Artful Explorations

WAYFARERS WANDERBOOK

ADVANCED 3-D ART

nature's dyes on paper w/ stitch and other media

Textile artist extraordinaire India Flint has been such an inspiration to me and my students these last several years.

So much so that I traveled north two summers ago (perhaps 3?) to take a class with her.

And with her permission I am teaching her Wayfarers Wanderbook to my Advanced 3-D students.

This year it was one woman-child, the very talented and creative junior Karisma Dev.

Karisma started her explorations by stitching designs into 3 different papers below with large medium and fine yarns/threads.

Then she bundled them with eucalyptus leaves and other leaf varieties and lightly boiled them.

The leaves release their color differently on the papers and yarns as you can see below.

This is the cover of Karisma's book below.

I love that she also eco-dyed a crochet doily to embellish with.

The piece of copper is a part of her closure and she allowed a lot of her fibrous materials to hang over the edges which I find very appealing.

As you open her book you explore the natural world of color.

Karisma shared with me that she experimented with onion skins, strawberries and other fruits, coffee and tea grounds, and several flower blossoms from around the school grounds.

She was able to work off and on this book for the entire school year in her spare time.

As she was binding it she really started to get creative with lace and other fiber embellishments.

As you can see below she even brought in a twig as embellishment...

and some stamping and watercolor.

She turned one of her papers into an envelop. 

On this paper she collected flowers from around the school and used a mallet to crush the dye onto the paper with lovely results.

I find myself constantly giving Karisma goodies to incorporate into her pieces, like for instance...

this Living and Dyeing tag from fellow fiber artist Michelle Hoffee, and the funny little light bulb below that she glued onto her paper.

I always appreciate how Karisma likes to recycle things that she finds around the room that others have discarded like the copper and wires you see below.

I really hope that India has a chance to peek at your book Karisma to see how she is influencing young artists around the globe!

See ya in a couple of weeks when school starts  :)