A Busy week, but my Mer-Teen is underway
Today I wanted to tell you about the Quadra-dents, and show you how i made them. I know they should be Tri-dents but I like the look of Four points better than three. As frequently happens life gets busy or interrupts and plans get put aside for other plans. so i will get back to the quadra-dents i promise!
the Quadra-Dents
Unfortunately, last week I started to feel a bit better, so tried to catch up on gardening while sitting in a chair. I was working on weeding the tall pots along the driveway, transplanting catnip out and planting the herbs and vegetables in. I think I just did too much of it. To be fair the side yard and some of the back patio look much better. I will be having words with that chipmunk that seems to have other plans since he or she keeps digging deep holes in pots I have already planted and moving or removing things I had wanted there.
1-10 Maybe these will give inspiration, Highlights of the front, back and side yard (yes that is a portable forest. the city wont let me plant poplar trees in the ground so the self seeded ones that start in my garden get moved to pots and grow happily there)
I did get a bit of felting in between meds, Dr’s visits, checking out a walker and weeding.
11 it is important to check Vital ergonomics when getting a vehicle. My early cars were purchased on their ability to carry my warp waited loom in the hatchback. Now its wheels and fiber as well as the looms!
My Mer-teen is underway. i think she is taking after Mr. Mer since she also has great lats! (It must be all that swimming). My goal is to get all the under-structures done so I can look at the proportions and keep them in scale.
12 Skeletal Mer-teen, Mrs. Mer and Mr. Mer.
This time I started working from the head down instead of starting with the legs and tail then working up. I have varied the order of application of fiber each time and seem to be getting a good outcome from all three. So order may be more preference or to help keep in scale for the head and body. This time I am going to add hands after I have the rest of the body blocked in. That will allow me to lengthen where the wrist is, if I need to. I think the torso may be a bit long on her parents but I’m short wasted and don’t like water thus haven’t seen a mer-person so maybe they are longer wasted than I am.
I have yet again notice felting while listen to an audio book ( this time part of Wen Spencer’s Tinker series) while it is very productive, does make me forget to take photos. I remembered to take some as I switched books to Lynsay Sands’ the Trouble with Vampires.
I made latissimus dorsi, SCM and upper traps. I made use of the 3-needle pen tool, and the up to 20 needle tool (set up for 12 needles) and various single needles for different parts of the body, head and arms. i am continuing to use the slightly felted batt of alpaca in variegated shades of light brown- beige. it may felt a bit quicker with some wool content but i am liking the effect the alpaca is giving.
13-15 making and adding upper Trapezius
16-17 you can see the lateral superior border of pec major heading towards the bicipital grove, the deltoids, both the clavicular and sturnal heads of SCM and both clavicle.
I will keep working on the under-structure and hopefully will be ready to start the top layer soon.
I hope you are all having fun felting! Hopefully you are felting and relaxing out in your garden enjoying the summer! Stay safe and healthy!
12 thoughts on “A Busy week, but my Mer-Teen is underway”
Yes. Who cares how many miles to the gallon you get, how fast it goes or what colour it is. Just so long as you can fit your spinning kit in then it’s a great car 🙂
Backs and knees are something you don’t notice until they go wrong then it’s awful.
We don’t have chipmunk problems – we have magpies that uproot and fly away with small colourful plants.
Glad to see your mer people are developing!
HI Annielynrosie! Sorry somehow my answer to you became a comment maybe the brain fog is not lifting as much as i thot. please peek down the list a bit and you will find my answer about cars, pools, cools birds, and mer inspiration.
Your Mer teen is looking good. And thanks for the lovely garden photos.
thanks Ruth! i hoped it mite amuse or inspier. i dont think there are many portable forest out there. those poplar trees are getting on in years i think at least 9 for the bigest one and thay keep making it through the winter in a pot. i have a cuple maples and something that mite be elderbary, but lost my horse chestnut, i think the chipmonk stole all the seeds. i may have to start one inside if i cant find where he took them to replant.
it would be fun to see the frilly pettled peach Iris or the Alums done as felt paintings, i hope someone will try them!
i am pleased with the progress of my Mer-teen too.she is starting to look a little like her insperation. there is still quite a bit to do so lots more fun to be had in this project!! then i better do some fish and a shark to keep them company. i wonder if i should arange them as a moblie?….. i think my brain is comeing back from all the pain killers so its probubly time for some more. yep!
on a normal day in a normal time i would be off to the local pool to walk, do Range of motion exercizes and try to float ( i float at the bottom of the pool) which usualy helps most peoples back hips and knees. but all the pools are cosed and the lake or river is still way to cold (i have gotten to be such a wimp about water temperature, that and it would be nicer if it was dry)
i wound up with a Keia Soul for my Car, i can get in and out and the seat is higher and comfortable. it still holds all the demo stuff if i put the seets down. It even is quite resonable on its feed costs. the walker will be used once fiber fests return and so i can walk then sit when the back says sit now or fall down. it should up my exercise a lot!! but i wanted to kniow if it would be a comfortable hight for spinning, so for a second vewing we brot the travel wheel with the lowest treadle (the hatbox) the people working there were vary poatent and let me sit and spin in the back corner of the store for a bout 10 minits (i should probubly have tryed longer but i was feeling guilty takein up space) it was quite comfortable and should fit with any of my other travel wheels and maybe even some of the castle wheels?
Magpies!! thay sound much more interesting than chipmunks run amuk. can you distract them with shiny or bright things near a bird feeder? i enjoy the local crows and had a mail cardnel near by and had chickadees drop by while i was weeding. i havnt seen the humming bird this year but the hunny suckle is out so any time now if he/she is around.
oh shorry back on topic. i was a bit slow this week but am pleased with the direction my mer-teen is going. i keep looking at pictures of my neice to help me she is an amazing swimmer (unlike me) and swims in compitions doing the butterfly stroke. (i do a vary nice dog paddle,) the cheeks and chin are close but im still working on the nose. i am realy close on the brod sholders and lats! i wonder if she will recognize who im moddleing this one on? i will look forword to contiuing this mer-project.
Lockdown has made it very hard for people who rely on swimming pools, physiotherapists, chiropodists, osteopaths etc for their health needs.
Let’s hope we’re close to getting back to ‘normal’.
Annielynrosie, if i win the lottery we will get one of the long narrow pools that has a serculation system that you can swim against. it would have to be a prity slow current and no spashing or i would not be able to get into it. we would have to put it in the detatched garrage so it could be used year round. ah dreeming big!!! the rest of the garrage could be an art studio!!!
She is looking Good Jan. I think you have found the only way to have a poplar. I think the pot is keeping it under control because they are a real weed tree, fast growing with roots that get into everything. I am not surprised you aren’t supposed to have them. They are very bad for pipes. Maybe you need a mechanical cat to scare the chipmunk away. They are very cute.
we had the most beutifull poplers at my parents cottage. the sounds of the leaves russeling in the breeze was lovely. but the beaver kept trying to drop them on things, just missed the boat shed with one tree, the dock sections, and the llittle sail boat with others. when hidro came through cutting trees along the lines he hiered them to take out all the poplers (there were lots of other trees but thay just didnt sound the same)
that evil chipmonk eats all my strawbarys and dosnt share, it also sits and eats goosebarys in front of me!!! i have a swvile headed plastic owl to find a good place for i am hopeing that will perswade him to change yards!! snce i no longer move fast enuff to catch him by hand i may consider relocation by live trap if we cant come to an agreement where i can at least have a cuple of my stawbarrys. i dont supose you would like a chipmunk would you Ann?
Jan your mer-teen is progressing well, and your quadra-dents sound more medical than Neptune’s trusty ‘tri-dent’.
What was your past career as you list everything in such anatomical detail?
Hope your aches & pains become more manageable & ease with the warmer weather.
I was going to ask About not being able to plant poplars, but Ann’s comment just above has explained things.
I’m still battling with a 3-4 year overgrown jungle. Mother Nature really takes off if left to her own devices. We’ve just done a machete job on a Couple of 4m high Plants that should only be thigh/waist high max! Imagine the width too!
Looking forward to seeing the ‘dressed’ mer-family
Thanks Antje, this has been a fun project. who would of thot i would fine a dry way to deal with water creatures? i am likeing the way the Mer’s would blend in with rocks in there present colour skeam but since thay have wepons now i dont think thay will have to rely on camaflage for safety so i should add skin tones and colourfull tails. i want to get the under layer done then work on the 3 together.
thay are also a good revew of at least the not fish parts of there anatomy. i started out as a comertial art student. then got a BA in fine art. after damaging the ulnar nerve (the one that gose to your little finger and half the next one to it) i went back to school for 2 years (2200 hours) and a vary scarry enterence to practice exam to becme a registered massage therapist (RMT). i had vary stong hands and vary pointy elbows. i worked in a welness clinic, a doctores office, 2 fizio clinics and out of my house always deep theraputic massage. by 24 years by back had had a snit and i have been off work since.(i bulged then tore a disc in the low back that didnt heal properly becouse i kept trying to go back to work but was overbooked.) im not shure what the hanous offence to it was this time but its now mad down the “good” leg. if im lucky my new walker will be in today and i can incresse my walking! (walkers also carry stuff so that should help too). i am definatly moveing better so then i want to get all the things done i havent been able to do and over do it again. silly me i do now better.
Ottawa has banned Poplars and Willows. luckily there were poplers just down the street in a wooded area by the transit way that blew seeds into my yard reagularly starting little trees. i would carfuly transplant them into pots. many of the early trees got about 7 or 8 feet tall. at that point one of my patents who lived in the country would take them to her place to give them a good home. the present ones seem to be happy to stay in there pots in the driveway. it has stunted the leaf size and as long as the roots dont figure out how to get out of the pot and through the drive way this is working.
my back garden needs work too. i have left it to its own devices the past few years focusing on the pots in the side yard and the front garden which i have tryed to arange as low matinence. i have a bench there, Glenn has brot out one of my small upright wheels and it has been wondrfull to sit and spin in the shade.
Nice progress on the Mer teen. It’s also impressive you continue to create while recovering.