Monday, April 6, 2009

Gnome Sweet Gnome


Okay I finally finished another felting piece. I still have alot of things in the works or in idea stage but finding the time to actually concentrate is hard. My head is alway jumping ahead of my hands... well and I've had 10 little distractions. Yes, the baby rats! quick 'plaining for people who might this and go eww... rats! I foster litters for Hearts of Texas Rattery, who are dedicated to breeding quality pet rats with the sweetest temperments and beautiful colors and best health possibly. I get to raise baby critters without contributing to irresponsible breeding. I don't have to worry that my babies will be dinner for something else or fall into the wrong hands. HOT carefully screens potential adopters and right now there's a long waiting list!

So my mama rat is named Mei Mei, which is a Firefly reference, and means Little Sister in Chinese. She had 10 perfect wriggle kiddos on the 22nd of March. We just a two week birthday and I just saw their eyen starting to open last night. Check out the slideshow in the previous post for unbearable cuteness and awws... http://www.heartoftexasrats.com/

Anyway I finished a lovely mushroom ring and a little gnome guardian to go with it. I'm hoping to make a series of mushroom or fairy rings each with a different attendant guardian. I also found the most interesting needle felting site the other day and over stretched budget to buy Ayala's books. http://www.fiberfanatics.com/default.html She was one of the first people to begin sculpting with wool in the 80's. I actually own very few books on needlefelting... I pretty much figured things out by trial and error instead. Sometimes this is okay, it works out with great results. Other times is a frustrating crazyness and I put my wool and needles up and start playing the Sims. So sad.

So I love my gnome! He was a little thing I'd started and was barely shaped then it just started coming together like magic. Magic's like, isn't? And all those little mushrooms are so nice and firm... I really dislike felting that looks like a cat coughed up something artful. The just came out great I did the caps totally separately and then attached the stems. The base was made on a recycled sweater and I felted backwards.... I felted light green on the underside of the ground piece to get an effect like actual moss growing. I had some very nice natural alpaca roving that I used to felt all around the edges of the base... it looks just like dirt. I stuffed the hill with some fiber fill and felted a hollow in the center... this ring would also be a perfect place to rest crystals or stones. There's also a little joke in the name of the gnome. Silly Simeon. I keep telling people and no one's gotten it yet.

On to next project.. but first a baby rat snuggle!