Kristy Kún: Reach Beyond the Surface: A study of texture and applications

The objective of the workshop is to explore botanically inspired, three-dimensional surface textures, from lightweight to rigid and durable, with applications suitable for sculptural or wearable felted work. Resists will be used to create 3 dimensional hollow forms that will serve as the vessel for sampling these techniques. Students will create a series of small vessels over the course of the workshop, exploring a wide range of approaches. Focus will be given to the development to the student’s individual visions and personal aesthetic for further exploration at home.

Methods explored include:

• Using a resist to create a hollow form

• Laminating fabrics (also known as nuno or hybrid felting)

• Encasing objects

• Making and working with preliminary felt

• Building and attaching solid felt forms

• Color blending

• Proper fulling

• Using sizing to create rigidity and definition in delicate felt forms

Material Fee: $40 materials fee payable to instructor at the workshop.

Through calculated, rising tangles of wool and plant fibers, Kristy Kún’s experimental textiles advance the sculptural capabilities of hand-made felt. Her richly textured surfaces, formed through a water and energy intense process of rubbing and kneading wool fibers until they bond, are a contemporary adaptation of ancient methods in felt making. Compositions reveal artistic visions inspired by relationships and evolution in nature, and the fluidity of the materials themselves.

“I am deeply moved by the transformative qualities of wool and plant fibers, which, when plied correctly, parallel environmental transformations; Birth, fruition, decay. Formations of water, earth and sky, emerge as if breathing and alive. My hands translate this energy and these textures from nature into new form using altered methods of a timeless craft.”

Drawing on thirteen years of building mortise and tenon constructed furniture from reclaimed wood, Kún’s respect for materials and craftsmanship in their reverential structure, is planted deep. Her engineered layouts of complex joinery in fiber and finely finished surfaces resonate with the craftsmanship of a fine cabinet-maker; While the organic forms that take rise from her hands capture the biomorphic fragility in the living world.

Awards and recognition:

2021• Finalist • Wood And… The Wharton Esherick Museum’s 27th Annual Juried Woodworking Exhibition

2019 Best in Show • Art in the Pearl, Portland, OR

2018 Excellence in Fiber Art • Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show • Juror: Elisabeth Argo, associate curator of Modern and Contemporary Crafts and Decorative Art at PMA.

2017 Finalist • Lydon Emerging Artist Program (LEAP)- Awarded by the Society of Contemporary Craft, Pittsburgh, PA

For more information, visit Kristy's website at www.kristykun.com.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

St. Rita Catholic Church, 10029 Northeast Prescott Street, Portland, United States