Ceramics / Fiber Arts
Fanny Penny is a clay and fiber artist based in Ojai, California. From a young age, Fanny was drawn to fashion and fiber as means of expression. She would spend hours drawing silhouettes and textures and using her imagination and needle to create. She graduated from FIDM Los Angeles with a degree in fashion design and went on to pursue a career in fashion. After many years, she moved back to her hometown to pursue her dream of becoming a fiber artist. With the discovery of clay a few years later came a series of ceramic and fiber jewelry that became her first body of work. She traveled the craft fair circuit selling her unique necklaces and was eventually featured in several editorials and such spaces as the MOCA store, Eskina Space, and Cattywampus Crafts.
Over the years Fannys work has evolved into sculpture. Her current body of work includes stoneware chains and large wall sculptures combining fiber and clay. This body of work was integral in her acceptance into the Ojai Studio Artists group as well as a handful of museum shows with the collaborative. As a self-taught artist, Fanny has always used new techniques within her mediums as a means to grow creatively. Currently, she is exploring tufting and rya techniques as well as expanding her clay practice to include glaze formulation and hand-building at a large scale.
She is currently working on a piece for the next Ojai Studio Artist show and several commissions. She works in her outdoor home studio along with her husband and young two daughters who are also passionate about craft.
