Helmut

 Helmut is one in the on-going series of PENDULES.   Bound and wrapped.   About 26" long.  Cording inside and LOTS of dyed cottons and other random fabrics.  It was created over an old bicycle helmet as an armature which is no longer required as the piece holds its shape without it now that it is completed.

                          See more at https://DeborahWeir.net.   

Excellence in Quilts

MURANO was just juried into Fiber Art Now's biannual exhibit: Excellence in Quilts.  I'm so pleased!!  I was inspired by a photo I took while in Murano, Venice, Italy, of a gorgeously rusted metal fence.  Irresistible!  The piece has a 3D surface to indicate the rusty, peeling paint.

The image will appear in the Fall edition of the journal and, I hope, tour a bit into 2023.

Good time to share some good news from FiberFly Studios!

The following 3 pieces are on view:

Held Harmless #6 is at the Blue Line Gallery in Sacramento
in the SAQA Northern California regional exhibit called Forever Changed.  I made a paper collage, had it printed then hand stitched to connect and emphasize elements of the design.

Shibori Dye Day is a trompe l'oeil piece I made from a photo I took, then I made it pop in Photoshop.  It does fool the eye as it has a REAL shibori piece on the surface and no one knows if the blue is the indigo dye bath or a reflection of the sky.  It's on its way to Visions in San Diego.

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AbEx Next Gen was just accepted into the Oz Quilt Network's biannual traveling exhibition.  It will tour around Australia into 2024.  This is the "next generation" of a large mixed media piece I made several years ago.  I photographed a small section of it, tweaked it till it came back to life, and then printed and hand stitched it.

Advocacy Project's Bangladeshi Quilt Project

 I was invited to make a quilt from 10 embroideries made about the Covid pandemic.  These came from an embroidery training program for women in Bangladesh to provide them with skills they can market.  The final quilt will be auctioned in North America as a fund raiser for the project.  It was fun to find a way to combine these unique pieces with one of my ice dyed fabrics and also with a fabric I designed of a playful fish. The embroideries included references to a fishing dependent culture!  The long arm quilting was done by Carolyn Reno and a donation for that was made by Bunnie Mauldin.  

Kenyan Quilt Project

I was lucky enough to participate in the Sister Artist project out of Kenya. I was given the embroidery of the ostrich done by Catherine Akyini. She has been developing her stitching skills through a program supported by the Advocacy Project, an international aid agency. These are marketable skills and she is getting education on how to do so through the program. Once I received the piece I put into an art quilt I designed around it.

As you will see here these are being auctioned at a gala at the Textile Museum in Washington, DC, on March 11 and 12 as a fund raiser for the project. The Advocacy Project has made a fabulous catalog that everyone can access online and then decide what to bid on. My piece is the one with the REAL ostrich feather tail! No ostriches were harmed . . .

Here's a link: https://advocacyproject.betterworld.org/auctions/sister-artists-kenya

3 Ring Circus is the latest piece in the Pendules series

This guy is about 45" long and was determined to be lopsided, but I beat him into submission. There was both a literal and a visual set of issues.  3D just has so many elements to consider which is why it's so much fun to make 3D pieces!!!

PENDULES

 All that wrapping and binding I've been doing the last few years has taken a turn:  Pendules are the result.   These are more open and are suspended in some way.

Held Harmless #15

Another one of the fairly small quilts (this one is 20" x 28") which point out those who made the Covid pandemic WORSE but will never be called out for their bad behavior.    I started making this series during the first Pandemic year, 2020.  There is at least one more piece to come. 

Ai's Stools

 I dragged some friends to all 3 of the Ai Wei Wei exhibits that were in LA several years ago.   This photo was from the gallery full of LOTS of well used stools that Ai had collected from all over China.  I tweaked my photo to give it the rich color and then, once printed, added my stitching to rebalance the image, and I left some thread ends visible to emphasize the tattered nature of the stools themselves.

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Railing Venice Beach

 This piece is from a photo I took at the skate board park on the sand in Venice.    Wonderfully rusted bit of fencing.  I tweaked the photo, had it printed then stitched to emphasize elements in the image, especially the bubbling rust.

Border Wall Down

This is the installation of the piece I made last year.  It is rope bound with  mostly hand-dyed cotton and studio detritus.

Summer Heat

 YIPPEE!   Summer Heat was juried into the upcoming Fiber Arts San Antonio exhibition - October into early November.   Check out all the hand stitching!

Coffee anyone??

I have enjoyed a lovely workshop with Lorna Crane out of Australia.    Here are some of the fabrics I created with inks made into a 3D vessel - something she has pursued in great detail in her own art practice.

Paleo Cave Art

I haven't posted anything in the series I've been working on for the past 6 months as nothing is resolved yet.  Miles of rust-dyed osnaberg cotton and stacks of experiments, but I feel like I'm beginning to approach the deep dive so here's a (commercial fabric) micro version of one unit of a big wall piece, or 6.  Fosshape and needle lace and miles of hand stitching are coming into focus!    These are NOT cylinders but cave wall undulations.

Practical Brushes

Yes, these are the ones I made for Lorna Crane's workshop and then used!  The feather is my favorite. 

Inspired by Lorna Crane's Workshop

 Here are a few of the goodies I made as a result of taking this wonderful workshop. 

So far behind

 I see that it's been months since I last posted.  CRAZY busy!!   Here are a few nibbles.   Bundles (By A Thread) and Wounded Sentinels.   More to come!

 

KIRIGAMI

   This one is paper so holds folds well.    More trompe l'oeil???