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Dragon hand playing with felted sheep
Collaboration with Ann, Dragon Hand part 2

Collaboration with Ann, Dragon Hand part 2

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Part 2

After getting through a very busy September, it was nice to have a 2 day break at the Kanata Gaming and Felting convention. Day one, Friday, I spent working on giving the claw more of a diamond theem. I already showed you the gaming side and a couple quick pics of the dragon hand in progress.  It was a nice spot to work. I alternated listening to the increasing parrils of the table playing Arkum Horror and an audio book.

getting ready to add details and dimond shapes 9.2 Kanata Games club Day 1 felting project

As I said before, I started by spinning a bit of short-stapled silk, then reducing the twist before felting it onto the hand. I started at the claw tips and worked both the dorsum and palmar sides. I used sewing pins to work out the diamond shapes. Working on a curved surface the diamonds got a bit odd in shape but most were diamondish at least.

using grey silk to outline diamond shapes on the hand9.3-9.4 adding diamonds to the hand

You can see I still have too much twist in the silk I spun, I will take more out shortly. The green thing is another extendable magnet, I only dropped a needle twice so it was helpful to have.

9.5 I had trouble with making diamonds flow around the edge of the webbing between his fingers.

9.6  I kept adjusting the pins to try to work out the layout of the diamond shapes.

9.71-9.72

9.8

9.9 not quite diamonds but an interesting scale pattern where the diamonds brake down.

I took a brake and worked on a few other projects as I wanted to get Ann’s opinion of the hand. She checked it out on October 21st before she got to work on the helm she was making. She said it looked like he was wearing fish net stockings.

Hummm…… OK, let me think about this, I had wondered about adding colour at one end to give a bit more demension.

I also had more jobs for the sale suddenly occur, so had to work on the hand between more computer work.

10.1-10.2

Its almost time for the exhibition so I better work faster.  I am adding shredded sari silk to one end of the diamonds.

At the sale there is always an exhibition, the theme changes and the size and even the location of the display changes yearly. This year was our Diamond (75th) anniversary of the Ottawa Guild. our original organizer Carl had problems at work going from a team of 3 to a team of 2 to a team of Carl who still had to do the work of 3 for the pay of 1. That just dosn’t seem fair. So he had to step down from  organizing the exhibit and we had Wendy step in at the last moment. She did a great job with a short lead time.

11.1-11.2

11.3

She did most of the assembly of the display on Friday night, with a bit shuffling she had a lovely display.

11.4

There were a couple of felted pieces in the exhibition that I thought  you might be most interested in.

12.1-12.2 Ann and Jan Collaboration Dragon hand in Helm with dimonds

#6 Ann McElroy and Jan Scott     Un-Named – we invite you to suggest a name,   Wet felt, Nuno Felt, Needle felt, Wool silk nylon polyester wire.

13.1-13.2 Molly’s Bracelet

#16 Molly Underhill       Diamond Eternity Bracelet,    Wet felting and bead work, Merino and silk, Glass Beads

After the Guild Sale weekend, Part of the Exhibition was hung  in the Gallery just outside of the Studio in Heartwood house (Ottawa).

14.1-14.2 the two main walls of the gallery

hand woven black purse with dimond shaped embelishments and mit with dimond pattern–14.3) There is also the mitts and a small handwoven and embellished bag just around the corner.

Post script;

We decided we should have a photo shoot so you could see the collaboration a bit better.

First we took pictures of the assembled Helm, Hand and diamonds.

15.1-15.4 Photo shoot for the Helm, Hand and Diamonds

15.5-15.6 Attempted Cookie Thief

Afterwards, the Dragon hand seems to have discovered the last shortbread cookie, I think the Helm was taking note of the cookie too.   Can you see the frustration as the Dragon hand realizes I did not make a dragon mouth and stomach to go with it?  OH the Despair!!! Is Ann’s  helm getting closer, in case it can claim the cookie?

 

 

 

Dragon hand playing with felted sheep
Collaboration with Ann, Dragon Hand part 1

Collaboration with Ann, Dragon Hand part 1

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Ann’s Dragon hand

I did say I was going to tell you about the dragon hand you may have noticed at least once in a recent post. So no travelogue today as we look back at what Ann got me working on for our Diamond exhibition celebrating our 75th anniversary. It would be part of the exhibition at the guild sale (which Coincided with the exhibition of guild work at the museum in Almonte). I know two shows at once, can be confusing.

During the summer, Ann asked if I could make a dragon hand for a project for the diamond exhibition.  We met at the guild social, I brought jute covered wire, its unlabeled but is either 14 or 12 gauge, and made an amateur for her.  She considered it, then asked if it could be a  bit bigger. Ok, on that! Mark 2 dragon hand was bigger and could thus hold more diamonds.  She deemed it worthy, so unlike Goldilocks, I got it right in 2 tries!

You have seen me playing with wire armatures before, so if you had questions or want more info on armatures and wire gages look back through the blog posts. What i want to show you today is something I haven’t seen anyone else try.  Ann’s Specification was dragon hand, with poses-able fingers, and claws, that could hold the diamonds Ann was making.

Early this year, April I think, I had been surfing around the internet, on the other side of the planet, and doing a bit of on-line-shopping. While looking for other things I spotted claw tips!!, well the seller did not realize they were selling claw tips, but I knew they were as soon as i spotted them! I ordered 100 in Bronze and 100 in gun-mettle (sort of a charcoal blue/ gray) then later, in October, I made another order of 100 silver.

You can buy a few of a stud, an assortment of various studs or a pack of 100 studs. I figured 5 toed dragon or 4 and a heal claw, with 4 legs per dragon and maybe tail or spine spikes. That would mean the minimum per dragon would be 20 claw tips and however many spiny or tail spikes.  I could probably get a maximum of 4 dragons per 100 spikes. I could not decide between the bronze or the Gunmettel black so, as i said, got them both.

1.1-1.3)  Aliexpress vender was Sunfordfashion Store

I was going to make some samples but by august Ann asked if I could make her a dragon hand. Ah ha! I have just the thing I want to try out!

3 plastic bags of 100 each studs 2.1) 3 bags of studs in Gun-mettle black, Bronze and silver

Lets have a  closer look at the claw tips. its mettle and made of two parts; a screw back and the talon, where the screw inserts.

3.1-3.3) Close up of stud and backing

Now that you have seen them don’t you just think they would make the most perfect claw tips?

Do you recognize what they were originally designed for? Let me give you a hint; punk jackets? Stud collars? Ok maybe not something everyone looks at and goes OOOH those are cool.  I never had a leather jacket with studs or a spike collar, but the jacket still sounds cool. Originally they were screwed through the leather (or Pleather) from the back.

The studs come in lots of shapes, sizes and colours. so this might make a useful option for other projects.

studs come in lots of shapes here are depicted quite a few of the options 4.1) Various available shapes for studs.

I should show you an example of the expected use of these lovely studs

example of studded jacket with a few diferent types of spikes.4.2) I think this was listed as an jacket available on etsy. I guess the shoulder spikes would keep your purse from falling off. (Added design feature?)

Now that you have seen what the expected use for the studs, i suspect you can already see where I was going with this. I made the armature so that each toe ended in a loop. let me see if I can find the a bit too small armature to show you. I think I saw it in the bedroom, I have no idea why it was there. No its likely off with Miss Mer somewhere else in the house now.

When I created the armature, i arranged a loop at the end of each toe. Through which I put the claw shaped stud. around the space between the screw and the claw, I wound floral wire.  I then wound the floral wier ends up the dragon finger to both keep the claw affixed and give the aluminum some added strength.

5.1-5.4 shows the claws inserted into the wire loop then used steel floral weir to keep it secure.

Its not the pettiest of armatures but it worked. If or when I do this again. I would add a drop of crazy glue and give it one more twist to tighten with a screwdriver.

Last online shopping with Ann, I tried World of Wool’s “Carded Core Wool Sliver”. The previous shopping spree had provide carding wast core wool. Its sort of clumps, that may have tried to escape the carder or maybe refused to leave? It works a charm after a quick few passes on the hand carders. (for that, I actually used the full size wool carders not the pet brushes.)

world of wool core carded roving.6.1 this is one of the two options from world of wool for core wool

The jute cover on the wire made it easy to warp fiber over the armature, well easier than a bare weir armature.

adding core wool from the ankle to the mid forarm.6.2 adding core wool from ankle to mid forarm

As I added fiber I considered joints, tendons  and tried to figure out the anatomical important bits for a dragon. Ann had oked 4 claws rather than my original 5 clawed idea.

adding core wool over toes, note jute rapped wieir alows for good adhesion of wool to covered wier.6.3 working wool down fingers

I started to create a webbing between the fingers to make up the palm.

6.4-6.6 adding the webbing between the toes

I had considered the need for a tendon for the heal claw and started to block it in.

6.7  adding tendon to back toe

I had been over at Elizabeth’s, helping her set up the first draft of the Guild workshop schedule. That done it was back to my messy computer desk. please ignore the messy desk, i do as long as i can.

6.8-6.9 adding more structure to the foot

i had a lot of fun adding more anatomical features.

7.1-7.2  adding more structure to the foot and ankle

I was pleased with the shape and covered the hand in black. No matter what colour diamonds Ann made, everything goes with black!

As I said earlier, someone else may have thought of studs as claws, and I just haven’t seen it. I hope this will spark an idea and send you careening off in some new and exciting wet or dry felting direction.

NOTE: my main suggestion is that next time, I think I would add a drop of crazy glue with the floral wire and screw. it should  keep the claw tips from any rotation (one tip has loosened a bit and rotates out of perfect alignment, but it hasn’t let go!)

Aug.19th social I took the claw in to get Ann’s Ok.

Ann and the dragon hand gently playing with one of the sheep8.1-8.2) Ann playing with the dragon hand

Dragon was showing interest in her sheep……  the shepherdess looks nerves but Dragon was very careful.

Ann asseses the dragon hand8.3)   08-19-2024 progress to this point shape is good, claws look grate, needs more detail than flat black.

she liked it, but wanted more detail.   Ok I can do that, but first I need to photograph the set up for the Guild show in Almonte (which you have already seen!) and there is still guild sale and library work to do, and I have to get the Mer’s ready for the Almonte show too. We will continue with the dragon hand next post.