Jennifer Bencharsky
My primary techniques are wet felting and nuno-felting. With some pieces I also incorporate needle-felted or beaded elements as embellishments. I try to draw inspiration from nature, but also utilize abstract forms. Because there are no straight lines in this process, all images have an impressionistic aspect to them. Using natural fibers, found items, and plant and shell materials, I try to create pieces with beauty and depth. I enjoy the way animal and plant fibers organically organize within each piece I create and find it always fascinating and rewarding. As the fibers shrink, reorganize, move and bind with manipulation, pressure and water, always result in a beautiful and degree of surprise. Using various techniques to manage the uncertainties of the technique is very exciting to me, as the outcome, similar to glass blowing, always has an element of the unexpected. The dimensionality of the work also does things unique to the wet felting medium.
My mission is to use the oldest form of textile making and transitioning it to the level of a fine art rather than merely a craft. It allows me to also develop creative ways to combine form and function to make rooms acoustically more pleasing, as the textures and depth of materials act as sound baffles in very loud spaces with hard surfaces. Achieving this affect through art, rather than industrial acoustic tiles, is a way to integrate the artistic with a needed ergonomic function.
updated 06/2019
