Gladys Seaward

Gladys Seaward been involved with the fiber arts since the mid 1970s and has been a member of Potomac Fiber Arts Gallery in Alexandria, VA since 1986.

After studying a number of bead weaving techniques and stitches, She decided to focus mainly on freeform and sculptural beadwork to produce one of a kind creations.

Her beadwork has been exhibited at Del Ray Artisans, Artisans Center of Virginia, 2004 Annual Open Exhibition of the Fairfax County Council of the Arts, Beadwork Magazine website, Creative Crafts Council 2005-2015 Exhibitions, the Greater Reston Arts Center, the Fifth Avenue Gallery, (Melbourne, FL), the 2006 Grace Annual Juried Show, Rosshdu Gallery, the Lorton Workhouse, the Circle Gallery in Annapolis, MD, Verizon Gallery at Northern Virginia Community College, the Arena Stage Fiber Show and the Stone Tower Gallery in Glen Echo, MD.

gseaward@aol.com

Nan Lopata

I was introduced at a young age to the tactile joy of working with wool, and I try to bring that sense of playfulness to my work today. I love experimenting with color and texture, and introducing unexpected elements in my spinning and knitting. These ancient crafts connect me to the past as I explore modern techniques and ideas.

Marla Rudnick

Marla S. Rudnick’s early forays into knitting and metal work fused into an exploration of knitting metals into wearable art and sculpture. She enjoys observing and thinking about how objects occupy space both internally and externally. Her observations manifest themselves in her knitted metal work by the nature of the piece. When viewed her jewelry and sculptural work reveal the exterior plane, interior plane and the shadows created.

Marla has trained at Fleischer Art Memorial in Philadelphia, Creative Arts Workshop in New Haven, CT, Philadelphia College of Art and The Craft Alliance in Saint Louis, MO. She was a Resident Artist at VisArts in Rockville, MD from April 2010-2013.Presently she is a member if the Potomac Fiber Arts Gallery in Alexandria, VA. Marla has received multiple awards for her work in local exhibitions.

"Prayer for Ukraine" by Eileen Doughty

Eileen has made a 5”x7” wall piece for submission to our March 23- April 24 Exhibit, “Outer Space”. Here are slides of her process to create the piece.

The first image shows the metallic fibers as it comes, in the bags; blue and gold sheets have been fused by ironing.

Second picture - she has started to stitch on the sheets and cut out shapes.

The flower components were layered and stitched. She covered a stretched canvas with a piece of hand-painted cotton fabric. Then the flowers were glued on top. The topmost flower has a peace sign in the center.

This is one of several Ukrainian-themed pieces Eileen is submitting to the gallery for this show. They are blue and yellow, have sunflowers, the Ukrainian flag, or peace signs. I will donate 50% of sales to refugee relief organizations.

Marisela Rumberg

Marisela finds inspiration for her art in nature and the history, legends, traditions and stories of her native Mexico; she also enjoys Zentangle abstract art. Her work has been exhibited at several venues in the US including the Houston International Quilt show, and around the world in Mexico, Brazil, France, England and Russia. Learn more about her and her work at www.MariselaRumberg.com.

Eco-printed and rust-dyed scarves Eco-printing is a natural dyeing process using plants in textiles or paper. Pigments are extracted from all parts of the plant including flowers, leaves, seeds, stems or bark. Rust-dyeing is a process by which fabric or paper is colored using objects that are rusted.

Art Quilts I love Free Motion Quilting, that's why all my art quilts are heavily quilted with Free Motion.  Mayas, Aztecs and all Mexican legends and stories inspire my art quilts. I also enjoy creating abstract pieces that are Zentangle Art Quilts.

Paper Mache Sculptures,  Alebrijes Collection - Alebrijes are representative of the Mexican culture. They are imaginary creatures that have elements from different animals such as dragon bodies, butterfly wings and rabbit ears.  Colorfully painted, they were originally made with paper maché but nowadays they are also wood carved.

My figures have “Alebrije Skin”:  cotton fabric scraps form a skin with many different patterns, colors, textures and images.

Merle Thompson

I sew quilted jackets. I assemble about 20 fabrics in a pleasant color scheme, cut them into strips of various widths and lay them out beside my sewing machine. Having cut the pattern from white flannel, I begin to sew the strips onto the flannel in a stitch and flip method so that when I finish, the pattern pieces are already quilted.

In this instance, the customer wanted a scalloped edge that didn't have buttons, an unusual idea that I enjoyed sewing for her.

Fran Spaeder

My primary fiber technique is Patchwork inspired by my efforts to combat wastefulness in our environment. The smallest pieces of fabric whether new or repurposed, are contained in my home & wardrobe accessories. 

The process I used for the “crazy” patchwork tote as pictured, began by selecting colorful & complimentary pieces from my huge stash of scraps. Then my love for jigsaw puzzles kicks in as I sew the pieces together then machine quilt & embroider. Finally, I attach the straps & lining and Voila!!!

Paige Garber

I am a native Washingtonian and am constantly enriched by the wonderful cultural and artistic opportunities in the area. I enjoy doing many fiber techniques, but currently I am primarily felting. Felting came to me through our Potomac Fiber Arts Guild and it has kept me challenged and inspired with its endless possibilities.  

I enjoy making felted shawls so much because the shrinkage and migration of the wool through the silk makes the piece organic as well as cohesive.  There is an element of magic in the movement of the wool that I find enchanting.

In making my shawls I lay down a layer of silk, usually chiffon, then a layer of Merino wool that feels soft on the skin.  Lastly is the fun part--the surface decoration.  I love to cut out bits of colored silk and lay them down in a mosaic of movement that swirls around the wearer.  Finally, the piece is wetted down with warm, sudsy water, encapsulated in plastic and agitated to felt and full the shawl.  When it is complete all the elements are fully integrated with the wool having migrated through all the layers and shrunk to hold them together in a cohesive piece of felt.

Clara Graves

Silk is my only medium. I paint on it with both dyes and silk paints. I thoroughly enjoy the feeling of painting with dye on silk and watching the amazing colors that develop in the process. Whether it is creating wearable art or a painting, I love the puzzle of making a design concept a reality on the silk.

Painting on silk has some of the same characteristics as watercolor in that the dyes and paints are transparent. Without a way to contain them they will flow until they have no more energy to travel further. The traditional method used to contain the flow of dye is to draw a resist line to create an enclosed area and then paint within that space. In the garment to the left I have used a black Neopaque paint to create the resist line.

    I make what I call “Stained Glass” scarves. With silk that I have created using several different techniques as well as silk organza that I dyed. You can see an example to the lower right.

     First, I choose a color palette and lay out the silks I have chosen for the scarf.  After cutting them to size I stitch them together using a serger sewing machine and black thread to represent the lead in a stained glass window. I then add long strips of dyed organza, always with a yellow strip to represent sunlight. The scarf is finished with the same dense black stitching used to piece the scarf together.

Grace Mahanes

I relish making things by hand.  Always have.  For years, I knitted avidly.  Later, for more than twenty years, I created and sold jewelry comprised of antique and vintage buttons and watch parts. Finally, I found my true passion: felt making.

Training with masters in the art for ten years honed my skills.  Manipulating soft, colorful, Merino wool roving into such things as hats, purses, vessels, garments, and jewelry feels like pure magic.

My favorite technique? Nuno felting! Who can resist combining lustrous silk fabric and wool roving into a new, artsy, mystifying textile

Eileen Doughty

I distill a textile artwork down to its bare minimum – the thread, the lone fiber – by constructing three dimensional sculptures composed only of thread, created on my domestic sewing machine. There are intriguing possibilities for composition, just as in my art quilt body of work, which is primarily about the landscape. The surface also lends itself to varieties of texture, and details such as large voids or embellishments.

Complicated pieces require some initial experimentation with cardstock paper. When I'm satisfied with the design, I draw the pieces onto wash-away stabilizer with a Sharpie marker. My sewing machine is set for free-motion stitching: feed dogs down, embroidery foot. The stitch "length" is set by how quickly I move my hands and press on the foot pedal. The area should not be completely filled in with stitching; some stabilizer will still be seen between threads. Wash out stabilizer with lukewarm water and let the pieces air dry. Then butt the edges of each component together and free-motion stitch to join. The joins may have to be hand stitched if the piece cannot fit under the sewing machine. Additional shaping and embellishments may be done at this stage.

Gladys J. Seaward

I am mostly involved with freeform sculptural jewelry, often including found objects such as sea glass or stones. Or semiprecious gems. I use many different kinds of stitches to create one of a kind pieces, designing ad hoc, or as I go. My pieces are sturdy as I use mostly fishing line as the connecting thread and trace the thread path many times in the course of designing a piece

Floris Flam

I have sewn since childhood and have been a quilter for more than 30 years, a dyer for almost 20. I discovered art quilts in 1986 and was immediately inspired to work in this exciting medium.

My primary art medium is pieced and quilted wall hangings.

My work is inspired by the geometry of the world around me. It is abstract, but often suggests architecture, influenced by my having grown up in New York City and by my travels. I love color, visual texture, and spatial ambiguity.

I dye and print white fabric using a wide range of surface design processes, such as low-water immersion dyeing, screen printing, and various resist techniques. I start each quilt by selecting a palette of colors and fabrics and proceed intuitively and interactively, adding or removing fabrics and shapes until I’ve achieved a pleasing composition. I stitch these fabrics together, further modifying the design as I proceed. I add batting and machine quilt my work using a wide range of thread colors to add texture, reinforce the composition, and provide a further layer of interest. I hope the viewer can enjoy the work as a whole from a distance and discover new delights when they come closer.

I began working with Procion MX dyes about 20 years ago, first dyeing cotton for my quilted wall hangings, then working with silk. I’ve taken many workshops to learn the basics and such specialized techniques such as screenprinting and discharge.

I dye silk scarves, napkin sets, and tea towels as well as cotton sateen for use in needle cases and other small works.

I generally start with a “blank”—a pre-hemmed white scarf.  Sometimes there is one dye process, such as is the case with the tray-dyed scarf at the left.  Sometimes there are two processes, as in the center scarf.  This scarf was first dyed pale green, then folded and clamped with plexiglass circles and immersed in blue dye to get the darker green. The scarf on the right was dyed in shades of gold using an interfacing stencil.  The circular motifs were later stenciled using an original Thermofax screen and orange thickened dye.

For me, the joy in surface design is working with color and a range of techniques. There seems to be an endless number of techniques to master, so the learning always continues.

Joyce Keister

My love for art and fashion turned into a lifelong passion for creating and designing one-of-a-kind fabric and clothing.    I make wearable art, beginning from scratch with my own handwoven fabrics that range from silk to merino wool, cashmere, cotton and even bamboo.  Then I transform my fabrics into designs that incorporate bold colors and patterns, that are timeless and comfortable to wear.

I dye yarn, wind the warp onto my loom, thread each strand through the heddles, and weave the fabric.  I use a computer program to design original weave structures.

The luxury of silk fabrics has always appealed to me.  I now dye and paint silks, for scarves and a few silk garments.   Shibori techniques involve using many devices to create resist patterns.  Also discharge, stenciling, pleating and binding the silk creates pattern.  Clothing is sewn and finished in my studio. 

Carol Brobst

I am a mostly self-taught beadweaver using traditional hand stitching techniques to combine seed beads into my designs, creating unique jewelry pieces. Some of the stitches I use are: peyote stitch, herringbone stitch and brick stitch in symmetrical and sometimes freeform styles. Czech beads, Japanese cylinder beads and nylon beading thread are my main materials.

I also have an interest in other fiber techniques and incorporate these into my jewelry: lucet braiding, pin loom weaving, knitting and crochet. Other interests are knitting, hand spinning and weaving and I create scarves, shawls and hats with my handspun yarn.

Artisan Masks - Safe and Beautiful

Many of the members of the Gallery have stepped up to the task of protecting people from COVID 19. Here are some of their creations.

Fran Spaeder - Last spring I joined the Million Mask Challenge. I made 200+ masks for family, friends, DC’s Beacon House and the Navajo Nation. I made masks for the gallery when it reopened. My masks are all cotton with an inner layer of non-woven interfacing. Fronts are patchwork, backs are not. Ear attachments are 1/4 “ elastic with adjustable toggles. Washable. Nose & chin darts provide a close. Spaederfran@gmail.com (Last two images in the slideshow.)

Janet Stollnitz - I was slow to jump on the mask-making bandwagon when health officials recommended that people wear masks as I had a small supply of N95 and dust masks that I used when dyeing. However, as the weeks passed, I realized that my supply would be depleted before the pandemic abated. I surfed the net looking for mask patterns and suggested materials: quilting cottons, non-woven interfacing, narrow elastic, and pony beads. In addition to dyeing, Although I’m not a quilter, I dye, print, and stamp cotton fabrics suitable for quilting—perfect for masks! Since my fabric supply consists of unique, small pieces, each mask is one-of-a-kind. (Middle two images in the slideshow.)

Eileen Doughty - When the CDC began to recommend the wearing of masks last spring, I started to see posts on social media about making and donating masks. Eventually I heard of the Million Mask Challenge, which became quite active in the Metro DC area. They vetted the need for donations, and they had tested enough variations to come up with a simple and effective, and fairly comfortable, version. This was in April, and the world seemed to be closing down (and PFAG temporarily closed), sucking my creativity down a black hole with it. Making masks was mindless enough that I felt I was at least doing something worthwhile.

Through late spring, summer, and early autumn, I made and donated almost exactly 600 masks. They went to medical centers, social workers, teachers, first responders. Some went to Seattle to be handed out at Black Lives Matter protests. My stash in my sewing room slowly decreased over those months. I uncovered fabric I had forgotten I had, had no idea why I had bought it or what I had surface-designed it for. It was doubly pleasing to use up the fabric for a good purpose.

Elastic was a different story. I quickly went through the little I had. The Million Mask organization sometimes had some to give away. A shout-out to PFAG members Joyce Keister and Joanne Bast, who send me yards and yards for free.

As PFAG reopened, and the autumn saw the Covid cases seeming to decline a bit, my creativity began to return. I started thinking about upcoming holiday sales opportunities. The Million Mask pattern didn't seem special enough to sell in a fine art gallery, and the pleats didn't offer a nice "canvas" for what I like to create. Another PFAG member, Mickey Kunkle, had been making nice masks and gave me some tips. I liked how the mask wasn't pleated, it's elastic over the head was in a fabric casing, and it tied behind the neck. So I had a nice "canvas" to work on. It also allowed me to design some that men might like to wear.

My stash shelves are much emptier, and I have a bit of elastic left. I am looking forward to masks no longer being a "thing" in my inventory. (First two images in the slideshow.)
http://DoughtyDesigns.com

Joanne Bast

As a child, I did a lot of number paintings, but I never followed the lines, and embroidery kits, but I never read the instructions.  When it came time for college, I believed I must put away childish things and study something serious. After pursuing several scientific degrees, I rediscovered stitchery as an art form.

            I worked both flat and sculpturally, eventually moving into fiber jewelry.  I became enamored with beads first to weight down fiber adornments and eventually as a medium in their own right.  I found my background in manipulating sculptural forms in thread translated well into beadwork. I have since also moved into knitting and felting and stitching. Whether working with beads, fabric or wool, my primary artistic focus is color and color shadings as well as shaping sculptural forms.