Fiber art
Encyclopedia
Fine art
Fine art or the fine arts encompass art forms developed primarily for aesthetics and/or concept rather than practical application. Art is often a synonym for fine art, as employed in the term "art gallery"....
which uses textiles such as fabric, yarn
Yarn
Yarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibres, suitable for use in the production of textiles, sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, embroidery and ropemaking. Thread is a type of yarn intended for sewing by hand or machine. Modern manufactured sewing threads may be finished with wax or...
, and natural and synthetic fibers. It focuses on the materials and on the manual labour involved as part of its significance.
Fiber
Traditionally fiber is taken from plants or animalsAnimal fiber
Animal fibers are natural fibers that consist largely of particular proteins. Instances are silk, hair/fur and feathers. The animal fibers used most commonly both in the manufacturing world as well as by the hand spinners are wool from domestic sheep and silk. Also very popular are alpaca fiber...
, for example cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....
from cotton seed pods, linen
Linen
Linen is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant, Linum usitatissimum. Linen is labor-intensive to manufacture, but when it is made into garments, it is valued for its exceptional coolness and freshness in hot weather....
from flax
Flax
Flax is a member of the genus Linum in the family Linaceae. It is native to the region extending from the eastern Mediterranean to India and was probably first domesticated in the Fertile Crescent...
stems, wool
Wool
Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....
from sheep hair, or silk
Silk
Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity...
from the spun cocoons of silkworms. In addition to these traditional materials, synthetic
Synthetic fiber
Synthetic fibers are the result of extensive research by scientists to improve on naturally occurring animal and plant fibers. In general, synthetic fibers are created by forcing, usually through extrusion, fiber forming materials through holes into the air, forming a thread...
materials such as plastic acrylic
Acrylic fiber
Acrylic fibers are synthetic fibers made from a polymer with an average molecular weight of ~100,000, about 1900 monomer units. To be called acrylic in the U.S, the polymer must contain at least 85% acrylonitrile monomer. Typical comonomers are vinyl acetate or methyl acrylate...
are now used.
In order for the fiber to be made into cloth or clothing, it must be spun
Spinning (textiles)
Spinning is a major industry. It is part of the textile manufacturing process where three types of fibre are converted into yarn, then fabric, then textiles. The textiles are then fabricated into clothes or other artifacts. There are three industrial processes available to spin yarn, and a...
(or twisted) into a strand known as yarn
Yarn
Yarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibres, suitable for use in the production of textiles, sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, embroidery and ropemaking. Thread is a type of yarn intended for sewing by hand or machine. Modern manufactured sewing threads may be finished with wax or...
. When the yarn is ready and dye
Dye
A dye is a colored substance that has an affinity to the substrate to which it is being applied. The dye is generally applied in an aqueous solution, and requires a mordant to improve the fastness of the dye on the fiber....
d for use it can be made into cloth in a number of ways. Knitting
Knitting
Knitting is a method by which thread or yarn may be turned into cloth or other fine crafts. Knitted fabric consists of consecutive rows of loops, called stitches. As each row progresses, a new loop is pulled through an existing loop. The active stitches are held on a needle until another loop can...
and crochet
Crochet
Crochet is a process of creating fabric from yarn, thread, or other material strands using a crochet hook. The word is derived from the French word "crochet", meaning hook. Hooks can be made of materials such as metals, woods or plastic and are commercially manufactured as well as produced by...
are common methods of twisting and shaping the yarn into garments or fabric. The most common use of yarn to make cloth is weaving
Weaving
Weaving is a method of fabric production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. The other methods are knitting, lace making and felting. The longitudinal threads are called the warp and the lateral threads are the weft or filling...
. In weaving, the yarn is wrapped on a frame called a loom
Loom
A loom is a device used to weave cloth. The basic purpose of any loom is to hold the warp threads under tension to facilitate the interweaving of the weft threads...
and pulled taut vertically. This is known as the warp
Warp (weaving)
In weaving cloth, the warp is the set of lengthwise yarns that are held in tension on a frame or loom. The yarn that is inserted over-and-under the warp threads is called the weft, woof, or filler. Each individual warp thread in a fabric is called a warp end or end. Warp means "that which is thrown...
. Then another strand of yarn is worked back and forth wrapping over and under the warp. This wrapped yarn is called the weft
Weft
In weaving, weft or woof is the yarn which is drawn through the warp yarns to create cloth. In North America, it is sometimes referred to as the "fill" or the "filling yarn"....
. Most art and commercial textiles are made by this process.
For centuries weaving has been the way to produce clothes. In some cultures, weaving forms demonstrate social status. The more intricate the weaving, the higher the status. Certain symbols and colors also allowed identification of class and position. For example, in the ancient Incan civilization, black and white designs indicated a military status.
In Europe between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries woven pieces called "tapestries" took the place of paintings on walls. The Unicorn in Captivity is part of a series consisting of seven tapestry panels known as The Hunt of the Unicorn by Franco Flemish from this time period. Much of the art at the time in history was used to tell common folktales that also had a religious theme.
Mark Gertlein wrote, "Tapestry is a special type of weaving in which the weft yarns are manipulated freely to form a pattern or design on the front of the fabric." He added, "Often the weft yarns are of several colors and the weaver can use the different-colored yarns almost as flexible as a painter uses pigment on canvas."
At the same time period in the Middle East, fiber artists did not make tapestry or wall hanging weavings, but instead created beautifully crafted rugs. The woven rugs did not depict scenes in a story, but instead used symbols and complex designs. An example of this type of art are the giant rugs known as the Ardabil carpets. Gertlein wrote, "Like most Islamic carpets, they were created by knotting individual tufts of wool onto a woven ground."
Another fiber art technique is quilting
Quilting
Quilting is a sewing method done to join two or more layers of material together to make a thicker padded material. A quilter is the name given to someone who works at quilting. Quilting can be done by hand, by sewing machine, or by a specialist longarm quilting system.The process of quilting uses...
in which layers of fabric are sewn together. Although this technique has not been around for as long as weaving, it is a popular form of art in American history. Recently, quilted fiber art wall hangings have become popular with art collectors. This non-traditional form often features bold designs.
Other fiber art techniques are knitting, rug hooking, felting, braid
Braid
A braid is a complex structure or pattern formed by intertwining three or more strands of flexible material such as textile fibres, wire, or human hair...
ing or plait
Plait
A plait may refer to:* Plait, also called a braid, intertwined strands of, for example, textile or hair* Plait, now called a pleat, a fold of fabric, used in clothing and upholstery* Plait , a fold in the columella of a gastropod mollusc...
ing, macrame
Macramé
Macramé or macrame is a form of textile-making using knotting rather than weaving or knitting. Its primary knots are the square knot and forms of "hitching": full hitch and double half hitches...
, lace
Lace
Lace is an openwork fabric, patterned with open holes in the work, made by machine or by hand. The holes can be formed via removal of threads or cloth from a previously woven fabric, but more often open spaces are created as part of the lace fabric. Lace-making is an ancient craft. True lace was...
making, flocking (texture)
Flocking (texture)
Flocking is the process of depositing many small fiber particles onto a surface. It can also refer to the texture produced by the process, or to any material used primarily for its flocked surface. Flocking of an article can be performed for the purpose of increasing its value in terms of the...
and more. There are a wide variety of dye
Dye
A dye is a colored substance that has an affinity to the substrate to which it is being applied. The dye is generally applied in an aqueous solution, and requires a mordant to improve the fastness of the dye on the fiber....
techniques. Sometimes cyanotype
Cyanotype
Cyanotype is a photographic printing process that gives a cyan-blue print. The process was popular in engineering circles well into the 20th century. The simple and low-cost process enabled them to produce large-scale copies of their work, referred to as blueprints...
and heliographic (sun printing
Sun printing
Sun printing may refer to various printing techniques which use sunlight as a developing or fixative agent.-Cyanotype:Cyanotype, also referred to as "blueprinting", is the oldest non-silver photographic printing process. It involves exposing materials which have been treated with a solution of...
) are used.
Fiber artists face the same dilemma of all artists; determining "what is art?" More so with fiber arts, in that even if a particular potholder or doily is pleasing aesthetically, does that make it art? Typically, pieces like potholders, which just follow patterns without doing anything more, are not considered works of fiber art. Fiber art works are works of art that communicate some sort of message, emotion or meaning and go beyond just the literal meaning of the materials. Fiber arts face the challenge at times of the message or meaning of the work of art being eclipsed by the study of the materials used and their history, rather than what they contribute to the overall work of art.
Fiber artists
- Anni AlbersAnni AlbersAnnelise Albers was a German-American textile artist and printmaker. She is perhaps the best known textile artist of the 20th century.-Life:...
- Jon CoffeltJon CoffeltJohnny Lee Coffelt born is an American artist who lives and works in Manhattan in the Financial District of New York City. Coffelt paints, sculpts, sews, makes book arts and curates art exhibitions.-Background:...
- Sheila HicksSheila HicksSheila Hicks is an American fiber artist who presents textile art as an experience situated between sculpture and performance.From 1954 to 1959 she studied at Yale University under Josef Albers and Rico Lebrun...
- Diane ItterDiane ItterDiane Itter was an American fiber artist. Her work emerged from the 1960s renaissance of interest in fiber art. While studying at the University of Pittsburgh, she met her future husband, artist William Itter, who encouraged her to experiment with hand-tied knots...
- Ferne JacobsFerne JacobsFerne Jacobs, who is also known as Ferne K. Jacobs and Ferne Kent Jacobs is an American fiber artist and basket maker. She was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1942 to Jewish parents who emigrated from Eastern Europe. Her family moved to Los Angeles when Ferne was young...
- Givi KandareliGivi KandareliGivi Kandareli was a famous Georgian painter, one of the premier tapestry and watercolor artists and creator of Georgian school of Gobelin Tapestry.-Life and work:...
- Nancy KozikowskiNancy KozikowskiNancy Kozikowski is a contemporary American artist specializing in tapestry and painting known for creating large woven art displayed in public places.-Early life:...
- Hans KrondahlHans KrondahlHans Krondahl is a Swedish painter, tapestry weaver, textile artist and textile designer. He studied painting and textile art at Konstfack, in Stockholm from 1955 to 1960. Krondahl set up his own weaving studio in 1962, where he created tapestries and related artwork, and he also took up fabric...
- Shannon OkeyShannon OkeyShannon Okey is an American writer and knit designer.Okey was born in Medina, Ohio.Her book Knitgrrl appeared on the New York Public Library's 2006 Books for the Teen Age list, a list of titles recommended by librarians for younger audiences, and also received a starred review from Booklist...
- OlekOlekOlek is a Polish-born American-residing artist whose work includes sculpture, installation, inflatables, and fiber art. Olek's installations have included crocheted bicycles, sculptures , apartments, and people...
- Fran ReedFran ReedFrances Ann Reed was an American fiber artist and teacher based in Alaska who specialized in a distinctive style of basketry made from dried fish skins and other natural materials found in the state....
- Sue RenoSue RenoSue Reno is a fiber artist from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.Her unique art quilts include surface designs using hand painted fabrics, cyanotypes, heliographic prints and image transfers; enhanced with hand and machine quilting and beadwork. Her themes are often nature-based, using wild and...
- Ed RossbachEd RossbachEd Rossbach was an American fiber artist who was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1914.He earned a BA in Painting and Design at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington in 1940, an MA in art education from Columbia University in New York City in 1941, and an MFA in ceramics and weaving from...
- Lenore TawneyLenore TawneyLenore Tawney was an American artist who became an influential figure in the development of fiber art....
- Ana VoogAna VoogAna Clara Voog is a musician, visual artist, performance artist and writer from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Voog is the former front woman of The Blue Up?, a pop rock band from the Minneapolis area...
- Claire ZeislerClaire ZeislerClaire Zeisler was a noted American fiber artist who expanded the expressive qualities of knotted and braided threads....
External links
- A Study of the Textile Art in its relation to the development of form and ornament, by William H. Holmes, from Project GutenbergProject GutenbergProject Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks". Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books...
- website of the Textile Museum (located in Washington, DC)
- website of the Surface Design Association