Artist’s Bio

Deb Dumka has a diploma in textile studies from Cabot College of Applied Arts Technology and Continuing Education in St. John's Newfoundland.

The fabric of these bags may be known to you as 'boiled wool' as it is a textile that is felted from knitted material. This was first produced in 1993, while she was studying in St. John's, as a way of creating yardage quickly. The initial projects had design printed with dye onto the felted fabric. She moved on to exploring knitting and other textile techniques to make images, creating carpets, or one-of-a-kind floor pieces.

Deb became interested in creating physical as well as visual texture in her work and has produced felt pieces incorporating applique and embroidery. These bags have evolved from that work.

She is interested in landscape and distinct elements of landscape and creating an emotional response with colour and pattern. Textiles, with their linear arrangement of thread, are an ideal medium to interpret things with stripes, which is her design focus with her bags.