Back to Fiber Art....after a few more Pastels.

I was reminded today about needing to write a blog post. It has been in the back of my mind but there were a lot of things that seemed more important. I have done a lot of different things since I last wrote.
First I did finish the landscape/sky scape that I showed the beginning of in my last post. Here is the finished piece, titled "Time to Head Home". It really went through some big changes from the last photo posted.

Here it is framed.

I submitted that piece and my morning glory drawing, and my pastel of the wave to a juried show in Vernon and all three pieces were accepted. 

Here I am looking tired and talking with the incredibly talented, and really nice, Jane Penfield. If you go to her web page and look at her work you will see what a novice I am with the pastels.

And her is a photo of two women looking at my painting. I wish I knew what they were saying. Though it is nice just to see someone linger when they get to my work.

I did several more pastels after that.

Myrtle Beach Sunset

Bluebells in the Woods

Field at Sunset

On Cape Cod

I also finished this piece that I started a while ago.

I also did a little quick painting to try to loosen up my strokes and not muddy my colors. I used it as a 'give away' on my Facebook page.

And this painting I did as a timed painting to try to not get too stuck on the details.

In May I put aside the pastels and got back to felting when I took a workshop with Leiko Uchiyama. We learned how to do here Pine Needle technique of felt making. She is a very good teacher who has an aura of peace about her. 

The whole process was very Zen-like, and needs to be done in a kind of quiet meditative state. I find it hard to get to that place in a workshop, especially when there are time limits. I discovered that I am not good with tools. I did not like needing to hold the scissors in my hand. Leiko has so much practice it was just like an extension of her fingers....Leiko Scissorhands. 

After we learned the basic Pine Needle technique with just wool we learned how to incorporate it with silk fabric. Here is my little sample.

We then learned how to make a mosaic scarf. Here is one of the other student's layout. I of course loved her colors.

I chose to work with naturally dyed wool and silk. I used some silk chiffon that I had eco-printed and some wool that I dyed with Jewel weed. Here is it with my sample of just the Pine Needle technique in wool. That was my favorite and the wool I used was 15.5 micron and so soft and light. I want to do more of that for a garment....when I feel patient enough.

I also got together with a couple of friends, Joei and Cheryl, for a weekend of dyeing. They came here and I set up the tent so we could be outside enjoying the sun....when it did shine.

Not content to do just one type of dyeing we did several. After all if you are going to get set up and all messy you might as well go all the way. Speaking of messy, one of us, and I am not naming names, did not remember to wear her gloves. 

We did some resist and over dyeing as taught to us by Chad Alice Hagen...well at least the parts we could remember from the workshop.

Some discharge dyeing.

I love the back of the blue velvet silk.

We even did a bit of natural dyeing...madder in my iron caldron.

I loved the look of the dyed things hanging on the line. Joei did a bunch of ribbon and threads for her embroidery work.

And I dyed yards and yards of a really inyourface bright blue silk chiffon that I have had for a long time. I split it into three pieces and treated each differently.

This piece came out the best and the pattern is evenly uneven through the whole piece. Winner!

And that catches me up only to the end of May...and it is June 11th! I will try hard not to wait so long to do June.