Members of the Thread Artist Guild® were given a challenge to create a piece of artwork to go with the theme of "Chinese Year of the _____".

Defined as: A bear or other animal creation made from thread or fiber to depict the Chinese year that the creator was born. Also to be included in the creation is the symbol of your birth year animal.

Our Award Panel (Marianne Alexander, Jan Nethercutt, Joan Salomon, Anita Schaeder, and Debi McCarthy-Beckett) were shown anonymous pictures and asked to award points to each picture for keeping with Theme, Neatness of work, Originality, Construction, and Presentation.  Then the points were tallied to determine the winner.  A big thank you goes out to our Award Panelists for sharing with us their knowledge, expertise and time to review the entries.

Pictures are shown at a small size so they can be viewed side by side. Please click on the picture to see the larger version.

Winner of the 2009 Thread Artist Guild® Annual Award Challenge!
Marge Wiese for her entry in and Winner of the Needle Felt/Other Fiber Category, titled
"Ting"

Artist:  Marge Wiese
Chinese Year of the Tiger
Size:  Stands 7.5 inches top of head to bottom of feet
Description:  Ting is a whimsical little tiger cub. She is needle felted in a static pose, with her body turning to reach out her front leg and view the wondrous tiny blue butterfly that has landed on her paw, while balancing herself on three feet. She tries to remain graceful, even though she still has those big clumsy tiger cub paws. Ting is very solidly needle felted with a core of ivory Cotswold wool fiber. Her body was then completely covered with two additional layers of needle felted white fiber to allow her to become a truly white tiger. Her detailing includes gentle shading of pink tones in her ears, and small areas of gray to shadow her white color. Her body has black stripes, leaving her lower legs mostly white. The Chinese symbol for the Year of the Tiger is incorporated among the black stripes, located proudly on her chest area. Pink tones of wool are needle felted to form her nose and paw pad areas. She even has little thread whiskers. I hand painted Ting’s premium glass eyes. The tiny butterfly is purchased.

WINNER - Crochet/Knit Cagetory
Artist: Phyllis Swanson
Chinese Year of the Green Horse
Size:  4.875"
Description:  Shenandoah is young horse, and he is working toward being a proper ride for a lady. With his mustang beginnings however, he still is a bit spirited and cannot keep his mane or tail still!

Shenandoah is crocheted with two strands of #80 tatting thread in three shades of green, to achieve a varying, gradual color change. He is non-jointed, with onyx beads as eyes. His blanket is crocheted in the tunisian simple stitch and embroidered with the Chinese symbol of the horse. The saddle and bridle are crocheted in #20 thread, while the trappings are made with 1/8" yellow ribbon and 6mm brass rings.

WINNER - Novice/Apprentice Category
Artist - Paulette Jones
Chinese Year of the Red Pig
Size:  Pig is 3.5" to tip of ear - Tapestry Symbol is 6.5"
Description:  My Chinese Year of 1947 revealed a Red Pig. I chose a sparkly red yarn for this special pig, and decided to make a pig pen for him to reside in. Once I thought of the pig pen idea, I thought of the book, Charlotte's Web, where the spider wrote words in her web to save the pig, so I made the tapestry of the Chinese Symbol for the Red Pig to be the back board of his pen.

HONORABLE MENTION - Crochet/Knit Category
Artist: Jessica Felton
“Year of the Monkey” Chi Chi
Size:  4 1/8 Inches (from bottom of foot to top of head)
Description:  Chi Chi is a white monkey representing the year and date of my birth. Chi Chi was made using lace-weight, mohair yarn and punch thread. Her eyes are glass, and her nostrils are 2mm black onyx beads. Her arms, legs, and tail are wired making them easily posed. She is 5-way thread jointed. Her hands hold an apple and an orange which are held in by Velcro making them removable. Her head is adorned with a bow made of red and gold metallic fiber. Her chest is adorned with red and gold appliqué flowers. I have chosen the colors red and gold for her embellishments and symbol color because in Chinese culture red represents power, happiness, and vitality and gold represents wealth and good fortune. Both colors are traditionally used during Chinese New Year Festivities. The orange in her hand signifies wealth and are passed out during festivities. The apple is red signifying power, etc. Chi Chi was made without the use of a pattern. Each part of her was created using techniques learned through my experience.

HONORABLE MENTION - Needle Felted/Other Fiber Category
Ted, The Sheepish Bear
Artist:  Liza Adams
Size:  8cm or 3.1 Inches
Description:  This little fellow is felted over a corriedale core with lavish alpaca covering his head and paws. The white parts of his ‘suit’ are felted from pure angora rabbit fibre and are very white. His ‘hooves’ are felted from black Alpaca fibre. He is five way jointed and very firmly felted. He comes with his Year of the Sheep Plaque, mounted on card and laminated with his details on the reverse.

Past Award Winners:

2008 Award

2007 Award

2006 Award