New Rounded Vessel

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  I plan to construct in persimmon, tangerine, apricots and russet and some goldenrod hues. 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 am uncertain the felting term but it is a heather look not purple and definitely not white.

9 Felted Soap Samples

I ran into a place in downtown (visitors area) that was clearing out  orphan samples of handmade soaps.  I wanted to learn to felt soap, so I  began with these samples. Some have accent colors by embedding shetland wool 2-ply yarns (which I roughed up the surfaces). The promised wrist cuffs are still missing the snaps.

9 locally made soaps covered with variety of wool but mostly alpaca.

Works in Process

NO pictures today.  I am in the process of making holiday gifts, I began and completed five alpaca wrist cuffs and oooohhhhhh they are so incredibly supple and soft to touch. I will be attaching a metal snap that will fasten the two edges together, then photographed.   A Nuno Silk square scarf which was dreamy to felt, it is rich claret with celery accents. The fibers blended like creamy butter, no effort with stunning results.  In my college town, we have a European market that sells candies, cheese and a variety of exquisite and charming imported items: au marche. You, who have received a swap packages from me, usually get a treat from this store—anyway they carry a line of the most divine soaps. I purchased a variety of scents then, covered them with felted fibers of alpaca and wisps of aqua, celery, and tangerine colors in Shetland wool.  I enclosed the eight bars of verbena soap with alpaca, merino and two-ply yarns that I untwisted and mashed into the fibers before fulling the wool and I used the natural colors of the alpaca.

 

I nearly forgot to mention that thanks to Nicola ravings on Icelandic wool, that I ordered an entire lamb’s fleece from a guy just two states away from me, in Wisconsin.  The wool has only been skirted but not processed and I am finally able to get back to dyeing and doing things I love. Since it has not been carded and made into roving, I got it for a song and I am utterly free to experiment without restrictions by the confines of a tight budget. Buying wool by the ounce, at a premium price has backed me into the product mode instead of my natural instinct of process.  I  am relieved that I will be able to get back to process over product as approach my art work  I have been picking everyone’s brains as I am so afraid to move forward which is so hampering my creativity.  Thus, I am energized and wound up to get the raw wool. My next purchase will be modeled colored wool, for over dying purposes.   Those of you who follow my art work; this is so characteristic of my art wall quilts. I love over dyeing, discharge dying.  Then,  re-dyeing the felt or fabric in spots or with stamps.  I have used this technique with cotton and silk but have yet, to try it on wool, however. Now, that I have some reasonably priced wool, I can easily return to my art experiments and begin a dialogue with the materials instead of just pushing them around to create a product.

 

If I remember correctly from my  college textile classes,  a lambs wool  is extraordinarily soft because not only is this the first shearing but reproducing hormones have not entered the animals body and so the hair is not course but highly silky. Therefore, the discharge dyeing might prove interesting or it could be too stringent and ruin the wool all together.

Juggling Balls

I had a vintage silk georgette scarf that was screaming to be Nuno felted, I took on the challenge of felting this lovely plum scarf. I will have to post images later.   It was ok but I think it needs a little accent help however; the way the felt seeps through the silk is sumptuous.  I must admit I like Nuno felting.  I might have to cut this up and use it in a larger piece. I do not like the way the wool feels around my neck, of course, it was unseasonable warm , 70 F here today, so perhaps the weather influenced my judgment or maybe I used too much wool on it.

Wool cuffs are intriguing, as I cannot say that I have seen anyone wearing them here in Midwest. Using my new alpaca I made four or I should say I experimented with sizes on four: natural chocolate brown with apricot and teal swirls, one silver grey with blues and violets, a white with tangerine and lime accents, and a black with white mohair. I have yet to put closures on them, thus I put photography off until the fasteners are in place.

Today, I focused on completing some technical projects, which pays my bills, thus no time for felting or even darken the door to the studio.  Although I did rummage through some stores looking at fasteners and seeing what was available in printed silks.  I purchased nothing as I have shelf after shelf stuffed with yards of fabric plus in my photography studio, more containers of stored fabric, things I have long forgotten, so it seems utterly redundant to purchase more fabric when I am clueless what I have hiding.

Parcel Arrived

Today was a day of relaxation after the grueling activity of  winterizing my yard and flowerbeds. My entire family, spouses and children came with chain saws, wood chipper, nippers, gloves and eagerness to help their big sister’s lawn. We heavily pruned three trees, removing three to allow for full development of the remaining six.  Yes, I was a tad over ambitious in my planting eight years ago when I bought this property. I had taken a master gardener class at the county extension center, misappropriated my newly acquired skills,by miss apply them to the arbor realm. Anyway, the overgrown trees did grant a lovely privacy fence at the cost of deforming the shape of the maples and Italian arborvitae. They are gone therefore, I can plant more flowers. Ha ha.   While relaxing and getting caught up on my paper work, I received a parcel  from Linda Atkinson of  Sage Ridge -Mill and Critters ranch in Clearmont , Wyoming.  Last week I exchanged emails with Linda inquiring about samples of her line, lickety split the funds were exchanged and the samples were on their way in lightening speed.   Her products can be viewed on Etsy or her website.  She also is a felter, who makes lovely alpaca wraps, hats, and scarves.  The Lot I received is unbelievable and lusciously soft. Yummy is just about the best way to describe it and I am eager to get started on my felting journey with it.

Oh I almost forgot a special treat that she included, a bar of delightful smelling soap with alpaca felted wool covering.(lower left hand corner)

RED Vessel

I love this vessel as I was able to get the fiber tight, firm yet thin.  I achieved  crisp edges between the sides and the bottom.

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.