Sunday, September 26, 2010

Cheshire Cat





My Super
Psychedelic Cheshire Cat Won First Place in the Living Felt Art Doll contest!
At the end of August I entered a contest sponsored by Living Felt; a Alice in Wonderland themed contest. I was so excited because I wanted to create really ambitious piece for it. Earlier this year I found the wonderful products at Living Felt and I loved how fast their Merino Cross batts felt up. Thats when was doing the Troll Heads in February.. Then I had also found this really awesome neon wool that glowed under blacklight dyed by a seller on Etsy (Zauberzeug) I've made some small little psychedelic critters . At first I just thought I'd do a disembodied Cheshire Cat's Head! Like a Troll Head..only a Cat. I was highly influenced by those comericals of the 3D movie where the Cheshire Cat is totally coming at you with glowing eyes! Silly me I had just imagined using that neon wool in the eyes. I actually made the head first, totally complete in itself. The head is felted on top of a soft foam ball. Then my brain was like no.. you should do a whole cat! So I had these huge football wet felted shaped globey things and at some point I wired the tail and covered it with purple felt. Its a this point I realized I'd mixed up the deadlines for some other things and had to go work on that stuff for a bit. My grinning Cat Face ball hung out with me for a while before I started working on it again. Unfortunately, sometimes when I'm really excited about a project I forget to stop and take work in progress pics. I made a lot of progress at this little Con that my friend Shawnna was at. I was just keeping her company and needle felting away on what looked like a white football with purple tail. I attached the head and the body and covered the whole thing during those exciting hours! At one point some dudes come up and tell me "Man, that thing is sick" in an admiring tone.. I replied and its not even finished yet, wait till I do the stripes! I used foam in the paws covered with core wool, then purple, then felted the neon on and the details of the paw pads. I made my husband hold my Chaucer Cat (my real Cheshire cat) upside down so I see his paw pads. The striping was the hardest part really, it was very tedious. But it was the most fun too. I'd like to say I made a plan and drew it all out before, but I didn't. I just let it flow... the stripes evolved in the best possible way. The tail was crazy because I had to follow the colorway and I almost ran out of green. :( I had so much fun creating such a large piece. I hoped, but really didn't plan on winning! Crazy!

Finished Peace Felt



So I finished felting the Felt Peace "Bound By Angels" wall hanging. I'm very happy with how it turned out! After rolling and fulling I let it dry and then decided to embellish a bit with some beads and ribbon. I had this wonderful strand of Mother of Pearl shell shards that reminded me of the luster of the mohair. Shells invoke the ocean
energy and love and that's Peace too! I made and se
wed by hand the channel for the dowel rod and then did this free-form bunching and gathering decorative ribbon along the top of the wall hanging, really just because I liked it. I plan to mail this off tomorrow to Canada and to my Peace Partner.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Peace Felt

I'm involved in a project that is exchanging felted pieces with other artists and hobbyists all over the world! Today is the International Day of Peace and we are supposed to create them today and then mail off our creations in the next week or so. Yesterday, I went to start my Peace Felt so that I could finish and send it off. I had so many ideas about what I could do or create that I was a little overwhelmed. I wanted to make everything and I wanted it to be perfect! I even was having my husband film a video of me creating it. But I kept getting bogged down. I had to pull off the wool over and over again. I finally got so frustrated with myself I had to have him stop filming. What was wrong? Then it hit me. I had to let go of my ego and my expectations. I thought about what is Peace and the hope of it and what can bring us all together when despite our human natures? Immediately I thought we are all bound together by angels... that we are all reaching across the void of hyperspace, across the oceans, across the continents to connect through our love of this particular art form. That spirit connects to us to each other. Then I thought about the wool itself. The animal that provides it, a sheep. The symbol of gentleness.. I think about end of war.. the lion and the lamb laying down together. Sheep allowed our ancestors to make clothes, shelter and have food. Its strength and warmth keep people going.. the fibers of it are so small yet when a little chemistry happens with some hot water and soap it turns into this enduring thing. Fragile seeming yet all touching each other and bound together by a force that seems almost magical. Peace is like that too. After that thought I just let go of what I wanted my piece to be and I let a higher power guide my creation. So my Peace Felt is called Bound by Angels. And as I finish it today I'm thinking of you Danielle.. my peace felt partner in Canada. Two souls connected by angels.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

The Wondercraft

Last summer four ladies banded together and started this great mobile boutique and here they are getting some local news recognition!
I have a few things on consignment there and I've volunteered a couple of times. Its just the most awesome concept ever!
(once again scroll down and pause the large green box so you can hear the Fox clip)