Tag Archives: Needle felting

I Procrastinate Therefore I Am…

I am all about the procrastination… anyone else the same?  I’ve been procrastinating writing about my finished needle felting because the pictures weren’t adequate.  Have I taken new pictures?  Not yet, but now I’m procrastinating on a different matter, so I’m writing about needle felting.

My last post was about a day of wet/Nuno felting.  I did one test strip, two larger pieces, and worked on a sample I had previously needle felted.  The one piece that I have completed from that day was for the annual art show at my office. Although the piece has sold, I’m hoping to take it out for an artsy photo shoot before it goes to its new home.

On that note, here is a question for fibre artists – what sort of tricks do you have to photograph your work?  I have been having a lot of trouble getting a true colour image, as well as an image that has any sort of depth.  I have tried photographing at different times of day, with direct and indirect sunlight, as well as in fluorescent lighting.

Here is the progression of “Chimerical”:

And here is the final (non-artsy) picture:

Chimerical

Chimerical

I have added some new dates for workshops on my classes page – pumpkin making is coming up later this month.  Call the Beehive Wool Shop to sign up.

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Spiderless cobweb

Beautiful weather… low wind… a long weekend – definitely time to set up a table outside and start wet/Nuno felting.

Wet felting set-up

Wet felting set-up

I haven’t done a lot of wet or Nuno felting, so I started off with a small practice piece – I wanted to check how some of the different types and colours of roving felted and blended.  I re-read a lot of instructions, took from them what I wished and ignored the rest, so that I could see what would happen working a different way.

I was trying to achieve a cobweb type of fabric, so I was working with fairly thin bits of roving.  This piece was not on a silk chiffon base – it was only roving.

Pre-felting layout

Pre-felting layout

Once I finished placing the roving, the “fun” began… time to wet the roving, roll it up, then roll and roll until my arms and back hurt.

Bundle to roll

Bundle to roll

Here is how it turned out – see if you can find the fabric – it matches its background.

Cobweb fabric

Cobweb fabric

I also started a new project for the annual art show at my office, but that is a post for another day. 😀

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I have holiday brain…

… so this may be a rather rambling post.  I’m coming to the end of a very relaxing week of vacation, and I’m feeling well-rested and content.

I’ve spent some time this week looking through books on jewellery making and getting excited about going back to the basics – I’ve gotten quite lazy with aspects of jewellery making – I don’t remember the last time I set a stone, and I have some gorgeous stones waiting to become part of a piece of jewellery.  A few ideas have already been sketched out… Yay!  We also took some photos of my jewellery on the beach and other locales.  Once the pictures get edited (gack!) I’ll be posting them.

We spent some time at Qualicum Beach and visited a wonderful shop called Let’s Knit!  I found some fabulous roving there – hand-dyed and a very different texture from what I already own.

Happy new roving

Happy new roving

Although I had brought a healthy selection of roving to work with, I thought I should start with the local stuff.  This is the beginning of an experiment…

An experiment

An experiment

I’m working on silk chiffon and plan to wet felt it (Nuno felting), but rather than place loose bits of roving on the chiffon and wet felt it right away (hoping desperately for a non-windy day or the roving tends to fly), I needle felted it first, and have let the needles ruche the fabric.  When I get home I will wet felt it and then start working into it properly.  I look forward to seeing what it becomes, texture and image-wise!  I consider this just the primer… many more layers to follow!

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Artsy travel thoughts…

I had written earlier about my frustration over not having an easily transportable art form when travelling (peeved post), and have continued to give it a lot of thought. Thank you to those who suggested ideas! I am beginning to realize that I have really limited myself by my self-consciousness over my lack of drawing skills.

For as long as I have thought about art in its varied forms, I have felt that people should just try – try playing with different mediums, with different styles… dabble with textures to find something that appeals to or intrigues them… not worrying so much about what is produced, but more about the journey. I do this to a degree – I get excited about trying new mediums and techniques, however I still let my old hang-ups and insecurities stop me from progressing down certain paths.

Within Instagram I follow a variety of jewellers and cats (an oddly pleasing mix!). Today there was a post from Manon at sistersofthesun. It was a picture of some watercolour sketches of jewellery-to-be, and the start of the actual projects. I found it really pleasing and quite inspiring. I haven’t been doing a lot of jewellery sketching lately, although ideas are starting to flow again. I looked through my idea books and found pages and pages of past jewellery sketches.

Jewellery ideas

Jewellery ideas

Perhaps this is how I should break into sketching – take along some watercolour pencils and a small brush, and put a bit of time into developing ideas a little more thoroughly – not that I am naive enough to think I’ll produce jewellery the way it has been sketched (I rarely follow through exactly as planned, although it has happened on occasion) but it is a way to get my mind into a creative space. That may lead to studies for wall hangings… brainstorming images as I look out the train window.

I need to keep reminding myself that I’m doing this for me – it doesn’t have to measure up to anyone else’s standards. I was always the kid in school with my arm crooked around the picture I was drawing so no one else could see it and sneer. Do others have problems with this – the constant worrying that people are always looking over our shoulder and declaring our work not worthy?

 

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I’m a little peeved…

People who knit and crochet are lucky.  Wherever they go (except maybe a pool, although I’m pretty sure it can and has been done) they can take their art form/hobby/passion with them.  I didn’t take to knitting or crochet… I have a heck of a time following patterns, and I definitely don’t have the patience to finish anything.  My peevishness stems from the fact that none of the crafts/art forms I do are easily transportable.  While I have no problems needle felting in public, there are so many supplies to bring – especially if you’re someone who has a hard time focussing on one project at a time.  I have done some beading in a pub, but snipping wire during a poetry reading and trying not to drop beads just didn’t go well.  The propane torch probably wouldn’t be an option at the pub either… go figure…

I wish I sketched, but I can’t draw… even my doodles are more like scribbles than anything else.  My dear sister showed me a few Zentangle patterns, which have made my doodles a little more interesting (sometimes), but for the most part there are scrawled flowers, crowns and scribbles over every scrap of paper on my desk at work.

Zentangle inspired doodle

Zentangle inspired doodle

I won a trip through the Canadian Garden Council and Via Rail – Canada’s Garden Route – yay!  It’s a truly fabulous round trip to Halifax via train.  I can’t wait!  But what to bring?  I know I’ll be looking out the window a lot, reading a lot, dreaming a lot, but creatively I don’t know what to do.  It’s a little frustrating!  I will be writing about the journey, and definitely photographing everything I can, so perhaps those will help to fill my spare time.

Anyone have any thoughts on something portable I can take?

It's really going to happen... Tickets have arrived!

It’s really going to happen… Tickets have arrived!

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