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Don't mess with a soprano  

Threads of connection

Tension – I mean real, gritty agitation, mixed with soap, water, and unwoven wool. 

Chaos? No. It is a unique fabric and a new way of life for nuno felter Diane Goossens.

Diane’s world was a corporate one. If it were not for a chance encounter with two felters at a Christmas party, she might still be working for Interior Health in their organizational development department.

In 2012, she decided to leave the corporate world and pursue something more creative. She quickly became a leader in a relatively new field – nuno felting. 

She didn’t see this shift coming, but now can’t imagine doing anything else. 

Nuno felting bonds loose wool fibres onto a sheer fabric, such as silk or gauze, which creates a versatile, lightweight fabric. She now makes haute couture nuno felted clothing.

Her love of fabric and sewing came from her mother and grandmother. 

Her Belgian grandmother, Amadina Legein, apprenticed in an atelier, a workshop run by an haute couture fashion designer, at the age of 13. 

You can see this family history in the welted pockets and exquisite finishings prevalent on Diane’s creations today.

Diane, along with four siblings, grew up in Otterville, Ont. on a tobacco and fish farm. 

Her parents valued education – two brothers became doctors, her third brother farmed the homestead, and her sister is a speech pathologist in New York. 

Diane received a bachelor’s degree in physiology, majoring in human nutrition, and a master’s degree in education, enabling her move to the Okanagan and work with Interior Health and the Child Mental Health and Substance Use Collaborative. 

After changing careers, she spent the next two years immersed elbow deep in suds and soap, classes at the Ponderosa Fibre Arts Guild and workshops around the world. 

She was driven by a desire to provide pieces of clothing that were beautiful, but not expensive, for corporate women.

It was only natural that she would find like-minded felting colleagues and use her organizational skills to join the Art Felt Collaborative's two co-founders, Alice Pallett and Violet Racz, along with Amy Bradshaw and Judith Mueller in 2014.

These ladies have racked up an impressive list of accomplishments and exhibitions in a very short time:

  • 2015 – FELTED – Lake Country Art Gallery: curated show exhibiting felted banners of natural coloured wools. Featured wearable art such as Diane’s binary code dress and scarf.
  • 2016 – SURFACING – Salmon Arm Art Gallery: created a large piece representing surfaces from the depths of the ocean to the sky.
  • 2016 – Won the Applied Arts and Okanagan Arts Awards for their collective work.
  • 2017 – Designed and made the awards at the Okanagan Arts Awards

She has also been busy with personal accomplishments during this time, too:

  • 2018 – “Hold Dear” papal hat and black seedpod jacket displayed at SHRINE – Canadian Contemporary Felt Exhibition, Felt Feutre, juried shows in Vancouver and Cornwall, N.S.
  • 2019 – MID RENO BLUES – shown at Art Walk and Summer Solstice fundraising gala.

She thinks of herself as a conceptual artist; she gets an idea and lets everything build from there. 

As I sat in below-freezing weather on her outside porch – thanks COVID – I was treated to some of her concepts up close and personal. Although I was freezing on the outside, I was warmed and delighted seeing her mid reno blues and binary code dresses among other gorgeous designs.

Her mid reno blues dress came about in the middle of home renos. She described the frustration – it was a chaotic mess; wires and paint swatches everywhere, inside wall surfaces exposed.

“Everything was on the outside before being hidden – the imperfection,” she said.

I saw before me a white, nuno-felted sheath dress with seams on the outside, patches in different shades of white, a black chord sewn higgly-piggly on the outside. It was a perfect, beautiful and satirical dress that made me appreciate the frustration of any half-done reno.

Her binary dress was so luxurious in colour that I didn’t catch on right away. The slight bumps I rushed over, turned out to be nuno felted ones and twos, even the scarf had them woven into the translucent organza fabric. 

Her attention to detail is to be studied and enjoyed.

Diane has enlisted the help of her sister, Carol, who, in addition to being a speech pathologist, is a graphic artist. Carol transplants urban photos and artwork onto silk, which Diane then uses for the linings of her designs. A perfect combination.

Diane’s passion for felting has forged friendships with international felters and relationships as far as India. 

Nuno felting requires a fabric for the wool fibres to grab and meld with. Indian saris are the perfect fabric and since the silk doesn’t need to be new, buying used saris satisfies felters needs, while providing a source of income for women in India.

Admirers can see Diane’s attention to detail, collaborative nature, and whimsical spirit woven into each creation.

There is a vibrancy and lively humour that transcends all the water, soap, and scrubbing in her works. 

Diane Goossens is a creative leader and force to keep an eye on.

www.artfeltcollaborative.com

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.



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About the Author

Sue Skinner is a singer of opera and musical theatre, a choral conductor and a teacher/coach of voice. 

She has travelled the world, learned many languages, seen every little town in Alberta and supported herself with music all her life.

She has sung at weddings, funerals, musicals, operettas, opera, with symphonies, guitars, jazz groups, rock bands and at play schools. 

Skinner has taken two choirs to Carnegie Hall, sung around the world, and teaches for Wentworth Music on Zoom.

[email protected]



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The views expressed are strictly those of the author and not necessarily those of Castanet. Castanet does not warrant the contents.

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