Teresa Shields Verified

I have been around fabric and stitching my whole life. I am a maker. I love things that have a human touch. I look at nature–plant forms, geometry, cell structures, bones, antlers, wings–to see the underlying connections these things have in common. My embroideries are straight forward. I proceed very deliberately one stitch and then another, each knot, each color a decision, meditative and slow, but always moving forward. I rarely rip out stitches.

My felt making is the opposite of straight forward. It is two steps ahead and one step backwards. The problem child. The art that acts out but is loved unconditionally. If I can’t sleep or have a spare minute, I think about ways to construct things with wool roving and partial felt. The process is like candy, for my ADD brain. Working backwards. Big whole picture, then part to part.

I have a quirky sense of humor that occasionally shows but also love making things that are simply beautiful. Craftsmanship matters to me. Sometimes I set difficult parameters for myself -just because. The challenge is to make things that show my hand, my skill, my vision.

Quite simply, I like to make stuff. I work intuitively, inspired by the natural world around me with all of its crazy patterns, circles, pod shapes and patterns-on-patterns. Mother Nature is the ultimate artist. I can manipulate textures. I am very tactile. I like things that have a nice weight to them. I like my fabric pieces to be irresistible to the touch. I love color. I can make an environment sing with color. I see color before I start any piece of art or project. People tend to be afraid of making a mistake with color, but there are no wrong answers. You just have to see what happens when it is next to another color, and make an informed decision based on what you see or like or feel.