DIY: Fiber sculpture

Every day (uhm, most days?) we put on apparel made of fabric, which is made of fiber and stitched together. For some artists the fabric and fiber are most interesting.  Sometimes what they do is called textile art, sometimes fabric sculpture.  Stuffed dolls, puppets, and dramatic props fit in here. Below are some ways fabric and fiber are being used creatively.

Andrea Graham makes felt and felt shapes.

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Andrea Graham, oganic pods, TextileArtist

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For instructions on how to make felt and shape (needle) felt, take a look at these wikiHow articles.

Lisa Lichtenfels make fabric sculptures.

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Lisa Lichtenfels, womanegg, LisaLichtenfels.net

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She says about her art:

 Curiously, although my work has evolved over the years, my earlier styles of working have never been out of favor with me, and I love the early figures as much as ever. I still cherish my first soft sculpture, and it reminds me of the time I showed her to a college professor. He proclaimed it the “worst piece of junk” he had ever critiqued, and chastised me at length for having the gall to present it. I also remember how hurt he was that his words didn’t bother me. How could he have known that all his harsh castigation could possibly achieve was the cementing of a permanent relationship between a new artist and her work? In any case, I can’t say I explored my medium as much as followed where it took me. It has been such an enlightening, enriching, and forgiving journey that I always feel excited in the morning when I go into my studio.

Visit her techniques page for tips on how she does what she does.

Rebecca Akins makes puppets and props.

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Rebecca Akins, A Puppet Couple, Prop Agenda

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Her work and the materials she's used are reported by Eric Hart in his post, "Rebecca Akins: Surviving Forty Years of Making Props." WonderHowTo has a collection of easy movie prop ideas.

The elusive French designer, Manon Gignoux, gives new purpose to old clothes and used fabric to make dolls and other items.

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Manon Gignoux, dolls, Stars

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Sam in Sam's Notebook quotes Manon:

The clothes I create pass on the experience of living, flattering and deforming the body. My fabric dolls, each a kind of symbolic object, represent attitudes and personalities. I play on the relationship between clothes and object, I dress objects in order to protect them and to tell their story… damaged coverings, darned, made from accumulation and colours faded by time. I also set up installations in which I associate my work with objects that I have found, re-invented and/or photographed.

And photographer Eric Valdenaire beautifully catalogues her studio.

In closing, here's a company--Transformit--that makes fabric structures.  While their products look somewhat commercial, they offer great ideas for art installations and decorating.

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Transformit, suspended form

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Transformit rents and makes-to-order a variety of shapes and gives instructions on how to set them up.

-- Marge