Artist:
Marty Ornish
Bio:
Born and raised in Virginia, California based visual artist MartyO creates textile art from salvaged textiles and found items. After leaving her professional life as a social worker and attorney, and raising her two sons with her husband, in her early fifties her love of fabric, combined with her family history of quilt makers, led to her transformation as an artist. Building upon a foundation of basic sewing learned as a child, taking classes, workshops, experimentation and curiosity led to a series of national and international award winning wearable art created from abandoned, damaged quilts and linens, Vested Interest was a joint project of MartyO and Robyn Phelps, made on a Macomber Loom, with Robyn expertly warping the loom.
Artist Statement:
This was a project my friend Robyn Phelps assisted with by warping my loom. It is my first weaving on a loom. I wanted to make new cloth from a soft, damaged abandoned quilt, and create a very wearable garment from what others might have discarded. The woven fabric is beautiful and has a nice “”hand””. The weaving retained the star pattern of the quilt, but is seen in a new contemporary way. Thanks to my friend and collaborator Robyn Phelps, I learned the fundamentals of weaving, and hope to do more weaving in the future.
Techniques Used: We warped a Macomber sitting loom, cut a vintage quilt into strips, and wove the cut-up quilt in its original pattern interspersed with two types of wool for the weft. The sides were stabalized with trim after removing it from the loom, and the each woven quilt strip was machine stitched to the warp to provide more stability to the new cloth. A tunic shaped cape was sewn and embellished with other vintage trim.
Materials: A vintage damaged patchwork quilt, vintage hand spun wool, modern hand spun wool, cotton warp, vintage trims.
Measurements: 46" x 25" x 15"
