Artistic Process
These photos provide a view into my studio as I create a piece to celebrate winter. I wanted to capture some of the exhuberance of fresh snow in Vermont. The work is called Snowball, and has two main components--a brightly colored child's mitten and a fluffy snowball.
|
|
|
|
This is clean Romney wool from New Zealand. I took some of this same wool and dyed it red, yellow, and blue for the mitten.
|
|
|
I feed the wool and other fibers into a drumcarder to open and organize the locks. The result is a fluffy batt that I pull into long rovings, ready to spin. For the snowball in this piece, I blended wool, angora (rabbit fur), and glittery mylar together on the drumcarder. For other pieces I might use the drumcarder to blend fiber colors as one might blend paint.
|
|
|
|
|
|
I spin the yarn on a modern double-treadle spinning wheel, where I can influence the thickness and loft of the yarn by the techniques I use. The breed of sheep also affects the character of the wool and yarn, as does the decision to card it on the drumcarder as opposed to combing it with wool combs.
|
|
|
|
|
