Before the power goes out due to Sandy...

I decided  to write a quick post since we will most likely lose power and Internet for a while because of the current hurricane and it has been a while since I last posted. I started to write a post about Felt United a while ago but never got back to it. I will finish it later since it was getting to be philosophical and I want to be able to think about it more than I can with the wind howling. I will just share some photos of felt finished since then. 

I finished the piece for the Granby Land Trust show. It was declined. I have had that happen enough with various shows that it does not bother me much anymore. 

Here is a detail showing how much I built up the surface on this one. I used silk cocoons and wool neps and burs for the rocks.

This is what the layout looked like before I wet felted it.

Here it is after wet felting and before I did any needle felting.

I did more dyeing of wool and silk. I found I needed more grays after doing the previous landscape that I posted about last time. Here is what I came up with.

I also did some pokeberry dyeing. I was not really successful but I got some interesting results.

The silk was from the first batch I did which I over cooked. The locks took the color from the second batch but even after many times rinsing they are still loosing color so the jury is still out.

Somehow I managed to get this grey silk and pink roving from the same pot. I was trying to follow Carol Leigh's instructions to see if I could get a more lasting color since color from many berries is very fugitive. I found it interesting that pokeberry ink was used to write the Constitution of the United States and it is still legible though the color faded to brown. 

My friend Joei came over so we could go to the New York Sheep and Wool festival in Rhinebeck and while she was here we played with doing collage nuno felt landscapes. I didn't like mine so I turned it into a small clutch.

I have been felting some small pieces to sell for the holidays since I have a few more shows to do. Here is a sampling.

And now I will sign off as the sudden gusts of wind cause the windows in this room to make crackling noises, which causes my heart to beat faster. Time to do some felting to get the adrenaline out...maybe down in the basement ;)

Being Productive

I have been doing quite a bit of felting AND business stuff lately. And that is a good thing as there are several events coming up that I need to make work for. One of those is the Granby Land Trust show that I have been submitting  pieces to the last few years.  I needed/wanted some more reference photos of the area since our work has to have been inspired by a certain place. This year we can do anywhere in the Farmington Valley so I went out to some places in Canton to take photos of the Farmington River. It was a really nice day for me....walking in the woods, sitting by the river watching fish jump, seeing the eagles fly by looking for said fish; and the weather was beautiful. I have a few photos that may work as a reference for a piece...

 My first deadline is for Felt United which is this coming Saturday. I have been working on two pieces. I had two different ideas for this years theme of FIRE and could not decide between them so I decided to try both. I will post better photos later but here is a sneak-peek.

My friend Joei and I finally got together for a weekend. It has been a long time since we saw each other. We both had busy summers; she spent many days in Russia on 'the felting trip of a lifetime' with Rod and Karolina. She really tried to get me to go but I decided that I could not quite swing it. I am jealous after hearing all about her experiences. They stayed with a family out on the steppe near the Altai mountains (yup in Siberia) and slept in traditional yurts. Her talking about eating the sheep's head soup however did not make me jealous. If she ever blogs about it I will put a link in here.
I thought we might felt while we were doing all of catching up but Joei came with an agenda, and this thing....

She is turning into a knitter and spinner! She wanted to ply some yarn that she spun so that she could then dye it. She is already thinking Christmas presents, ugg! And the yarn she was working on is going to become socks for yours truly! So Saturday was dye day, and we did a lot. She over-dyed some roving that was a bit bright for her taste. In the photo the 'before' roving is on the right.

The same color used to over-dye that was used on my sock yarn...I love the color.

While Joei was working on her things I was dyeing some threads and ribbon for stitching on my felts.

And some pieces of silk...

 some roving for my flower classes...

 and a couple of chiffon scarves.

We also played with a technique using markers and alcohol. Joei's came out lovely.

 Mine was not so lovely. 

After Joei left I did do some felting. Not a 'should do' piece; an 'I wanna' piece. I am not sure what caused me to finally try this image that has been on my inspiration board for so long but I really enjoyed doing it.

 I was imagining something along the lines of a tonalist painting but I wanted the colors to be even more subtle. I may play with that image some more but I need to do more dyeing to get the colors I would need. But there are other pieces that must get done first.

Too Busy to Blog

     I have not written for a while but this time it was because I was busy with good things...well, most of them were good. The first...and most stressful was having our first tag sale here. Tag sales are a lot of work even when you are just selling off some of your own possessions that you no longer want. But I was dealing with things that had come from grandparents houses and stuff from when my siblings and I were growing up here. That takes a bit more thought as to value, especially sentimental value. I had to keep reminding myself that the goal was to get the stuff out of the house but not have it go in the landfill. Well, the first day I had some added stress when there were two accidents not even two minutes apart. This is a busy road and people drive too fast but with my overactive sense of guilt I felt that it was my fault for having the tag sale. I was much better when I found out that no one was seriously hurt. The next day we released some tension by getting very silly. My wonderful niece Jennifer started to 'decorate' me as I sat during a lull in customers. It started with simply putting artificial flower arrangements on me...

to full blown, 'let's play dress-up'; complete with set pieces. And when my sisters and I played dress up as kids it was either that we were getting married or tea parties...

I am ashamed (ok..not really) to say that my sister and I were acting so silly that we actually scared a new customer into running back to her car!!! It was a much needed laugh session.

After that I had four days to get ready for two craft shows and to go on the second "Felt in Nature" retreat at the Huyck Preserve in Rensselaerville, NY. I was so honored and excited to be asked by Sharon Costello to join the group of talented artists once again. It would take too long to fully describe what a wonderful and inspirational week it was. It was just what I needed on so many levels and I am truly grateful to have been able to have the experience. One of my favorite exercises that we did was to exchange prefelt pieces to put together into a new work. It is a wonderful symbol of the bond that forms when women get together to share their common passions...especially when felt is involved.

I invite my readers to view the rest of my photos from the retreat on my Flickr account at http://www.flickr.com/photos/feltinspiration/sets/72157631534594127/

When I got home from the retreat I had just couple of days to get ready for Farm Fest, an annual fund raising event put on by a group that is preserving a fantastic barn that is within sight of our house. I show my felt AND do a feltmaking project with the children. Thankfully, I have lots of help from my family....we had so many kids come that we ran out of necklace kits within the first two hours and had to make more.

The next weekend I had a very successful show at the Suffield on the Green craft fair. It is always a good show and it is such a boost to hear all the wonderful comments on my work. It is an affermation that what I am doing has value beyond my own need to create...and helps pay for all that wool.
Here are some of the new pieces I made for the shows.

 I am always asked if I give classes and I have often said I was planning on doing it someday. Well, that someday became a reality this past Saturday when I gave my first flower class here in my own 'studio'. It went well and the ladies had such a good time that they requested and arranged another class as a group...this one to make a more complicated flower. It shows that felt brings together more than fibers. For those that are interested in classes with me you can send an email to dchristianart@gmail.com
for further information.

Silk Marbling with Laura Sims

Back in July I took a workshop with Laura Sims at my good friend Linda Veilleux's studio. Linda's studio is in her lovely Vermont home and she offers some workshops as retreats; with rooms and food for a small extra charge that is REALLY worth it. It is so much fun and more relaxing to be able to stay where you are, work longer if desired, and just hang out with new friends. I have been thinking about offering classes here with a room for overnight too, but I could not do what Linda does with pampering her guests with food and treats (plus I really don't like planing meals). I also don't have such a nice studio space or this gorgeous view...

I have wanted to learn marbling for a very long time. I remember going to a program at one of my children's elementary schools where the kids were able to do some marbling on paper. I really wanted to try it too. Years later I learned more about it in my favorite class at Smith, The Art and History of the Book. I even bought some supplies for marbling when I started dyeing my own silks for felting. But what finally got me to do it was seeing Laura's work, which goes beyond the traditional patterns and lends it self to nuno felting. At a guild meeting Linda showed us this coat that she had made with silk that Laura had created.

When I was at the Felter's Fling last year, I had also seen this beautiful jacket by Elynn Bernstein which was made with some of Laura's silk .



I did not take many photos at the workshop; I really just wanted to relax and not be distracted by trying to remember to take pictures to share. Laura shared so much information with us, not just about how to marble silk. She has so many handy tips of how to make tools on the cheap that she could teach a class just in that. This is the kind of frugal thinking that I grew up with and I felt an instant kinship with Laura. Here she shows a straining funnel for the paint and a silk 'handle' that are made easily with items from around the house.

And here is one of her clever drying racks.

Here is a photo showing a dedicated student taking advantage of being able to work after class hours and how elaborate the set up was. Laura really has a lot of work before and after a class like this.

Here are some of my samples of the techniques Laura taught us. She showed us so many that I did not even get around to trying some of them! I hope I can remember enough to try them when I have time.

Along with learning more traditional marbling we learned to do "scapes. This is something I really want to explore more. I did get one of ocean waves that I love.

 We were getting some wonderful textures that Laura thought might be attributed to the water we were using.
One of the exercises was to lay down colored strips of fabric to see how differently the same paint looks on different colored backgrounds.

Here you can see by the way the fabric overlapped just what the color was before the marbling.

With the help of my friend Jean Gauger I made a scarf that I was proud of. It is was made using a Spanish wave pattern where the paint is pushed down the length of the tray as the fabric is moved back and forth. Jean and I had to try to get our movements to match as she held one end and we slowly laid the fabric down in the tray.

And here is a scarf by a master...

Here are some of my samples made into small bags. Making these was a good way to find out what patterns and color combinations work in nuno felt.