With stacks of paper patterned with stripes, dots, floral designs and wild colors, Jennifer Fledderman goes to work.
Scissors fly as she carves out particular shapes to create a theme. Layers of paint and carefully placed stencils come together on her canvas, with the paper pieces glued on top.
Fledderman focuses on mixed-media work. She uses paint, paper and other adornments such as buttons, ribbons and string to create colorful, stylish collages.
Her love of crafts has become an artsy career through her business, Fledderfly Designs. She will offer her unique mixed-media designs during the Art After Dark event Friday and Saturday.
Fledderman has always been interested in crafting and fitting pieces together to form a single work of art. That talent came in handy in her work in interior design, which she studied in school. As she worked more with paper, she started to realize the expansive potential of media in the style of decoupage — gluing pieces together into an elaborate work of art.
“I like the idea of quilting, but I’m not a seamstress,” she said. “I like mixing colors and patterns together, so I investigated what I could do with papers.”
Scrapbook paper is her primary medium. Taking pieces intended to liven up people’s photo albums, she combines patterns and pages in elaborate decoupage creations. Starting with a background, she paints and stencils a design to serve as the foundation for the piece. She glues pieces of paper cut into different shapes onto the backing.
“All of this is done with paper,” she said.
Fledderman sells her creations at local art fairs. She also teaches others how to do this kind of work at the Art of Kira studios in Franklin and, starting in October, at Greenwood studio Craft & Cork.
“With the whole wine-and-canvas trend going on, people want to go out and do something artistic for a few hours a night. But not everyone can paint,” she said.
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Jennifer Fledderman
Home: Center Grove area
Media: Mixed media and paper
Focus: Decoupage
Website: facebook.com/FledderflyDesigns
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