Fiber artist Sharron Parker creates rich, textural contemporary fiber art, incorporating colorful-patterned "felt geodes" (resembling slices of spherical rocks filled with crystals known as geodes). Her artistic exploration results in tantalizing felt creations intended to be wall sculptures. Their organic shapes are influenced by nature--butterflies, shells, rocks, wings, and other natural forms.
Working in her home studio, which is a 150-year-old stone mill on the Neuse River in North Carolina, Parker begins the felting process. Starting with pre-dyed wool in a basic color palette, Parker combs the wool together with a drum carder, blending the colors to make other colors. In essence, she does the same thing that a painter would do, mixing two basic colors of paint on a palette to obtain an entirely different color. She arranges three or more background layers of combed wool on a table, and then lays out nine or more layers of combed wool (varying colors) to create a sphere. That sphere of wool is put in a sock and squeezed while in hot, soapy water. She only squeezes the wool until it is partially felted. She removes the partially felted sphere and begins slicing "felt geodes". Imagine taking an actual rock geode, and slicing various parts of the sphere off. You'd have different shapes and textures in every slice.
Parker arranges the background layers on a sheet and adds the geode slices, yarns and other colors of wool to the surface. These layers are covered with another piece of cloth and pinned all the way through the layers. This sandwiched wool is then worked in a tub of hot water by rolling and pressing on the wet wool. When all of these layers and elements are encased and worked under water, they lock together and become one piece after shrinkage occurs.
Parker often adds additional geode slices by sewing them on. In this case, she may choose to create a cylinder log of felt, creating geode slices more like a pinwheel. It just depends on the design element she's trying to create. A pinwheel effect is more uniform, while spherical slices vary in effects. She may also add more wool yarn using a yarn needle. These additional elements are used to add more dimension to her wall sculptures. Finally, nylon loops are attached to the back for hanging. Parker's brilliantly colored wall-hangings are richly textured art forms based on the beauty of the natural world.
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