Lacey Ferri

Artworks

Eight-flowered door, or Stars on Toast
Veneer on repurposed cabinet door
21 x 30 cm

The root the star and the vine
Pencil and white chalk on stained paper
21 x 29 cm

Signal (my joy)
Watercolour on stained paper
49 x 75 cm

Artist Statement

I prefer to call myself a craftsperson or an artisan, rather than an artist. My greatest joys are found in executing work with as much precision and care as possible. For me, the simple act of measuring, or working with an excellent tool for its exact intended purpose, is a great satisfaction.

My first year at the School of Traditional Arts was a truly metamorphic experience, especially in terms of how I view myself as a maker. Not only did I learn numerous skills and old methods, but I also discovered that belonging to a long line of craftspeople and contributing to centuries-old traditions is the perfect fit for me. So much of today’s world is pressuring artists to define ourselves as individuals and be rising stars; the traditional arts and crafts ask instead for a certain humility. In practice, this requires dedication, respect, and a willingness to serve the process, however arduous and repetitive. This difference, far from being constrictive, is incredibly freeing.

I have only just dipped my toes into the vast pools of a few traditions for the first time. One of the techniques I have chosen to focus on is marquetry, the craft of ornamenting with hardwood veneers. I took the first year course in tarsia geometrica and this spring took a supplementary course in tarsia a incastro. I find wood to to be the most attractive medium to work with, loving it for its warmth and cheerful willingness to take on both form and function. Previously, I had only worked with woodshop machinery in cabinetmaking. Venturing into surface ornamentation is exciting, the history and tradition of it is full of character, and personal significance. Wooden objects carry profound meaning for communities and families within the chip carvings, symbols, painted designs, names and dates that adorn them. My existing appreciation for these objects and the occasion of my own marriage this winter led me to make a small marriage chest. Marriage chests (or dowry chests, cassoni in Italian) were common in colonial America and across most European cultures for hundreds of years and contained the bride’s trousseau.
The motifs and patterns I have used for my degree show derive mostly from two origins, that of the Cosmati family’s mosaic pavements (12th-13th cent, Italy) and of Romanesque sculpture, primarily English Romanesque (11th-12th cent.) The symbolism of Romanesque ornament contains a wealth of meaning, though much of it still remains shrouded in mystery. At a time when only the clergy could read, Romanesque imagery could explain and instil Biblical lessons and truths to those who saw it. Those people would have been able to “read” their meaning much better than we do today.

Other sources of inspiration include Anglo-Saxon architectural forms, various medieval chests, and Italian, German, and American textile pattern books from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. My marriage chest is ornamented with combined designs from early American fraktur ¹ , Cosmati mosaic, and symbols common in many German, Swiss, Dutch and Austrian marriage chest traditions: the tulip, a pair of birds, and the initials and date.

¹ Elaborate illuminated folk art created by German and Dutch immigrants to America; the collection of symbolic motifs used in this tradition

Biography

Lacey Ferri is a craftsperson from upstate New York. She is a graduate of Houghton University, New York, where she received her Bachelor of fine art degree in studio arts, concentrating on ceramics and furniture design. Afterward, Lacey’s love for the European built environment styles and medieval architecture led her to volunteer for a year and a half on building restoration projects in Ireland, Scotland, and France. This hands-on experience and growing knowledge of traditional materials and their historical uses fired her curiosity for historical architectural interiors, fittings, and furniture and she became interested in their methods of ornamentation. She spent four years in Oxford, doing further study and freelance commissions of architectural drawings and prints for several colleges and the Bodleian Libraries.

Lacey moved to London to study at The King’s Foundation in order to create a bridge between her background in craft and building and her draughtsmanship skills. The School provided the missing link with its instruction in geometry, pattern-building, traditional methods and materials, and more specifically, the introduction to hardwood veneers and other types of surface ornamentation such as stained-glass and encaustic tiles. She plans to continue her training in veneer work and painting on wood.

Contact

Instagram @lacey.ferri
Email laceyferri@yahoo.com