Late Christmas

My son and I just had Christmas and I was fortunate enough to receive a digital photo frame that holds 300 pics.  I have flipped through  jpegs to upload and present a nice photo album. However, it looks like I need to spend extra time scanning the last 30 years of photos. UGH. I must say the frame looks handsome on a walnut table beside my club chair displaying a slide show of family events, holidays, vacations, local points of interest and artwork.

In the meantime, it would be nice to hire someone to execute some of my creative ideas as I have way more than I have time to handcrafted.  my professors in college relentlessly encouraged us to keep journals and record the ideas for future use.  I  will attest that I have journals full of future ideas.  I believe for my son’s birthday in August,  I would like to use his old blue jeans—those that cost me hundreds of dollars when “the designer-brand phase” of teen years infiltrated our home, I could not bear to part with once his taste moved on. I have stacked them in the basement for some delightful project that is quickly rising to the surface. I would like to make a crazy/patchwork-quilt-duvet cover.  Instead of the lovely hand embroidery that makes a nice marriage of the pieces, it would be more in fashion to have all the edges raw, raveled, and soft. There is so little time.  He is a tall guy so he has a substantial size bed. Well, in due time.

Once again, other things took precedence over studio work, if you were looking forward to reading about my experience; I apologize for dashing your hopes.

Landscape Vessel

Verbiage to follow. Hand dyed merino with hand dyed silk organza in green and midnight blue.

Landscape

Moonlite Landscape

Landscape

Developing Inventory

Hello all,

I am re-fulling some hairy alpaca scarves and repurposing into small bags for summer art fairs. The economy seems it will not gain much momentum for a tremendous rise in discretionary income; yet, who can deny that people love to give and receive small new gifts.  Easter and Mothers day, May Day are all on the horizon. Eager beavers do Winter holiday shopping in the summer at fairs.  I am not confident how appropriate wool  is for summer months as the humidity and heat of my region are ridiculous, people have  asked how they keep them for the summer months to protect from moths.  I am thinking and designing a variety of Shibori and discharged silk clutches or “date bags” with hand beaded closures. Even if I do not go on the road with the goods, they are always delightful items to use as bartering material or thank you gifts for the many acts of kindness given bestowed upon me.

I am also STILL preparing applications and photos of my vessels for a competition thus no new photos.  I have been to the photography shop four times in the past three days attempting to make the perfect snapshots of my top five picks. At one time I was every ready with slides, descriptions and artist statements for competitions and embarrassingly I have lapsed in my preparedness but am slowly updating and reorganizing my portfolio.

Home Stretch

The hat is dried, pressed and all shaping is completed. I will add twill tape on inside to prevent excessive stretching. Of course the cold weather is most likely gone for the winter. It is a rare occasion that we have more than one nasty  spell requiring hats and we had three solid weeks of it  at Christmas time with record snowfall. I will post dimensions later but I am off to perform some technology troubleshooting for a national concern.

Winter Alpaca Hat

Alpaca Hat drying

Fulling  of the wool is done, and now shaping / drying of alpaca is in progress. The jury is still out on my feelings about this hat. It certainly is soft but I am disappointed in the quality of the alpaca, but thanks to Christine from yesterdays post, I do have a better understanding of my issues. I would call this vendor a swindler but she probably just has no idea what she is doing as a alpaca vendor. As I stated yesterday her goods are probably divine for spinning customers. I am leaning to never buying roving again.  The hassle of processing fleece wool is so worth it in exchange of having a full comprehension of the wool’s history, i.e type of fleece (what part of the animal, how it was washed(as a felter knows super washed wool will not felt), how it was dyed and now, I see the various layers of wool will not felt.

PS the over view photo was once again taken with the blackberry –and I moved during the shutter release.

Fulling the Alpaca

I have entered a new learning cave, once again.  When fulling wool there is always a tiny bit of surface hairs that work their way loose and entangling in the soap however with this alpaca it dislodged in near handfuls. As I fulled the hat, the sweeping black line of alpaca separated profusely and left the white lambs wool exposed. I had to go back and re-lay black alpaca mixed it with black merino but it still would not adhere; I concluded the white lamb’s wool was probably already fulled. Hence, I had no choice but to needle felt (which I did while it was WET) some additional wisps of alpaca into the fulled piece, which inadvertently covered the tender ice blue lines that dribbled the surface and added a subtle touch of contrast.  Here are pics of the disappointing finished fulled piece. Since I am an artist and art instructor, I take the lead from some of the most successful artist: turn mistakes into masterpieces.

It needs to be noted these were photographed with my Blackberry Curve as my rechargeable batteries on my digital camera have gone on vacation.

Back Side

Alpaca Hat

Front side of Hat

I am contemplating a spring art fair; something I have not engaged in since early 1990s’. Prior, I have mentioned that I traveled around the USA with my son selling my textiles in art fairs until I won an appointment as Kansas Artist in Residence.   The residency provided studio space and in exchange, I provided art instruction for an entire school district of 1500 students. Whoa, it was exhausting and consumed so many of my waking hours that my personal art avenues and quality family time suffered.   This was a turning point because I saw technology with new eyes, and the love affair with textiles took a back seat to pixels, LANs, WANs, and WAP gateways. Yes, I was seduced by the “magic” of what technology could achieve. Fifteen years later, I am broken-hearted and said goodbyes to the fire that once sang gold. I have not made a commitment to the art fair but am toying with the idea and so I have begun an inventory with seven clutch felts waiting for lining and fasteners. While making the clutches my mind wandered and I decided to give another swing to the hat genre by making one of alpaca for my personal use.  Alpaca is supple and soft but the fiber I have takes tremendous effort to felted, in fact, it is down right obstinate. My experience has proven a resistance to felting as much as Mohair. In the last year I have sandwiched alpaca with other fibers just has I have with mohair, which worked well but the surface not the yummy texture of alpaca wool. Today was the appointed day to conquer the mystery felting.

I laid a foundation of the lamb’s wool, which would of course be the interior of the hat then white, gray, black alpaca as the top two outermost layers. It felted pretty well but still portions of the black were headstrong and resistant for fulling.  After felting the wool fibers, I rolled the hat approximately 150 times and there were segments that refused bonding with the other fibers. I purchased this fiber under the guise of undyed, natural alpaca however, I am suspecting something else as I had to use felting needles and punctured these top recalcitrant fibers into the lamb’s wool. I am beginning to realize the only way to narrow down the mysteries is to obtain wool only in fleece form. Here is the documentation of the hat ready for additional fulling and shrinking it into a taut fabric. I am wondering if others have this issue with alpaca or is it this particular wool.

PreFulled Alpaca hat

Rosa Lamb Vessel

Rosa Vessel

I am excited to begin to manipulate the wool to do what I want instead of passively letting it run the show. The inside is a deep amber and only sprinklings of amber and lemon yellow on exterior. The fleece was hand dyed in my studio.  I had to rewet and reshape this vessel three times before I could get it to raise without dimples and ridges on the outside. My final shaping was conceived by inserting a beach ball then inflate it and invert so that gravity put pressure on the air inside the ball and press the vessel taut.

Priorities

Some people can switch direction on a dime, as the term goes and often I can be creative enough to do likewise but not today.  I am still unopposed with the residue of the car accident, so, today was spent in projects that are more familiar: repairing or restoring technology.  I inherited a desktop computer, which I promptly moved to my studio and I have been piddling with it for what seems like an eternity for the refurbishment.  The duped machine was infiltrated by  two-legged rodents with a virus that disabled the software clear to the core of the computer, the BIOS. I managed to restore 99% of it but there was one lingering component though small, rendered it useless for my purposes. Today was the designated day to research and fix it; hence, I halted all thoughts towards wool.  Actually prior to the decision of working on the computer, I rewetted the amber vessel AGAIN and reshaped it. I am struggling with a desirable solution for drying to the desired shape. Today, I packed the wet vessel that had been towel dried, with recycled plastic shopping bags, and perched it upside down on a jar. I would prefer something that pressed the vessel tautly like a similar shape that is a wee bit larger than the felted vessel  perhaps I could insert an air-filled balloon on my next vessel. No photos.

Dazed

I had a car accident yesterday; nothing seriously happened to drivers or even cars but an internal vivid wake-up call of the potential seriousness and impact moving vehicles can have on our persons.  I was dazed, stunned, and slightly traumatized for a greater part of the day thus I was operating on automatic pilot. I headed to the studio and completed two felting projects but they are very evident of my mental distraction. I finished fulling a large round amber vessel, which I liked but the disruption kept me from shaping as planned.  I had to rewet it three times and still I was dissatisfied with the results.  I moved onward with the layout and composition of the wool for a little date clutch. Again, in the end, the composition was not lyrical and flowing as I had seen it in my minds eye yet , to put a positive spin on it my friend in Washington DC will love it. It is one thing to not have ideas and forge forward in work, it is completely frustrating to have ideas and be utterly prevented from executing them.  Photographs will be taken and uploaded later today.

Back in Drivers Seat

Sparing you all the sorted details of my recent illness, I can say with all confidence that I am back on my feet. Today, I not only accomplished many neglected household chores, I had a long lingering lunch with girl friends then completed the day by felting three new items. The luncheon was a birthday celebration (another Jack Benny year) which was casual and liberally laced with laughter, amongst some sobering moments and followed with a nice cup of coffee and talk of a new book club readings from turn of the century.  The birthday lady received a felted “date clutch” in shades of red.  I am calling my little clutch purses—date clutch as they comfortably  hold lip gloss, ID, credit card, a hanky and house keys secured with a magnetic closure.  It was such a hit with everyone that I was commissioned to make three new ones for out of town daughters.  My photography studio which is a separate room from my art studio has three stations, one is a postal  center with all the necessary supplies for sending parcels, another section is for gift wrapping, ribbons, boxes, and the other is (was) set up for photographing. Naturally, with the holidays, this room got abundant use and I needed the black backdrop for a project, the lights became caddywhompus and completely disassembled one-step after another, consequently, I would not expect photos from me anytime soon.

Back to my saga of my 2.5 week of sickness while in bed recuperating, I made use of a new gift , artist markers. I spent many days sketching  new ideas, filling pages with doodles, researching material ideas for new projects,  exploring possible revenue avenues with potential  trips  for teaching.

Several afternoons last week I thought my ills was gone so I spent several days processing, dyeing and carding alpaca. I over-dyed some natural gray alpaca wool with shades of cerulean, algae green and midnight blues resulting in deep and nice jewel tones. I, also, had natural brown alpaca which is very soft but is definitely courser than the other alpaca that has amber-bronze undertones that I over dyed in shades of nutmeg, cinnamon, cordovan and cherry wood and a burnt umber and a few hanks of burnt sienna. It is exciting to discover that I quickly understand the slight variances in the wool. The courser fiber does not felt easily and seems feeling tacky (I acquired this wool over the internet) Even though I have rinsed it, thinking it was not dyed properly.  I am beginning to wonder if these wools have been dyed with something other than professional acid dyes.  Sadly, I am no longer interested in wool that I have not touched; I suppose this is one of the curses of knowledge. I am certain there are excellent suppliers out there but I have been burned once too often to bother with buying unseen/ untouched. One source sent yarn that had been card after it was spun and made it into roving. In theory, this seems like an acceptable idea but it tends to over work the wool , weakening the fibers into short pieces, it is not acceptable for felting at a professional level.

Items while Under the Weather

narrow silk scarf

Hat

Pure Alpaca Tie.

Not only was the entire town under the weather by health took a bit of a side trip down with bronchial ailment. These little items kept me going while a blizzard of the whirled outside.

Shibori and Felting Silk

Vintage Silk Scarf

This is a vintage silk scarf that has been part of my large scarf collection for many years, which goes to emancipate any doubt to the longevity of silk. I employed a favorite Japanese Shibori technique consisting of pole wrapping the silk, which I placed on the diagonal, and tied tightly with linen wound around and around the pole. I, then, scrunched the silk together towards the end of the pole or in my case a PVC pipe suspended with a broom.  The exposed portions were discharged dyed leaving the nice taupe/caramel color.  I have worn this scarf for the past twenty years and decided it needed a lift. I removed the hem to provide a nice frayed look and began adding wisps of wool.  Someone made a nice gift to me  of some splendid alpaca from a farm in Wyoming, in natural black, caramel, gray, and white. I thought the black and caramel would marry well with this silk scarf and I felt it met my expectations.  It is very lightweight but I wore it yesterday (temperature was 2F) and it was toasty warm, which amazed me the queen of hard sales. I have not worked with this source of alpaca and I found it rather resistant to felting despite its unbelievable softness. In my readings, I understand the processing, some dyeing or the age of the animal can hinder the felting ability of a fiber, which I have experienced from various sources. The felting ease of some Icelandic lamb’s wool has immensely spoiled me and I have become lazy and nearly intolerant with wool that does not immediately take to bonding together. The lambs wool felts so easily that  in merely  agitating the fleece while washing, it will felt together.  I have washed several batches of this lambs wool and plan to dye it this afternoon, after work.

Thanks

Two thousand nine would not have been complete without all the new internet friends I have met and enjoyed learning and discovering felt, the world’s oldest  documented fabric. It began with an unbelievable woman in Ireland who is not only an incredible creative felter but has a gift of networking,  Nicola Brown. She introduced me to numerous others working and doing unbelievable work in fibers. I also made contact with earthly people raising animals, many of whom are also artist. For a bit of quick and dirty history of felt check this : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felt .The difference between what some call felting is really fulling (shrinking a knitted wool), which many of us have mistakenly accomplished to our favorite wool item while laundering it.  Felting is the actually beginning steps of using wispy fibers to interlock and compress to make a lightweight yet incredibly strong fabric, nearly waterproof and blocked wind.

Year End

A year spent in research ends richly with knowledge of various animals, breeds, their age, and how their diet affects the result. I developed a handsome vocabulary of techniques resulting in various effects including rolling in bamboos mats, bubble wrap, rubbing against itself and even the shock method of boiling water with ice water, all result in unique felt for many applications. The thickness or thinness of felt affects how it is applied to vessels including a loose felt verses a tight taunt felt.  Colors can have a rich depth and texture using ultra-thin layers of various coordinating colors or light on top of dark colors and as in painting with glazes using layers of complementary to mute colors.  As I bring this year to an end, I am looking forward with great energy to use my findings in expressing Poetic ideas and not just a product.  Unless I make something today, this is the final felt of 2009: a silk with thinning applied wool on both sides, which is a twist on traditional Japanese Nuno felting.

Content

Whew, now that the holidays are almost over I can turn my focus back to my artwork. I have spent the last year in research felting various fibers,  numerous  fulling and felting techniques,  and uncovering strengths and weaknesses of each and when or where to apply each. I dabbled in dyeing raw wool, roving and the mysteries of overdyeing to narrow one method I prefer when acid dyeing.  I recently saw a demonstration on resist dyeing, which is traditionally more of a Japanese tradition for Kimono designs but instead of using indigo, or gutta resist, this method bound the cloth(not roving),  dipped it  into dye then some sort of acid fixative and without rinsing, was able to dip instantly into a different color. This intrigued me and I want to refine my dyeing of fleece and roving. I would like to  explore burn out of shibori silk then nuno felting it before I move onward.

Holidays are about reuniting with friends thus an old college friend was in town, who is a practicing artist in Oregon and who spent considerable time in Germany and Italy this past summer. We had a great time laughing, sharing and I was refreshed to find a like-minded individual.  We had an intriguing discussion about making the invisible i.e. time, which is ethereal, intangible, and elusive into something one can hold in one’s hand: visible.   She spent a year studying time by interviewing people and extracting what time represented to each person, individually. She does not have the entire exhibit’s documentation on line yet, but here is a sample.

We talked a bit about craft /art and she said so many west coast artist have become interdisciplinary artist.  I walked away thinking about the crafts I constructed over the holiday season and  feel a tremendous pluss to get back to artwork.  How is it different?  Work without content is craft but work with substance though it uses craft to express itself, is poetry and art. Most people here in the Midwest prefer blues or shades/tints of the cool lucid color. thus I find myself craving to work in a different pallet.  I like to work in colors closer to nature-autumn because autumn displays the summer’s growth in grandeur as vegetation slowly creeps into its dormant season and even pruning life cycle. OK OK plus my birthday is in the Fall but mostly because as a child, autumn meant returning to a rich learning environment.

Good Intentions

I have planned to blog about my hat experience but other issues have distracted me from my regular blogging activity plus the holidays  are packed with all their set of activities.  Furthermore the switch from 50F to 18F this week has shocked me into admitting that winter has arrived.  I  am extremely sensitive to environmental conditions  and I am terribly uncomfortable with both  hot or cold so do not ask me why I continue to live in Kansas where we experience both.  Fortunately, it changes with a blink of an eye.  I have good intentions to elaborate on my delightful package from Ireland and my experience felting with it but for now,  I am off to a holiday parade.

Roving from Ireland

Dawn Edwards Design

The hat is rounded and even but the camera makes the hat look as though it droops on the side.  Hat was merely leaning closer and tilted slightly off the platform towards the  lens  consequently my inexpensive camera can not compensate.

Bootie Pics

I tried my hand at making dolly booties.  I have yet to try them on the doll but had great fun.  There is a companion pair made of pink with pompoms on them but the photograph did not turn out.

Dolly Booties

Life Stages of Lavender

Hands down, working with clay to create vessels is MUCH easier but perhaps I have yet to find the enabling tools.

Rounded

I wanted to take a new swing at a beret hat but I cut the resist too small,  since I can turn on a dime, I decided today was the marked time to attempt a rounded vessel. I had just spent the morning dying poodle hair  for some new vessels This may explain my mistake, as I was already fatigued from the dyeing. HA HA.  The inside of this rounded vessel  is a violet purple with layers of white merino and white alpaca on the exterior laced with slight wisps of grey alpaca.  The line drizzling the exterior is a 3-ply Shetland, which I untwisted and randomly placed.  Once I completed the fulling, I was pleased that some of the violet wool had migrated to the surface, which gives the visual texture one of blended fibers. I titled this the life cycle of Lavender because I grown Lavender, and I love the cycle; it begins with a deep bluish grey stem, which looks very dead, then it pushes forth tender green sprigs. In early summer it burst forth with great fragrance and one knows the lavender is in its prime and time for harvesting. The heat of the summer here in Kansas, turns the plants the sage green and the amber brown. I prune the plants back hoping for a mild fall and another crop but have yet to reap such.