Christianna Ferguson :: Ex Animo Project submission

Recently felt :: feutre canada member, Christianna Ferguson shared with us her ex animo project. Christianna’s work has been featured in The Uppercase Compendium of Craft 2015 and in Worldwide Colours of Felt TextileLink, 2016.

Her work ranges from wearable art and costumes to fine art, wall hangings, and sculptural pieces. She uses silk and three dimensional elements to enhance her surface designs. She feels teaching and creating community through the arts are also a meaningful part of her full-time studio practice in the village of Lakefield, Ontario.

Here’s what Christianna said about her piece when we interviewed her.

Describe your unique part of Canada.

I live in the village of Lakefield in the Kawartha’s about two hours north east of Toronto. The Otonabee River runs through the village, and most of my days begin with a walk or run along the river. We are surrounded here by farm land, forests, and fresh water lakes. While making this piece for ex animo I was considering what an arial view of where I live might look like.

Tell us about your creative community.

I don’t have a local felting community that I meet with regularly but I definitely have a local artistic community that provides inspiration and support. There is also a local spinners and weavers guild in Peterborough where there are some active felt makers. The guild also runs an annual textile festival that supports makers and suppliers.

How did you make your piece?

I really enjoy using silk prefelts to create unique surface designs. The base of the work is fine merino and I used layers of cut silk prefelts to create the surface design. A resist was used over top of the river and was then cut away to create the three dimensional ridge along the edge. Finally, I added some hand stitching to complete the piece.

To see more of Christianna’s work visit: https://christiannaferguson.com/portflio/

Ex Animo is a Canada-wide collaborative felt project designed to celebrate felt and felt-making in conjunction with Craft Year 2020. The money collected with this project will fund our  Excellence in Feltmaking Bursary.