NORTHEAST FELTMAKERS GUILD CHOOSES ATHENS FOR MEETING AND EXHIBITION
Athens, New York--November 22, 2004—Steven Spielberg and his film crew are not the only ones to have recently discovered the charms of Athens, New York. Approximately 40 members of the Northeast Feltmakers Guild will descend upon Athens for the next three weeks for a series of meetings, feltmaking sessions and an exhibition with an opening party this weekend.
While Spielberg’s crew was down on the Athens waterfront building a set to facilitate the escape of villagers from invading Martians for his upcoming remake of War of the Worlds, the Feltmakers were up the street at the Athens Cultural Center hanging an exhibition of their artwork. The Feltmakers are hoping that some of the Martians as well as local citizens will stop in to see their exhibit of felt artworks, some of which are truly otherworldly. The opening party of the Feltmaker’s Guild exhibition will be Saturday, November 27th from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at 24 Second Street and is free and open to the public.
Although there are no known feltmakers from Mars, the group includes members from seven New England states and their works display influences from such far-flung regions as Scandinavia, Hungary and Turkestan.
Felt is a non-woven fabric in which raw wool is treated with warm water and soap and worked into shape. Although not well known in the US, feltmaking has evolved into an art form, far removed from the grade school crafts projects that most people are familiar with. Felt can be used to create wearable artworks such as hats, shoes, scarves and vests. However, felt is extremely versatile and can be used to create exotic artworks, including sculptures, masks, figures and even felt drawings. Innovative feltmakers have found ways to incorporate the material, usually associated with cold weather into soft, lightweight garments and colorful freeform sculptures suitable for warmer climes.
“Feltmaking is hot and a lot of young people are taking up the hobby,” noted Chris White, the founder of the Feltmakers Guild and a resident of the Amherst, Massachusetts area. White notes that many people come into feltmaking via knitting, another hot trend.
Although fiber art is becoming more accepted, the United States does not have a long history of feltmaking and it is not a well-known art form here. White founded the guild in 2002 as a way of bringing together isolated feltmakers in the Northeast. The guild sponsors meetings three times a year in which members can see each others works in progress, view demonstrations and practice new feltmaking techniques together. Dawna Johnson, an Athens resident, Guild member and co-director of the Athens Cultural Center convinced the Guild to hold it’s meeting here and was instrumental in organizing the Feltmakers’ first public exhibition.
As demonstrated by the large exhibition at the Athens Cultural Center, feltmakers produce an extremely diverse group of artworks. Pieces on display include wearable art including, hats, scarves, vests and shoes. Sculptures take many forms, some resembling roots and spider webs, others in more traditional forms such as masks and figurines. Also, some artists have created works for the home, including rugs, hangings and bowls.
Creating felt artworks can be very physical and those seeking an alternative to Jenny Craig should consider feltmaking as a possibility. One of the guild members, who had recently returned from a conference in Hungary, was exhibiting a rug crafted using traditional Central Asian felting techniques. The raw wool was treated with boiling water and subjected to a variety of kneading methods including stomping. One of the unusual sculptures being exhibited by founder White looks like ethereal hanging roots in subdued autumn colors of pumpkin, russet and ochre but belies a very physical creation. White had to vigorously roll her felt and then beat and whip the strands to fuse them together. White notes that after a weekend of employing such vigorous feltmaking techniques, she once lost four pounds.
However, other felt objects on display are created using very delicate and exacting techniques. Catherine Rogers, another Massachusetts feltmaker, is displaying a series of three felt pictures that resemble charcoal drawings. Working on a white felt background, Rogers manipulates different thicknesses of dry black wool to create the feeling of a felt drawing. Anyone who thinks of felt as a thick and stiff substance will be amazed by the delicacy of shading that Rogers can achieve with small amounts of fiber.
Using a completely different technique, Camille Ludlow of New York works with balls of felt and a needle to create small figural sculptures. In a technique not dissimilar from liposuction, Ludlow repeatedly punctures a large ball of felt with a special needle. Each place that the needle punctures gets smaller, forming the felt into features that can be used to create the faces and body parts of her figures.
The exhibition, which is free and open to the public, will be on display at the Athens Cultural Center, 24 Second Street in the heart of the village of Athens. The opening reception will be held from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 27th. The exhibition will be on display from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, November 28th, December 4th and 5th and December 11th and 12th. Members of the Guild will be on hand at the exhibition to answer questions about the artworks and about the Guild.
About the Northeast Feltmakers Guild
The Northeast Feltmakers Guild (NEFG) was founded in March of 2002 as a way of organizing the many talented, but often isolated, felt artists throughout New England. The Guild promotes felted fiber art, increase awareness of the feltmaking process, and offers a forum for feltmakers where information can be shared regarding techniques, material resources, critique and marketing. For more information, visit us on the Web at www.northeastfeltmakersguild.org.
About the Art Gallery at the Athens Cultural Center
Located in the historic village of Athens, the Art Gallery at the Athens Cultural Center shows works of emerging Hudson Valley artists. The gallery is housed in an Egyptian revival storefront on the Village’s main street, a few blocks from the Hudson River.
Written by Howard Zar
Live jazz, great food and wine, and a large, excited crowd helped to celebrate the opening of the Northeast Feltmakers Guild show at the Athens Cultural Center in Athens, NY. “Fabulous Felt” was held from November 21st – December 16th. It was the first show for the Guild and the first fiber show at the center.
The Athens Cultural Center is in an ornate building on the main street in the center of town. Large street-level windows enticed passersby to come in for a closer look at the colorful and creative pieces. The exhibit was housed in three rooms, all with a variety of wall surfaces - either finished white “gallery” walls, exposed brick, or, in one room, a large interior window. Pedestals, both upright and horizontal, visually broke up the largest of the gallery spaces and created multi-level surfaces for the artwork. Felt on the walls and on displays at floor level created a stunning display.
The show included 81 pieces from 19 members: Althea Bilodeau, Robyn Daniel, Tim Easterbrook, Temple Fawcett, Kate Foote, Alexa Ginsburg, Dawna Johnson, Camille Ludlow, Zoe Morrow, Theresa May O'Brien, Lynn Ocone, Loretta Oliver, Tina Quintana, Cathy Rogers, Kasey Rolih, Gail Trautz, Linda Van Alstyne, Una Walker and Chris White.
The wide-ranging styles and methods gave exhibit-goers an overview of feltmaking today. Wearables included hats, scarves, vests, shoes and jackets. Zoe Morrow’s “Encrusted Crustacean” hat was created from a rich deep blue with beads highlighting the spiral of felt at the top. Elements of fun could be seen in Tim Easterbrook’s oversized hermit crab hat, and Cathy Rogers’ “Twinkle Toes” boots looked ready to dance on their own. Rogers also showed a group of hats with such evocative names as “Yellow Snow on the Roof” and Bordello.”
Kate Foote’s child-sized baseball shirt matched the regulation ones in every detail and included hand-dyed and hand-spun yarns for the stripes. Una Walker’s slip-on shoes were made of swirls of color on a pink base, complemented with flowing lines of stitching. Scalloped edges created a unique look for the “Ms. Lucy” scarf (Loretta Oliver) with a riot of colors and textures embedded within the felted surface and escaping out of it. Alexa Ginsburg’s jackets were visually striking, all inspired by the colors of the natural world. “Winter Woods,” “Twilight,” and “Sunset Veldt” captured the shades and feel of their names. Althea Bilodeau’s nuno ponchos were textured with mohair and locks. Her ethereal “Cloud Covered” shawl swirled with white and blue wools felted into a silk base.
An inventive tabletop by Tina Quintana was covered in decorative felt with bits of yarn popping out over the surface. Theresa May O’Brien’s large rug (“Symphony in Blue Minor”) hung prominently below the guild’s banner, showcasing a more traditional style.
Flights of fancy could be seen in masks, figures and some of the wearable items. Linda Van Alstyne’s oversized masks added to the crowd of real faces and included “Oscar.” Its outsized black-and-white striped face, eyes represented by CD’s, and skewed, large lips gave a feeling of energy and improvisation, much like jazz pianist Oscar Peterson’s music, for whom this mask was named. Her abstract female figures, “Hallelujah” and “Eternity,” conveyed their strength and power despite their modest size with their curvaceous, well-proportioned bodies and strong poses. These two figures were balanced by more realistically-rendered sculptures, including Temple Fawcett’s “Woman with Boots”- an exuberant woman with outstretched arms, beautifully dressed in a wool outfit finished with beading, netting and other embellishments. Fawcett’s two birds included a crane whose twig legs and driftwood base enhanced the wet-felted body. Camille Ludlow’s “Frenchman with Baguette” was a realistic needlefelted sculpture of a seated man wearing a jaunty beret, hands gently cradling his bread.
Abstract three-dimensional work included Gail Trautz’s “Field F,” a piece inspired by her agricultural background with earth-inspired colors and circular patterns symbolizing the ever-renewing seasons. Chris White’s sculpture, “Cocoon,” tempted viewers to pick up the open-tube like piece. The stiffened shape was accentuated by the highly contrasting arashi dyeing visible on both sides.
“Tribute to Vinny” (Dawna Johnson) drew viewers in from the street with its vividly colored rendering of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night.” The swirling colors of the wallhanging captured the energy of the original and the textural additions from the wool added another dimension. “Bird of My Dreams” (Lynn Ocone) was a brightly colored “wool painting” which looked abstract when viewed close up but revealed a bird when seen from several steps away. The colors were indeed dream-like as she intermixed golds, reds, greens and black in depicting a portion of a bird’s head and wing. Cathy Rogers’ triptych, “3 Friends,” were individual portraits using only black and white wools. The grays achieved were a result of careful placement of the black within layers of the white background - deceptively simple yet resulting in much depth within this limited palette.
“Tracks” by Kasey Rolih was a two-sided piece of soft blues and browns. It was hung against the wall with only a glimpse of the second side showing and seemed to tempt viewers to touch it in order to see the reverse side. Robyn Daniel’s two abstract wallhangings combined felting with added embellishments of embroidery and beading. The glinting beads were a foil against the matte felt in “Underpinnings #1, and the embroidery in “By the Water” seemed to be a foreign language-in fact, it was written in Gregg shorthand.
Seeing the show come together was an exciting process. The core group of organizers included Chris White, Dawna Johnson, Cathy Rogers and Robyn Daniel. Dawna Johnson (both a Guild member and a co-director of the Athens Cultural Center) was the bridge between the two organizations, insuring the success of the show. Her enthusiasm was evident: “It was so very gratifying to bring in a felt exhibit of this extraordinary caliber. I'm grateful to the Northeast Feltmakers Guild for sharing their talent, expertise and for providing a new awareness of the joys and artistic expressions of wool in its many forms.”
Many of the artists participated in hanging the show, learning on the spot how to create a cohesive installation. It was the first time for several of the participants to have their work shown in a gallery setting. Alexa Ginsburg comments, "There always seemed to be the right person standing next to you at the right moment to help solve whatever problem you were facing - where to put a piece, what to hang next to it and how to hang it. When we were done every piece appeared to be in the right place. It was one of those magic experiences that happens now and then, when everything just seems to fall into place effortlessly."
Comments from viewers were overwhelmingly positive, with people expressing surprise at the versatility of the medium. Everyone was excited by what was on view. A professional photographer who had a solo show at the center was enthusiastic about the artwork, the colors, the range of work and the hanging of the show itself, commenting that the felt show “was the best show the center had hosted” to date.
Chris White, founder of the Northeast Feltmakers Guild, said, “As we approach our three-year anniversary, we are not only pleased to have reached this long-time goal of putting together a professional group show of our work, but also at the positive reaction including a few requests to host the show.”
Five pieces from the show were sold. The Guild’s table (items donated by members to help fill the guild’s coffers) netted over $100. The funds will be used for future workshops and events.
Among the goals of the Guild are “to promote felted fiber art [and] increase awareness of the feltmaking process.” This first show exceeded everyone’s expectations in its success on both counts.
The Northeast Feltmakers Guild meets three times per year. While the majority of the members are from New England and New York, many come from other states on the East Coast. Membership is open to all and the Guild welcomes both beginners and professional feltmakers.
Written by Robyn Daniel
Appeared in the NAFN March 2005 newsletter and the International Feltmakers Association magazine, Echoes, issue 80.
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