Diana Unterspan dayenu fiber art The Process

dayenu fiber art

the process

The process of creating each piece begins with the visual and emotional inspiration. Once an idea begins to develop, a silk organza armature is cut out on which the silk, wool, and embellishments will be affixed. The raw wool or degummed silk cocoon is hand dyed in small batches and slowly incorporated onto the base with felting needles. Since both silk and wool are animal fibers, they have a cuticle, as does human hair, and barbed needles cause the rough cuticles of each fiber to stick to one another. Felting can also be accomplished with hot water, soap for alkalinity and rubbing. In fact, the first cloth believed to be made by man was felt. Early man discovered that the sweat and heat from walking on wool padding caused the wool to "felt" into a cohesive cloth.

framed art pieces

Color, texture and depth are built by adding fibers, hand spun yarns, hand dyed silk chiffon, and ribbons until the piece begins to take on a life of it's own.

Here is a photo of fibers lined up and ready for their first pass with felting needles:

After about 30 minutes, the piece has been folded and felted many times, rather like making puff pastry, and a thick pad of fabric fibers begins to emerge.

This piece is the beginning of a work called tears that will be an abstract representation of Jerusalem's Wailing Wall.

Towards the end, beads, semi precious stones, wood or bone are used to embellish the pieces. They are generally then matted on contrasting dupioni silk and framed in small shadow boxes.

While sometimes a theme may be repeatedly worked out repeatedly, as with painting, no two pieces are the same.

Diana also also makes challah and matzoh covers to match your table design or home decor preferences. Felt hats and mezuzot covers. Call 503-799-3949 and visit her studio.