The Ultimate Artist's Smock

This is the ultimate artist's smock.  And although you might not want to wear it for painting, it is so cool with all its pockets which literally could hold all your tools.  But what a garment to wear for traveling if we ever get that chance again.  You can pocket your cell phone, keys, wallet, passport and even keepsakes and talisman,

Ever since I got back from Ellen Baker's silk painting workshop on Salt Spring Island in British Columbia, I have been obsessed with painting silk and using them in felted garments.  And although I did not have the time to also take Fiona Duthie's complex garment workshop which used the painted silks, I was just blown away and totally inspired by the gorgeous felted garments in their Color Collaborations exhibit which was located in the same hall as our silk painting class.  

I arrived home just days before countries started closing their borders and stay at home orders issued.  During this pandemic, I have had the time to create in my studio even more than usual.  With the extra time and Fiona's motivation from her on-line challenge (mums the word on what I made for the challenge but you will see it in a few months when the photos are published) and her direction to push and stretch ourselves artistically, I have been teaching myself how to make complex garments using multiple resists.  I have also been figuring out ways to make closures by using things like snaps and grommets.

I am loving painting silk using the method I learned from Ellen Bakker.

This garment took a lot of engineering and design effort including color placement for both the wool roving and silk fabric.  I first made a drawing of the front and back of the garment and then made multiple resists allowing for 35% shrinkage.  

I made felted beads and buttons from 4 layers of roving.

I placed grommets in the felt pieces to make them look more like buttons.  And then I threaded thin felted cords through them to close up the pockets.

Fun, colorful, graphic, freedom, pockets, swinging, sculptural - all ways to describe this complex garment.

PART 2 - Indigo Dyed Nuno Felted Seamless Dress - The Reveal

To see how I made the prefelts, click HERE

Using many resists, including a godet on both the back and front to make a full skirted dress, I created the nuno felted seamless dress out of the indigo dyed prefelts, silks and wool roving by pieceing them on the front of the resist overlapping the edges of the resist so that they would seam to the sides and the shoulders of the back. 

 Once I worked the front with my hands and my new electric car buffer (thank you Mary Papaj), I flipped it and created the back of the dress. Then some rolling, more with the electric car buffer and then some fulling and voila...THE REVEAL (Drum roll):

Ready to party with my new dress and coordinated leggings and tee shirt.  I'm wearing a lapis necklace, silver bracelets and earring, blue shoes, blue toe nail polish and even blue eye glasses!

I used a portion of the shibori dyed prefelt as the main attraction in the bodice.  I cut up the shibori balls and used them sparingly on the front.

 
 I shibori tied and indigo dyed a pair of white cotton/spandex leggings that I bought on Dharma Trading.  These tights are OK but a bit saggy.  I'm on the look out for some other white leggings with more stretch.  None the less, they look adorable with the dress.

The back and left side

The back with the shibori wrapped portion at the top

I love the little flower on the right

2017 Nuno Felted Seamless Garment Workshop

STUDIO 907 - 2017 Nuno Felted Garment Workshop from Beth Marx on Vimeo.

Thirteen students came from near and far to attend Studio 907's February 2017 nuno felting seamless garment workshop in Southern California.  Experience ranged from students who had never made a felted garment to repeat students. The camaraderie among the group was terrific and most of us got together on Saturday evening to enjoy dinner at a local restaurant in Belmont Shore.  

The first of the four days was spent taking the train 50 minutes from Long Beach to downtown Los Angeles.  Once we departed the train, we walked the short distance to Beth's favorite fabric shops where the group had the opportunity to ooh & aah at all the silk fabric and then, with Beth's help if needed, coordinate colors and patterns and buy silk fabric (at excellent prices) not only for the workshop but also for their future felting projects.  After several hours of fabric shopping, we were ready to sit down and have a delicious lunch at a local Argentinean restaurant where the choices were plenty from burgers to empanadas to beautiful salads with salmon or ahi.  

The next three days were spent diligently working on the project.  I taught the students how to use one of their own garments to make a sized up pattern to account for shrinkage.  They were each given one of my "Easy Peasy Shrinkage Calculation Sheets" to make the calculations super easy; calculators are not even needed!  After that it was felting and fulling until they each finished their unique and beautiful creation.  On the last day we finished up with a photo shoot and critique. Everyone was in their element and glowing modeling their creation; I felt like a proud mama!

Kathy

Eva

Antoinette

Mary

Barbara

Deb

Vana

Lisa

Gayle

Pam

Peet

Barbara

Daveen