The Face of Shaper Sheet

Katherine Ehlmann is a fiber artist. She learned about Shaper Sheet at a Missouri Fiber Artists (MOFA) retreat and discovered a way to use it in her artwork. "MOFA was looking for sculptural fiber pieces for a juried show at Lambert International Airport, but 'sculptural' meant they could not be displayed on the wall only in Acrylic cases." "This was a perfect time for me to try out this new material," said Katherine. "I started with white silk fabric, and used fiber reactive dyes to dye and paint the fabric for the Faces and the Backs of each 2-piece sculpture. Stamping and embroidery also added another dimension. I then machine quilted both the front and back pieces. Using a fusible, I ironed the quilted fabric to the fabric side of the Shaper Sheet." Katherine then took the front and back of each sculpture and used a commercial sewing machine to finish the edges. "Having one layer of Shaper Sheet on each side helped give the sculptures enough stability to stand up. I really enjoyed using Shaper Sheet, because I can bend it to give it a 3D effect to my fabrics. Now I am doing the preliminary drawings for another piece in this series." Katherine won 2nd Place for her Contours of the Face.