Still Felting...

I want to write more soon about the process of making felt, but I do have a few quick photos to share of an order I'm just finishing up.  I've been working on some felt pockets for a dear lady who loves gardening.  Her friend saw some earlier versions of these designs and thought they'd make a nice Christmas gift.  I agree!

I really enjoy using Impressionist paintings as inspiration for my felt.  No matter how many times I work from a particular painting I see something new about the original when I begin to lay out my design.  Yesterday I concentrated on the details of the field and tree line in Monet's Wild Poppies. 

Laying out the wool roving is my favorite part of the process and this is what I really wanted to share with you. Here is the wool pictured above before I wet felted it.

The smaller piles of red, yellow and green roving on the counter became the flowers.  I prefelted those pieces and applied them to the background once the entire piece was wet and beginning to hold together.

The reason I love the early stages of wet felting so much is that I am forced to let go of my tendency to get caught up in details.  In fact, the process of wetting and fulling the felt changes the piece so much that there are always suprises.  There is just no way to control it completely...sounds a little like life, yes? 

Here is my latest interpretaton of Van Gogh's Sunflowers.  In the finished piece the individual colors are more defined than I expected, but I love the way it all turned out and I love that the "spirit" of Van Gogh's original piece really shines through.  I think it's great I could never create the exact same image.  If you saw the photos of the pockets I posted a few weeks ago, you know how very different these are, even though I was inspired by the same paintings.  LOVE that!

It's time to get these packed up and send them on their way.  I hope you are inspired to do something creative today.  Go where you go and do what you do with all your heart and enjoy the process!

A Nice Long Nap

My cat had a nice long nap today.  At about 1:00 I noticed he was "dead to the world", as my mom says when someone is in a seriously deep sleep.

Even when my son lifted him from his comfy spot, Obi refused to wake up.  He's so crazy.

We could not believe he could actually remain asleep through all our laughter and picture taking.

I suppose in a way I've had a nice long nap on my blog.  There have been so many posts in my head...so many things I meant to share but instead I simply took a break for the past few months.  Now I'm all rested ans excited to get back in the habit of checking in here and letting you know what I'm doing.

If you know me at all, you know I like to try new things and a few months ago I tried a new thing that has brought me much joy and breathed new into my creations.  I have learned to wet felt.

Since some of you may not know much about the process of making felt, I will try to post more about it soon but for now I just want to share a few images.  I have mostly been creating little wallets and what I call "pockets".  They are just the right size to hold and protect a phone, a pair of glasses, or really any small treasure.  These are a few I created using impressionist paintings as inspiration. 

You may recognize Van Gogh's Starry Starry Night and Sunflowers or Monet's Poppies.  I love simply responding to the colors and forms I see in the original pieces and then laying down my own interpretation.  It's actually very much what impressionist painters did, only they worked directly from nature.

I completed a few more pockets the other day.  This time I worked with circular forms that were purely from my imagination.

I had a great time adding the freeform machine and hand embroidery.  I love needlework as it was one of the first skills I learned from my Grandmother.  She taught me how to thread a needle and work a nice straight row of stitches.  I think of her often when I do handwork.

Well, it's good to be blogging again.  Maybe now that I've stepped back into it I'll be able to keep up.  I hope this post finds you happy and well and ready for the upcoming holiday season.  I can't believe Thanksgiving is this week!