Fiber Art Orchids at Daniel Stowe
Our Fiber Art group exhibit, Orchids: Sensuality Stitched opens tomorrow at Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden. Yesterday we gathered to hang our show and I must say it looks wonderful.
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Cindy Klemmer, Director of Education at Stowe, greeted us warmly, showed us the hanging space and helped us get started.
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First t
hings first, we laid out\’a0 the pieces on the floor to we decide where they will hang. 
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That’s my piece on the lower left, “Ode to Gene”. My first foray into whole cloth painting and I loved it!
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PJ Howard\’a0 “rose to the occasion” (I couldn’t help the pun) and was deemed our unofficial ladder climber. I did not volunteer for that job because the older I get the more I find that me and ladders just don’t get along.
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She came prepared with her own tool belt made out of fabric (what else for a fiber artist right?).
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The hanging system at the Stowe is the typical Walker System whereby long rods are hung from a picture rail running along the wall about 10″ down from the ceiling.
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Hanging clips are attached and the work is hung from these.
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Our one dilemma was how were were to hang fiber art that is usually hung using a rod/slat in a sleeve.
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For each of 
our pieces we each made a sleeve that would still hold a rod (so the pieces can still be exhibited in a quilt show) but made it long enough to cover the foam core we used.
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Wire was then twisted onto the foam core so that they could be hung gallery style. 
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After having made 4 of these revised sleeves I will be creating a PDF tutorial that I’ll put in my sidebar for those that want to know how to make one.
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Let me just say there were few prototypes before I got to the one I eventually used for the backs of my artwork.
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Here’s Deb Langsam (left)\’a0 rehanging one of her pieces after adding the wire to the foam core earlier.
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Susan Knapp (right)\’a0 brought sewing supplies to finish adding a label to the back of one of her pieces.
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While we were hanging, staffers occasionally popped in to see what we were up to, admiring all the work we had done.
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The two ladies (below), on the way out of the Garden, walked in to have a gander.
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Most people are still a bit uninformed about art quilts or fiber art and curiosity got the better of them. They spent a few minutes asking questions.
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I love this part about exhibiting, answering questions about our work and th
e processes we employ and find it fascinating that people still marvel at the fact that these artworks are all made from fabric.
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Included in the larger works,\’a0 we each made one piece, 18 x 12, using the same photograph as inspiration.
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These pieces were hung in the Garden’s\’a0 atrium where we will also be doing our demonstrations (12-4pm) of some of the techniques we used in the artwork. Some of us will be available at different times to walk through the exhibition to answer questions.
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To find our more info about each artist check out our blog at www.fiberartoptions.blogspot.com.
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The Exhibition will run through March 14th and we’d love to have you view our show.
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Feb. 6 through March 14, 2010
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Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden
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Belmont, NC
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704.825.4490
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www.dsbg.org
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Love that your group did orchid quilts. There was a display of orchid quilts at the last show I went to (last spring) and it was gorgeous! I loved looking at them for quite awhile.
This looks like a wonderful and inspiring exhibition ! Congratulations and good luck !
Wish I could have been there with all you friendly gals from NC. The show looks wonderful!
Thanks, we had a wonderful yesterday doing demos and talking to visitors about our work. I love it that people who come to see shows/exhibitions are surprised and amazed at the work fiber artist produce and but yet love what they see.
[...] though, especially since the Orchid Show pieces (below), I been feeling the need to work in a representational manner. One of the tools I [...]