Wool Over My Eyes!

About a year ago I was asked to work part time at the Sarafina Art House.

I had taken a few "in home" kitchen table classes with Sara Renzulli before the Art House opened, and after attending the 2014 Open House, then a workshop, she asked if I wanted to join their small group to help with orders, stock, and to learn more about working with wool.

Sara teaching me how to dye locks and fibers.

I have always been drawn to fibers - especially wool.

And to be able to work and learn in a place that is so positive and creative - it can only affect your direction of creativity.

 Sara has many tutorials on sculpting with wool over armatures which makes for great practice and getting to know the materials and push the limits...

 I used to want to be a Marine Biologist when I was younger, but I get motion sick standing up too fast. And so now I am choosing to go back to what calls to me (this is just trying out some forms).

I am really getting to understand more about sheep, goats, and other animals that we use their fur (wool, hair, etc) and the processes that it has to undergo in order for it to be usable in crafts such as needle felting, wet felting, spinning, sculpting, and at some point - wearable art.

These two guys above remind me of the dwarfs from the Hobbit and LOTR movies and are the first figurative creations I made in the style of "forrest folk" (Lee Charlton and Sara Renzulli video).

I may just have to make myself a little gathering of dwarfs for my studio to keep me company!!!

And I am trying to keep a bit up on getting to the gym and spend time with my family.

So my time in the clay studio has been put at the back burner - not completely, but it is definitely relatable to binging on Netflix then not for a while... 

I have a craft show this weekend and I have lots of earrings, my bracelet kits, and needle felting ornaments to take with me.

After that - I will hopefully get around to updating my Etsy shop with new items.

And you know - a lot of them will be wool!

Needle Felting with Wool, Wire and Beads

My first class in needle felting was late 2013.

It was around my friends kitchen table with a talented artist Sara Renzulli of Sarafina Fiber Art.

We made ornaments for Christmas: a gnome, a snowman and a seal.

Fast forward to a year later, Sara has a brick and mortar store where she teaches workshops and sells her fibers (most of the business is online order fulfillment. Wow for technology!)

Insert me into a job helping with orders and inventory a year later in her shop, and you get a new person (me) that gets to put her experience to work, yet learn a ton of new stuff about wool.

At the shop, I have been shown how to use the carding machines to mix up special blends of fibers for projects. On my own time, I wanted to make up some custom colors for myself in larger batches (the smaller batch way is by using large wire bristle dog hair brushes - but meant for wool). And the photo above are some of my first color blends.

And right about the time when I am feeling comfortable with using the machines and wanting to take the next steps creatively, my friend Sasha told me about a cool "Fun a Day" project happening in Wilmington, DE where every day in February you create something small. Then on the First Friday in March, all the participants that signed up will show off their work, all 28 pieces, at the DCCA gallery.

You can check it out via Social Media with #defunaday.

Maybe there is a Fun A Day project in your area too?!

So for me - I finally have a reason to fiddle with needle felting with wire, wool, adding seed beads, and my using my ceramic work to pull it all together. 

Each day I am learning a bit about forms and color blending. 

And how to layer beads and secure them to the wool and wire forms in different ways.

Slowly I am feeling the pull of wanting to create again.

It's hard sometimes dealing with life and a bit of burnout.

I love having a job outside of my creative art business that allows me to tap into my creativity knowledge base without having the pressure on my creativity to pay the bills directly.

We'll see where this goes!

PS - I am also able to teach classes and workshops at Sarafina!

I've got a square stitch bracelet class coming up in March.

Super excited about teaching that one as I love the peace that comes from bead weaving.

Until next time...

Needle Felting and Nature Inspiration

I've been fully bitten by the needle felting bug!

Do you ever experience an overwhelming sense of having to figure out everything you can as soon as possible when you finally get your hands on a material you have been wanting to try out, but have never really had the right encouragement, inspiration or materials to give it a go?

These are some of the books I have gotten out of the public library this week.

I looked up "Felting" and these are what popped up, so they went on hold and I got them last night. With the exception of the two at the bottom - those are mine from home. 

And having a background in Entomology and Wildlife Conservation, I go directly to nature for inspiration. The colors, patterns, textures are everywhere you look in nature. And I like to reference scientific books or field guides for a soft inspiration on realistic things, although my final work rarely incorporates exact replicas from nature.

 Taking time to walk outside will allow you to find unexpected things like this mushroom above.

And hanging out with friends, that have friends, that are interested in art, can quickly open new doors - quite literally in this case. I took a needle felting workshop last December in my friends kitchen and met Sara from Sarafina Fiber Arts. I had always had a round about interest in needle felting - but did not quite experience the "bite" until after this workshop. And now Sara has opened a shop where she teaches workshops, sells materials and finished art from local artists, and creates a bunch of How To videos on You Tube for sculptural needle felting.

Above is a quick photo of the Sarafina Art House after a pumpkin workshop (I was there to drop off some of my ceramic items for her to sell in the gallery). I purchased a bunch of needle felting supplies from her at the open house not even two weeks ago, and went home to watch a few of the videos to remember some of the basics (there are three video in Sara's pumpkin videos).

I wanted to make some Autumn Pumpkins!

 I just love these candy colored locks that Sara dyes and sells - I could have purchased the entire basket she had at the shop! They add such color to the pumpkins...

There is this thing that when I make, I like to make a lot of things - it's an obsessive personality trait. I think it's exactly why I can sit and make and make a ton of beads at a time (give me good music or an interesting audio book, or podcast and I'll be there for hours!).

And it becomes about technique and seeing what I like as I make things, comfortable changes in technique as I work, how I can picture the development of a general shape - like a pumpkin, and move it forward and make details that are more appealing to me - most of the time - it ends up having spirals and swirly lines somehow...

So the pumpkins started getting these spiral stems.

And the bottom points of the stem onto the pumpkin, started getting wavy ends if they were long enough (after this in-progress photo).

I loved the banana fiber and how it frays, twists and twirls. 

I make and I make, then I move onto something else.

Like - what about making some ceramic pumpkins?

It is the season for them to ripen and be everywhere and in every shape and color!

Since I do already have all of the ceramic stuff from my bead making, small terrarium sized ceramic pumpkins were a natural. Notice the points at the bottoms of the stems. Those are there because in Sara's video, Lee mentions making points from the bottom of the felt stem. Cutting the ceramic clay to make points - that was fun to figure out and make happen (you have to work fast so it does not dry out and crack off).

Now my brain is set to figure out how to combine felting with beads in a more sculptural way.

Not by any means coming up with "new" as there are many artists out there that combine sculpture, beads, art, etc., but rather, new to me. Exciting to me. But ways to find my voice and learn techniques then pull all this work together in a way that is uniquely an expression of the things deep within.

What about you? Do you share a love for felting?

Even if it is just a visual love vs a "making".

Who are some of your favorite "felting" artists?

Social Media Links:
Like Sarafina Fiber Arts on Facebook
(there is also a group if you are into felting).
Like Love My Art Jewelry on Facebook.

Ceramic Flower Disc Beads and Organization

I love that I have my creative studio space in my house.

I dream of having a secondary building somewhere where I can run my business and hold artist retreats, but right now with young kids, it's just not something on my horizon.

I try to sneak in an hour or two of clay time a week.

I remember those days where I could work all day and night on my work, but having kids, those days are long (LONG) gone. And even though I miss it sometimes, I really enjoy where I am right now in life...

And sometimes when I work on new pieces in series, I should listen to my brain that says:

"Hey! WAIT!!! Now that these are drying in groups, you should immediately sort them into smaller bisque containers for the bisque firing NOW instead of having to sort through all of these pieces after the bisque firing!"

Did I listen to my brain?

Not at all... (kicking myself)

So I had to spend (waste) an extra 20 minutes to sort through this entire 6" x 8" container full of my new flower disc beads.

Truth be told - I think my brain ignored itself because it somehow knew that I needed that 20 minutes of extra bead fondling once these were out of the bisque firing.

Now that they are fired and sorted, when I get to the glazing point, I can easily pull out the plastic drawer (I use the ones from the hardware store that stack high and have 30-50 drawers in each) and pick pairs. 

I like to work in pairs from the glazing point. If they make it out of the kiln with a matching mate, then it was meant to be. 

If not - then well - independence is theirs!

I have some in my Etsy Shop, and will be glazing more in early May for a shop update and for stock for Bead and Button (booth #610 with Nikki Thornburg Bead Studio).

And to send to Darlene of D7Studio where she represents Marsha Neal Studio.

And I am taking a little bit of time here and there to tend to the garden and spring clean up.

I just love these Hellebores...

First time this one is really blooming!

Curious to see about the cross pollination of this double blooming head with some of the others in the garden (they take 5 years from seed to blooming mature plant).

And a little educational treat for myself...

I adore felting, and have had two opportunities to take classes with the very talented Sara Renzulli of Sarafina Fiber Art, where we have been needle felting structural creatures.

This one is the Bunny Puff Kit (she has all kinds of critters as fibers are available and restocks often).

I love these for my house, and learning about creating structural fiber work is really going to help me take the next steps towards where I want my body of work to end up...

If you have ever wanted to learn needle felting you should check out her shop and her SarafinaFiberArt You Tube channel for a bunch of tutorials.