Felted Vessel

I made another loom knitted vessel. Below is the before and after felting. This time I tried doing a linen stitch so that I didn't have the distinct knitting lines. I added some stitches on the top by hand stitch because I knew it would be incorporated once the piece was felted. The wool was purchased from my local farmers market.

I was really happy with the fuzzy effect once it was felted. I have since learned from a wet felter that the desire is to not have fuzz....but this is exactly what I wanted. In we felting you don't want the fuzz and you want a very compressed wool so that it can stand alone and actually be cut without fraying the edges.

Dreaded Vessel

This was my second felted vessel that was completed sometime in 2015. I wanted something larger than my first. I still wanted it to be natural wool for the bones and pine bark I envisioned using.

The bones were all the same size. What I discovered was that our dog Rufus liked the bones as well and actually ate the ends off a couple. Oh well...what is one to do.

The pine bark bottom was a from the farm. I wanted to use it as natural as possible and I wanted the hole for a more distressed look.

Peace Out

This peace has been worked on over a period of many months. I would do a little bit and then leave it to manifest in my brain until the next step would come. As usual the steps would come to me slowly through my dreams. Then I would get the idea and rush to the studio to do that step before it got lost in the abyss of daily life. Over the months I had it on the corner of my table, as it patiently waited...putting beads on it...laying similar colours on it until something would click. Now I'm still waiting for a hanging idea. I've played with wood and antler but everything just seems a little too heavy. So I'll have to wait until the perfect item arrives in my studio. But for now that's all it's waiting for.

I began with a piece of cotton batting and started layering wool rovings to it.

As you can see, it's nothing at this point but a dogs breakfast.

Then I took some yarn that's in my stash and started layering it.

I had selected yarns that I though would look good together and I would add them by twisting and bunching them together so that I would get a very raised nobly effect. At this point, I'm still not sure this is working.

This is the stage that I stopped in order to get a true feeling for it. I knew that it needed more but I just had to let it manifest before moving on.

Unfortunately I didn't continue to take pictures of the next stages. I decided that I would add some hand stitched elements to it but because of the nobly effect, anything too small would have gotten lost in the yarn.

This is a more detail shot of the hand stitching. After the hand stitching step, once again the piece was laid to rest until the next step arrived. During that time I was reading a book called "Hot Textiles" and decided that I needed to have some Xpandaprint. When the Xpandaprint came in it sat on the shelf waiting for me to be brave enough to try it. Then one night the next step came & I was in the studio. I got the felting machine back out and felted some areas more deeply in order to have a place to add the Xpandaprint. Xpandaprint is a type of puff medium. When you heat it, it puffs up. So I heated the areas, then painted over it. Then, I added Dorlands wax medium on top of the painted medium, added beads and suddenly "Peace Out" was born.

This is just a another detailed shot.

This piece is called "Peace Out" because of a very good friend of mine. Most families go through very tough times in their lives with their children...some are worse than others...but it's a time when all we pray for is peace. One time, this friend, signed off her email to me as "peace out" and I thought it was just so funny...so raw...and this piece just seemed to name itself as it developed. Some symbols just seem to evoke a sense of peace and for me it's Buddha...don't know why...can't explain it...I have one in my garden as a meditation, reflective spot and I also have one in my home.

Surface Design Continued

This is another section of the 2nd Surface Design Challenge. I started off with a piece of wool from my stash and started painting it. I painted this fabric before and just love the texture I get. I also love the green that I get because the background is dark. I used Lumiere paints again...which I really like at the moment.

 Then I textured it a little with sequin waste and Citrine Lumiere.

 I added some Burnt Orange along with some Pearl X powder and paint. I started second guessing myself and thought...oh why did you add the burnt orange. But my husband encouraged me to continue and so I did.

I added freestyle flowers in Grape Lumiere and Pearl X powder to give it a little glow. I forgot to get an overall picture of the project but the green, orange, hint of blue and flowers were already a theme in some of the other blocks and I was working to continue the overall composition. The black outline was done with dimensional fabric paint. Again to complement another block that had a thick black outline on the flowers. I really like the way the fabric glistens but the picture doesn't capture that detail.

Holiday in the Studio

 These are pics of the surface design challenge that I had to add to. This abstract design was very difficult for me. The previous sections were so bright and busy that I though that it needed something in a different colour as well as something a little less patterned. I started out with the purple fabric and appliqued an orange & black stripe down the center of the section. While having a conversation during the day with a friend she suggested the possibility of using my embellishment machine to add some wool rovings. My first comment was...I just don't have anything in those bright colours. Well...I did. I wrapped 3 different yarns together, a green, orange and vibrant blue and then put them randomly under the embellisher. The section seems dark along with the other sections but there are eight more people to add to the challenge before it will be complete. So it will probably all work in the end.