The Process

Each chair I work on is carefully chosen and lovingly refurbished. I spend hours hunting through secondhand stores and online postings to find pieces with potential. When I find one with perfect "bones"  I haul it home and strip it down. I am careful to preserve as much of the original foam and webbing as possible. My goal is to bring my vision alive, while remaining mindful of the environment and keeping waste to a minimum.​ Once the staples and old material have been removed (a tedious process!), I select the fabric, trim, corresponding paint and other art materials that I’ll use for re-upholstering.

 

For this collection I created hand painted, mosaic patterned fabrics that I used to upholster sections of each lounge.  ​The fabric was constructed with heavy canvas treated with gesso, white paint and fabric medium. I painted the canvas with three or four inch squares and then carefully applied one inch squares cut from marbled momi paper to the top of them. Each square was created by hand because the fibrous paper was too much like fabric to be cut mechanically. For these pieces I cut out, applied and sealed approximately 8000 squares! I finished each piece with my signature corset, and created a series of corresponding 12"x12" collaged paintings for each colour grouping.

 

I called this project "Reclaiming the Throne" and I carefully selected  furniture pieces with curving soft lines that spoke to the grace and beauty of the feminine silhouette . My intention was to engage in a purposeful, embodied act of re-valuing, elevating and restoring beauty to the discarded feminine form. 

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