Today we are going to share with you a project that is right up our alley. Why? Because it is colourful, original, and fun.
But let's take it one step at a time.
The fibre artist we are introducing to you today is called Caterina, aka Pinamolina, and she has been working with felt since 2010. She attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna and, during a course on textiles, she was introduced to water felt and needle felt techniques. Her path continued later to the field of fashion and, since then, she has always continued to experiment with these two techniques, applying them to the creation of clothing.
Then, in 2019, Caterina came across some small scraps of bergschaf wool that were not adaptable to her fashion projects, and so she used it to create her first woolly (this is the name she has given to her soft sculptures) employing the needle felt technique, and she hasn't looked back since.
She fell in love with this zero-waste technique thanks with which she is able to bring to life the characters she dreams up. With this technique being so time consuming it allows her to have constant control over the process and to pay attention to even the smallest of details. It is fascinating, for Caterina, that such an apparently simple technique allows one to model such elaborate objects.
When the woolly family grew up, they decided to inaugurate a project entirely dedicated to them: Pinamolina. This name comes from Caterina's childhood, Pinamolina was her first soft toy from which she had been inseparable for years and which she still cherishes to this day. She likes to believe that each woolly contains a hint of the magic of her Pinamolina. She hopes that it also reminds us to never abandon the wonder that we create as children.
When selecting subjects to create, she is inspired by the natural world. Whether animals or vegetables, she always tries to represent them in a minimalistic and expressive way. Furthermore, to give them a personality by bestowing upon them a name from times gone by.
For the woollys, which leave extra room for imagination, she chooses colour palettes inspired by her childhood toys from the 90s. This is where the idea for our project originated. Caterina was struck by the variety of our colour chart, and she took the opportunity to create a mini collection of funny nudibranchs.
Nudibranchs are some of the most colourful marine creatures on the planet. Miniature molluscs, reaching a petit maximum length of 6 centimetres, with the most incredible shapes and with a coat that looks like a colour palette exploded in the hand of a painter. They are so particular that they are mesmerising.
Like all wollys, these too have names: Vetulia, Ada, Paloma, Gilda and Dina. All female names, even if our nudibranch friends are hermaphrodites!
Caterina has a magical touch, and her little critters are astonishing, packed full of delightful details and so well crafted. You too can try to create your very own odd pack of nudibranchs. All that is needed is a little imagination, the right technique and some of our fibers selected by Caterina for this project in particular: carded wool 'Maori, ramie, linen and angelina.
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