Sad hats

Hi   from Midwest USA and I am sending you the best for the New Year.  It is good be back online after the dreadful holidays. I bolted out the felting gate , determined to not be defeated by a bit of wool .  This was my fifth attempt at a beret and once again, it has become a vessel.  I tried it on my head for shape even while still wet and it was so humongous it fell to my shoulders.  (Heavy sign)  I fulled it  bit more when I gave in to crushing defeat by  I admitting  I am not “meant” to make hats, I shall leave it for Dawn and Nicola.  Here is a side story to prove my non-wearable challenge.  When I was in high school my aunt was teaching me to knit, I made a beautiful mitten that fit with the utmost precision. The second one was so large (my stitches became looser) that I could put BOTH hands into ONE mitten. I pitched the craft until  my son was born, when I tried again but this was a sweater for a toddler.  Remembering the loose mitten fiasco of several previous decades, I tighten my approach to the knitting. I suppose most people would just take a class and struggle through teaching ones self.  Anyway, the stitches were so tight, it made the sweater weight nearly 10 pounds and he  only being 25 pounds fell down because the sweater was so heavy.  It was more like a rug than a cuddly warm sweater. OKOK slight exaggeration but it would break your toe if you dropped it. Therefore, I am not a knitter except for a few straight knitting  no purling winter scarves.

 

Back to my newly created vessel,   I inserted a beach ball, filled the ball with air and it fit nicely, so all evening I mentally thought of ways to finish the vessel with hand applied thicken dye finished with machine stitching.  This is really my first object of my winter felting session as my headband idea died. I thoughtlessly put wool on both sides of the silk so it totally covered it.  I must have had some good distracting music on too loud and lost my way in the endeavor.  Since I am taking a trip to New York where the winters are wicked windy and cold; I bought a lovely wool hat similar to this style   which  upon my return from NY, I will wear  on bad hair days or just when I need to run out for quick errand. Therefore, hats are officially off my felting list.  It seems necessary for success to stick with what I know: making wall art instead of wearable art.

Cuban-Coffee

 

 

 

I had a hankering for Cuban coffee so I made my first cup.   In my 30 years of drinking various types of coffee from soy lattes to espresso to just home dripped, I have never enjoyed sweetened coffee. Yet, today this Cuban sweeten coffee is the best.   I have misplaced my demitasse spoons, so yes the spoon looks gigantic in comparison to the espresso cup; nonetheless the coffee is delicious!!.

Anna Feathers

Anna Feathers

I have been working a great deal in data centers lately with no energy to even step into the studio nonetheless, I think about making art incessantly.  This piece graces a wall in my bedroom.  It was made several winters ago of Lambs wool which felted so easily it was completed in less than an hour. The single line meandering throughout the vessel was not stitched but added on top with only wisps of lamb’s wool to cover the bronze embroidery thread. I cannot identify the feathers, as they were a gift from crafter in Ireland and they accent the vessel as naturally as they would a hat. The large piece is an agate pendant with a small 14K  gold finding.  As most of you collect things I enjoy the feel of vintage costume jewelry bakelite  and celloid. The surrounding beads, I collected from vintage necklaces.

Oh yes, I have a nice collection of items screaming to be used.   One can see that I wrapped the agate with brass wire and assembled the beads.  I had an exhibit and gallery had few pedestals so I came up with a way of displaying the items by making wall plaques with a shelf.  This shelf was constructed with Plexiglas formed into an L shape and mounted onto a piece of oiled cherry wood.   

Locks

Lately my day job has eaten up my time and I am too exhausted to get to the studio after work. It seems my excitement with wool is waiting for the cold winter months to set in. I was looking forward to making a beret to hide my unsightly hair while if grows from the spiked dew I wore for the summer months.  It was just too unmanageable so instead of felting a beautiful head covering, I got a fabulous haircut, by Jody Seitz, which is excessively adorable to hide under a hat.  NOW, my motivation to felt a wearable item is in gone.  For nearly two decades ago, I did silk scarves and the proverbial unusual socks for Christmas gifts, but I took a long pause from that work.  I had a nice inventory left but it has finally dwindled, thus people are clamoring for my wears.  Friends and relatives got felted items last year and they met with gratefulness but the regret was seen in their eyes “Where are my silk scarves and socks”?  HA HA.

I am at least trying to get momentum even if it is with posting older work.  The chalice (2009) looking vessel was my first attempt to work with locks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I attended a fiber group who had just returned from a fiber workshop with Elis Vermeulen demonstrating exactly what I attempted on my own.  As you can see in my vessel the success of a demonstration even though, I did not add near enough locks.  I was extremely apprehensive about them felting on top of one another so I placed only a minimal number of locks even though they were side by side in the lay out stage.

 

Today, I am free of my tech work and so I would like to devote myself to the studio. It is only 5 AM here so let us see how the day unfolds. Perhaps today is the day a new vigor will ensue.

Lindee’s Wrap

My dear friend Lindee knitted this lap warmer especially for me while she was vacationing in Colorado.  She drew inspiration from drop dead gorgeous colors in nature:  the shadows in the Rocky Mountains, the crystal clean waters of mountain stream, the meadows green with vegetation and the crimson of the setting sun.  I think she captured the hues with tremendous accuracy. She is a vibrant personality with energy unmatched.

Hat Pin

I have a container packed with precious items, not richly valuable but irreplaceable to my heart. I was looking for a particular broach, which I constructed using reticulated silver, mounted on a piece of ebony. What is reticulation you ask?  Sterling silver has a rather low melting point.  I had a fabulous silversmith professor who educated me in melting silver with the utmost care so that it begins to ripple and form patterns and one day I made an extraordinary reticulation, I should not take all the glory as melting is a bit like backgammon –half luck and half skill.  The hills and valleys of this silver piece would be accentuated nicely with a darkish background. I sliced a piece of ebony to look like a shadow of the reticulated silver.   Ebony is an oily wood so if it is rubbed long enough a sheen forms on the surface that lends the appearance of soft and aged wood after I was satisfied with the wood’s surface, I mounted it with hidden silver prongs.  This piece had no commercially made parts, so it holds nice memories of Professor Ollie Vallaine and his awesome instruction of jewelry making skills.  I wanted to wear this lovely broach on a date.   Sorry I have no pictures of the broach, as I did not find it.

Instead, I rambled across this sterling silver hand crafted hatpin, that I bought 40 years ago as a weapon.  In 1970’s, I walked a lot in the inner city and I had long, massively thick, deep dark brown hair that I often twisted atop my head, relieving my neck from hot humid summer days. This hatpin held my hair in place and should the need ever arise it could easily be accessed and pierce the privates of a perpetrator.  If I must say so, it looked so smashing against my dark hair.  Since winter has arrived, I have been thinking much about hats lately. They are a pain to wear because once on, it is a whole day commitment because the hat smashes my hair into a frightful appearance. Therefore, when I rediscovered this treasured hatpin, I wanted to share its craftsmanship and attention to detail.  I have over stated throughout my blogging, the perils of my aging camera so the details are slightly vague but enough shows that you eye can fill in the gaps.

Works in Progress

Work in Progress

Work still in progress. The re-bar needs to be straighten and waxed.  I am still working on the idea  and what I am actually conveying in this piece. I am using a new camera, which I am uncertain it does the work justice so the camera back get returned.  I have fifteen days for a final decision.

Work in Progress

This piece was a direct result of  my local fiber group by demonstrating how to achieve locks. This piece was made of raw fleece, un-scoured, uncombed or carded  with wee bits of previously dyed fleece.

he teal, aqua, blue piece was totally an experiment with un-carded, non-scoured fleece and white silk  gauze. Once the piece was felted then fulled, it  soaked in white vinegar then while still wet, it was bound with  cotton twine and scrunched together. Three shades of blue of acid dyes were mixed and dripped onto the wet wool. The silk readily absorbed the dye the most.  Once the dying was completed, wrapped into cellophane shrink wrap and nuked for 2.5 minutes on high power.  It was reste4d then additional 2 minutes in microwave. Not shown are the intact locks at the top, which adsorbed the deep midnight blue dye that match the silk portions. It was left to dry in the scrunched position.  The vessels is in progress as I am making a copper tubing to hold it.  Once completed the piece will be displayed in its entirety.

Untitled as work is in progress

New Camera

I am doing a test with a new camera; they told me I could take it for a spin for 15 days before I made my final decision. The blue vessel is merino with silk gauze nuno felted on top. Once completed the vessel was soaked in acid, and the dye was dripped on with eye droppers.It was an experiment to see if I could control where the dye was placed.

The wrap on the sofa was made by a friend expressing a trip she took to the 10K feet Rocky mountains. A totally lovely piece with the colors coordinating exquisitely in my living space.

The glass mosaic with the hand blown glass balls is merely and experiment to see how camera reacts with reflective materials.

The jury is out on the camera, though it is a lovely camera I am still evaluating its limits and possibilities.  Though it is nice, it is an entry level SLR and I am not terribly satisfied with its limits. It is a Canon T3 and though it does recording pics in RAW and is a 12 mp camera I need something with more pixels per inch. This will only do 72  by default and I have unsuccessfully  attempted to raise it which limits  it immensely.  One can raise the over all pixel but it merely changes the size of the pic hence I can make posters of my work. LOL At this juncture it is heading back to the store. It does well with landscapes and people and functions but I did not purchase it for those purposes. My conclusion is my $67.00 camera is much more flexible than this $600 item.

Warm-up Piece

Yesterday was not only October 2 but the global day of Felters United and I had so much fun looking at others work that I forgot to create one of my own.  Today however, I officially began my felting season again with a small warm up piece, which I will turn into a head band.  I am totally embarrassed because I have stockpile fabric and have done so for years that my studio cabinets will barely close shut because they are brimming with luscious fabrics.  One can never have enough fabric for that midnight projects  to soothe the ravenous beast. OK, truth to be known, I am a fabric junkie and I used to purchase for projects, or just because it was a good price or I had visions of possible outcomes or just because it was too irresistibly beautiful or felt nice in my hand.   A decade ago, I purchased multiple yards of deep sea green, which I thought would make into a stunning wedding jacket. The wedding event occurred and the silk is still in my cupboards so I am unsure what I wore to the wedding.   I believe the silk to be  duponi or it could be shantung, the passing of time overshadows such minute details. Anyway,  I cut a strip off to see how it would it would react to a nuno technique. My confidence for a successful felted piece  was near to zero because of the tight weave of the silk. To my astonishment the Icelandic wool bonded and felted beautifully with the silk and this winter, now that I have very short hair, the headband will keep my head warm without the fuss of a hat. I did not dye the wool but I will dip it into some acid dye matching the silk and I hope to have photographs after the dyeing is done.

Stitches

The baseball season reminds me the past not pastime but my past.   My fondest memories growing up were visiting my grandpa in a small Catholic town in Northeast Kansas.  Rumor has it that he was known for his wine making throughout the region, as he was a second-generation immigrant from wine country in Germany. When we visited grandpa, after hugs and hellos, the first thing grandpa would say, “Now, you kids stay out of the grapes.” Naturally, this command only enticed me more to investigate his crop; yes, I was a spunky child.  I would head directly outside and meander through the grapevines, observing the intertwining, curling branches that thickly hung on a sagging wired support what seemed endless. The heart shape leaves displayed a countless pallet of green tones while the thin curling arms provided entertainment as I pulled them out straight and watch with enthusiasm, as they would spring back into a tight coil.

Eventually my yearning for the forbidden fruit would capture my attention and I would find a secluded area and pluck one of the mammoth grapes; they were the size of shooter marbles and just as hard. I loved seeing the green ones juxtaposed next to the violet fruits. I would carefully peel the grape, revealing its succulent fruit beneath the bluish violet skin. It was so smooth and juicy as I rolled it around inside my inquisitive mouth. I would hear grandpa’s favorite pastime linger out the windows and guilt would heavily rest upon my Catholic shoulders, and I would trek back.  Once inside, I would crawl upon grandpa’s lap as he listened to the baseball game on a huge walnut upright floor radio while sipping a lukewarm beer.

I managed to escape any accusations of stolen fruit but it did imprint a delightful era in my years.  I suppose grandpa’s affection of sports naturally influenced my father, who loved all sports. If it involved a ball, my dad knew how to manipulate and conquer the rules accompanied.   I spent a great deal of my childhood on baseball fields, not by choice but accompanying my dad to amateur team practices.

Stitches

Anyway, the reason for this story is that this vessel is called, “Stitches” I was never enthralled with sports, I was more intrigued by the stitching on the balls, the baseball has pleasurable hand stitching that loops around and back again, and the lattice of pigskin with its bumpy leather texture were much more tactile to caress.  I never understood the white bare lines of a tennis ball but it reminded me of the white boundary lines of a baseball field. The pentagonal sections on a soccer ball were puzzling.  The black circular lines of a basketball, well they were not stitched, but they could have been.  The one ball I could call my friend was a tethered ball, one that could not get away from me.  Am I admitting that I am ball challenged? You bet!  Balls are an extensive part of my past with a love-hate relationship, given a choice art lessons would have been my pick.   Although sports tend to bore me, they are a part of the total sum of my existence and so this vessel is inspired by my past.

Rework/Finishing Projects

I began the spiral Painting in November and just finished it today.

Polymer and Acrylic on stretched Canvas

Detail

Square Felt

Reworked in Progress

Ball in Studio

Ball Vessel Upside down

Freeform Stitched bag

The Resist Alpaca vessel (before pic) began as jester’s hat for my nephew. Highly dissatisfied with the results it was tossed into the reject pile. Last week, with the coming of warm weather and the rejuvenation of spring air, I picked up the experiment gone array and began to reform it a vessel, which is the nice feature about Felt is it never truly locked into a shape.  It is much like a canvas that can be whitewashed and begin afresh. I am unsure of the vessel’s destiny but perhaps for some hand stamped acid dye and some decorative stitching.

Today, I also found in the discarded pile a brightly colored blue bag. I have added some decorative stitching and fulled it with my patio sized (88″ x 108″) bamboo screen.  Yes, I stitched it first then completed the fulling, I was unsure what would happen to the cotton thread, but it seems to not mind going through the fulling session.  I enjoyed this free form stitching because it lends more visual interest to surface. Sorry I could not photograph the detail but I am limited to my aging camera.

The black mohair ball that I felted last week got the same stitching with indigo thread as the blue bag; I re-fulled it, which shrank it to a mere 43 inches in circumference. It is the softest vessel that I have made today, it has a yummy soft, rich hand. The stitching on this vessel once dried might be nice with some shiny German Rayon embroidery thread.

Yikes, we have a tornado warning here in the Midwest of USA.  80F this morning and it is now a mere 60F so the storm is moving even though no funnel has been sited on the ground-just yet.

Camera Phone

I have an hour to kill before I must leave for a Circuit Swap at a retail store, so might as well be productive.  I left this vessel drying last night on my kitchen table and so here it sits.  I like the way the inner layers of white and black mohair migrate to the surface. I could not capture that bit of detail as I took the pic with  my blackberry. You will be able to see it once I shoot in in the photographic studio with better lighting and no distracting background information. The glass table is rather reflective.  The inner most layer  is white merino  with gray alpaca, white mohair, more merino, black mohair and final layer of thin Shetland wool fleece. I have plans for  embellishments  but as most things in life are subject to change. I really want to create a vessel that I can slice open and sew back with copper wire surgical stitches,  but I am not confident this is the vessel for that treatment.  I have been intrigued with the idea of scars for about 2 decades and like to use it as a metaphor in my work.

Dyeing a wool vessel

This unexpected vessel design was an exercise in creating color on a pure white vessel using acid dyes from Pro Chemical.  Once I felted and fulled the vessel, and it was completely dried, I folded vessel like a paper fan on one side.  I held the folds in place using metal pinch binder clips (the giant size). I wanted a random application opposed to a regular pattern, as the vessel was much too petite, so I added a few additional clips and even wood clothespins.   I mixed the acid dye with a tiny bit of water to create a paste then it was mixed with a pint of water with a pinch of non-iodized salt and tumbled into one of my stainless steel bowls and placed  on top of the electric burner. When the dye became 140F, I submerged the bound vessel into the dye.   Once I was satisfied with the saturation point judged by personal preference, I put the bound vessel into a plastic bag to slowly cool, this allowed plenty of time for the dye to penetrate and since protein, fibers require heat to open the cell structure and allow the dye to penetrate the cell membranes. .  I let it sit overnight in the bag, though this step is not necessary.   The following morning I rinsed the vessel but the dye had correctly exhausted or absorbed by the protein wool fiber.  When I rinsed it, no excess dye bled into the drain. It was a gratifying lesson, as I have never approached wool dyeing in this manner. The high contrast of the white and turquoise gives a vivid graphic design, which is definitely out of my comfort zone, and I enjoy more subtle designs but this one is promised to an adoring fan.

Satisified Vessel

As I was taking pics of this dried and completed vessel, I contemplated my process or approach.  It occurred to me that  I like to perfect a technique knowing that I can control the medium then intentionally distorted and bend the process which gives an organic looking item.  I do not always follow through  because I get distracted  nonetheless I feel I can now begin the  distortion to create a visual  texture of poetry. This piece I fulled when it was inflated with a beach ball.  I found a great amount of satisfaction in this process.

Orange Grey

I had my mind set to move back to painting with wool and even began a wool canvas (see below)  I had intentions of adding images using German embroidery thread. I am, now, unsure of my next direction.

Canvas ready for Machine stitching

Last Scheduled Vessel

Working on technique once again.

Laid out Fleece

Orange n grey Alpaca

Drying

Another wintry storm after 7 days of 65F spring weather.  It is gray, icy, snowy and we are warned to stay in door because of the dangerous ice;  great day to felt.  I am trying of vessels and  am ready to move forward with more felt paintings; so, this will most likely be my last vessel.  I might add some stamped dye images,  I am unsure at the moment.

Flying Geese Vessel

Vessel with Flying Geese

Flying Geese

Flying Geese Side View

Steamer with Vinegar

This piece is available for sale at the Women Made Gallery  It is made of Mohair, Alpaca and Icelandic Lamb Fleece approximately 33 inches in circumference.  The abstract aubergine flying geese has been stamped on using a thickened dye. Once it was dry it was steamed in a commercial Chinese Steamer (similar to home bamboo stove-top steamers) with  three inches of white distilled vinegar  in the bottom portion covered and boiling over a hot plate.  To keep the condensation from dripping back onto the vessel, clean unprinted newsprint paper was put under the lid while it steamed twenty minutes.

Reshaped Vessel

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This vessel has undergone a re-shaping since I saw the original with my glasses on.  The vessel is the same in all three photos, even though the shape differs slightly. I am unsure if this is my camera, the distance from the camera in each shot or merely the surface design that tricks the eye into seeing the shape differently in the various views.

Felt Sphere

Directly applied Dye

This Drying felt sphere is 34.5 inches. The dye had been directly applied with a sponge and the grape color was mixed with a thickener and stamped on while a beach ball (inserted inside) held it taunt. I am unsure of the final object whether to leave as is, add glass beads, or cut the surface.

Piercing the Vessel Walls

I have packed one of my studio walls bookcases with last years felting projects including many vessels.  Naturally, to me they are not just empty containers but marks of time and last winter experiments.   Yesterday I began a timid deconstruction of one such Vessel that I called “Five A”.  If my recall is correct, I had just acquired some luscious white mohair,(from the local Yarn Barn) which reminded me of a fine Pink Mohair sweater I owned as a child. I loved the texture of that sweater and the slight sheen it reflected in the bright school florescent lights. Instead of listening to the teacher’s explanation of algebra or the revolutionary war, I would gaze into the curly swirling mohair fibers, which were much more interesting than what the teacher had to say. Anyway I digress, and if one looks carefully the wisps of mohair is easily seen on the surface of Five A” much like it did in the pink sweater.

Continuing my experiments with direct application dyeing, I thickened the Pro Chemical Acid dye with sodium alginate thickener so I could stamp dye on to “Vessel Five A”. I soaked the vessel in solutions of warm water and white distilled vinegar.  A couple of decades ago I was mesmerized by found and scrap objects.  My studio used to be located close to a wood shop and I was intrigued by the various discarded cutouts left at the feet of a ban saw covered with sawdust.  Many of the interesting shapes found a home after I first covered a side with a glue adhesive and a commercial wool felt, these made handsome, durable stamps.  If one were to survey my work over the past 30 years, one could easily see the evidence of these stamps that I dipped into paint, dye, and textile Createx, which were foundational visual textures in much of my work. Anyway,  the teal dye was added to the thickener and stamped on using the stamp in the photo.  The eggplant dye was stamped on using the bottom of a wooden spoon and the dye was thinner thus one can see how it bleed into surrounding areas and did not hold its shape. The Vessel was wrapped into cellophane and nuked in microwave for 3 minutes on high, allowed to cool then nuked  and additional two minutes. I proceeded to full the shape tighter and tighter.  I reshaped it so it no longer resembles the original “Five A” vessel.  Oh this is a moot point but I attempted discharge dying that failed miserably.  I could not get the thiox thick enough and even strong enough to maintain a shape this I scraped the idea for now.

Today I pierced the walls of “FiveA” with my new dressmaking Gingher shears slicing bits and pieces from the vessel that created a repetitive design in the teal colored wool.  I found this snipping away most satisfying in a peek a boo fashion. In the past, I used slashing and cutting the surface of items in a metaphoric approach to communicate or provoke thoughts of universal emotions. We, as humans, have all experienced betrayals, rejections, or humiliations from those we trusted and that slash in out heart rarely heals without a scar.  It seems there is much room to push this envelop further and see how far one can distress the vessel and maintain the  integrity of the wool  So on to more cuttings.

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WarmUP Vessels

I have had an extensive hiatus from serious felting and I feel as though I am beginning all over again.  Here are a couple of warm up vessels that I did last week using a variety of my favorite mixed fibers: alpaca, mohair, Icelandic lambs wool and some predyed Shetland wool.

The cylinder vessel is primarily constructed of unprocessed Icelandic lambs wool with lanolin and vegetable matter included.  I  grouped fibers together, then, assembled five separate dye vats to achieve the colored poodle hair, silk and mohair’s tonalities.  Fortunately I dyed extra fiber so I can use the color scheme in the future. The vessel is stablized with strips of  white silk organza laid at right angles so it formed a hidden lattice structure in between the wool layers.

The spherical vessel has silk organza sandwiched between Icelandic wool and alpaca. The dye was applied post felting and fulling using a natural sponge. It is fairly thin felt and stabilized with the tightly woven silk organza.

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