Francie Ginocchio

Art Mediums

• Collage
• Fiber

Biography

I am happiest when my hands are busy: dyeing fabric, designing and stitching a new art quilt or switching gears to spend time with felting or collage.

My primary love over many (many!) years has been creating art quilts. Currently I’ve been experimenting with new and dynamic color combinations using Procion MX dyes combined with Shibori techniques. The patterns and colors that emerge (sometimes a surprise) lead me to the final composition. Once the background is stitched, I embellish each piece with machine stitching, beautiful threads and hand beading. Careful craftsmanship and attention to detail are important parts of my work, whether large or small. Although my largest quilted piece was 9 feet by 15 feet, I now focus on creating smaller works. My art quilts can be found throughout the Midwest in both corporate and private settings. Some pieces have made their way to Japan, Costa Rica and Ireland. In past years I taught quilting workshops in the Midwest and at Sievers School of Fiber Arts, judged quilt shows and edited quilt books.

During winter months, part of my evening time moves to felting. Using a pre-felt base and needle felting, I add dyed wool roving to create small landscapes. After finishing or fulling, with wet felting, I embellish them with hand embroidery and beading. I’ve taken workshops and explored a collage method that involves altering papers, coating them with polymer medium, layering, and heat fusing them with a “tack iron” to a substrate. Altered images are added using several transfer methods, shadowed, and enhanced with water-soluble crayons.

Some of my commissions include UW-Hospitals and Clinics (Madison, WI), Mayo Clinic Charter House (Rochester, MN) Samaritan Bethany (Rochester, MN), Ronald McDonald House, Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance, Wisconsin State Crime Lab (Milwaukee, WI), Appleton Heart Institute (Appleton, WI) and the Children’s Music Network Magic Penny Award.