Location 1 – Maria Holst Salomonsen 

MULTI-MEDIA
Port Cygnet Scout Hall, Burton’s Reserve, Cygnet
Note: Only at Scout Hall over Easter

Inspired by the beautiful natural environment of Southern Tasmania

Maria’s gallery (select any thumbnail to view full size image and scroll gallery)

Maria Holst Salomonsen is a multidisciplinary artist. Maria recently located to the Huon Valley, Tasmania, where she creates art, inspired by the beautiful natural environment of Southern Tasmania. For the previous 21 years she lived in the Clare Valley, South Australia, practising the art of wet felting, with most of her wool coming from her small flock of sheep and Alpacas. She has run many workshops in the art of wet felting over the years. In 2019 she received a grant from Country Arts SA, to learn how to work with metal with the goal of incorporating metal into her arts practice, specifically combining it with other materials to add complexity and depth to her work.

Wet felting.

Felting is the ancient art of transforming fibre from mainly animals, into a material that can be shaped and cut without unraveling. Wool has a unique ability in that it remembers the shape that it dried in, which allows the artist to “set” it in the way they want and then let it dry.Done by hand, it is time consuming process, that only requires water, wool, soap, and agitation – but of course knowledge of the different types of wool/fibre and skill plays a significant role in the outcome. 

3D felting is something Maria greatly enjoys, liking to see how far she can push the material, creating bigger and more intricate designs, also combining wool with other interesting and unlikely materials.

Many of Maria’s hand forged copper pieces are made in a technique called Fold Forming.

Fold forming is a cenceptual,physical and intuitive approach to working with metal, that is informed by the natural characteristics of metal. Rather than forcing form upon a material, this system exploits the inherent qualities of plasticity and elasticity in the metals, offering a new way of working ,that are very efficient for generating unique three-dimensional shapes.

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