Laurie Schafer’s Stained Glass Fiber Art illuminates our often unruly but beautiful world. Tangled and layered, sometimes biomorphic but often abstract, Laurie controls the fabric with her signature technique outlined in black satin stitch, which produces a stained glass effect. Laurie paints with fabric as one of her chosen mediums.
Although many art enthusiasts are unfamiliar with it, the Fiber Art Rebellion marches forward, assuming
a place on the wall of galleries.
The November Artwalk will be the first time Laurie will be exhibiting a large collection of her richly layered, monumental nudes and portraits. Although employing traditional media of charcoal, Conte, pastels and colored pencil on paper, Laurie’s closely cropped nudes and portraits push the human body to the front of the plane forcing the viewer to engage.
Laurie Schafer is internationally known for her Art Couture worn by opera stars, princesses and society fashion mavens. Laurie has been featured in numerous publications including Fiberarts, Ornament, Threads and the Fiberarts Book of Wearable Art. Her art wear is in the permanent collection of the Minnesota
Historical Society and the Goldstein Gallery at the University of Minnesota.
Cheri Calvert began working in leather in 1973, making custom moccasins, sheepskin coats, and a variety of frontiersman clothing. The influence of Native American culture and her time spent living in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska and the Northern Rockies was evident in her designs and her desires to preserve an ancient craft.
In spite of her daily accomplishment, Cheri insists she rarely “works” but considers her busy-ness “play.” It was such a spirit of playfulness that resulted in patterns being miniaturized and the creation of her first mountain man doll in the spring of 1985.
Faces were crude back then, produced by stretching deerskin over a Styrofoam ball and using bead headed pins for the eyes. The ensuing years and the development of sculpting and mold-making skills have refined this unique deerskin face to capture the hearts of many. Her leather sculptures stand out as distinctly different in the competitive world of collector’s artist dolls. They carry with them a breath of fresh mountain air, a feeling of rich earthiness, and a simple country charm; all representative of the love that goes into the meticulous hand stitching of each limited edition and one-of-a-kind piece.
Cheri’s work has received numerous National Awards and Blue Ribbons. Her dolls have been featured in Doll World Magazine (Jan.1987,) Dollcrafter (Dec. 1987 & Dec. 1989,) Doll Artistry (June 1991,) Gift Reporter (May 1988,) Handmade Accents (Fall 1988,) Better Homes and Gardens, Christmas Ideas (1989,) and Early American Life (Dec. 1987 and Dec. 1991.) They have appeared on the cover of Handmade Accents and Early American Life and been used in Early American Life’s 1991 Christmas card collection. She has also given seminars and had a number of her patterns published.
Leather gave way to sequins and lace in the spring of 1994 when she went to work for Bobby Vinton and the Glen Miller Orchestra. Two years as Wardrobe Mistress of the Blue Velvet Theater in Branson, Missouri provided a wealth of experience she put to good use later with her own Seamstress Shop in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
Today, with a Bachelor’s degree in Technology, Cheri’s creativity continues to evolve as a freelance Web Developer, Publisher and author of The Garden Song. Her children’s book, A Time Alone, is illustrated with photos of her Leather Dolls.
This series began in late January of this year while cleaning the studio. I had saved a pile of grey metal grids from a photography job thinking they might be an interesting background. I was inspired by the colors and shapes to try a wide-angle shot contrasting the squares with a blue marble. Thus began an almost daily visual exercise—a means of staying creatively limber. The scale of the marble allowed for exploring details in all sorts of props, forms, backgrounds, color, and reflections. Available light, especially shafts of sunlight, were often sources of delight. Thanks to the wonders of digital photography, I’ve used desk lamps, fluorescents, flashlights, as well as strobes in the studio. Adobe Photoshop software has been used to correct color balance, minimize dust and marble flaws.
