Mary Felder Art - Art Quilts, Mixed Media Collages, Photographs

Fences The background is my hand dyed fabric stenciled with a thermofax screen.  Beads are from an old piece of jewelry. It is machine quilted and mounted on a painted canvas.  This piece can also be hung in the other direction.

The fence can give you a sense of safety Protection from unseen dangers A haven for renewal and reviving the spirit

Falling Rain This piece was quilted on my Queen Quilter, a machine purchased with a grant from the Cultural Economy Foundation of Louisiana.  it is machine quilted and machine appliquéd.  The beads represent the falling rain drops.  The next photo shows a closeup.

I recently received a grant from the Louisiana Cultural Economy Foundation to acquire a quilting machine.  This makes it possible for me to machine quilt my large pieces myself.  I am attaching a photo of a red and yellow piece that is incomplete.  This is the piece after it was finished.  I hand dyed the fabric, machine quilted it, and made fabric beads for embellishment.

Abstract Fabric Collages At the May meeting of The Contemporary Fiber Artists of Louisiana, I led the group in creating abstract fabric collages. Mary Ingalls and Michael Young assisted. We, along with Rosemary Uchniat, had recently taken a class with Randall Henry, a local abstract artist who uses mostly paper, tissue and found objects. Materials are easy to find - fabric, fibers, magazine paper, tissue paper, glue, foam brushes and found objects. I used heavy paper or fabric for my background. Below are some of the collages I created as samples . "Blue Bayou" "Eye See You" Collage: An artistic composition of materials and objects pasted over a surface, often with unifying lines and color. ( www.answers.com ) "Twisted" "In the Forest" "Blue Skies" TIPS: Be careful when gluing. Too much glue can warp a paper background. Work intuitively. Don't try to create a picture. Starching and pressing fabri...

Fabric Collage Class Mary Ingalls and I taught a "Fabric Collage" class at the Livingston Branch Library last week. We provided students with a background fabric, a TAPPED photo and quote, and fabric scraps. We showed samples and demonstrated the TAP product. Below are some of the "works in progress". TAP stands for Transfer Artitst Paper, a product from Lesley Riley. Sharon arranges birds around "Evangeline" sitting under an oak tree in the forest. She uses a frame to control the size of her project. Joan used a photo of two birds in a tree and created this image on a piece of my hand dyed fabric. This piece uses a photo of my husband's amarylis garden. The quote is "Earth laughs in flowers." Laura Varnida, one of the librarians, created this piece using a photo of a sailboat from a vintage music sheet.

Silk Screen Images A student of Mary Ingalls works on a piece with a silk screened quote. She is adding fibers to enhance her work. SOLD! This piece was called "Red Circles in a Black Forest". Red circles and yellow highlights were silk screened on using fabric paints on black and white commercial fabric. The silk screened sections were thread painted. "One Red Circle" is in an 8"X10" frame and is 5"X7". The red and yellow designs are silk screened with fabric paint onto black and white commercial fabric. This is a rusted piece of cotton with a silk screened nautilus shell. It is a work in progress. more photos will be posted as I work on it.