Chicken footstools gain fine art foothold through collaboration with no pecking order

A pair of two-dimensional designers at Ampersand Design Studio and their three-dimensional collaborators at The City Girl Farm just flocked together to release a new collection of two-foot-tall fiber-feathered fowl “footstools.”

Morgan Georgie and Carrie Kiefer, Ampersand Design Studio, with Carly Pumphrey, The City Girl Farm, transport chicken footstools into a gallery space within the Crossroads Hotel; courtesy photo

“Birds of Feather” — a 19-piece assortment of sculptural chickens crafted by the two women-owned businesses (inspired by Ampersand’s bold and colorful brand; translated, built and brought to life by The City Girl Farm) — is set to debut later this week at a First Friday gallery opening.

Opening 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday, May 2 at the Crossroads Hotel private dining space, the collection also will accessible to the public 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, May 3-4.

“Birds of a feather flock together, right?” said Sally Linville, founder and creative director of The City Girl Farm. “It’s just an expression of the coming together of our two studios and just the goodness that comes when we share life and creativity together.”

In addition to the whimsical footstools (a signature of City Girl Farm that feature sculptures that are up to 22 inches tall and weigh 25 pounds), Ampersand plans to showcase — for the first time — the original two-dimensional art pieces that inspired this season’s chicken footstools, they noted.

All chickens and art are expected to be featured in an online-only sale, beginning at 11 a.m. Saturday, May 3. (The studio artisans behind the project consider these adoptions by collectors.) Base prices typically start at $385 for “Mini Chickens,” $1,850 for “Chicken Littles,” and $2,900 for “Big Chickens.”

Click here to learn more about The City Girl Farm’s chicken footstools.

 

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“We have wanted to get back to creating original art,” explained Morgan Georgie, co-founder of Ampersand, where the popular Kansas City brand turns its paper cut artwork into digital designs. “Our fine art doesn’t have a deadline. It’s not on the calendar; it’s not a client. So, literally, years and years pass where we say, ‘Oh my gosh, another year is gone, and we didn’t even create anything to see if people still like what we dream up.’”

“Having this collaboration gave us that deadline — a gallery show date — and has forced us to do what we’ve wanted to do for a long time,” she continued. “After all these years, we’re doing it.”

Carly Pumphrey, Morgan Georgie, Carrie Kiefer, Allison Gould, and Emily Blodgett-Panos, the teams from Ampersand Design Studio and The City Girl Farm; photo courtesy of Mission Hills City Lifestyle Magazine, Becca Spears

Carrie Kiefer — co-founder of Ampersand — said they appreciate Linville giving them a nudge in the direction of original art pieces.

“It’s given us an excuse,” she continued. “We stay pretty much in the design lane, so to do fine art was a little off of the beaten path.”

Both The City Girl Farm and Ampersand teams have been inspired by the fusion of graphic artwork and sculptural chickens, they noted, emphasizing the impact of tactile collaboration.

“It’s just fun to take that fiber that we create and put it onto a chicken and include that personality in the form of the artwork,” Linville said.

Click here for more on the process of making a chicken footstool.

A portion of the 19 chicken footstools sculpted with needle and thread for a collaboration between The City Girl Farm and Ampersand Design Studio

“The collaborative nature of it and just the circle of inspiration has been different than the way we normally work,” Kiefer added. “A lot of times we are just handing artwork off, and that’s the end of it. So to be back and forth with them and really exploring the fiber element is something we don’t get to play with a lot.”

This isn’t the first time The City Girl Farm has offered up its chickens as a blank canvas for other artists. Linville said her team has participated in several collaborations, including a first outing with Kansas City-based fashion designer Whitney Manney.

From the archives: How a pair of chicken footstools hatched into a yarn barnyard of sold-out flock-pleasers

“That was so creatively enriching and generative for us,” she explained. “We just loved it.”

“All of our collaborations have really pushed our designers and our fiber artists to new spaces, considering new things, using techniques that we’ve used before, but in a new way or new combinations,” added Linville, who made her first pair of footstools in a K-State furniture studio as a senior.

A sampling of the fiber design elements used for the collaboration between The City Girl Farm and Ampersand Design Studio

Having always admired Ampersand’s designs from afar, she first reached out to Georgie and Kiefer in summer 2023 and invited them to the studio. A plan to collaborate soon followed.

“Their work represents their beautiful hearts,” Linville said. “They’re colorful and they’re playful and they’re so positive. So I saw that in their work, and then it’s totally true in person, too.”

“We’ve been big fans of theirs for a long time,” Georgie noted. “We love everything they do. They’re such true artists, and they’re so creative and innovative with every step of the process.”

“And they’re such a kind and wonderful team of women,” Kiefer added. “So every time we get together, it’s just a fun, inspiring meeting.”

Allison Gould, The City Girl Farm, explains the planning for components used to design the collaboration project with Ampersand Design Studio; photo by Taylor Wilmore, Startland News

Linville agreed it’s been fun to get to know the Ampersand team, work alongside them, and see how The City Girl Farm can serve their vision — as well as experience the way Ampersand embraces The City Girl Farm’s vision.

“Something that I’ve loved tremendously about the chicken journey through the years is that it’s become such a collaborative process because each chicken passes through many hands,” she continued. “Everybody does their part in the story of the making, and then they pass it on to the next person who does something maybe expected or something maybe unexpected. And those moments of hand process and the journey of the creation just really gets highlighted when you add more people into the mix.”

Translating their designs into the chickens has been a magical experience, Kiefer shared.

“Even though we’re looking at like a two dimensional rendering of the chicken — and it’s pretty true to what they end up building — just when it’s translated into knit pieces and folded pieces, it just takes on a life of its own,” she explained. “Every time they bring one out, that one’s our favorite.”

“We wish we could own every single one of them,” Georgie added.