Tag: Images of my work

Gris-Gris

I recall as a textile student doing research cross-cultural references in fibers, the image of a horse blanket literally covered with gris-gris obtained by its owner from the local shamans in the course of his travels to insure protection on his life journeys. Over time gris-gris have been dolls or images of the gods, small cloth bags containing herbs, oils, stones, small bones, hair and nails, bits of written spells, pieces of cloth soaked with perspiration, and/or other personal items gathered under the directions of a god for the protection of the owner. In Voodoo, gris-gris are charms or talismans which are kept for good luck or to ward off evil. Here is my personal interpretation. This amulet bag measures 10 inches long, approximately 5 inches wide, the cord 28 inches long.

Playtime

While procrastinating returning to production knitting for the spring season I found myself inspired by Judy Perez’s Fiesta ornaments and have made my first attempts at metal embossing, adding them as elements in my postcard sized fabric collages, which in turn combine knits, needle felting, needlework techniques, and objects from a stash of accumulated “stuff’. Here are 2 of the results:

Continuing to explore

These are my first two attempts at needle felting on random swatches remaining from machine knit experiments. Both pieces measure “postcard” 4X6 inches. The scale restriction requires thinking in a new way for me, and provides a different way to play with my yarn stash and found objects. It is not clear if any of these techniques will be incorporated into my clothing and accessories, or simply be an end in themselves. Collage lace with some of the same fibers is also on my list of “must try”.

A Felt Tale

The price of changing yarn constantly: my hats are made of plied
multi strands of different color yarns as large forms, then felted.
The yellow reflects the “usual” style: purl side out yields the brimmed
version, knit side out converts to bucket style. The blue is a hat that
shrank unpredictably in width (the hats are sideways knit): a new
“style” is born, its embellishment is needle felted yarn.