An Amazing Debut!

On Saturday evening I ahd the wonderful opportunity to attend the Retirement Party and Artistic Debut of an amazing artist! The artist's name is Kathlyn James Avila and she has recently become a wonderful friend. remember this name as I am convinced that you will be seeing it often as the Fiber Arts world becomes aware of her amazing work!!
Kat has been an Art Teacher with Fairfax County Schools for the past 27 years. As of this June she will be working solely with her art!!! Prior to Saturday night Kat had not exhibited her entire body of work and it was an amazing sight!!
I had planned on getting a good picture of Kat that evening however there was simply far too many people and hub bub to allow for picture taking on my part! Here is an OK picture of Kat as she was working on her Beaded Cuff in one of my recent classes. She is the beautiful woman seated , dressed in white.


As you will see in the following pictures, Kat is an amazingly talented fiber artist and beader. So when she signed up for my Beaded Cuff Class, I was not quite sure what I could teach her about beading. We had a wonderful time and as is usually the case, we ended up teaching each other! The following group of pictures represents just a small sampling of Kat's amazing work. (All pictures should enlarge when clicked on .)

KAt has been collecting fibers and beads for years but she gets all of her hand dyed vintage fabric and trims from Artistic Artifacts.

As you can see, Kat really goes all out with her bead work. She begins some of her wall hangings by painting designs on fabric and then gives each piece it's own breath with bead work and dimensional elements.

This doll was created to honor Breast Cancer survivors. Till I took this picture, I had not noticed that Kat had made this doll's arms out of sticks that she had painted pink!! There is so much detail in all of her works that it is impossible to see everything in just one look!!

This little doll is now looking for her home in my house! She spoke to me and literally jumped into my arms , so I decided to adopt her as an early birthday present to myself!! She is currently deciding where she wants to be hung here at home. It must be a place where I can see her often!!!!

I adore the reagal beauty of this wonderful doll. The picture does not do justice to her beautiful face, hand carved by Kat. Her outfit and presence is simply stunning.

THis dancer is also a very special piece and demonstrates Kat's amazing abilities with clay, fiber and threads!!

This doll has to be one of my all time favorite Kathlyn Avila pieces. The face is a fabric photo transfer of Kat's grandmother. What an exquisitely beautiful woman she was!! This doll was made in response to a challenge that I (yes, littl ol' me) put forward at the very first meeting of the Arts Group at Artistic Artifacts! When we saw what Kat had created we all decided that this piece would be the only product of the challenge!!!! ( I had brought in plastic Coffee Creamer bottles for all to use as a starting point for creating a doll- the body of Kat's doll is indeed a large coffee creamer bottle!!!! AMAZING!!!!! )

Below you will see one of the many stunning art quilt wall hangings that Kat creates. This happens to be one of my favorites. The encrusted bead work is absolutely amazing!! She has incorporated a vintage hand crocheted doilly into the skirt of this piece. See the hand crocheted roses along the bottom?

The stars at the top, are 3 dimensional add on pieces that are heavily beaded.

As soon as Kat recovers from the emotional journey of leaving her teaching post, we plan to convince her to teach doll making classes and fiber arts technique classes at Artistic Artifacts!

Go to the Artistic Artifacts website to sgn up for Judy's free newsletter so you can be the first to know when Kat will be sharing her technical talents with all of us!! I simply cannot wait!!!!!!

Remember this name, Kathlyn James Avila. this will be only the first time that you will hear of her and her amazing artwork!!!