Amanda Fiebing

The past couple weeks included some commissioned work. The project came to me through word of mouth which was really inspiring. Ok so it was one of Henry’s coworkers, 2 degrees is still 2 degrees of separation, right!? This commission was for a grouping of mushrooms to put in a basket as if they were freshly foraged (and cleaned). With the request for two specific kinds, Botelus Edulis and Agaricus, I made this bunch of fungi:

See larger photos here.

***I’m happy to report that even after spending hours making mushrooms from felt their edible form isn’t any more appealing to me.

Tags: agaricu arvensis, Art, botelus edulis, custom, fake food, Felt, handmade, mushrooms, needle felting, soft sculpture, wool.

Here’s a little project I’ve been working on. What a novel idea to post my projects as they happen, not just when they are for sale. Hmmm

My long time friend Elizabeth is celebrating her 25th birthday today. I feel that after knowing her for so long (the better side of like 13 years) I should take this opportunity to reaffirm how much I love her. When you love someone its important to tell them early, and often. So, I created a soft sculpture in honor of our relationship. Two beautiful breasts representing our womanhood and two special items tucked inside each *ahem ahem* breast. The first, a small representation of my heart, what it would looks like so she can see it for real! The second takes a little explanation, and for those of you whose eyes glaze over every time I talk about my cats can ignore this and just look at the pictures. This little grey heart is made of the fur of another beast that also loves Elizabeth. I joke about Ben, the cat, loving people and being sort of a hussy but really, Ben absolutely loves Elizabeth. He might like her more than he likes his food dish, and that is saying a lot. Sometimes I wonder if I’m supposed to move him out of the room so he stops bugging her when she comes over.

Anyway, the rest of this sculpture is made from wool roving that I needle felted. I started each breast by wrapping dark blue roving around loose wads of newspaper. I chose blue because they actually become vessels at the end, and I have a huge amount of it. Mostly the newspaper is a cost saver but I have decided that for a good texture the newspaper should only be used if you’re planning to use a lot of wool over it because you can definitely tell its in there. Once I’d built up all the felt I wanted with layers and a lot of color mixing I dug in with my fingers and removed the newspaper and wrapped it again with a layer of roving and then placed it back inside to achieve and essential tautness. If there is too much slack the piece will lose its shape. I left the backsides of each piece open to allow them to be vessels for the two special items. The full sculpture:

Tags: birthday, custom, Elizabeth, Felt, personal, present, project, sculpture, soft sculpture, wool.