New kid on the block...

Sometimes things have to sit and simmer before they "become".

I had made a mouse that ended up looking like a rat but I wanted a mouse.

Then I needed the eyes from the rat for the new mouse.

So the rat sat in a corner of my studio, blind and on the back burner....

Until one day I thought "this little guy needs a life".

I don't like to have too many UFO's in my studio.

(that's 'unfinished objects')

I had just got a new shipment of eyes and they were just the ticket to 

get this little guy back on his little rat feet agin.

But it wasn't just the eyes...he needed something else...

Oh, I know...how about some work socks and gumboots?

Out came the Fimo clay and I baked a fresh new pair.

Now since it's harvest time I figured maybe a little pumpkin was in order...

Yup...things were looking up for the young rat lad.

Of course he might need a wee cap with all this rain we've been having...

Acorn tops are the perfect soloution!

Some donkey fir for whiskers.

And we shall call him 'Percy'!

I made him a little wooden platform covered in nice felt and did a blanket stitch around the edges with some vintage linen thread from Northern Ireland

 (thanks for the thread Gillian!)...

 One last look...

Available in here my etsy shop 
Sorry, Percy has now been sold!

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

Ohio bound!

Years ago (pre The Fantastic Mr Fox movie) I made a sculpture 

based on this drawing...

 I loved its whimsy and the fact that foxes and rabbits could be chums.

It came from an old children's book circa 1918...

Meanwhile back in Lancaster, Ohio, a woman was perusing my past sales on Etsy and

asked if I could recreate the sculpture for her.

I was more than happy to since this was definitely one of my favourite sculptures to make.

...and so 'Fox piggybacking Rabbit' was reborn!

AKA 'Knox and Polly'...

Whiskers courtesy of the local horses tail...

 Because the sculpture is so light I added the gumboots for stability.

They are made out of a clay (Sculpey) which is fired in a household oven.

 There's something so beautiful and magical about foxes.

We don't have them here on the Island but I've always been fascinated with

their colour, sleekness, slyness, sense of smell, fluffy tail and the

eerie call they make at night.

Rabbits, hare's and bunnies...well who can resist them in all of their compact sweetness

 The woman who ordered the sculpture also holds a special place in her heart for foxes and 

purchased 'Jack'...

...as well as ordering a sitting fox!

( stay tuned for pictures of him as well)

 I would love to see her collection.

So off they go on their merry way to Ohio...

So long Knox and Polly!

Safe journey!

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.

Book reviews...

Winter is definitely the season for reading.

While Griffin was convalescing, long, cold, rainy days by the fire made
for prime reading time.
Lets see if I can summerize the last few books I've read...



'The Little Giant of Aberdeen County' by Tiffany Baker
was a sad tale of two orphaned sisters growing up in
two different worlds in a small town.
The story spans over their lifetimes and how very different they are.
One sister, the perfect girl and the other, Truley, an enormous misfit.
Uncovering the secrets in a family hierloom, long a mystery in the town,
Truley finds her calling which becomes a blessing and a curse.
A tale of family history, love, murder, and betrayal.
Definitely worth a read.

'The Lost Garden' by Helen Humphreys

Gwen Davis flees the bombing of London in 1941 to the Devon countryside

and volunteers to supervise a group of young women known as The Land Girls.

Living together in the abandoned servants buildings on a large estate, 

they are there to grow potatoes for the war effort.

Living in the main estate house is regiment of Canadian soldiers waiting for orders

and these two groups become entangled in the confusion of wartime.

At the same time, Gwen discovers a garden that was seemingly left abandoned at 

the start of the previous war in 1917.

She begins to unravel the quiet history left behind in the head gardeners potting shed

but is haunted by the ghosts within the walled gardens.

I loved this short novel.

Both of them were picked up in the thrift shop for about $3 each.

I love when I can find good books for such a small investment!

My other two books I bought online with some birthday money.

They are both to do with felting....surprise surprise!

The first is simply called 'Felt' by Willow Mullins.

As the back cover states...

"From nomads to poodle skirts, from car parts to Christmas tree ornaments,

felt is one of the oldest and most understated textiles"

This book covers the wide-ranging history and development

of felt from the earliest of archaeological evidence in Siberia to

modern fiber arts and sculpture.

Largely a text book and chock full of yards of information but not without 

some witty writing, I love the lines from the opening pages...

"Unique among textile structures, felt does not rely on first turning raw fibers

into yarn as weaving and knitting do; 

rather felt harnesses the chaos of tangles. While those of us who weave

and knit may look upon the confused snarl of our yarn with frustration,

for those who felt, this confusion of fibers is a thing of beauty."

 The second book is a small 50 page gem called 'The Felt Industry' by Peter Walter.

Here we have a superb little book full of text as well as photos

of the story of the felt industry in Britain from 1840 to the modern age.

I had no idea what a huge industry this was and how innovative the 

pioneers of this massive movement were.

The impact of the felt industry both in its glory days and now as an art form

are documented very well in this small but mighty book.

Speaking of felt..just finished another 'experiment' in the 'lab'.

Just trying to get the felted bag to a desired state.

Miles to go, but getting there is almost all of the fun!