Honestly mom - it was an accident

My lovely 5yr old son the other day inadvertently (or so he says) broke the frame with his brother's photo.  Really?  Accidently?  o.0  After I told him to stop bouncing the exercise ball in the house? 

After the appropriate punishment (5min time out, and clean up mess in bedroom), I now have this lovely blank spot on my wall.   I bought 3 new frames for that space so at least that small section has some sort of unity.  And now I await my 2yr olds photo's to come back from the photographer.

So I just realized that I now have a spot to hang my felted landscapes and take their photo's!  Whoohoo!  Which means I don't have to jury rig the bed sheets so it is all pretty, nor place items on the floor and place barriers around them to prevent 'help' from the 2yr old while I stand on a chair to photograph items.  These are things no one ever deems to mention if you are an artist, work a full time job, consult, and am a mommy.  I just wonder how many artists really have a small space set up in their studio that is just for photographing their work.  I want to shake their hands and then bow down to them.

Anyway - here is a sampling of what I photographed:

Fishie (sold)

 

 

Great Blue
 



Spring  (private collection)



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summer

 

 

And one of my fav's

 

Old Man Tree
 



 

Dragon Fly

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Curious to see more of my works?  I am part of Peninsula Art Academy's Holiday Mart starting this weekend, and am at Crafty Mart at Musica in Akron.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Making things easier?

So I made the mistake of getting onto pinterst today.  Now, I have had this profile for almost a year now and might have had 2 items pinned.  Apparently my brain just figured out that there would be felting ideas on there, and I could see what other artists are doing...and there went 3 hours.

But while I was roaming around I found this company that makes stamps.  Small stamps, with your design on it...mmm, I have been using my mother's set of stamps to put my initials and a swirly mark on the back of my items.  We have been handwritting my companies name on every receipt at shows.  This could just make things easier on me.

2 hours later, I have a 18 slightly different designs for a stamp.  Font change on some, change on logo on others.  The instructions to say print it out and those that do not print well will NOT stamp well.  So what happens if they all look print nicely?  Then what?  I must be brilliant!

So in the picture below numbers 1-6 are for the stamp onto a receipt, or where every I feel like I want to put the name...there are 3 alternate designs for each.  Which one is better?  Do I go with the name and logo together or separate them out to make it bigger?  It is $23 per stamp, not logo.

And then, there is 7 and 8, my maker's mark or signature. I cannot find the font of stamp I am using.  For those about to tell me, look at the box, I only have the h q and swirly, there is not box here.

If you are so inclined to give me an opinion please do so :)

 

and yes, I had thought about putting my email on there but it is waaayyy to long and anything shorter for my business has been taken.

2 hours + sleeping kids =

seemingly a never ending free time for mommy!  Whoohooo!  So with a cup of 'fake' coffee (instant powdered with lots of sugar) on hand, the kindle fire queded up to play 'Going Postal' by Terry Pratchett, and a basket full of fiber prepped for some soap fun I tackled these 2hrs with sleepy vigor...

30 bars of felted soap. 

 

Whew, I am so glad I prepared so much of the fiber the night before so this order of 25 bars could be accomplished in one morning.  Now to wait, let them dry (2days) and see if any of them need to re-visit the sink for a little more felting before I arrange for their new homes. 

 

Now mommism sets in caues I thought I had at least 2 cases of soap floating around the studio, or 3 season room, or maybe the garage.  Well, the studio is clean and organized (shocker) and the 3 season room is basically empty of all fiber items (still packed in my mother and stepfather's van).  Which only leaves the garage.  The garage is scary.  We did not have a large birthday party for the kids this year so it did not experience the spring re-organization.  It is very, very scary in there.  I might lose a child in there today....mmmmm  o.O

new designs..YIPPEE

I love demonstrating at shows.  Yes, it is a hassle with having to bring the supplies, but I get the chance to play with my art and get direct feedback from customers.  What more could an artist ask for?

I will be adding to this as I get the photos taken this week. 

I have been seeing these all across etsy.com and have been wanting to try some for myself.  Now maybe mine are not as perfect as those I see on etsy, but I love their imperfections.

 

 



This was inspired by the lovely ladies booth across from me.  Oak Leaves is a celebration of the fall color and movement of leaves. 

 





Not a design from the weekend but one that needs to be placed with the other 2.  When hanging it was eye boggling.

Another big show?

What was I thinking? A week back to work (well at least 24 hrs for me to work since they seem to have forgotten I was coming back) and then off to a show?  Silly girl!

And yet, the show is moving along nicely. And I like the layout of the booth.

By Hand booth space

 



Luckily my niece is willing to come and help me out.  So while she acts as cashier and hostess, I get to play with fiber.  While I have free electricity here I am using the Horst method of a felting tool, aka belt sander, and working on new designs for the upcoming year.  Today was LEAVES!

Leaf manufacturing...my sweatshop

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A bowl of pre-felt leaves

 

 

Full Oak leaf scarf



 

 

Half Oak leaf scarf

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You will just have to wait for another day to see what else I created at Cleveland by hand!  Or come out tomorrow on November 11th for the last day!



Lazy Sunday?

I am recovering nicely from my knee surgery.  One week out and I am abe to walk, barely beat my 2yr old up the stairs, and play with adult legos.  Yes, yesterday I brought this family a little closer to having an adult looking house and one more step away from the college dorm look. 

With fall closing in rapidly I had to bring in my house plants.  They enjoyed the lovely summer but it is now time to enter the now catless house so I promised them there will be no peeing on them this year (fingers crossed the 2yr old does not try this).  To do this I had to get rid of the 2 very large boxes containing the lego sets.  Might as well put those together while the hubby and 5yr old are out and all I have to contend with is the 2yr old.  Famous last thoughts.

I spent 3 hrs just on the bookshelve.  Rowan, dear Rowan, decided to "help" by placing all of the weird circle locking mechanisms into all of the holes they fit in, that was after he shoved as much of the broken plastic into each hole.  Let the evacuation of each circle commence before locking in the bolts..sigh.  Of course I am disctracted by this and proceed to put the back on backwards.  So the instructions with the arrow is now on the right side.  So unscrew all of those, replace, screw back in...half way through realize I have a machine that makes this faster and spend 10 minutes locating the screwdriver and a working battery.  So proud of myself at this point that I carefully pull the bookcase upright and...yep, there is one of the shelves in backwards so the edge of the shelf is not glossy..ggrrr...put back down, unscrew the back again, unlock the top and 1 side, two sides for the shelf that is wrong, put shelf in correctly (checking myself), undig the circles again from industries 2yr old, relock all sides and top, rescrew (thanking god i found the electric screw driver) the back on correctly...stop to feed said industries 2yr old and wonder if I have any hard lemonade in the house but settle for organic non-alcoholic lemonade.

The tv stand went much smoother.  I only tried to put the front on upside down and took about an hour per drawer.  I hate drawers.  I either put the rollers on incorrectly or backwards or inside out, or the supposed insert for the bottoms never line up.  But it is together, Gamer hubby plugged everything back in and I feel alittle more grownup like. 

Next big house project...painting.  I am tried of living in a cream colored world.

To celebrate, I am ignoring the mess in the kitchen, ignoring the pile of laundery, and spinning this beautiful fiber I bought at Craft Akron a year ago.

this turning into that :)

  Then I might get industrious and do a little felting.

It is now past 11pm, and besides running interferance between the kiddo's and doing a little knee therapy I got to spin :)  this is the result:

Daniel has already chose the green to be a pair of socks for himself.  I may be making some cowls out of the rest, maybe some mommy socks.

And.....he's fighting it...

While I am sitting here contemplating what to work on (felting, knitting, some physcial therapy) I am watch my 2yr old fight sleep.  These past few months have seen alot of changes in his little world.  His big brother started school, he started daycare part time, mommy has had surgery, and he has moved to a big boy bed (bottom bunk).  Needless to say he visits us almost everynight.  I can allways tell when we are about to get a visit because he cries, then there is grunting (finding his way out of bed, hard due to the safety rail), patter of feet, and a soft cry of "mommy".  By which time I already have my arms out, half asleep ready to lift him into bed to fall back asleep with him.

And before anyone tells me I should take him swiftly back to bed I will kindly thank you for your advice and let's just move on and agree not to agree.  Thanks.

 

 

So, now that he has finally lost the battle, not the war, I think it's a little pt with some hulu playing.  There is allways time to felt or knit tomorrow.  It cannot compete with such cuteness.

Snag or Full tree

Sometimes in creating pieces I come to a cross roads.  If someone is around or handy on the phone or even on Facebook I look for some input.  This week has found me with 2 such issues on 2 pieces. 

This piece is still in fluffy mode, one good puff and its all gone.  If my 2 cats were still at the house and had not found some where else to live this would have been a cat bed.  Instead it has sat on the basement table for 24hrs, and will probably be there until tomorrow night.  I cannot decide whether to make the far tree on the left a snag or to pine it up.  The problem is if I 'pine it up' and then decide it would have been better a snag, pulling the green up will hurt the background..cause it's "SO FLUFFY".
     
But I must admire them, they really do look like pine trees, and on my first go...GO ME!  And it does kinda look mountainous in the back there...GO ME!  I am kinda impressed with me, and I hope my little fan club of one (me) does not put you off.  I have had many blunders as I learn how to paint with fiber.  They just get turned into purses or clutches so they are no longer in evidence. Cause I am sneaky that way..soooo sneaky...

The other piece is a question as to "eye or not to eye, that is the question".  There is something missing..can't decide if its an eye or simply need more detail in the background..maybe some indication of scales..mmmm.....

And of course gremlins have stolen my phone.  And so the photo of the eyeless fish, who may or may not need eyes will have to wait.

Finally decided to put an eye on it..looks soooo much better.  And the day I did that, it found its home.  There is a satisfaction level of finding that piece missing and knowing that it completed the whole.

A year gone by...

Well, it is official, I am the worst blogger ever.  It was a year ago this month that I last posted what was happening in this felter mom's life.  I shall blame it on the being pulled in too many directions something maybe all working moms and stay at home moms can understand.  I hope to revive this ancient blog :)  So my end of the summer resolution, to post something I am working on at least once a month...did I already make this resolution?

Well anyway, here is the latest:

Winter Solace



I have been playing with painting with fiber and felt...mmm, it needs a catchy name like feltscape, or paintfelt, or maybe it should be hyphenated: felt-painting? 

 Anyway, even without a catchy name I have had some great feedback from people at Yankee Peddler this year and in fact, sold 2 pieces. 

Blossoms

 

"Blossoms" has found a new home with a lovely art fanatic.  It was great talking with her and her friend.  They even took home the large flower (did not get it's photo before it left me) and the clutch that was made from the part of "Blossoms" branches that had shifted over to far and looked out of place.  It took me 3 months to convince my mom to just cut it out and use it for something else.  The clutch was awesome, very Japanese inspired :) 

 

And the current pieces being worked on:

 

 

 

I put in allot more detail than I usually do, I wanted to test out the belt sander method.  I like it, it really kept the design work in place, and felted the piece nicely.  I think it takes me about the same amount of time if I roll it in the plastic but that could be wishful thinking on my part.  The saving grace with the belt sander is that it allows me to add in some of the shading that I would have to normally do with the needle.  I will still go into the flower to add detail work but maybe this method will help me cut down on some of my time, and the cost of the pieces as well.

 

Next up on my table is a larger piece that is a 'typical' landscape.  Trying out mountains and pine trees for the first time...whhoooohooo..

 

Then onto a wish request by a sister, a very large winter solace picture..shhh, don't let on that its for her.

 

Oh, and one last tidbit, I have been working on spiraling with ruffles in my scarves...they look awesome!  Photo's to come (they are all packed and awaiting new scarf homes) when they are unpacked and put on racks at Yankee Peddler this coming weekend.  Fingers crossed the photos will upload right side up.  LOVE technology!