I'm baaaaaaaack- with news of an upcoming art show. :D

Told you I was trying to be better at this! :D This week's post is all about the upcoming "Common Threads" fiber art show at the FOE Gallery in Northampton, MA which opens this Friday, November 14th! I was really excited to get asked to participate in this show by the ever-amazing Lana Crooks, who curated the show along with the Gallery.

For this show I wanted to try something that I hadn't done too much before, which was create with a bunch of faux fur, layering the two colors of fur to create my own textile for the effect that I wanted. I braved the dreaded "fluff-lung" that comes with cutting/sewing faux fur to create this guy, my first Faun.

Friedrich Faun teaches math by day at the prestigious Woodland Academy; but by night he rocks out with his punk band, Verdant.

I used a variety of fabrics to create Friedrich, including faux-suede for his face, hands and ears, as well as faux-leathers for his horns and hooves. His facial features are made from wool felt, with a hand embroidered mouth.

 His tail coat is made from plaid flannel, with houndstooth flannel lapels and cuffs. His shirt is a funky patterned quilting cotton, and the patches on his jacket elbow are wool felt. 

 I felt that if I made Friedrich's hair out of the same color fur as his legs, that it would get overwhelming, so I chose to use the dark brown fur for his hair, but add in the caramel colored fur for his goatee and for a highlight in his bangs. (Thus the punk-rocking, maths teaching Faun was born. :D)
The reverse applied for the dark brown patches on his legs- I wanted to make sure that the fur on his head was integrated into the design and looked natural.

If you are in the Northampton area, check out all the amazing work that has been created for this terrific show- you won't be disappointed!