Selvedge – Jane Jackson
“Although I quite like doing pictures of wildlife, getting their faces right, especially the eyes, is really difficult. With just a slightly wrong stab of a felting needle, an animal’s face can be transformed into something that looks very fierce, cross-eyed or way too cutesy. I’ve had to pull the heads off many an animal […]
Selvedge – Leni Levenson Wiener
“I consider what I do journalistic in nature. I think of myself as a storyteller in fabric,” says Leni Levenson Wiener. by Janai Velez Leni Levenson Wiener is a “people watcher” and has always been drawn to observing and immortalising everyday moments – people hunched over mobile phones or absorbed in their book, intimate glances […]
Designer Edge – Sarah K. Benning
Sarah K. Benning splits her time between a sunny Spanish island and the USA, which makes having a garden and growing plants pretty difficult. by Janai Velez Instead, she has created a vibrant, indoor ‘vertical garden’ of embroidered plants, the inspiration for which came during the long, dark, cold winters experienced in Upstate New York. “It […]
Designer Edge – Megan Nedds
When you look at this cheetah in mid-chase, you’re struck by its realism. You’re taken along on its hunt for prey – its eye fixed on its quarry, its posture streamlined and its movement sleek and effortless. by Susan Hurley Similarly, a quick glance at the needle-felted foxes has you caught up in their play. […]
Designer Edge – Andrea Brokenshire
Flowers are at the very core of American artist Andrea Brokenshire’s life. Big, beautiful blooms! Even as a child, she was drawn to them. by Janai Velez When her mother was shopping for fabrics with her daughters, Andrea’s sisters chose pale, quieter designs, while Andrea made a beeline for the brightest bolt in the store – […]
Designer Edge: Meet Joy Pitts
Showy types like to flaunt their designer labels all over town, but for most of us lesser mortals, clothing tags stay hidden from view. Now, one very fine artist is getting in on the act and making masterpieces from these rag-trade IDs. By Janai Velez UK-based artist Joy Pitts uses labels by the thousand. She […]
Designer edge: Meet Claire Read
“They made me smile, made my heart leap a little. I guess you could say I fell in love.” Claire Read recalls when she first discovered her passion for making ‘storybox’ sculptures – little whimsical worlds created with repurposed materials. “I take the unwanted, the unloved, the damaged, the decayed and put them together in […]