While at the Caroline St Art & Blues Fest in Saratoga last month, I met an artist,
Wil Keltjens-Besouw, who made textile/fabric sculptures using Paverpol, a hardening product from The Netherlands. Please take a look at examples of her work on her website at
www.wkbdesign.com/ because I cannot adequately describe how amazing, beautiful, and different they are. As I was raving over her work at the Festival, Wil told me she taught workshops, and that I could learn to make a similar work in 5 hours. Me? Yes, she said. Me?? I really couldn't believe it. There has been no evidence whatsoever that I had any talent in 3-D art. The cost of the class was so reasonable, the beauty of the work undeniable, and Wil's enthusiam so contagious, that I signed up for a workshop with my daughter, who also is a novice in the 3-D art department.
Yesterday we arrived at Wil's with a T-shirt, and went home with a sculpture! Mine is shown here, she is going to be holding business cards. My daughter made a lovely seated woman playing the violin, and Regina and Diane, the other women in the class made equally lovely works that could be titled "Joy" and "Grace".
So my first attempt is sitting here just begging to be made over to correct the flaws. There will be some things I will do differently next time (Like use a thinner t-shirt, but not too thin!) Another thing I would do would be to study "form", what a person actually looks like seated, standing, holding something etc. I learned there is a pretty fine line between awkward and natural, it is a matter of a little bend here or a little push there.
This method of sculpture is not just for figurines, all manner of abstracts can be done as well, the possibilites are just endless.
I am again behind on EVERTHING and must get to work. Oh, and if anyone is short on mosquitos, come on up, we have plenty!
