Soft Felt

Shaping is much more difficult than it appears.  I am pleased with the foot but the lip is far from a site for sore eyes.  In fact it looks like one had sore eyes when shaping.  Oh Nicola where are you?????I had great hope for this one has it has thin silver thread running throughout the vessel. The fabric is yummy mohair but either I need stiffer felt or some tutorial on shaping.

Tabby Colored Vessels

The colors in these vessels remind me of my ticked tabby cat, COCO. Black mohair mixed with New Zealand wool, White mohair sparingly swirling over the outside.  Inside, I used white alpaca and white mohair I like to use a layer of the mohair as the some  hairs rise to the surface  softening the colors with modeled appearance.

If they look similar, it is because they are reshaped.  I am still in experimental stages on how to shape and dry the vessels. These are 12 inches high and 8 inches diameter.

New Vessel

I tried my hand at making a felted vessel using my sumptuous  black mohair, alpaca and merino wools. I tossed in a bit of hand dyed wools for subtle color.  It is not as I intended  as it has been weeks since I last felted and I  already forgot my technique in blending the colors nonetheless with a bit of hand manipulation I  will be pleased. I might even kiss it with a bit of needle felting.   It has been drying for 30 hours and it still is holding some moisture.  This is even in the dry air conditioned  environment of my studio. When I finish a piece I normally roll it in a towel and walk on it to squeeze out excess water.  I spent precious  time shaping this vessel consequently I did not want to destroy it by a squishing  in terry cloth.  Perhaps the next vessel will enjoy a snuggling with the towel before I  shape it.  I promise pics tomorrow.

Knowing When to Quit

BEFORE

AFTER

I just wanted to add a few details and got totally carried away.  I think I shall blame it on the music. HA.  I am not a bluegrass fan and it was playing on the radio without excuse I did not turn it off.  The key to knowing when to leave something alone is always a frogs fine hairline. I always told my art students take your mistakes and turn them into a masterpiece so it will be interesting to see where I can take this piece as of now, I see it as a total disaster. I suppose it lost it smoky fiery touch by defining areas.  Perhaps if I revisit with some light layers of golden smoke I might be able to salvage it.

The Blinded Glass Eye Composition

Glass composition is in place, adhered and grouted.  I am fairly pleased with the outcome, as a functional piece that was once a piece of trash. It is a lovely bedside table even in its half completed state.  It is my plan to paint the inside and outside of the drawer a raspberry color or amber and the sausage legs will each get a color pulled from the table top with emphasis on the amber, tangerine, sage greens, blue-violets and a touch of watery aqua.  The drawer pull has yet to be determined, it might be the original or to complete the sustainable/recycled theme, perhaps a found object for the handle.  Anyway, I am relieved the glass portion of this project is completed. Cutting glass requires a glass gridded tray, plenty of light and a concrete floor. It is not an activity one does beside a bed or even in living quarters as glass dust is in the air not to mention the slivers of glass shards. There is a high probability I will move in the coming future and potentially the lack of studio space will throw me into a frozen state. Thus, I want to complete all projects that definitely require a studio due to their messiness.  Other incomplete projects, and there are many, will just require table space and are a wee bit more portable.

The Blinded Eye

Fire and Rain

Yesterday I did a piece called “Fire and Rain” as I have been listening to a lot of old folk songs and James Taylor is one of my favorites.  This composition begins with a blue foundation; white is sandwiched under black alpaca and mohair, all which constitutes the ground work.  The surface is fire. Many years ago, I experimented a great deal with discharging black fabric and was always  excited when it resulted in black/ goldens, tangerines , apricots, peachy colors as it reminded me of fire especially when I used an acetate fabric as it has shimmer.   I dyed some mohair roving a light turmeric color and an array of the above mentioned colors in a variety of hues and tones-no pic available.  Oh, they were stunning wools lined up on my print table waiting to dry.  Anyway the dyed mohair’s adhered nicely to the black resulting in a fabulous “blocking in” of colors for this wool painting.  When I am doing a composition, I am finding that I like to felt a piece to the spongy stage so that it is still stretchy, then, dry felt in the details. Once I am satisfied (which rarely happens) I complete the fulling process, this pulls and tightens up all the wool fibers into a lovely flat surface – front and back. This process allows me more control over the angles and provides better execution of details.  I apologize about the quality of these photos as I am in my bedroom. I like to study the piece outside of my studio before I proceed.  21″ x 21″

Fire and Rain Composition

Back of Fire piece

Stain Glass Table Top

I have been contemplating this project for over a year.  Several months ago, I finally began sketches, line drawings, and watercolor and marker drawings for the composition and worked out the colors.  I transferred the design to sketch (tissue) paper and positioned on table top. I let the design age for several weeks while I mentally pondered details and refinement of the design.  I changed several sections and was, now, ready for cutting glass and perform a dry run.  Once satisfied I transferred design to an adhesive paper.  I will construct the design using the mirror image for the reason that I work the design from the back side, this enables the front to be level and smooth and the irregularities of the glass thickness would be forgiven by substantial layer of tile adhesive.  This differs in that usually each tile is “buttered” with adhesive, then, placed on the table or object.  Working in the reverse is not terribly complicated but it does affect the composition and over all color positioning.  I have used this technique in creating mosaic chairs and side table and the adhesive paper keeps everything tidy until it is anchored to the surface.

Once the adhesive has dried, usually 24-48 hours, the excessive adhesive is removed from between the stain glass, and all smudges are cleaned from the top.   This is when the last tweaking of the design is implemented and finalized.  The grout I use is a dark charcoal gray. The walnut table top dimensions are:  20 ” x 16″

Oh!!!!the pink has to go, NOT sure what color will replace it perhaps orange or red mixed with orange.  Nonetheless I am glad my calling in life is not a stainglass person,  I appreciated the medium and all the more since I have dabbled with mosaicing but I perfer textiles  by a long shot.  Give me felting or give me painting.  I have begun the fire piece with the black mohair wetted and awaiting  the reds, rusts and oranges.

Mirror of Composition on Tissue Paper

Composition Transferred to Adhesive Paper

Gathering glass shapes

Glass cut

Glass Adhered to wood table

Dry Run

Progress of Love Long Gone

Pure pigments mixed in various sections with gesso or createx binder. Sea grass created with acrylic paint.  the backing still needs to be attached.  70″ x 70″. When one looks carefully  the shibori dyeing on the body of the fish is very visible. I did a series of fish with kissy type lips and this is a remnant of that series, which I never completed.  I am attempting to tie up the numerous projects I have begun but not finished. I still have a glass top table which I am doing in tandem with the new  fire felted piece.

This is hanging in my bathroom beside a huge glass block window, which is burning out some of the color in this piece–not in reality just in the photograph.  I will get it to the studio for a controled lighting photo shoot however the time frame is unpredictable.

End of French Press Series

Working on Fire. I like the idea of a consuming fire, so I plan to do a close up.  I have sketches, and have some in markers. I plan to put them to felt today.  Just for documentation here are the last of the French Press covers, though I would like to do one more in blue.

Painted Furniture

I was organizing my art folder and ran across these painted chairs that were part of a series containing all individual pieces(non-matching). I recall these were painted in 2004. Yes, these pieces falls into decorative arts but nonetheless they were fun to paint, the recipients adored them and very fun to sit in. This one is walnut wood with acrylic paint, and sealed with clear acrylic-matt finish. The Fabric seat cushion was painted with Createx textile paint, which is heat set that lends a nice hand, yet, durable to abrasion or spot washing. Part of the series was multiple toddler chairs that made exquisite gifts. Unfortunately, I was lax about documentation and the few I captured were taken before my photography studio was set up, so lighting is questionable, harsh and not balanced.