a week away...

i'm away from my forest of the boreal, to the forest of my upbringing.

currently i'm hanging out at my childhood home, sitting inside whilst it rains outside (sorely needed at this time) planning on my harvests of their virginia creeper and rhubarb leaves and other delectables for my dye pot.

this weekend we're heading to the beach at Sylvan Lake for a family reunion, where hopefully i'll soak up some rays and eat some mini-moo frozen creme delectable :)

i'm coming back to the parental abode for 2 weeks in august to do a bit of housesitting, bringing my dye pots and wool & felted tidbits to really get playful and creative. it's an interesting summer.

see you next week!!!

pheonix from the flames of my creative desire...

hmmm, i think i have finally decided on an idea of what i'm creating for the feltunited day, Oct 3, 2009.


the series of felted hides i'm designing seems to be taking on a life of it's own. focusing in on myths and archetypes, the themes and concepts are narrowing to a more feminine and personal view then originally intended. isn't that the way creating art normally goes?


my initial piece (seen in this post) was created out of whimsy, but now has a more definite concept in mind. it is transforming into "winter pelt of the Green Man", referencing the pagan nature spirit/fertility god classically known to decorate architecture. down the spine, i'll be embedding driftwood, cattail leaves, bones...embroidering and embellishing until he's done.

i have also started my second piece, "coyote woman", shown here in it's first stage- long & lean. i was given a batt of mixed wools called "old coyote"from Val at lifewithsheep, and this just got my feral spirit going! i need to make a tail, and i also have to think about what i want to add down the spine. i'd like to tell a story in pictures, maybe a journey of the coyote woman. i'll keep you posted...


oh, this was initially about my piece for the international felt installation. well, i'm going to do a Phoenix hide. from butter yellow through to blood red, shaped as a bird in flight, marked with a vibrant tiny cobalt heart. i dreamt of it last night, and see the basic shape and vibrancy already. i just have to dye some various wools and stretch out some silk cocoons i have, and go from there!!!

other pelts... spiderwoman, la loba, Morrighan (celtic crow goddess), sedna.

ob-vested

i'm covering the front desk today at the Boreal Centre, and in between visitors i thought i'd peruse the wide world of online inspiration for some future ideas of things to make mahself.

i found vests.

this one, i found somewhere??? it's knit, but it's lovely, and i'm sure i can convert it to crochet easily enuf... dig the pockets, the simple large stitches, and the button placement here & there. awesome.

this funky one is the destash vest- a pattern i've had in my growing collection for years, literally. Gaia only knows i have more than enuf handspun in my collection to create an absolutely gorgeous version, and it will help my tub-o-yarn out a ton by releasing some of the pressure from it's groaning lid :P

(love the pic, too, always makes me guffah)

shrug from scratch

this is new for me. really!

normally i dye wool because i'm in a certain mood that day- craving a turquoise sea littered with copper seahorses, or the image of a prairie landscape and canola fields. i do it for the process, the act, the journey... the COLOURS!

this...

will be for a shrug. i love shrugs, and after seeing a nice snug one with long sleeves on a movie the other night, i just had to get out my pots and dye some wooly goodness. i wanted it a bit more teal, but obviously the earthy forces abounding here in the forest pushed the colours more towards the mossy greens. i'm very pleased though. now it's just to card & spin and crochet! maybe card in a bit of silk, bell the ends a tad. mmmmmm.....

also, here's an update on my Cedar Waxwing painting. i deepened the sky, developed the bird a bit more, and threw in some juicy red velvet berries... she's almost done!

fibre art fridays...

day of my entry into this wide wonderful world

yes... today is my birth-day.

woke up this morn (like i do each year) and contemplated just what i do and what i should be doing in this life of mine. figured out that i love where i am right now, and that i can't wait to begin another year of travels with my self, with my loved ones, my mate, and my good good friends.

it's so great to be alive!

feltunited... or a post about me uniting with felt

ahem...

i'm continuing my deep, passionate, love affair with wool fibres at this moment, to the point that they are stealing me away from a few other endeavours i'm working on. in addition to that, i have to say i'm the worst at forgetting to take photos, or never having my camera with me at the opportune time. so, today, i will enhance and litter this post with some (hopefully) delicious photo's of my felting play over the last week or so.

one of the summer staff here is a hunter, and she said that this almost looked like the inside of a hide near the back where it's attached to the spine muscles. well, THAT sent me in a imaginative tizzy, and now i imagine embroidered vertebrae all up this piece. and a whole series on skins & bones & feather- some of my favorite things. i'm a long-time vegetarian, and can't imagine killing or eating flesh at this point... but the bits and pieces of what we're made of fascinate me to no end. i see a series coming, and just in time for my application to the Alberta Craft Council.

also upon my travels thru some of my favorite blogs i came across feltunited. an unique event occurring globally on Oct 3, 2009 where artizans are to display their felted creations publicly. i've signed up, and am planning an "aboreal spinetastic" piece running all the way up a birch, sap tunnels and insects galore embedded. so lovely and i think i won't be able to wait for long till i begin.

i received in a wonderful trade, amongst many other lovely things, 5 pounds of merino/ramboulliet/corridale raw wool. even without cleaning it feels like butter in the fingers, and i've got it and some type-A pygora goat cold-soaking for a week. i did clean a tiny bit of both, and they are sparkling white and soft/silky and begging to be played with. never spun goat before, but it's quite amazing, and i can see blending it with the lovely merino blend for an ultimate yarn!

last week i had the stove a-going and with 4 pots on the go at once i naturally dyed some organic cotton yarn, cotton cheesecloth for scarves, and a bit of wool roving for felting.

left to right are: osage, madder underneath, lac ontop, and logwood.

i want to make a few more of these... all organic cotton, naturally dyed, freeform waves making this one of the softest favorite wraps of mine. this thick-thin yarn is luxurious against the skin- warm in those cool summer nights and cool for those blissful autumn days.

the Boreal Centre i work at had their annual Songbird Festival June 6 & 7 and i donated a painting for the silent auction the run. it's in progress, as the auction for a few art pieces doesn't end until June 30, but here's a shot of it as it is... i'm painting a Cedar Waxwing. gorgeous birds they are!! okay, so i guess i am still painting, but always need to do more.

fibre arts friday

dancin' the June-bug

the month of summer solstice gracing us with her longest day,

and where the moon-girl in me howls.

the month that i entered this big wide world ready to take it on... or take a nap,

the beginning of dancing barefoot outside in the late setting sun (really need to do more of that!)

whootles!