divide my time between teaching, lecturing and working in the studio with a growing community of feltmaking artists, apprentices and guest instructors.
I prefer to create work that is strongly guided by texture and the material response of fiber, so although pieces may vary in scale, technique, and utility, each piece is a direct exploration of the alchemic nature of wool. Rock, lichen, bone, water, topography, weather and hidden emotion are common themes. While working with the wools, I explore boundaries and transition points, rates of change, and the balance of forces such as resiliency and immobility. Recent work includes experimentation with felt as outdoor sculpture and the development of new resist techniques.
Currently, I’m living in western Massachusetts where I am writing a comprehensive book on feltmaking (Storey, 2007).
 Blue Tartan, 2006
40" x 43"
Norwegian wool, fabric, hand-dyed silk chiffon and hand-painted yarn. |
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