Marilyn aka Pandagirl

2016 Third Quarter Challenge

July 6, 2016 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 23 comments

Well, it may be hard to beat the first two quarter challenges. But it will also be possible to combine those two processes to help create this one. Adding dimension to our projects. This is something I’ve been working on since I began learning to create texture in flat pieces.

I became totally intrigued with this in the first challenge I participated in which was mixed media using clay, curing clay, felt, fabric, metal and paint.

More about it here: https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2013/09/30/third-quarter-challenge-marilyns-entry/

I was hooked. The challenge became to create dimension in felt alone.

Its what I like to call it having the picture jump off the page. Being able to touch and interact with the story. And there are many ways to do it. Using resists, carving, fiber sculpting and forming, cracked mud:

Stewart Stephenson - Marilyn — Stewart Stephenson – Marilyn

Building up with needle felting:

Needle felting and wet felting:

Adding dimension thru layering and fabric manipulation:

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Inclusions:

Combining techniques:

It doesn’t mean having to make a 3D object, but you can also add dimension to one.

A recent example for the resist challenge came from Ann. Plenty of dimension here.

Or Teri Berry’s flame hat with foil. Teri I can’t imagine how you’ll top your recent work, but I hope you’ll try.

Of course, there are many more examples we’ve seen here on the Studio and the forum. While many of you do this routinely, please challenge yourself to take it to the next level! And if it’s the first time, take baby steps. I look forward to seeing how you create dimension.

Playing with Natural Dyes Part 1

June 28, 2016 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 16 comments

With summer finally here in the US, it’s wonderful to see color in the yard and all around. I recently had lunch with Cathy (Luvswool) and she showed me some of the prints and natural dyeing she’s been doing with lately. She’s been devoting most of her time natural dyeing and got me interested in trying it. You can find her dye blog here https://naturedye.wordpress.com/

So, with her guidance I took the plunge and began experimenting. I ordered some dyes online from the Woolery and Dharma Trading. My first try was with Osage Orange. What I didn’t realize was that the item I ordered was Osage Sawdust so I had an extra couple of steps to get the dye liquor prepared for the bath.

For each dye experiment I used a small amount of silk gauze, silk habotai, silk mulberry, wool yarn, merino and corriedale roving.

I could have used a copper penny to make a brighter color, but I was happy with the results. The top pic is while wet, the bottom two are after drying. Its actually more light yellow than coffee color. You’ll see two small pieces of felt I threw into the pot without mordanting at the bottom. They did take the color.

The next dye I tried was madder root. I had recently used up some of the madder roving Cathy had given me from her Arkansas residency last year in my coral piece. So I was anxious to see if I could get the same color.

https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2016/06/04/under-water-again/

Again, I didn’t order powder, but actual roots, so there were extra steps involved to get to the bath.

While wet:

After using the madder alone, I divided the fibers in half and used iron in a separate bath.

Here they are dry:

Its interesting the mulberry silk on the right with the iron did not get dark.

With each other, without iron on top, with iron on the bottom.

Subtle differences, but not the same color that Cathy got in Arkansas. But then there are differences in water, temperature, etc. But I’m pleased with the results.

Thanks Cathy for helping me through the process.

More experiments with UFOs

June 20, 2016 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 13 comments

A couple of years ago, I was making silk paper just for practice. I decided to try to cover a bowl and make some ruffle edges. But it was a disaster. I used an acrylic medium to help give it substance, but all that did was make it stiff and unmanageable. I tried soaking it in soapy water for a couple of days, but that didn’t do anything either. So it went into the “pile.” I’ve picked it up a couple of times thinking I could use it for something, but nothing came to mind. Sorry about the fuzzy picture.

Recently, with the Second Quarter challenge to revisit our UFO stash, I pulled it out again. This time as I thought about it I started pulling it apart, peeling off layers. I wondered if it would still felt, so I looked through my stash and found some yellow batts with unknown fibers.

It felted just fine, some parts are still stiff, but most of the thinner areas still had the silk shine. This piece will probably be made into a coin purse.

But what to do with the rest?

Another UFO was a piece of prefelt I had cut for “lace” in Fiona Duthie’s Surface Design class. I put a piece of habatoi silk under it and felted them together. I’m not sure what I’ll do with it. But I like the bubbly effect of the silk through the holes.

Then I found a frame for the cityscape.

While I haven’t made a big dent in the scraps and UFO pile, I feel good about trying some new things.

Samples from the Nuno Paper Lamination Class

June 12, 2016 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 10 comments

I just finished Ruth Lane’s online class. Since I am also papermaker, I was excited to combine the two passions and see the results.

It was a fun experiment using a variety of papers, dyes, paints and fabrics. Some worked, some didn’t, but that’s how we learn.

This first one is a paper napkin from one of my Grandson’s birthday party earlier this year on organza. Since I was experimenting, I used some batts with unknown fibers in two colors, blue and green.

I decided not to further embellish it since the “characters” were nicely defined. I suppose I could add some greenery and clouds. But I wanted to show the results this far.

The next one is also “finished.” I used a tree stencil on organza with unryu paper which is very fibery. Again it is on a batt of unknown fiber.

I embellished around the stencil with silver silk hankies. It felted very nicely.

Since these were experiments, I wasn’t concerned about perfect edges and left them organic.

Here’s a closeup of the center. You can see how those fiber areas look like branches and connect the trees.

I got great texture as you can see from this side view.

The one project I completed was a stenciled bird pic.

20160610_142635

I used a couple of paper and fabric types with this stencil, but chose this one to finish even though the colors faded. It was a dyed paper towel on cotton voile. You can’t see it in the pics, but the bumps from the towel can be seen in spots. I used it on a merino batt.

I forgot to cover the edges of the voile, so I used machine stitching to cover the edges.

I decided to hand stitch the rest. There is a lot of dimension in the paper, although it’s not too obvious in these pics.

I wanted to keep it simple. I used double rayon thread with threaded backstitches and some satin stitches to embellish it. The green is a variegated thread. I purposely just outlined because I wanted the birds to be the center of attention. Forgive my poor stitching. Here are some closeups.

Now I have to decide whether to frame it or leave it organic.

Thanks Ruth! It was a unique class. I need more practice. I’m still working on the final projects.

Under Water Again

June 4, 2016 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 19 comments

I was really fascinated with Teri Berry’s book resist tutorial in January for the first Quarter Challenge. So, I decided to give it a try.

Book Resist Tutorial by Teri Berry

Since my mind has been under the sea lately, I doodled around and came up with a design that reminded me of coral. I decided to have an odd number of pieces.

I inverted the copies so the arms would be facing in different directions. I used an old shower curtain for the resist then sewed them together.

I soon discovered even though it was a heavy shower curtain it was challenging to get the fibers tight enough around the appendages. The first layer was Romney which may have been a mistake because it is a long staple.

After I covered all the sides with the Romney, I covered each side with nepps because I wanted a bumpy texture. Then the second layer were batts which combined natural hand dyed Domestic 56s with Madder that Cathy (Luvswool) had given me from her artist residency in Arkansas. https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2015/05/09/dyeing-with-plants/ I was a little short so I used some my own hand dyed orange Cheviot mixed in.

It was a large bundle so there was a lot of rubbing before I could do any rolling.

When I finally cut out the resist I had to use my finger to open up the appendages and rub and roll. My fingers got a real workout! Because the wool had expanded over the shower curtain resist I had to really work each “finger” to get them to shrink and not felt together. But the resulting lumpiness was the look I was going for.

Here it is drying.

It was quite hairy so I had to shave it several times. Here are the different sides.

Here is a view from the top.

After a few more shaves, I decided it deserved a sea setting.

Thank you Teri for providing the tutorial and inspiration! And thanks to Cathy for the beautiful natural hand dyed wool!

2nd Quarter Challenge Part 2

May 27, 2016 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 16 comments

It seems as if everyone is anxious to reduce their UFO stash. While I haven’t put a dent in mine, it does feel good to create something new out of scraps.

Sifting thru my scraps, I was having a hard time coming up with ideas. But then one evening while watching the local news it hit me. I grew up in Chicago and now live about 50 miles west of it in the middle of corn country. I always loved seeing the city scape either driving in or flying over.

I didn’t want to copy a picture, but compile my own city scape made up of buildings I thought were unique.

My first attempt I used a purple for a sky color. And a teal for the water. It was too dark and didn’t let the buildings pop.

Not having enough blue scraps for the sky I felted a piece of prefelt. Then added some fluffy wool clouds for dimension.

Of course a lot of buildings are gray or black, but as you can see I chose to use more of my wallet material for my centerpiece building — The Willis Tower (formerly known ans will always be The Sears Tower to me.) In reality it is black.

The red building on the right was a left over piece of a business card. I thought it was just right for a real red CNA (Continental National America) building on the lake shore.

On the left is the Crain Communications building also known as the Diamond building.

Once the pieces were pinned, I used a combination of hand stitching to keep everything in place, machine stitching for the windows and antennas on the Willis building and details on the Crain building.

The Willis Tower is not leaning in real life, but we do live in the Windy City and buildings do sway. Actually, the sewing must have shifted it. I debated pulling it out, but decided against it.

I also used free motion stitching in the foilage area at the lake front. There was still something missing. What is a lake without boats? If you look closely, the sails are blowing in the wind, again adding dimension.

I tried a couple of mats, but decided on the black and white one. I don’t have a frame yet, but probably basic black.

Or I could use a 5 x 7″ frame by itself. Sorry about the black background. It’s a metallic slate gray frame.

What do you think?

Don’t forget to post your 2nd Quarter Challenge on the forum.

2nd Quarter Challenge 2016

May 19, 2016 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 12 comments

Remember the credit card wallet disaster I told you about earlier this year?

I decided I would recycle part of this piece into an earbud case for the 2nd Quarter Challenge. So I cut it up.

I used a blanket stitch to sew it together and finish off the edges.

Then I added a snap as a closure.

Its a little bigger than needed, but I figure I’ll find something else to stuff in there if necessary. Perhaps a few business cards. I feel better knowing I’ve been able to use some of the material for something useful rather than sitting in a pile.

If you’ve done something for the 2nd Quarter Challenge, be sure to post it on the forum! Or contact one of us to write a blog about it!

Better Late Than Never

May 11, 2016 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 14 comments

I’m tardy on completing the First Quarter Challenge using a resist in a different way. I had a few ideas, but then Cathy (Luvswool) loaned me a resist she had used in a class a few years ago. I still procrastinated not having a clue what to do with it.

I covered the resist using the first layer of Icelandic on all sides. then I left it for a week while I traveled. I was still unsure of what I wanted to do with it. Then on Earth Day I was inspired to use some deep jewel tone merino fibers and made some batts. I didn’t want really striped areas so they went back into the carder to blend them a little more.

I debated about using the fibers horizontally, but ended up using them vertically. I suppose it wouldn’t have mattered either way. I still wasn’t sure about what shape it would take until I finished fulling it.

Here it is drying on my towel holder.

Views from each side. The Icelandic wool underneath really muted the bright tones, but I liked the way it turned out.

From the top.

I don’t know what to call it, but it sits nicely by itself and will probably decorate the coffee table in my living room where the colors will be right at home.

I think I’ll try another shape after I finish the Second Quarter challenge.

Seeing Spots

May 3, 2016 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 33 comments

Last month I visited the San Diego Aquarium and a couple of tide pools while seeing relatives and touring the area. I’m always fascinated with the beautiful creatures from under the sea. When I returned home, I did some more research and came across the Blue Spotted Ribbontail Ray. You can read more about them here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluespotted_ribbontail_ray

You can also Google them and see some really beautiful pictures.

I have seen other Stingrays in Sausalito, California, but nothing this beautiful. Of course, the colors made this guy pretty attractive to me. I thought it would be a fun, challenging project in felt.

Although I know the body is fairly flat, I started out with making a resist.

The eyes were a challenge because they have an unusual shape with a cutout (spiracle) behind them. I made tight ball which encased a glass eye and a rock for the spiracle portion, then covered it with the yellow merino.

I used one layer of corriedale as my base on each side, then used a white batt on the underside. To give the back some height in the middle I added extra layers. Once I was satisfied, I attached the eyes and a piece of a batt to attach a tail.

The tail was next. I used a corriedale core and covered it with a batt, then rolled it into shape. I tried to use roving to make the blue stripes, but the rolling moved it around to much, so I striped it off.

The tail also includes the stinger near the end. The tail is actually one and a half times the length of the body.

I had to do some studying of the anatomy to try to get it close to reality. The nostrils, mouth, nasal flaps and gills are underneath. I didn’t add claspers or pelvic fins.

Next was decorating. It took a long time to cut out the spots from handmade prefelt in various sizes. I placed a batt over the top taking care not to overlap to the underside which would stay white. Then came the spots.

There was a lot of rubbing before rolling. I used a gray roving to highlight the mouth, nostrils and gills on the underside.

Once the felting was near complete, I cut out the resist, the gills, mouth then finished the fulling. The eyes came last. They were a bit tricky. The glass bead and rock had moved during the felting. Removing the rock took a little doing and I ended up using a tweezers. A little needlefelting helped finish off the eyes and put stripes on the tail.

I wanted to show the ray in motion so I put two plastic bottles under the flaps while it dried, but even after drying as soon as I layed it down the ray went flat. Plan B was to use Modge Podge to hold the shape. It did the trick, but I wasn’t happy it remained white.

Here he is hanging on the wall near my work area. It’s hard to tell, but the wall is a light blue.

I sometimes wonder why I come up with these types of projects. I did enjoy the learning process though. What challenges have you had lately?

Welcome to the Family

April 25, 2016 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 25 comments

I had a big surprise last week when my youngest sister Carol sent me pictures of the newest members of her family — three ewes and four lambs!

It was an even bigger surprise to her that I use wool for felting. In her defense, she lives in central Wisconsin and has a farm and she, her husband and son run a real estate business. They are a little busy themselves.

It should have been no shock since she’s been an animal lover since she was a toddler. She’s managed a dairy farm, a pig farm and has had horses and cows of her own. Carol also has five Border Collies and felt they needed more exercise. Sheep would be great for them to herd. When she saw the sheep it was love at first site.

None of the sheep are purebreds. She thinks they are Corriedale/Dorset mixes. The ewes were pregnant when she brought them home. Since then the oldest Mom, Secret 7, had twin boys. Carol’s granddaughter Madison named them Salt and Pepper.

Jpeg

The black Mom, Dusty, had a dark black boy named Little Will.

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The youngest Mom, Amira, had a teeny little brown lamb with tan on her face Madison named Rosie. She was very weak and they had to milk Amira and bottle feed Rosie because she couldn’t get up and walk. But an hour later she was on her feet. They will let Rosie and Amira out of the lambing pen as long as Rosie is doing well. She is very tiny.

Rosie

The sheep have only been introduced to the two older Border Collies, Belle who is 2 and a half and Misty who is 1 and a half. They just visit and fuss over the baby lambs. Misty thinks all the babies belong to her. She loves them.

The three pups are only 10 months old and will get introduced to the lambs when the lambs are at least half grown. They want the sheep to feel safe and comfortable in their own space. They are going to build a special round pen for that so it will be easier to control both the dogs and sheep.

Carol is already planning on buying a Corriedale ram this fall. So, the excitement will continue.

I wish we weren’t so far apart, but I’ve been promised fleece next year. so, I’m sure a trip is in order. Another new adventure! In the mean time, I’m enjoying the pictures and updates.

Thanks to my nephew Bill and his daughter Madison for the pictures and to Carol for sharing this exciting experience with us.

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Author: Marilyn aka Pandagirl

2016 Third Quarter Challenge

July 6, 2016 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 23 comments

Like this:

Playing with Natural Dyes Part 1

June 28, 2016 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 16 comments

Like this:

More experiments with UFOs

June 20, 2016 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 13 comments

Like this:

Samples from the Nuno Paper Lamination Class

June 12, 2016 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 10 comments

Like this:

Under Water Again

June 4, 2016 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 19 comments

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2nd Quarter Challenge Part 2

May 27, 2016 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 16 comments

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2nd Quarter Challenge 2016

May 19, 2016 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 12 comments

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Better Late Than Never

May 11, 2016 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 14 comments

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Seeing Spots

May 3, 2016 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 33 comments

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Welcome to the Family

April 25, 2016 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 25 comments

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