Patricia Hooten

Zinnia #5

20 x 20 x 3.5"

3 mm Merino Wool Felt

$360

Bright, bold, resilient natives of the Americas, zinnias signal summer. A bouquet from my mother’s garden always graced our kitchen table during the hottest months. Raise a glass of ice-cold grape Kool-Aid in honor of fresh cut flowers and all the bountiful blooms of the season.

Artist's Statement:

I have always been more comfortable with a pair of scissors than a pencil or a paintbrush. Early creative memories were formed cutting out paper dolls, snowflakes to decorate winter windows and woven paper hearts for Valentine’s Day.

A Penland School of Crafts paper cutting workshop with Beatrice Coron led me to modular Tyvek paper constructions. These in turn inspired me to experiment with a more compelling, tactile and ecologically responsible medium - 100% Merino wool felt. Like paper, felt offers smooth pliable surfaces, and edges that cut cleanly, with no finishing or hemming required. Felt also provides acoustic and insulating benefits. Naturally renewable wool muffles sound and even absorbs air-borne toxins.

The shapes of component elements are digitally designed and output, then cut by hand or by using custom dies and assembled without stitching. This textile genre combines my graphic design sensibilities with an iconic fiber and a paper engineering techniques to produce compelling dimensional patterns and textures.

An age-old material is re-imagined through the fusion of innovation and craftsmanship. The result is what I call textile joinery - fresh fiber design with an edge, that appeals to the eye as well as to the touch.