(3rd Place – Textile/Fiber Design)
Title of Art Piece: Celestial Purse
Category: Textile/Fiber Design
Student/Artist’s Name: Megan Gould
School: North Pole High School
Grade: 12th
Artist Statement: My inspiration for this purse was from a picture in a weaving magazine in the art room. I saw an example of a hand woven purse that looked amazing. It was beautifully put together and had unique beads on it, so I decided to make one with my own choice of yarns and embellishments. I started with a cardboard piece for a loom and strung a light purple cotton thread to make the warp, and then put tape at the ends to keep the threads in place. I folded the cardboard in half to help make the purse shape and wove the thread all the way from the bottom to the top of the board, unhooked the ends and removed the weaving from the loom. Next I pulled the bottom inside corners in and sewed them inward to round the bottom of the purse and than started to make the shoulder strap. For the strap I took the light blue and dark blue yarns and twisted them to the right and than folded in half and started to twist to the left to make a rope. I decided to make the strap go all the way to the bottom of the purse, and stitched it all the way up to keep the strap in place leaving fringe on the bottom corners. Last, I put moon beads around the top of the purse on the front and back with a big round spiral piece in the middle of the front side for a button, then created a loop to hold it closed.