When one looks at Emma West’s fiber art pieces the eyes are immediately drawn to her vivid colors and intricate embroidered details. West is currently working on a three dimensional model of the intriguing Brazilian Pinkbloom Tarantula. West expressed that when trying to find a bug to create she wanted to make a model of an insect that was an eye catching purple, and from that she came across the Brazilian pinkbloom Tarantula.

West stated she “always had a fear of spiders and creating this helped me get over my fear.”

The features of the spider include long fuzzy plum colored legs with a hot pink print on its back. To create her model of the tarantula she first crafted a skeleton out of wire and then stuffed it with newspaper. Following that step she wrapped the skeleton with fabric she had dyed and then embroidered on top of that. West shared that this was her first time embroidering, but it has become one of her favorite techniques to use on her fiber pieces.

West has created several other creative pieces in her fiber art class including a silk painting and a batik. A Batik is a cotton painting that is created by applying wax and then layers of dye, and then switches back to wax until the desired value is achieved.

West spoke about fiber art with a cheerful and excited tone commenting that she enjoyed her fiber art class so much because “You can do a lot more with fiber than one would expect.”

West was undoubtedly pleased with her choice to enroll in fiber art this year. She chose to take fiber art 1 because “I wanted to learn to dye different materials. I dyed t shirts in elementary school and enjoyed that so i was interested in digging deeper.”

That goal has certainly been achieved. Mrs. Parker, who teaches fiber arts, has even said that she plans on submitting her spider into an upcoming art show.