Sundancers, Wild Women and DreamWeavers

Coffee Filters as handmade fabric

Photo © Lucia Matzger.

Lucy Matzger and her friends and family save coffee filters to be used in two and three dimensional works of art.

The kimona, "Cafradice" shown is typical of her work.

The oils from the coffee permeate the filters and give it the unusual discolorations. The filters have been carefully dried, the grounds dispensed with, after which they are cleaned, ironed and worked in various manners.

Xeroxing, sewing, stapling, and stamping are some of the ways to embellish the filters before forming them in different shapes. Durability is obtained by coating each filter on both sides with a mixture of polymer media and umber. The threads are used to tie the filters to the work after the piece has been glued together.

A working artist since 1980, her work has been featured in:
Surface Design Journal, Winter/2002; Cover and article.
"Textile Plus", no. 182 December/02; portfolio.
"Fiberarts", Nov./Dec. 2002; review.

Dyeing for Color

I made my daily trek to In a minute ago, in her new index of textile related weblogs, I came across a new blog: Dyeing to Color. It's composed of wonderful links, great articles, resoureces, and information on all facets of dyeing. Give this energetic woman a visit and comment.

My experiments with dyeing have so far been limited... another thing on my proverbial list of things to get back to! I did natural dyeing many years ago in New Mexico. The wool yarns left from those days have mellowed to lovely colors - they're now about 25 years old. Another thing I have been pleased with is overdyeing a batch of odd yarns and fabrics to get a dyepot of nicely related colors.

Silk felting, handmade lace

Lovely day in Colorado! I have the urge to plant green stuff and sew new domestic stuff. Since our frost-free date is May 15, I'll just water the houseplants & then head for the studio.

By way of resources for how-to's / information for some "hole in the wall" fiberart techniques, have a look at the following if your interests flow in that direction:

Trennway Silks Company for step-by-step illustrated silk fusion directions, i.e. silk felt - it looks like a usable technique with possibilies.

Also mouse on over to the Chicago Area Lace Guild. They have a vast site of Handmade and Needlemade Lace with basic directions, resources, and lace identification. They say "Some kinds of lace practiced and collected by our members include: bobbin lace, crochet, filet lacis, knitted lace, needle lace, tatting, Teneriffe, Hardanger, pulled thread work, and many others. devoted to making, studying, and collecting all kinds of hand made lace..." Worth a look!