Time Has Meaning

I am helping a friend/college mate/ wonderful artist and would like to call upon my blog readers.  You can actually in name or anonymously, be part of an exhibit in Portland Oregon, USA. Here is how:

“My name is Kristen and I am doing a glass bead installation project about time. I am interested in time’s mystery and our efforts to measure and define it. Can you think of a number or numbers, which represent a time that is meaningful in your life?

Some people have put the age when they got married, had children, year of their first car. One guy put the number 3 as that is how many days it took his dog Rosie to find a grape that he dropped on the floor. Another friend put his childhood telephone area code.. as it held great meaning for him. I put 27 as that was a great year and like Ground Hog day I live it over and over and over.

She just wants the number and its significance. She will collect the information and string glass beads to represent each response, RESULTING  in a wall of glass beads hanging freely.

1. you can leave a comment and I will see that she gets them
2. you can email her directly timeismeaning@gmail.com
3. or you can contact me with the information.

She will post them at the exhibit and if you want an announcement of the exhibit, also provide your name and email address or snail mail address.

Dawn Edwards

I want to thank Dawn Edwards for her inspiring email yesterday. I have been in a terrible slump and somehow the magic of her words pulled me out of trouble waters and scudded  me to the studio.

My friend, Cindy had a quilting party the other night,where we were made blankets for the birthing center, when I noticed the Blue Willow tea set perched on the bureau.  So, as a little thank you for her friendship I made this cozy for her and this spurred me along to make the collars that I previously posted.

Nuno Alpaca Collars

Periwinkle Alpaca Collar

Black Alpaca/Mohair collar.

Rose Alpaca Collar

I constructed these using some alpaca that I purchased locally from  Yarn Barn, a delightfully rich resource for textile artist. Susan and her hubby have been supplying artist with dyes, and dying supplies, resists, thickening paste, pigments and just about any kind of natural dyeing ingredients, plus all the basic artist silks one could desire and not to forget oodles of yarns, exotic rovings,  fleece from buffalo, camel, llamas and all sort of wools, silks and even fiber made from soy.  Though their focus is on weavers, spinner and knitters, they have an ample supply to keep us, fiber-artist buying locally and wane the armchair shopping, though we do comparison shopping—- we are brought back home each time.

Therefore, thanks to Nicola Brown, who has been singing the praises of Nuno Felting for months, though I was skeptical, I publicly thank her for influence and inspiration. I began these collars with loosely woven cotton gauze, it was not really gauze but more of a thin mesh; then, gingerly placed tuffs of the wool on both sides.  I shed the bubble wrap technique for hand massaging the wool as it felted, then off to a bamboo shade to full it. I finished the fulling by hand agitation against itself.  It seems this process is more satisfying to me.

If I were to shorten the collar by several inches, it could be secured with a pin. (As some of you know, I spent two years experimenting and painting with melted glass on metal (copper enameling) making pins, which would look so smashing with these collars. I also made buttons that could be used in a pinch if I could be convinced that dividing a set was noteworthy for an extraordinary result. I would like to expand the color palate into more sophisticated subdued colors so if nothing distracts me I shall.

Vessels

Kreativ Blogger Award

If I can not come up with 7  creative bloggers do should I give the award back? I know many creative people from  their website but not very many from blogging.  I especially like Marisa Ranalli work . The dress with the LED lights is fun and funky, Although the clothing LED lighting has been around for a long time, the way Marissa has implemented into felting is unique. She has many other items that are brilliant.

I have found that Nicola’s work is always fresh and inspiring.  She is tirelessly  inquisitive about any thing felting. I am especially impressed with Nicola’s talent to introduce and merge people together and her ability to communicate what she has uncovered.

 

Wood is warm and tender and attract like minded souls.  Roybn works with work from South African and her work is inspiring, speaks volumes about design, composition and looking beyond the surface.    I am sending her an award.

I love the fresh morning air with undisturbed snow and sparkling sunlight dancing across the surface.  My favorite is the early predawn bustling hours at the city market or sitting on my deck having that first coffee when the air is cool, the birds are happy and the worries of life has yet to hit me.  I am tantalized by textural things and especially those involving textiles.  After fifteen years working in with technology it still amazes me at the things memory chips and circuit boards can do.  I am tickled inside by people’s various approaches to creativity and how they express it.  I love chocolate covered espresso beans and my son surprises me every so often with a package of them from a local store. I love it when someone does something extra thoughtful to bring pleasure into my life.

When I come up with 5 more creative bloggers, I will certainly add them.

Red Hat

I have been digging through my old millinery books for the perfect pattern.  My favorite publication, which I have had for 26 years, by Denise Drecher (1) did not provide the pattern but leafing through the period and theater men’s and women’s hats  gave a nice millinery  visual vocabulary. The book provides resources for Millinery supplies though I am questioning  its relevance since the book is rather old, nonetheless I found it helpful.  I was not interested in slicing, stitching , shaping  my first wool felted hat.  I wanted only to employ the ease of felting without seams by using the resist method and make this hat one continuous piece of felt.  It was passable, and I will welcome this hat into my collection for winter warmth.  I intend to accessorize it with some interesting but understated items.

From the Neck Up, Denise Drecherl Madhatter Press, Minn, MN 0-941082-00-8

Rita Hat

I found this hat online which would fun to duplicate or at least make a version of it.  It appears to me it is made from tightly knitted, single ply, cashmere and has a stretchy characteristic that hugs the head nicely.It can be very windy where I live, thus hats must fit with a certain amount of hug ability or I will be chasing the hat down the icy, snowy street.   I can easily design a forerunner from a recycled cashmere sweater. I intend to scrounge thrift stores for a discarded sweater pullover to use a prototype.  The hat just looks like an elongated stocking hat shape with pin tucks; it looks somewhat droopy in the back so I am excited to experiment with the draping. .I welcome any ideas.

I think a felted hat would have as much give but I am unsure if it would drape as nicely as this example.

Rita hat

Autumn Cleanup

It looks like my Fall family gathering for lawn and garden clean up is postponed but I am not crying the blues over the cancellation. It is a great outcome for me,  as I intend to work in the studio, after I take my border to the Farmer’s Market, providing he wants to go.  If you recall I made a posting in September about dark matter, which I since have removed, and unknowingly dark matter is exactly what this brilliant guy is researching.  How cool is that? I promised to reshoot the poorly posted photos plus any new work, tomorrow.

New Shape

Rounded Rectangular

This was not an easy container to capture its shape in a  2D photograph nonetheless. the shape is  rectangular  with soft rounded corners.

Group Pose

The gang

A quick corporate snap shot of the group to date.  Yes, I used Procion dyes with an acid fixer.

More Lucy

Inside Lucy IV

Lucy III

Lucy IV

refining the process of taking unconventional material: dog hair and constructing a pleasing vessel.

Container Using Poodle Dog Hair

I apologize  for the quality of these pics.  I spent  considerable time in the photography studio taking numerous pics of all my recent activity and as I was  uploading I discovered a smudge on the lens of the camera.  Yes, a  reshoot is in order but not tonight just wanted to upload a few as promised.

Poodle Contrast to Merino Sheep

Laid out

Wet Vessel Prior to Felting

Lucy II

Zoom of Vessel

Inside of Vessel

Yet More Poodle Containers

There comes a point when modern conveniences become a huge nuisance and I wished that I had other means of communication, information and archiving information. Yes, longing for the good ole days.  On top of not having any telephone service, my computer decided it needed reformatting. This is a several day process, as I have yet to ghost image all my applications and configurations consequently when I an on the verge of being in the working saddle, another application surfaces that needs uploading, configuring and what not. Escaping from the humdrum mundane of reinstalling , I spent seven hours in the studio creating more vessels with the poodle hair.  As I stated in earlier post the hair is difficult to card and align the fiber hairs, as the length short. I made two more vessels using it more as filler, as I like to make a color wave inside building out so the end result is white.  It felts nicely into a dense fiber and especially when mixed with Merino, Alpaca and Mohair it results in a handsome container.  Nicola asked if the poodle dog hair is silky and the answer is no, but it gives a nice curly effect when dried.  I prefer mohair for both visual and tactile textures as the fibers are very long and sleek.

Broken Stopgap

This week has been unbelievably  intense as my livelihood comes via the internet and I have had no home connection. I found a close and cozy place to become a virtual office away from home, but of course there is no printer and I inevitably would leave a vital number or paper at home resulting in incomplete forms or total disability.   Fortunately, my blackberry has provided a lovely stopgap but over all it has been near maddening  to switch gears and adapt to an already unpredictable schedule. Proving my distractions are not mild, today I left my blackberry in my jeans as they went through an entire wash, rinse and spin cycle.  I removed a few screws revealing the insides of the Blackberry Curve although I did not completely disassemble it; I managed to dry out the condensation on the screen. My labor was in vain as the 3 week old blackberry has  kicked the bucket.

Out of utter frustration and needing a mental respite, I did a little clutch for a friend in Portland and a small, simple vessel. I had limited time, because of a packed schedule yet the segment was refreshing and beyond needed.

Lucy Vessel

This is the first time I have been in the studio for ANYTHING since Labor Day, September 4th. —nearly 30 days, YIKES!  This explains why I have been sooooo grumpy and unable to sleep. It is difficult to admit to defeat at times. Anyway this vessel was named for the donating party: Lucy, a poodle dog.  The hair was extremely short so it had to be mixed with alpaca, merino and mohair.  As I stated in an earlier post the hair was  difficult to card, and without carding, it naturally just matted together in clumps. It was an interesting experiment and enough change to stir my desire to work again in the Studio.  Thank you Lucy for dragging me out of that depressive slump.

Poodle hair

I received this in the mail last week: a box of poodle hair.  The shearing was very short, so the fibers are nearly impossible card or felt. Though the idea is somewhat novel and interesting, the shearer lacked knowledge on felt making.  I think if the hair was longer, there are possibilities of working material.

Angel of Light

Pressed for time, complied with work distractions, I did not finish this project in time for a show.  My idea is not all that appears as light is good. The tentacles fill the inside and come through the vessel walls. The one  exception is  the larger uncoiled one which is draping over the top

Overwhelmed, I have left this piece  in the corner  uncompleted and the defeat has caused me to recoil from even going into the studio.

White is White

white is white

Using my stash of alpaca wool combined with merino to shape this vessel. The goal was to get as thin as possible maintaining the integrity of the vessel. It is only 3 layers of wool thick.  It is fulled and  rinsed in a sizing, which makes it very sturdy.

Missouri

The forest of Northwestern Missouri inspired the colors of this vessel. This is the first vessel with superb fulling, no glue or additives, no shaving, just raw vibrant wool. My goal was to achieve taunt wool merely through craftsmanship.  I am pleased in the quality of this alpaca and mohair wool felt.

White

Translucent White. I am still working on materials verses content or any meanings behind these vessels. It is all about product at this juncture as I am still refining my technique for felting. I can say this vessel is so thin the light shines through it yet it holds its shape because I am fulling it longer giving it a stronger hand. 7inches by 10 inches