Technique and Medium
I created my own innovative technique combining digital and fiber art.
The creation of my fiber art animal portraits begins with a reference photo that best represents the animal’s personality.
My process involves taking photographs of nature and various textures which I transform into repeating patterns. I store these in the computer as custom paint brushes.
This is a sample of my stored brushes. I save them in color groupings.
I paint the animal’s portrait on the computer with my pallet of patterns using a stylus pen and pad.
Digital in progress on left and completed on right.
I have the artwork printed on cotton fabric and shipped to me.
I then create a quilt sandwich with backing, batting, and the whole cloth portrait.
The process of top stitching or quilting involves changing the thread color about 30-100 times.
I guide the fabric under the needle.
The smaller quilts are finished by stretching over bars like a canvas.
The larger pieces are finished with a traditional binding edge and hung with a rod.
