mis·take məˈstāk/...

So I was thinking about this word a lot lately and looked it up for a proper definition.

Here's what I found...

noun

1. 1.

   an action or judgment that is misguided or wrong.

   "coming here was a mistake"

   synonyms:

   error, fault, inaccuracy, omission, slip, blunder, miscalculation,misunderstanding, oversight, misinterpretation, gaffe, faux pas,solecism; More

verb

1. 1.

   be wrong about.

   "because I was inexperienced, I mistook the nature of our relationship"

   synonyms:

   misunderstand, misinterpret, get wrong, misconstrue, misread More

   
   
2. There are many times in life that we here the expression
3. "I made a mistake"
4. or 
5. "that was a mistake"
6. In my wanderings through a creative life I have found many times that I might make these same
7. statements...until now, when I looked up the actual definition.
8. Lets look at the first one, the noun.
9. 'an action or judgment that is misguided or wrong'.
10. Well I can strike that one off since I don't think artistic endeavours can be misguided or wrong.
11. They are experiments.
12. I have been experimenting a lot lately on the science of botanical alchemy or eco printing or 
13. eco dying...whatever you want to call it.
14. Printing on small swatches has given me much insight into the process, which
15. is really what creativity is all about.
16. 
    Eucalyptus print, not so bold and defined as I had hope but lets make some
17. lemonade out of lemons...
18. 
    I find that if something is not quite what I had hoped for, I will let it sit...
19. Somewhere where I glance at it every once in a while until it speaks to me...
20. 
     ...of what it can become...
    
    
    Like this other piece that became a wee pouch...
21. 
    
    
    
     Incorporating an old zipper I had lying around for years that fit perfectly and
    then lined with some vintage velvet I had in my fabric stash...
22. 
    How about this... 
23. 
24. A little arrowhead I found at the beach the other day, the tip broken off.
25. Possibly it was done in the making and the maker tossed it thinking it to be a 'mistake'.
26. Not so!
27. I the fortunate one who found it all these years later!
28. A delight indeed!
29. The second definition could be discussed at length...
30. we may leave that for another time though.
31. Be happy in your experiments...they will always teach you something.

A few new things...

Just a wee shop  update.

My experiments in 'cruelty free taxidermy' !

Introducing the handsome Orvis...

Guilt free trophies for your grand lodge or manor!

The lovely Ursula...

Or maybe just for your humble home...

These woollen beasts are sure to set the mood for your next cocktail party...

...cue 'Bungalow Bill' by the Beatles!

 (https://www.etsy.com/shop/farmlass)

Ciao for now(shop update: Sheep has sold)

The Find...

So I've had these lovely, antique wood spindles around for ages.

Technically called 'quills', they were used in the woolen mill/textile 

industry in big factories to organize threads on looms.

I've had a few inspirations on what to do with them

and then yesterday one of those ideas finally came to fruition...

Introducing... "The Find"

 These happy crows are making a big noise of today's find...

 I had these scissors in my button stash that I think were intended for scrap booking.

I believe they came from a little pack of buttons and such from the thrift shop.
I've aged them a bit to look like they've been around the cutting floor for eons...

So if any of you know anything about the Corvid family of birds,

you'll know that they love shiny things...hence the excitement!
Crows and Ravens are some of the most enduring birds.
Don't be fooled by their bad reputation.
Intelligent, loving, resourceful, dedicated family members and comical.
I'm not sure why they've been the subject of doom and gloom and bad omens
but in my books they are a joy to watch.
Definitely the bird of October aren't they?!

 I notched of the bottom edge of the spindle so it wouldn't roll around anymore.
The beaks are made from some outer teeth casings from a jaw I found on the beach...

...I painted them black and meticulously pieced them together before adhering 

them into the heads of the crows...

They worked into perfect crow beaks...

In photography, I find the two hardest colours to capture are red and black.
In practicing with different shutter speeds, apertures, etc, and some fine tuning
in the editing department I was able to get some fairly decent shots though.
So off they will fly...to a house on the river road...
...to a maker of lovely textiles and a lover of crows.

Experimenting whilst the rains came...

I've experimented a few times with wool 'painting and I absolutely love this process.

It's the combination of wet felting, needle felting and embroidery 

that can make for very textured piece.

And a process it is!

Beginning with laying out the roving.

 I've been wanting to use these tiny bits of wool called 'nepps' for a while now and Queen Anne's lace flowers seemed the perfect candidate for a go at them...

Nepps or noils are small tangled knots of fibers. They are more matted than raw fleece and come from the second cut of the shearing of sheep.

As I'm discovering they felt into the smoother roving quite nicely.

 I've also added strands of dyed silk thread for varied texture.

My new best friend...

 No I'm not doing strange medical procedures, which is what this may look like, instead 

it's a new tool I found at the local fiber arts festival.

It's called a Ball Brause Sprinkler and makes light work of wetting down your work.

If you ever wet felted then you know how important it is to evenly wet your work before

the rolling process. With a spray bottle or just using your hand to toss bits of water

on the work is labour intensive and time consuming.

With this baby you fill a bowl with warm water, squeeze your ball (o.k no jokes here!)

to fill the rubber chamber and then gently sprinkle the water over your work...easy peasy.

I see them here on line if you want to order one. Good old German engineering at it's best!

 So here it is laid out pre-wetted...wispy and lovely but will blow away in the slightest breeze!

 I prefer to use the net method over my work before I wet it because I like the way the netting

holds the roving in place. This is important especially when trying to do imagery.

The netting can be anything of that kind of texture...this just happened to be an old curtain I had.

 So after wetting and soaping and rolling and turning again and again here is the look, 

still soapy and wet...

 After a few rinses...

 See how nicely these little nepps cling onto the other fibers?

 I put the finest bit of roving over the silk threads to lock them into the roving...

 After a day or more of drying the piece, I started in on the embroidery...

 ...many French knots were done...

 ...the bees were added by needle felting and using some organza ribbon bits for the wings...

I VERY CAREFULLY burnt the edges of the ribbon so the fibers would stay in tact.

Using tweezers, I still managed to burn a finger or two!

 Some bits of silk merino roving made for nice wispy clouds...

 And there you have it...

Bees in Queen Anne's Lace

Introducing...

(update: Harriette has been sold)
 Sweet Harriette.

I've been working on her for quite some time...it all started with her feet...

I wanted her to be a life size likeness of a species of owl called the Little owl...

(yes that's actually the real name!)

Her other Latin name is Athene (in Greek mythology the Little owl was the messenger

of Athene, the Goddess of Wisdom) noctua (which in Latin is 'of the night')

So here we have the Wise little messenger of the night.

Although this species does tend to hunt during the day, 

it is like most owls who are busy from dusk till dawn.

Another interesting fact about this owl is that it is not completely carnivorous

as most other owls are. It will eat grasses, seeds, berries and fruit as well.

They will hoard things and have been known to have a cache of 30 things or more!

Maybe that's why I like them so much...sweet little collectors that they are.

In Britain there have been cases of the same Little owls occupying their

nesting site for more than 25 years.

Harriette is perched on and adhered to a vintage wooden spool which someone gave to me years ago..

I've been hanging onto it but decided that Harriette was worthy of acquiring 

it for her perch and there she will sit.

She is 8" tall with the spool adding another 3".

Signed and dated and also identified by a small wooden button signed and dated by myself,

available in my Etsy shop here or through my website here.