How to Create Fire in Fiber Art Work

Dante wrote: "From a little spark may burst a might flame." Living in Northern California's notorious fire region, this quote by Dante is only too true. A “Burning Fire” is untidy, messy, often out-of-control. This art quilt displays the mess and out-of-control elements by irregular borders, partially burnt and appliquéd cotton that is stuffed with wool and silk fiber creating a 3D surface.

Here are the steps of its creation. Hope they will inspire your work as well.

01) Burning two different types of cotton to get pieces that are really touched by fire

02) Appliqueing the burnt cotton to a quilt “sandwich” of felt and cotton backing. The final piece is 66" x 26" or 190 cm x 66cm.

03) Machine-quilting, always thinking of a burning fire

04) Stuffing the cotton with a wool and silk mixture, also know as “Trapunto”

05) Letting some of the fiber appear on the front like flames licking

06) Beginning to paint with acrylics, … and painting and painting

07) Hand-stitching with various types of golden metal threads to emphasize the heat of fire

08) Cutting holes because fire is so irregular

09) Adding tuffs of fiber to show more burning fire

10) Painting the edges of fiber and burnt cotton with acrylic medium so that they hold together

11) Many times going back and forth between painting and stitching, always thinking about burning fires

12) Checking that the overall design has focus, representing “burning fire”

13) Checking that there is variety in the repetitions because flames are irregular

14) Paying special attention to the corners so that there are no “boring” corners

15) Looking sideways at the 3D elements

16) Stepping back to see if it’s finished

If you'd like to see a video of these steps, it's here.

Thanks for reading all the way to the end.