The Reveal

(weathered plywood)

One advantage of winter is that I discover all sorts of interesting things that were always there but were obscured by foliage.

And, ohhh, the potential! The colors...

(lichens on a vine-covered rock)

the textures...

(vine on rock)

the dimensional effects.
Driving home on our rural roads today, I saw two places (a huge, painted rock and a broken down out-building) that I hadn't noticed before.  They just begged to be photographed.
I'm giddy with ideas!

Eeeeasing back into it... and loving it!

Yesterday, I had fun... 

I partially wet-felted three "Geods", two the size of tennis balls and one that was oblong.

I used the technique I learned from Sharron Parker and it was a joy.

Layer about 8 layers of roving, fold and roll into a ball, tuck it into a sock, 

vigorously squeeze it in hot, soapy water, slice it up,

and voila!

They will be incorporated into ... something.  I have a few ideas.

So fun to see the patterns in these.

Saxapahaw Artists' Coop Gallery

Last weekend, the Saxapahaw Artists' Coop had their second annual holiday show.  This was no small feat as we had to totally renovate an old textile mill building to make it gallery-worthy.  So, welcome!  There was textile art, acrylic paintings...

fiber art (mine on right: "Circular Logic" and "Jelly Roll", a mobile wall-hanging of felted and wired pieces), collage, acrylic, watercolor, photography, oil...

and more upstairs including metal art ...

pottery...

clay objects...

and in between in the stairway was even more art.

It was such a fun weekend and a very fun, very talented group of artists.  I was honored to be included. 

First Galaxy continued

Saturday, I finished laying out the wool roving and added bits of knitting yarn, burlap threads and silk caps (first experiment with those).

After an hour or so in the bathtub (the felt) getting an upper body workout (me)...

this emerged from its wrapping.  

Stay tuned for the finishing touches....

First Galaxy

I started on a new felted piece inspired by a photo of a galaxy.  The photo just begged for a rendering in wool fiber :).

Happy Accident

Recently, I have been getting more interested in dyeing, so I tied up some scraps into bundles and put tea on.

oooo, this is fun already...

nice, but I want richer, darker colors...

well, I got richer and darker....and a bonus - holes!

And an interesting design to boot...

I wouldn't recommend this method (note: water tends to evaporate after 2 hours :)), but I love the results!

Dusting off the old weaving loom

I bought this Frame Loom several years ago for a sweet $25. I have a floor loom (4'x4'), but I wanted to do some very small weavings and that loom was overkill.

I finally got this one out, dusted it off and started in.

First, to measure out the warp....

Oops, I'm a bit rusty, so I made a couple of mistakes. No problem, I'll just undo what I did and start over....

And in my haste and idealism, I created a tangled mess. About 3 hours later (yes, I'm that frugal that I couldn't bring myself to just throwing it away), it was ready to put on the loom.

Oh boy, oh boy, this is going to be fun!