One of my big summer projects is an outdoor felt installation created for the juried exhibition LandArt @ ArtCraft. I have been fascinated with Land Art for many years and allowed the whisperings of a felt installation to roam around in my imagination...When the call for entry for [...]
‘SHIFT’ includes oil paintings by visual artist Barbra Edwards and sculptural feltmaking by fibre artist Fiona Duthie. Both artists use local, natural materials and subject matter in their work with a focus on texture, layers, and colour relationships. Although the artists feel a deep artistic connection, their works are produced [...]
This is a very special project. The first online exhibition of the Surface Design Online Challenge. The Surface Design Online program is all about experimentation and pushing yourself further into techniques, whether they are new to you, or familiar friends. I created this challenge and exhibition to continue this [...]
The Valhallas- the view from our cabin.... In my book of everything (my special black book that some of you will know!) this year is looking just fantastic, and got off to a wonderful beginning with some quiet personal time in a most beautiful place. The Valhalla Ranges in British [...]
Katia Mokeyeva and I are absolutely delighted to announce a workshop series to be offered this April at the Okanagan School of the Arts in Penticton, BC. The idea is to create a mix and match workshop combination where students can chose an assortment of classes, learn very different felting [...]
Registration is now open for the four online felting classes I'll be offering in Spring 2015. The Surface Design Online class has gotten bigger every time I've offered it....there is always just one more idea that comes up, related to the materials. Because of this and student feedback from [...]
I have been working in one version of my most perfect place... there are several variations on this... but this is definitely a good one. The Okanagan is beautiful. And home to Canada's best wines, including some amazing reds. I'm staying on the Naramata bench, right on the KVR [...]
Hegira He·gi·ra hiˈjīrə,ˈhejərə/ : any flight or journey to a more desirable or congenial place. Usually an exodus or migration. C16: from Medieval Latin, from Arabic hijrah: emigration or flight This is the sisterdress to Migration. I wanted to take the wishbone sculptural elements and use them in larger, [...]
The layouts in this series of dress sculptures were so complex. There were often multiple layers of resists, or else multiple layers of patterning. The designs had to be thought through in that reverse thinking way required when working with resists, and also with transparencies, opacities, and inclusions. My [...]
I'm really looking forward to this workshop. We have a great space- very large, open airy and bright. Lots of room to move and work and think. Plus it takes place at the same time as the opening of my upcoming exhibition at ArtCraft. This exhibition is a collection [...]
view from my classroom I've just arrived home from a very beautiful trip. As mentioned before, Texas was fantastic- such a great group of creative people. I had a few days before the beginning of the Felters Rendezvous and I had some writing to complete, so I created a little [...]
Registration for my Surface Design Online- Spring Session is now open! The class will start on April 5th and run until May 17th. All of the workshop information is available on my website: https://www.fionaduthie.com/surface-design-in-feltmaking-online-workshop/ I'm holding a little draw to thank everyone for their enthusiastic support of this new class. [...]
I feel as though I'm at the end of a long trip, and as wonderful as the experience has been and as much as I am loving every minute of it, I'm starting to look forward to being home, with friends and family. In this case, home is here, [...]
I'm so excited to be able to offer the Surface Design in Feltmaking workshop in an online format. It's taken many months of thinking and planning to get everything in place, with the teaching materials presented in a way that I feel best meets the needs of the students. [...]
This is a bit of a catch up post...Some work from 2013 I didn't share here. Facebook friends will have seen these images, but I missed writing about them here in the midst of the busy-ness that was Fall. These pieces and the photographs were an important part of my [...]
I've been having some fun this last week/weekend doing some felt consultancy work for Pollika. Pollika are a fibre company based in Vancouver who are the North American distributors for many European brands, including De Witte Engel and Painters Threads. I've been working with them to develop felting kits for [...]
These last two weeks I've been making the last arrangements and samples for my 2014 classes, which will have a strong emphasis in surface design. This is such an exciting topic, and my favourite theme for exploration in the studio. The spikes above are a new addition to the [...]
These 30 minute felt projects are an opportunity to come to the creative table with no expectations- just a short intensive, mind-wide-open exploration...It can be easy as a craftsperson to get stuck in a productions mindset, and this is an exercise to give ourselves permission to play within our medium. [...]
I did a quick tour of the studio today to compile a list of projects started in the last two weeks that are are waiting for finishing touches....It's quite a list! As of July 1st, I had absolutely not one piece of feltwork left in studio. I haven't been able [...]
Over the last few weeks I've been playing a new studio game.....15 minute felt projects. Just once a week, as an opportunity to approach design work with a blank mental slate, no commitments to outcome and sense of fun experimentation. This is actually the third of these projects.....the mountain vessel.... [...]
I am having a delicious stretch into new work....making pieces for the felt::feutre exhibition....It is so delightful to work out ideas without too much time pressure; just exploring pure creativity. This is a technique that I teach in my Surface Design class....using slow felting wools to create nodules....and in this [...]
This coat made it's first appearance in my sketchbook early in the year. Once I had opneed up some creative time this week, it positioned itself determinedly in the forefront of my attentions, allowing for no distraction. It is a felt jacket, created all in one piece, with lots of [...]
On every walk, I fall behind the rest of my family, camera in hand taking pictures of grasses, barks, water, frost, colours....whatever catches my eye... The images live in my hard drives...my computer and my mind, until they are ready to come to life in a new form. This cowl, [...]
It is a bright, new, shiny year...and it is going to be fabulous! So far every day has been filled with excitement, momentum and pure pleasure! And lots of work...but in the best possible way. I have launched a new project: felt :: feutre- a celebration of feltmaking [...]
This is my most recent in the series of scarves/wearables I've been making, inspired by the Korean art of Joomchi- a paper art form and process. The exploration has culminated in pieces that hold three aspects of surface design...all of which have a basis in geology.... a relationship between rock [...]
Felting with resists to create interesting surfaces....an exploration in materials...I'm enjoying tossing around in my head the language of another craft, Joomchi, while exploring this feltwork...the making of pockets.... Using different materials to create bubble and pockets....tyvek, high thread count quilting cottons, woven interfacing, non woven interfacings, cotton battings.....I [...]
I recently came across two books...images on the covers that stopped my steps and set my heart beating a little faster.... Yesterday's studio inspiration came from Joomchi and Beyond by Jiyoung Chung. It is an enticing craft form....similar to felting, but also different. I love finding a medium new [...]
Foxglove Farm, SaltSpring Island, British Columbia October 19/20/21st, 2012 10:00am-4:00pm + evenings The British Columbia retreat will be hosted at the very beautiful and charming Foxglove Farm. The farm is located on one of the original homesteads on the island, surrounded by hundreds of acres of protected forest [...]
I'm immersing myself more and more in my creative journey...more and more into exploring feltmaking and dyeing in my own way...exercising consciousness through the process and the artistic impetus within each method....Stretching into new ideas and finding my way into my full creative potential.... playing with words that have [...]
This summer I'm exploring ways to incorporate as much three dimensional texture as possible into my work. It such a fun experiment...I love that I can be making items to sell, while playing..... These experiments often involve trips to the hardware store...hardware and building materials seem a good combination with [...]
