Deconstructed Screen Printing

Deconstructed Screen Printing

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This is a guest post by Deb Stika, thanks Deb!

Hi, my name is Deb Stika and I’m a member of Ruth Lane’s art group. Our group meets monthly and once annually for a 2 day retreat on Bitteroot Lake in Montana. In preparation for doing deconstructed silk screening at the retreat, Ruth asked me to describe the process. We took a few photos to help you visualize what we are doing.

We set our stuff up on Ruth’s back deck so we would have plenty of room to spread out. We mixed the print paste in Ruth’s old blender.

Here’s Ruth mixing dye powder into the print paste, making sure there are no lumps! Since we have a bunch of screens, we mixed a variety of colors.

I’ve decided to use this Styrofoam packing material for my first patterned screen. (Ignore the purple color, that’s leftover paint from Ruth using it for printing on another project.) Our first deconstructed screen is orange. And a second bigger screen is created using the same packing material. We simply used the leftover print paste on the packing material and pressed it against’ the screen.

Here I am contemplating using misc. stencils on this bigger screen.

Other good textures: rubber bands, toothpicks, string, etc.

Drying screens.

Here are some of our dried screens ready for deconstructed silk
screening.

Our first pull using the string screen. And the reveal!

Another pull using the rubber band screen. And the reveal!

More reveals!

Thanks Deb for showing everyone the deconstructed screen printing process. We use these printed fabrics for backgrounds in our various fiber art. Screen printing is a fun process, give it a try. 

And to announce the winner of the drawing for First Time Felting, drum roll please…

The winner is Anna Ashton! Congratulations Anna, I will contact you to get your address so the publisher can send you your free copy of the book.

 

 

Part 3 Why does everything seem to take so much longer lately?

Part 3 Why does everything seem to take so much longer lately?

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Part 3 Why does everything seem to take so much longer lately?

Continuing from Part 2 and Part 1

Why does everything seem to take so much longer lately?

Why does everything seem to take so much longer lately? Continuing in Part 2

 

Life is still trying to keep me from accomplishing my goals by offering other options to the one I thought I was going to be doing.

Earlier this summer I was gifted with a fleece at the Guild demo at the wool growers Co-Op in Carlton place Ontario. It was a horrible day for weather and we retreated to the storage part of the sorting building. Just down the hallway from us was where the volunteer sheep were waiting to participate in sheering demonstrations throughout the day.

 1 Shearing Volunteers 1

2

Icelandic looking sheep “CCWG Mascot” from the Wool Growers Co-0p Demo. 2

34

  This is the producer of the fleece  after shot. 3-4

5They said the amount of fleece they have in stock at this point in the year was down from other years. 5

6 The demo team is across from all this wool! It had been raining very heavily with strong wind gusts so we moved inside the sorting building. 6

  The demo team 7-10

The co-op sorts all the eastern wool from Canada and sells it all over the world. A lot goes to china. But some gets set aside for hand spinners. Most of it is soft and crimpy but sometimes it’s lustrous and not quite as soft. The Icelandic-like one I want to work on is soft but the half fleece I got was one of the latter ones.

I wanted to work on the big Icelandic-like fleece next but it’s too big to skirt at home (I no longer skirt on the grass it’s too hard to get up from and it would be embarrassing to have to ask passing strangers to extract me from the little bit of front lawn I still have). So I went to the guild and put a sheet over 2 of their folding tables.  They are 5’ long table and once I had the fleece spread out it took most of the table space. Here are views first from the sheep side (inside) of the fleece. You can see a few second cuts on the whiter part. Then the view from the outside of the fleece.

1112 Inside side of the fleece (guild library in the background) 11-12

13Outside of the fleece 13

14 Close up of the tog 14

15 Colour variations within the fleece, outside of the fleece 15

  16 Skirted 16

17 The very large fleece skirted and wrapped in a sheet waiting for washing. 17

 

So one more practice washing fleece before the main event! So let’s do the little half fleece I bought from the wool growers co-op at Twist fibre festival.

The half fleece is not what you would call small so off to the dollar store to get more of those handy bucket and then on to Walmart to see if they had any of the really big buckets I saw last summer. Walmart has kept the price the same but made the bucket smaller… Drat. After 3 Dollaramas I found 5 more white or light beige strainer buckets. Back home to start the processe.

The process 18-20

I had forgotten I had the turquoise bucket. It was upside down underneath a large pot of raspberries. The grey one was also a Walmart bucket but I found it second hand this spring and the blue bucket is this year’s Walmart bucket (unfortunately smaller).

I divided the fleece, from cleanest to areas of less careful personal sheep hygiene. Starting with the cleanest and working my way to the less appealing but still-worth-trying bucket the fleece goes into the soapy water, then rinse and repeat. The First strainer only needed one rinse. (I gave up on the hot water idea and found out-of-the-hose is cleaning the fleece fine just as long as I soak it a bit longer.)

Hummm. There is more wool here than I thought. Another drying rack would help immensely! Off to Ikea to see if they still have the grey one I’m using now. Really this isn’t as silly as it sounds I did a quick check on the computer and Ikea is only at the other end of my street. (4 stop signs away!) They have a similar one which will work. It’s now called a “MULIG” Drying rack, indoor/outdoor, white $24.99 Canadian. I like the grey one a bit better but they are the same height and work well for fleece I better write a product review for that!

Ikea images of “MULIG” Drying rack, indoor/outdoor

My neighbour wandered by the fence and I explained what I was up to. He looked amused and a bit skeptical. (the water was pretty dirty) he also mentioned one of the extremely Rubenesque raccoons from the neighbour behind him had been frightened over the fence and climbed into our garage…. “GLENN!! We need to fix the garage door now!”  Our Garage is sinking. Some previous owner paved the inside of the garage and right over the sill plates, leaving the 2×4 uprights sticking out of the asphalt. So my sill plates are long gone to dirt and thus my garage is decoratively sinking with a lovely spinal twist since the rafters were not spaced correctly when originally built. Oh and the roof leaks so there is a big silver tarp to stop that happening. Really it’s on the list of things to do but our contractor hurt his back after I hurt mine so I can’t fix his so the garage is awaiting help.

21Everything has moved and the door is being inspected, measured and a first pass is made with the cutter 21

If we shorten the door the door will close and no more overweight under-wanted raccoons will consider my garage as a possible winter vacation spot. Our neighbour lent Glenn a grinder/cutter thing and we had to move everything out of the way (that would be the fleece washing I had been doing… plus the dogs litter boxes (the rest of us knew they were really flower boxes) and a couple rain barrels.) Oh well, Raccoon eviction takes priority over fleece. I guess it could have been worse.  It could have been the skunk that is somewhere around here wanting our garage.

22Glenn removing part of the garage door so it will close and keep the raccoon out 22

Well that is impressively disgusting looking water! 23-26

28Drying Fleece at the guild 27   

If you are a member of the Ottawa Valley weavers and spinners guild face book group page, you may have watch the video I made to show just how much more exciting it is to watch fleece dry rather than watching paint. (I had been working on the library for 2 full days in a row on a long weekend and I was getting a bit odd.  OK, odder then usually odd).  My fleece is assisted in its drying by listening to Rammstein and fan noise.

Today’s forecast is cloudy with showers. And if the last set of dark ominous clouds that rolled past are any suggestion of what might be coming I may not start the Icelandic today but leave it for tomorrow and hope to not get a second free rinsing. Although rain water is said to be very good for rinsing fleeces.

Update: i was able to get the Icelandic like fleece washed, i used all my plastic straining buckets and all the big bins to soak them in. i divided the fleece up into colour sections then i used the temperature of water from the hose and left it to soak longer than i had with the hot water fleeces.

28

unwrapping sheet that holds the giant fleece after skirting, then dividing the fleece up by colour.

earlier this summer while looking for good second hand baskets at a one of the thrift stores i spotted and pounced on an camping/RV hand washing machine. (think giant salad spinner for jeans) it has a switch on the bottom to ether hold wanter in while you wash or you can turn the switch and it will drain the water out a hose that is stored in a little door-ed area near the bottom of the spinner. it works much better on Fleece than it would on close im sure.

the Deluxe salad spinner that thot it was a hand washing machine, (i tracked it down on line its called a Laundry pod and costs about 100.00. mine said 9.99.)

washing and spin drying the fleece

part way through the fleece washing Glenn wandered out and started moving around blacksmithing equipment on the patio (adjacent to the fleece washing. he had a small project to finish and an eviction to make. the sulpherus smoke from starting up the forge helped knock out the squatters who were eventually knocked down and added to the forge at the end of his project. unfortunately some of my fleece now has that fresh black smith smell.

41the soon to be evicted  (there in the roof above Glenn’s forge, most did not survive the Coal start up smoke. the few remaining did not survive the forge.)

Final outcome: what started out looking defiantly like an Icelandic or Icelandic cross fleece Pre-Wash (we pulled at the long stringy bits that looked like tog and it separated just like tog and left shorter stuff ) Post-washing seems to have been a humongous Shetland fleece.  i must have washed out the Icelandic! Or maybe i over spun dried it?

OK change of plan, i now have the fiber to spin the warp for my blanket so i will keep collecting  more tog to make the tufts! but that will take a while so i will have to show you that Much latter!

40-1.jpg

 

 

The Show is Over

The Show is Over

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The show is over. It was a really good show with lots of people. I was really pleased with how I did.  Now a day or two to recover and I have to start thinking of what to make for the next one.

This was my booth. Jan took the picture. I am hoping using the embed link from One drive will work.

I need more than a 10×10 booth but not 10 by 20, so I take two and My friend Bernadette takes half of one.

I sold one of my art pieces. My First Quarter Challenge piece. that made me very happy and sad at the same time.   https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2019/03/27/first-quarter-challange-finished/

 

So far I am failing at my third-quarter challenge. I hade a couple of ideas and then changed my mind then picked something else and even did a layout but nope, I am not feeling it.  It was another planet sort of thing. I have another idea but we will see.

This was the other planet one. The white domes are paper.

 

I wanted to remind people that World Wide Spin in Public Day is coming up, September 21, 2019. Are you Planning to spin with friends or by yourself? Or at a shop or other event? If you have been thinking about trying spinning this would be a great day to do it. I will be at the farmers market with my spindle. Here is a facebook group. There are lots of posts about places to participate.   facebook.com/groups/wwsipday/

 

New Book, New Look

New Book, New Look

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It was an honor to hear that my publisher Quarto Creates was reworking The Complete Photo Guide to Felting into a new book called First Time Felting.

This book is for beginners and concentrates on needle felting techniques but also shows the basics of wet felting and nuno felting. The book is available now.

I am happy to announce that Quarto Creates is providing one free copy of the book as a give away prize here. All you need to do is comment below and you will be entered into a drawing for the book. So please spread the word and share this post to get the word out about this new book.

Drawing now closed

And the new look? Did you notice that we changed up the look of our website a little? Thanks to Ann and Jan for the new header photo and we’ve changed the background to create a cleaner look. What do you think?

Don’t forget that registration is open now for my online classes. Please check out the online classes in the menu and register today!

Drawing now closed

Busy, Busy

Busy, Busy

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Since my last post (which only seems like 10 days ago) I have not stopped. Over a hot drink I decided to evaluate the supporting evidence of said busy-ness. Firstly, and with a smile on my face, I have to admit that I have been to France for a week. Why? I have been on Grammie duties with our 13 month grandson (our youngest – by 2 weeks!). He was a delight but then I’m a proud grandparent. On arrival back home I then had one week to prepare for our group’s annual textile exhibition (held 26 Aug). This means not only finding the resulting artefacts from the group’s various workshops but also actually completing them.

I know I’m not alone with having UFOs. In my case I manage to carve out special time for workshops then with the day finished I set my incomplete project aside promising myself to finish it but life just gets in the way! So still weighing up the evidence of my busy-ness I realised that in the last 6 weeks I had attended two workshops. Decisions, decisions….which to complete for the exhibition? Oh I nearly forgot each year the group has a challenge, this year it was butons….so I was also busy creating those.

Here is the evidence (you’ll have to imagine my very cute, happy, smiley, cuddly grandson though)….

My first workshop with Ailish Henderson (ailishhenderson.com) was titled ‘Stitched collage portraits’, with instructions to bring a photo of ourselves. I have never enjoyed being in front of the camera so that was the last thing I intended doing but instead took photos of our lovely 2.5yr old Raffles – a Cockerpoo, or as I like to say a Cockerpoopoo because his mum was a Cockerpoo and his dad a Poodle! But I digress.

It was suggested that we create a painting first then play with paper, fabric and other media to create a collage that we would then stitch to add the ‘character’.

Collage completed and stitching just commenced but sadly Raffles’ portrait remains a UFO.

Collectively there were some amazing pictures from our group.

My stitching buddy decided the portrait of Raffles was a good escape and decided to do her dog Izzy too. It is a great likeness….I’m sure Raffles recognised Izzy – his girlfriend!

I submitted both portraits anonymously as ‘Work in Progress’ to the exhibition….A visitor who knows our family later approached me and asked if that was Raffles in the exhibition….woohoo!

My second and latest workshop was with Justine Warner (Pearllovespaisley.co.uk). We were to create moorland layered landscapes, for which I had bought a card of a favourite local view just a few miles from home.

Justine clearly explained and demonstrated the process which was to use layers of recycled fabrics, yarns, scraps, threads etc to create our chosen landscape.

Justine is actually known as the ‘tie lady’ because she uses old ties in her pictures combined with many other fabrics (look closely and you can see the ties in her work above). Starting with a calico/cotton square approx 40 x 40 cm, strips (about 3cm) of torn or cut fabric are laid from the top down to replicate the furthest away layer – in most cases the sky.

In addition to anchoring my sky fabrics I had to stitch lots of lines using different colours.

Once the farthest layer is complete the idea is to continue forward tackling each layer in turn until the forground is reached. Each layer has multiples of fabrics and stitching, stitching and yet more stitching.

Rummaging through Justine’s huge stash of fabrics that were piled on the floor was certainly great fun.

With all the stitching and constant changing of threads I had only reached the base layer of the foreground by the end of the workshop. However having finally got the hang of the method I made a promise to myself to finish this piece.

But before then….sorting, packing, travelling and much cuddling was next on the agenda!

Home and back to my project (with only days to go) I continued stitching the sky and hills adding layer upon layer of different coloured lines.

This is the back of the piece (post completion and having added iron-on Vilene) you can just see all the stitching – whilst I changed the top thread colour continually I only changed the bottom once. The stitching makes for a very stiff piece of work which tends to buckle, so the Vilene and ironing flattened it.

I remembered that Justine had suggested every piece should have some ‘bling’, so using some glittery netting and sparkling fabric, that is just what I did to highlight the areas bathed in sunshine (not easy to photograph). I then used some felting wools to create the variegation in tree colours and machine embroidered over the top.

With the trees complete the barn was the next, but to make sure I got the perspective right I scanned the original card and increased the size to match my picture then traced the barn and overlayed it.

But this threw up a dilemma – it seemed too dominant….so do I ignore the literal and use artistic license? After a lot of humming and harring……YES. Following this decision I simply concentrated on creating the small stone barn by staining some grey/white textured fabric with tea (Yorkshire Tea of course!) and appliqueing it with glue (stitching would be too much) to the scene.

Then it was on to the foreground to try and create a sense of depth using colour (different fabrics are trapped under netting), machine stitching and finally hand stitching.

My interpretation of the Swaledale picture – I am pleased with the finished result but it took maaaannnny hours to complete. I think Justine might argue that I had been too literal and could afford to make it less precise, but that is the perfectionist in me!

Yes, it made it to the exhibition (just) complete with temporary hanging device….Pheu!….but our dining room had fabric scraps, threads, wools, yarns etc absolutely everywhere!!!! EPH (Ever Patient Husband) was definitely that, fortunately he’s artistic too, so understands!

My picture in it’s raw cut state 40x40cm awaiting framing. On the left photographed during a bright day indoors with artificial light, on the right actually outside in the daylight (on the same background! Can anyone guide me to a better colour rendition solution?), similarly below. Although the mount is totally the wrong size it shows how it enhances the picture.

So I have evidenced my ‘busy-ness’ to you all – what have you achieved recently?

Why does everything seem to take so much longer lately? Continuing in Part 2

Why does everything seem to take so much longer lately? Continuing in Part 2

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Why does everything seem to take so much longer lately? Continuing in Part 2

When last we chatted Glenn had just arrived home from a hard day of matching letters and number and not tripping. (don’t scoff this is not a job for me! unless you want your bills and fiber purchases lost to who knows where). i let him get comfortable at the computer for a couple minutes before asking him if he could drain the fleece for me. (He really is vary patent with my interesting hobby)

Fleece coming out of gray bucket with soapy water 36-37

The water is not as dirty as the last fleece! We filled a Dollerama bucket to just below the handles. The water from the hose was mildly warm from the sort of sun which is quickly becoming clouds. Glenn lifted and drained the fleece its container, tipping it to the side to let the water flow out. I may get another one and drill holes in the bottom, then gently placing it into the white bucket of clean water. I pick up and rotated the fleece holding container a couple times then left it to soak a bit more.

lightly soapy wash water

Draining the fleece from the wash bucket 38-41

Fleece going into the rinse bucket 42-43

During this delicate part of the fleece-washing operation we were interrupted by a hayness individual determined to steel birdseed! AH I had a weapon in hand so vanquished him in a torrent of bath water! Well I guess that was actually a shower from his criminal perspective. I ran him off twice and checked the lid on the feeder was tight. I’m sure he will break in and steel all the sunflower seeds but at least he will be vary clean when he does it. Evil rodent!!

Skwerl vanquishing!!! 44-47

After about 20ish minuets Glenn and I traipsed outside and I had him drain the fleece pulling the bucket from the rinse water.

the rince watter

Fleece has rinsed and is coming out 48-51

Onto the drying rack 52-54

Someday I should tell you about what my washing fleece inside set up looked like before I got the giant dirty Redo Arcott fleece. Maybe next time?

Its gaming night for Glenn, (no time for corn on the cob tonight so it’s been moved to tomorrow) and he is off to Kanata to play a game about saving sheep in the low country from levees and dikes that are about to brake. A vary noble endeavor! (I hope everyone including the sheep stay dry)

55

Sheep game 55

Now if the back neighbors raccoons don’t try to help I will have the first washed fleece dry by later tonight or maybe tomorrow morning. Then weather willing on to the next fleece tomorrow.

Update; the sun is defiantly gone after a brief valiant attempt at making it hard to see the computer screen. I may have to move the fleece drying under the dog shelter in a bit. I checked the weather forecast there may be unpleasant wetness later tonight. (That makes sense after all the watering earlier today.) So I will let the fleece drip a bit more before moving the rack.

I have gathered up the partly dry fleece and moved the drying rack. I went looking for a piece of sheers but found another fleece. Where did I get that one? It looks like it was poorly washed or was not washed I through it in the mostly clean soap water and added the rinse water. It can sit overnight and I will through it on the drying rack tomorrow. I put down a sheet since I couldn’t find the sheer for the Icelandic. Although the length is good the ends are vary thin on the tog end and quite thick ion the thule end. This will insure nothing falls through as it dries.

 

56The drying rack moved under partial cover in case of rain 56

 

P1570892Getting the last bit dry inside by the register.

I finished it off drying in its bucket in the bathroom (the register is rite behind the bucket and the air conditioning is on).  I took this into the guild social and Ann helped me separated some of the tog and thule.  i will sample spinning the two parts separately then do a sample together. Eventually i will have that Icelandic blanket i keep dreaming about. But that will be later since i have more fleeces to wash before the snow gets closer!

It is quite the feeling of accomplishment when you can start with raw wool strait off the sheep and process it into something to felt, spin or weave. This is just the start of lots more fun!

No felting this week

No felting this week

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This week has not been a felting week or even a thinking about felting week. This week has been finishing and tagging week. I will be at Fibrefest this coming weekend.

The first part of tagging is creating tags. It always takes longer than expected to do. I needed tags for the batts, the scissor pouches and new ones for the little cardholders.

 

I had to weigh the batts and fill in the tags. This one and its twin are already sold and put aside for a friend who can’t make it to the sale.

I had to add the grommets to the scissor cases and tag them with the new tags. I started by adding the grommets to the left side through both layers. It makes it tight for the scissors. So I switched to adding them to the right side through the backside. I think I like this better. I like the way it looks better too.

They are all tagged now.

The other thing I need to do yet is put the spinning kits together.  I have to sand the holes of the whorls because they are to tight and I can’t get them on the dowels. Last year they were to loose and I had to glue them. The wool is in the bags at least. Now I have to print the instructions and finish the drop spindles. I am out of ink and today is a holiday so it will have to wait

Lastly, I need to figure out what I am taking as display items.

 

 

Fall Online Class Registration

Fall Online Class Registration

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The fall series of online courses will be open for registration soon.  The registration for the 4 modules of Embellishing Felt with Surface Design Techniques – A Mixed Media Approach will open September 3rd. Click on any of the links about the courses to learn more.

Here is a video that I made about the first module of my online courses, Nuno Felting with Paper Fabric Lamination. I forgot I even made this video so I thought people might to see a little more about the class.

The second module is Experimental Screen Printing on Felt. Screen printing is loads of fun and you can obtain a huge variety of results with the techniques you will learn in this class.

Or you might want to try the third module which is Printing, Stenciling and Playing with Thickened Dye on Felt. You will learn how to make stencils and stamps as well as the use of thickened dye to decorate the surface of your felt and make your own unique designs.

The fourth module is Free Motion Machine Stitching on Felt. Have you always wanted to add machine stitching to your felt but didn’t know how? This course takes you through the basics of machine stitching on felt and works through to more complex techniques of using your sewing machine to embellish felt.

If you are interested in any of these online classes, please click on the links above for further information about the classes. You will also find the supply lists of what you will need for each class on the linked pages. To be added to the email notification list for any of these classes, please go to our Contact Us page and let me know which class you would like to take. I will then send you an email when registration opens. Or wait until September 3rd and fill out the sign up form on the specific class page. If you have any questions, please feel free to comment below.

The other online course this fall is Terri Berry’s Felted Concertina Hat class.

Registration for this class opens on October 10. You will definitely improve your felting skills with this class as Teri gives you so many options on ways to create concertina hats. To be added to the email notification list for the felt hat class, please go to our Contact Us page and put Felt Concertina Hat Class in the comment box. Teri will then send you an email when registration opens.

And last, but not least, our Wet Felting for Beginners online class is available any time. You will have unlimited access with this class. So if you’d like to know more about the basics of felting including laying out the wool, embellishments, shrinkage and a variety of felting methods this is the class for you. You can sign up any time at the link above.

Do Animals Have Emotions?

Do Animals Have Emotions?

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This may seem like a rather philosophical title for a textile blog but please bear with me, I wanted to share a new direction and body of work with you.

Image result for animal emotion

These thoughts and ideas have been slowly percolating through the recesses of my mind for about 20 years, since a fairly heated debate with a psychology teacher on whether humans are the only animals who possess cognitive abilities (perception, attention, memory, motor skills, language/communication and visual/spatial processing). She quite vehemently argued that only humans possess all of these skills, I was a veterinary nurse at the time and forcefully argued the opposite, taking it further and arguing that animals also feel emotions too.

Image result for jain temple

This debate was recalled during a trip to India in January 2018 and a visit to a Jain temple. The Jains have an intriguing philosophy and what struck me most about the monks was the extreme lengths they go to in order to preserve and protect all life, they believe every animal is sentient and as such, must not be harmed by their actions (either directly or indirectly). Their vows of non-violence make them the ultimate pacifists, a stance which I thoroughly admire but have to admit, have no hope of ever attaining. They are strict vegetarians and do not eat after sunset for fear of accidentally eating an insect on their food, and the monks pluck out all their head hair rather than shaving it so as not to harm any lice that might be residing there.

While sentience is essentially another word for consciousness and it is relatively easy to argue that most animals, even the smallest, are “conscious” on at least some level, even if it is just awareness of food sources and potential mates. The idea that all creatures are sentient rekindled my thoughts about the cognitive processes and expression of emotions in animals.

Paramecia – are they conscious?

I knew I wanted to explore this idea from a creative perspective but was unsure where to start. Researching colour theory revealed a wealth of information about our emotional responses to different colours and this led me to play a game of “abstract word-association”; starting with a one or two words that described an emotion I worked on small squares of water colour paper, trying to express that emotion with just colour and mark making, these are some of the results:

Joy / happy
Eager / enthusiastic
Calm / relaxed
Jealousy
Isolation
Vulnerable / intimidated
Afraid / Scared
Anixious
Despair
Grief

These little sketches were surprisingly cathartic to make, if you or someone you know is going through a challenging time and finding it difficult to talk about how they are feeling, asking them to illustrate, in an abstract way, a series of emotions (both positive and negative) from a list of words may be helpful.

Taking Gladys Paulus’ mask workshop earlier this year has given this topic, and my approach to it, a whole new lease of life, no longer confined to 2D work I have been having a ball making various animal sculptures, each expressing their own emotion. As each new personality takes shape on my work bench I am finding myself creating whole backstories for them.

I am thrilled to introduce you to 2 new, very special friends:

“Laughing Lionel”

While the king of the beasts has a fearsome reputation, Lionel is really a very gentle, affable soul who likes nothing more than a good chortle at the ridiculous things humans do.

“Indignant Margo”

She isn’t quite finished, but will be a wall-mounted sculpture like Lionel when she is.

Margo is an old soul in a young body, she takes offence at almost everything and wears a permanent look of indignation on her face. She believes her purple spots are a sign that she is descended from aristocracy and therefore everyone is beneath her; if anyone is going to look down their nose at you, it should be the tallest of the beasts!

These two sculptures (and hopefully one or two more if can finish them in time) will be on display at the Art Box exhibition, at Denbies Wine Estate, Dorking RH5 6AA, UK, between September 23rd and 29th. If you are in the area please pop in and say hello, it is a beautiful place to visit and entry to the exhibition (with artworks in a range of media from 8 independent artists) is free.

Which animal and emotion would you like to see paired together?

Do you think I am anthropomorphising (applying human characteristics) the animal kingdom, or do you agree, animals do feel and express emotions, and perhaps some humans are too ignorant to understand when the animals around us try to communicate these emotions?

Why does everything seem to take so much longer lately?

Why does everything seem to take so much longer lately?

Comments 11 comments

Why does everything seem to take so much longer lately? part 1

This morning I asked my hubby to please bring up the wool drying racks from the laundry so I could start washing a few fleeces. But first there was the little problem with the hose…. I went out to fix the Non-Kink hose which had sprung a leak followed quickly by a second leek.  With the help of a lot of teal duct tape the hose no longer aggressively throws water at me when I turned it on.  A fine mist is much better.

   Hose patch leaking less. 1-3

While fixing the hose I found that the pots and portable forest all needed watering. Yes my forest is portable. So a round of water for everyone! Oh no, the front garden looks thirsty and the grass seed on the little bit of grass also needs a drink.  While watering I washed out the big bin that I am eventually going to use to wash the fleece. Finally all the plants looked happy and my back insisted it was time to go sit down NOW!

Side yard pots planters and prottable forest
parsly
black harratige tomatos
dalia
Flox
Flox
Alba Globe Thissel
Front Benches a good spot to spin
Everbaring Strawberrys

Portable forest, planters and front garden 4-14

Sit, sit, sit, sit…. Ok I think I can get the kettle now and bring out the first fleeces. My smallest unwashed fiber is 6 oz. of Icelandic.  I also have half a lustrous fleece from the wool growers co-op (from Twist festival a couple weeks ago) there is also a full large possibly Icelandic fleece and 2 smaller full Shetland fleeces. I am not sure if the Shetlands are skirted hence having Glenn bring up the skirting table too.

15 Skirting table (yes it also looks like a close drying rack but less so with a sheet over it and fleece on top) 15

The Icelandic I am starting with is from Erin at Rocks End Farm. Her sheep have really nice fiber. As you know Icelandic sheep are an old breed and have a double coat. The tog is the long outer guard hair and the thule is the soft under coat. So in one sheep you can make your medieval outer wear from the tog and inner layers from the thule. You can even blend them together. We have heard that the Icelandic sheep in Iceland tend towards a coarser tog than many of the Canadian fleeces.  The Icelandic roving I bought from the World of Wool is very noticeably much courser than Erin’s fleeces.

16 Erin’s Icelandic Fleece 16

My end goal for this and the large Icelandic are to wash, then separate tog from thule. Most would crave the soft luxury of the thule but I’m after the tog. In fact most of the wonderful guild I belong to knows I’m on a quest for Tog. Some have been contributing to my growing tog collection. Once I have enough tog I can wind my wool warp (possibly from the thule or a thule/tog combination) for an Icelandic tufted blanket. It looks like a Raya rug or for those that don’t weave think of a deep shag carpet that you throw on your bed shag side down. The shag part traps air and body warmth. They were used for cloaks and blankets. There have been a few reports online about modern weavers trying this. I want to be one of them!

But back to step one. Wash the fleece, and I might as well wash the other fleeces I had been meaning to wash for a while. I have the drying rack set up. I have the skirting rack ready to check the other fleeces. I learned my lesson with the last Redo Arcott fleece, which was horribly dirty and full of chaff. It was worth every penny since it was free but it was a horrible amount of work to get it to a point I could use it for core wool. (Ann and her amazing picker and carder helped and did all the hard work after the washing!)

I ran the extension cord from the garage to one of my upside down planters that had become my water boiling station. Kettle on, I waited for the water to boil. And waited, and waited, and waited. Oh yah if you’re watching it water doesn’t boil. So while waiting for the first kettle I found my pruners and cut back more of the trumpet vine, then moved some of the thorn-less blackberry canes away from the blacksmithing and back into the bed along the house. Check the kettle, nope but there is a bit of steam. Hummm. Drag the vines to the composter, Yep first kettle done only a few more to go.

17 Kettle station with Sunlight dish soap 17

As the second kettle refused to boil I took pictures of this year’s set up. I am constantly amazed by what other non-felting, non-fiber people think things are used for.  The drying rack is from Ikea (they think it’s for cloths!!?!! Who could not see the amazing fleece drying potential?) The giant gray bucket with rope handles had been for sail last year at Walmart but I found it this spring second hand for a lot less and a smaller thinner one was at Dollerama. The gray bucket was labeled for storing kids toys. Who would keep kids toys in an unlidded container? (My kids had toys Mr. B had a box with a lid for most of his. Evil and Miaka’s were in small chest of Ikea drawers.)  The white plastic container with holes in the sides was from Dollerama. There was a bigger one earlier in the year luckily I hadn’t realized I wanted it since the medium sized one actually fits the gray bucket!

      The set up, buckets, drying rack fleece 18-23

Over the next 3 kettles worth of water (I will look for a bigger kettle while I’m out in stores now), I thot you might like a peek at the patio and the disaster which is my back garden. You may have noticed the somewhat rusty collection of implements partly hidden by tarps. I have not yet figured out how to use them in felting or garden decorations. That Glenn’s blacksmithing set up. He has a light duty farm forge (the second larger forge is under the trellis covered by a barbeque cover) hum I wonder If I could use one of them to heat the water next time? There is a leg vice it’s for pounding mettle and having the force transfer to the floor. There are 2 anvils back there somewhere and a cutting tool I’m not too sure what it is. It might cut really thick felt?

Light duty farm forge (sear robuck) with hndle off
Leg vice
the roof of the blacksmithing side
the little anvil
the bigger anvil

The west half of the back patio – Blacksmithing 24-28

My side of the patio is more comfortable with honeysuckle vine, trumpet vine and dwarf Japanese lilac standard giving shade. The sheet provides the remaining shade under the trellis. We have a few chickadees, one humming bird, a wood pecker and the evil Chipmunks (eaters of strawberries!).  Miaka’s garden swing is in the back yard. She seemed vary sure it was hers and would meow with grate annoyance until you relinquished the spot she wanted. (Evil just sat by the rock edge of the garden and ate chives when he didn’t think we were watching)

29 The east side of the patio – trellis 29

the vew south with Miaka’s Swing
We had few blueberrys but we do have grapes!

  backyard 30-31

Ah the water has boiled and I had layered loosely the 6 oz.’s of Icelandic fleece.  I checked and the water was finally close to hot. (Not cold and not warm but a little less than uncomfortably hot.) I had run out of distractions and had enough water so in went the fleece. Using the back of my hand I gently submerged the fleece so no dry bits were visible. Then went in to update my note to you while I waited the first about 20 minits-30 minutes soak.

   Layered fleece and putting it into the slightly soapy water to soak 32-35

Now that you have had a tour of the back patio and the fleece is starting its soak, Glenn is back from work.  He is about to be volunteered into helping with the rinsing.  Its probubly best not to tell him yet and let the fleece finish soaking.  i will show you what happens next, next week!