Artist Profile: Orange Iron Fabrications

Lately I have been asked to document some artists' work. What a pleasure for me! So for the next few posts, I'd like to introduce you to some of these very special, creative people.

You may remember my friend Kate, from Orange Iron Fabrications, who I have blogged about here. Kate has also sculpted in metal, but her current work is felt-based forms, some of which are wearable. The ones you see here are currently being shown in Small Point, Maine.

So these wall pieces are all wet-felted first, then machine stitched as you can see in the detail from the first picture. The stitching sort of boosts up the forms, and to enhance that further, Kate stuffs them a bit, resulting in these lovely luscious bumpy parts that make you want to run your hands on them. Kate has mounted them on custom-cut wood-backings, then tacked down at the edges.

This piece here is a top view of Small Point itself---brilliant! Check out the Google map, here, and zoom out so you can see what she has based it on.

So swirly and ocean-y.

This one was one of my favorites. I love how the reds and oranges progress in saturation like bubbles; the overall form is very pleasing to me. The fleece Kate uses comes from lots of places and one of them is the groovy, wind-powered, Hope Spinnery, which specializes in natural dyes.

And how about this sweet little scene with the Small Point One sailboat design, a boat specifically made to race the Small Point waters! Colorful and so quintessentially Maine. I like that little purple-sailed boat hustling to catch up with the fleet.

Thanks for letting me spend time with these colorful pieces, Kate. They are gorgeous!

Artist Profile: 101 Bedsheets

Lately I have been asked to document some artists' work. What a pleasure for me! So for the next few posts, I'd like to introduce you to some of these very special, creative people.

 this is Barbara, the dress form

Today I feature the work of a 13 year-old sewist and designer, Ella Simon, who has been teaching herself to sew. She may have used a pattern once. As in, one time in her life. (Um, friends, do I need to say that this boggles my mind?!)

 note the cute keyhole detail on the back

Ella has lots of old bedsheets to play around with, so many of her garments are white, but sometimes she dyes them. Or embellishes them with fabric scraps or a jaunty colored zipper or a fabric bow.

 princess waist, slightly dropped hem in the back

 sweet criss-crossing and pleats on the back

Barbara the dress form needed to suck in a bit for this next one. Particularly in Barbara's rear. There was a bit of pulling and tugging. 

and in this photo, it looks like hugging

This lovely light green number has a zipper that some might say was sewn inside out, with the dingle dangly bit on the inside of the fabric. But this was a deliberate choice by the designer, who liked the more industrial look of the zipper on the reverse side.

 I love the use of zipper here on the front of the bodice, as a completely decorative accent.

 A little overstitching, in the photo below.

Some have wondered whether Ella should be finishing every hem and seam. My humble opinion is a definite no. That part can come later, when she cares, when she wants a finished hem. Or maybe she'll end up with a team of sewists who will do this for her.

This is a young person who takes joy in her creative work, who is making her own visions manifest through exploring the limitations of fabric and the three-dimensional form of the human body. Hooray for the next generation of creative problem-solvers! Thanks, Ella, for suggesting the impromptu photo shoot of you, Barbara, and a few of your pieces.