Fiber artist to discuss work, demonstrate techniques

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Butterfield Garage Gallery is featuring fiber artist Amy Hemphill Dove during the month of December.

Hemphill Dove, who refers to herself as a “dyed-in-the-wool” fiber artist, will be in the gallery all day Sunday, Dec. 6, to discuss her work and demonstrate her technique.

Her materials and subject matter are pure nature. She roams landscapes collecting everything that catches her attention, and back in her studio she explores the potentials.

“I love this process!” she said. “The botanicals release remarkable secrets from local plants that we see every day and often take for granted. Botanical dyeing and printing allow me to look beyond the usual green of leaves and to really see the shapes, structure and the chemistry in nature.”  

And Hemphill Dove knows her chemistry, having earned a bachelor of science degree in textile design from Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science. 

After college, she worked as a Jacquard fabric designer for a major Eastern mill, creating many contemporary, abstract, floral and more traditionally patterned interior fabrics for select furniture manufacturers.  

A consummate experimenter, she combines techniques and materials freely. She dyes, felts, prints, stitches onto a range of natural textiles to surprising results. Using diverse techniques of Shibori (the Japanese art of resist dyeing and texturing), folding, pleating, binding and printing, she creates a unique beauty and diversity in her pieces.

There are many variables at work in this kind of art, including soil, climate, water, pH type and weave of the fibers and fabrics. 

Hemphill Dove’s drive to explore new directions generates incredible variety in her pieces; each is a one-of-a-kind creation. The broad range of fibers and techniques she uses become scarves, tapestries, shawls and more, all with an organic beauty.

On display this month are hand-dyed, botanical-printed silk scarves, shawls, wraps and felted wall-hangings. 

Butterfield Garage Gallery is located at 137 King St., St. Augustine.