felt is having a very big moment according to susan brown

IF you ask her about trends in textiles, Susan Brown, an assistant curator at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, will tell you that felt is having a very big moment, finding its way into everything from fashion and product design to architectural installations and home furnishings.

It has become so ubiquitous, in fact, that Ms. Brown has organized an exhibition at the museum called “Fashioning Felt.” The show, which runs from March 6 to Sept. 7, explores the many uses of felt, from traditional pieces, like a Turkish shepherd’s cloak and an Afghan saddle pad, to contemporary objects like the “personal uniforms” designed and worn by the artist Andrea Zittel as conceptual art.

“There’s something so tactile about it,” Ms. Brown said of the fabric. “The desire to touch is strong with most textiles, but particularly so with felt.”

It differs from other fabrics, she explained, because it is made not by knitting or weaving but by matting wool fibers together using water and friction. The result, she said, “is very comforting, warm and inviting.”

This is very good news to me, since I love to felt!  Check out the rest of this new york times article at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/05/garden/05shopp.html

Her write up on the yurt exhibition is also really cool!

http://blog.cooperhewitt.org/2009/02/26/janice-arnold-sketches

About

Nancy Dorian is a fiber artist with a degree in Interior Design and Fine Arts minor in Ceramics. After a 15 year career in corporate office design, her company now & ZEN art to wear emerged from the belief that joy comes from doing what you love.

Always making and creating, Nancy developed strong skills in pottery, stained glass and jewelry. Having been taught to knit and sew at a very early age, she has fond memories of a fiber filled youth and now works primarily with fiber.

She creates one-of-a-kind wearable art garments using techniques such as Nuno Felting, Fiber Etching and Serti silk painting. Each piece is made by hand, one at a time, with unique fabrics she has created by using any number of the following techniques:

“Nuno Felt” emerges after adding a thin layer of wool roving, warm water and a little soap to silk fabric and then a whole lot of elbow grease to coax the fibers into becoming one. This results in a wonderfully textured, light weight fabric that drapes the body beautifully.

“Fiber Etching” creates gorgeous, flowing semi-transparent silk by carving away the rayon fibers of velvet or satin with etching solution and leaving sheer areas of silk chiffon.

“Serti” is a French word meaning to encircle or surround. In the serti technique, a resist is used to contain flowable dye within a design shape on fabric such as silk.

Since her work is not mass-produced, she typically attracts collectors who understand and appreciate the value of hand-crafted goods. They realize the uniqueness of what she  does. A person wears a “Dorian Original” for just that reason … to know it is a one-of-a-kind wearable work of art.

Nancy’s couture has been featured in Preview Massachusetts Magazine and can be found at galleries and boutiques throughout New England and on Nantucket. She enjoys teaching fiberart workshops and classes in her home studio, as well as the following venues :

• New England Felting Supply, Easthampton, MA
• WEBS, Northampton, MA
  
• Bead + Fiber, Boston, MA
  
• Fletcher Farms School for the arts and crafts, Ludlow, VT
  
• Wiawaka, Lake George, NY
  
• Hotchkiss School, Lakeville, CT
  
• Holyoke Community College, Holyoke, MA
• Holyoke Creative Arts Center, Holyoke, MA

If you would like to book a workshop please send your inquiries to nd@nancydorian.com