Melinda Schwakhofer

I spent this morning with a new friend, fiber artist Melinda Schwakhofer, who is visiting the Mooresville area this summer. Melinda is an American currently living in England. She is very generous with her time, her ideas and her knowledge. Melinda aims to provide an "inspiraculum," a word she coined which means "a place to breathe, dream, explore, be inspired, find your self."

This is Melinda with a recent work. You can see more on her website (www.melindaschwakhofer.com) and her blog: (melindaschwakhofer.wordpress.com). Bonnie McCaffery has also done a VidCast with Melinda (www.bonniemccaffery.com) that is very interesting.

This morning, Melinda showed me how to make a vessel from Angelina fibers. Angelina is fluffy stuff like fairy hair, and light makes it glow with irridescence. You pull it apart loosely, place it on a piece of parchment paper, cover it with more parchment, and iron it. It becomes stiff and melds together. To create this vessel, we made a sheet from different colors of Angelina fibers, and then molded it around a glass bottle and ironed it again. A wire aperature inside the fibers provides some support, and a way to embellish the vessel with beads.