THE STUDIO

The Fuzzi Studio was created in 2006 when Trish Kostian started experimenting with manipulating faux fur... just for fun. The resulting piece was a sculpted portrait of a male face. The combed and glued fur sported glass eyes, tiny braids and a long beard. It was well received during the 2006 Eastside Culture Crawl Open Studio event (please follow link below for more information). A lot of studio visitors expressed interest in having this portrait on a jacket, for example. Unfortunately, the carefully combed and glued piece would never withstand even casual wear. As a result of months of experimentation, Trish has developed a technique wherein the faux fur is cut, not glued. This technique resulted in a much different final look than what the portrait presented. This new approach opened up a whole new creative outlet: wearable art. Fuzzi Faux Fur was born, and was introduced in 2009 at the Eastside Culture Crawl where is was very well received. The feedback was amazing and the Fuzzi line hascontinued to evolve and expand over the years. 

THE ARTIST

Trish Kostian, the lead designer and sculptor, is the core of the Fuzzi studio. She designs and created all of the art pieces in her studio which she shares with her husband and her cat. Her fine art and design background has been instrumental in developing the Fuzzi style. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Art from Emily Carr University of Art and a Bachelor of Applied Design in Interior Design from Kwantlen University. When she is not creating Fuzzi objects, she can be found in her studio painting or sculpting in clay. No day goes by without some sort of art endeavour being pursued. Trish draws her inspiration from nature, urban or wild, which influences our daily lives and is infused with deep layers of meaning. Her artistic "manifesto" can be summed up simply as: We are the product of nature, and our environment reflects back to us who we are. 

THE DESIGNS

The Fuzzi studio overlooks the beautiful Coastal Mountains of British Columbia with downtown Vancouver nestled between False Creek and Burrard Inlet. It is not difficult to be inspired by the absolute beauty of nature and the colours of the changing seasons. Throw in a healthy dose of urban and mythological influences and the inspirations keep flowing. The artist is in particular interested in the gentle shapes of flowers, the fleeting beauty of snow, and the shape-shifting quality of water in all its forms. 

THE PROCESS 

Trish uses very small embroidery-style scissors to cut the designs into the faux fur. It is a slow process, but the results are amazing. No other process can provide such close interaction with the material and gives the artist full control over every little detail of the design. Recently, she has been experimenting with electric trimmers to speed up the process and reduce the price of the pieces. Since she has not had any acceptable results from power trimmers, she is currently still producing all of our piece by hand. The designs are typically "transferred" to the faux fur my means of templates cut from card or found objects such as jar lids, kids toys or kitchen utensils. Since the faux fur has a definite and fixed direction, the artist must interpret the design transfer and sculpting style based on the intended design. Each "fur" has its own character, density and length and each one must be handled differently to yield the best results. Each piece is truy unique and no design will ever be repeated. This way Trish can guarantee that the wearable art her clients purchase are always one-of- kind!

VISITING THE STUDIO 

Studio tours and product viewing gladly arranged. Contact us to set up an appointment. The Fuzzi studio is located in one of Vancouver's most active artistic communities at the ARC Building in East Vancouver. We are easy to find at the junction of Powell Street and Commercial drive. Check out this map for directions.

WANT TO KNOW MORE?

We are always available to answer any questions you may have about any Fuzzi-related topics. Contact us any time.