Therese's prototype

This last weekend I taught an intensive at Pratt Fine Arts Center, Fiber in Three Dimensions. I was nervous because, although I’ve taught plenty of technique classes, this felt different. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to teach how to see and design in three dimensions. I had a terrific group of artists to work with, each with their own vision, each willing to try something new.

Susan's bowl

We started the first day with a slide show survey of fiber sculpture, beginning the conversation about designing in 3d and how to support your structure. Our first project, what I think of as a pinch pot, was a circle of fabric that we cut and overlapped to create dimension, adding structure through stitch. A very basic and simple technique, yet versatile and a good way to feel the transition between two- and three-dimensions and how quickly that can happen.

In the afternoon I showed a second slide show introducing my sculptural technique, a multipanelled piece using peltex as an inner layer to add structure. They started sketching their ideas with the plan of starting on patterning the next day.

Judy's piece

The next two days they spent drawing, patterning, and layering their pieces. Some people worked faster than others. As always, it would have been nice to have had more time to work. Only one person finished her piece, although she called said it was a prototype and had plans to embellish it further.

I felt it was a successful class, the samples all worked, the slide shows were helpful and well-received. Only one student had much experience with sewing, the others came from working in other media including jewelry and printmaking. Several  of them were apprehensive about sewing at first but felt much more confident by the end of the weekend. One woman, a jeweller, had no confidence in her ability to sew and wasn’t sure she was going to stay. By the end of the class, she was talking about buying a sewing machine!

I’ll definitely teach this one again!

Susan's piece

Lisa's piece