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Second Quarter Challenge Almost Finished.

Second Quarter Challenge Almost Finished.

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I will show you how things have been going with my second quarter challenge piece. If you missed my last instalment it is here. seascape-progress

I finished adding the green for the vegetation.

Next I worked on the flattened serf

First I tried this,

But no, and then this,

I might have been able to make this work by adding something to the edge of the wave but I didn’t like it

And finally I went back to silk throwsters waste. I also broke the water edge up into 3.

Next moved on to the foliage. I added green stitching here and there to give it a more vertical look. It doesn’t show much but does add to it. I added some handspun yellow that a friend Bernadette made up for me on the spur of the moment when I was moaning about not having the right yellow.

After this it was just a matter of adding more stitches. I did add more of the yellow to mingle them more and stop them being a line across the picture.

This is where I am, stitching away and I still need to add a little dark wool between the planks of the path. I had forgotten about that until seeing the pictures. They are more defined in person.

I was going to just keep going with the stitching.   The picture if you recall is quite plain but I was finding it boring, and to uniform in proportion. It needs something else. I wondered about a railing. Not this railing I think, it looks like a Japanese character (badly build temple maybe) or something.

I think I will finished the stitching  even if I add something else. Anyone got another idea? I have seven more days to be finished in time.

 

 

Seascape progress

Seascape progress

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I have worked a little on my seascape so it is progressing. Last time I showed you the beginning 2nd-quarter-challenge-started/ 

After I felted it, the front wave mostly disappeared and the white for the flowers was gone too. I should have known I would need more. Oh well, onward I go.

I thought the best way to do the boardwalk would be to make some felt and then cut it up. This was the best match I had for the wood. It is not white but it’s not really beige either.

I laid out a small rectangle of the wool and of course that was much to flat so I added the next shade up and some black wisps.

You can see better when it’s wet.

After it was dry I cut it into uneven strips. The pictures above are taken in my studio and these are in the guild studio, much different light. There are fluorescent but also lots of natural light. in the guild studio.

And here they are just lightly attached. I needled them down more after. I may put some black or dark brown between the boards. I haven’t decided yet.

Next, I started adding the greenery. I wanted more texture. The picture had gone very flat and it made the boardwalk look like it was floating.

I will work on the lost wave and add some stitches to help the plants look more vertical and then flowers of course.  It should be done before the end of the month. Are you doing the challenge? How is it coming along?

 

A picture for exhibition

A picture for exhibition

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Last week I missed doing my blog post because I had no power or internet. My area was hit by 6 tornados. We were not hit we had no damage.  Some areas near us were hit very hard, the large power substation near us was hit and some of the cell phone and internet towers too.

Before all that I did manage to work on my piece for the guild exhibition and sale. I  do not think I will get it done in time as it is due in a week.  The theme was a 100-mile inspiration. I decided to do a scene with the Parlement buildings. I am using 2 prefelt layers with a piece of cotton gauze in the middle for the background.

First I found a simple outline picture I could use for the outline of the building. I cut that out and tried it on the background.

I pinned it to another piece of prefelt and cut it out.

Then it was time to work ou the clouds.

After I took the picture and looked at it I realized I had made the clouds to symmetrical. Its funny how looking at a picture sometimes shows you more than just looking at it. I tacked all the pieces together with a few jabs of a felting needle

Next was adding fireworks as I am thinking it should be Canada Day.

Then I cropped the picture to see better how it will look.

I wet felted the piece and now I need to do some stitching around the building so it will show better.and my daughter said I should add beads around the fireworks like the sparkles you see with fireworks. I thought maybe some sparkly thread and a bead at the end of each firework.  What else would you add to this silhouette picture?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A felt Picture

A felt Picture

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While making little bags I also made a small picture. i suppose it would count for the first  quarter challenge.  happy-new-year-prepare-to-be-challenged/ i hope to do somthing a little more challenging before the quarter is over.  I like little pasture scenes. I started with a piece of black prefelt and then laid the blue sky and pasture. I thought I took more pictures but it seems I didn’t.

This what the back looks like. I wrapped the coloured fibers around the prefelt . I use black prefelt because it will intensify the colours. If I used white it would take the colours towards pastel.

This is the front side felted.  I made the contours of the meadow by using a multicoloured roving I had. I think it lets you give the meadow some texture and shape without painstakingly adding tiny bits of colour. I added some clouds to the sky and some flowers to the meadow with some soft silk and little white blobs of sheep as place markers for the next part.

I added the sheep using some embroidery floss and french knots.

Then added the heads and ears. I used a grey for the sheep that are farther away. I think it worked.

At this point it could have been done but I needed something else. Your eye goes to the middle and it is empty. I discussed it over on the Felting and Fiber Studio Forum and I decided some trees were needed. I only know how to do one kind of tree that looks half decent so ever greens were next. I did them in a medium green and then when back with fewer strands and added some darker stitches to give them more depth.

Here it is finished. I had to trim the top off so it would fit in the frame. I always seem to make to much sky anyway so that worked out well enough.

I looks quite nice in the frame. The frame seems to pop it out. I didn’t realise how many scratches it had until I took a picture. I will have to paint it. It is not a great picture, ther was so much reflection. this was the best compromise between the light reflecting or having a clear shot of me in the glass.

I need to learn to embroider more then far away evergreens and sheep. A little cabin or a nice oak tree would have been a nice  addition to the picture. I am thinking of buying Moy MacKays book. Do you have a favourite art felt  or how to hand stitch  pictures or art books?

 

A Holiday Card and a Look Back and Ahead

A Holiday Card and a Look Back and Ahead

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I have been to busy lately to do any felting. The other problem is my felting table gets turned into gift wrapping central.

I Got a lovely card from my exchange partner in our card exchange. I got a few extra goodies with my card too. My partner Rhoda Lamb (how’s that for an appropriate name) has a nice little etsy store. https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/TheFibreBin?ref=search_shop_redirect

This year seems to have flown by. I have been teaching and making some art pieces for the guild art show celebrating Canadas 150th birthday. I even sold a piece, the sheep.

  

 

I had fun reshaping some hats. I plan to make some more that are similar.

 

 

Next year I would like to work more on artwork. Time to dig into the inspiration file. I have accumulated lots of frames I think will work well for felt. I will need to remember to make the pieces the size to fit and not make some felt and then try to find a frame that will work. The first thing to do will be to have a really good tidy up. With today being boxing day you wild think I might be inspired.

I am hoping for a slower and more creative new year and I wish you the same.

Ann

Connected Paths

Connected Paths

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I told you in another piece about an art show my guild is having to celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday . This is another piece I made for it. It is called connected.

As usual I started with  2 pieces of prefelt with a piece of cheese cloth in the middle for strength without bulk.

Then I added some multi coloured top I had. I didn’t want the path to be a solid colour.

I cut out prefelt pieces to make all the different houses. I tried to get houses from around the world. I didn’t place them in any particular order and every section got an apartment. I tacked all the pieces down using  felting needles. I didn’t want them to move.

Then bushes and trees were added.

I started this project back in December. I spend along time hand stitching ( and unpicking and redoiong) the windows and doors. I tried to use different yarns for every house and apartment. Then I signed up for Ruth’s free motion embroidery class.  I didn’t have much time to practice before I had to do the trees and bushes so it could go to be made ready for the guild show. The stitching is perhaps not the greatest but I think it goes well with the style of the picture.

 

I did get it in, in time and it has now been catalogued and properly photographed. The Guild art show celebrating Canada’s 150th birthday will be open on May 9, 2017 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Here’s a link to the invitation. https://www.facebook.com/events/282526522160719/?active_tab=about

Unfortunately Facebook will not let you create a 3 week event so it only shows as a 2 week event. The actual dates to see all 150 12×12 pieces ( many are for sale)   are May 9-28. We are having a reception on the last day so if you would like to meet some of the artists join us for refreshments on the 28th  between 1:00 and 3:00.

 

Second Quarter Challenge

Second Quarter Challenge

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I can’t believe it is  April first tomorrow and time for the second quarter Challenge. We are doing Art periods this year. I decided to  do Celtic art. Well then I started looking and of course it is not that simple. I decided to go with Early Celtic art, a  term used for a  period, stretching in Britain to about 150 AD. The other name for it is  the La Tène period (broadly 5th to 1st centuries BC) this is a period when there were not so many “Celtic” knots and more people and animals in the art along with many swirls. I think of Celtic as being Irish but it starts over in Switzerland and spread out from there. I think, if I am reading it correctly, it’s the romans that squashed it over towards Ireland where it survive because the romans didn’t make it there.

This is a good reference http://www.ancient-celts.com/ancientvsmedievalart6.html these pictures came form this site.

I haven’t had time to make anything yet myself but I do love swirls and spirals.

Wikipedia has a lot more information that I won’t rewrite here for you. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_art There are links to more information if you want the history part. And her are more pictures to inspire you  art link . I hope you enjoy creating in this style. Please post your creations over on the forum. We like to see what everyone is doing, beginners and  experts alike.

 

First Quarter Challenge Done.

First Quarter Challenge Done.

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It’s not even the last day of march and I have my First Quarter Challenge piece done. Here is the link to the challenge if you haven’t see it yet. https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2016/12/31/2017-quarterly-challenges/

It took me a long time to figure out what I wanted to do. I didn’t want to remake an existing Fauvist painting. Then I remembered a couple of pictures I had when I was a child that had ballerinas in them. One was them dancing at night and one in a French garden. I doesn’t know where the pictures are now but what I remember is that they felt very happy. Fauvism should express emotion with simplified form and bold colour so that was the choice.

I did what I usually do for back grounds, a piece of cotton gauze between 2 pieces of prefelt. It measured about 14×14. Then I positioned my ballerinas. I used silk hanky pieces for the dresses.

I used prefelt, merino top and the large blue piece is a small left over piece of batt I made last year.  I then wet it all down and felted it down to 12×12. For an art piece this seems to be enough shrinkage. the size lets me use it for my guilds upcoming art show celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday. https://www.facebook.com/events/282526522160719/

Here it is after felting I think it qualifies as Fauvist.

It was ok but I wanted to emphasise the ballerinas more so I made their skirts 3D by needle felting some more silk hanky on to them.

I liked it before but I like it much better now.

 

I hope those of you that haven’t made anything yet will be inspired to so something before the end of the month. It was fun.

 

Art Project

Art Project

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This year is Canada’s 150th birthday. The guild I belong to is having an art show in celebration. We are making 150 12×12 canvases. Some are covering them in weaving or yarn or fiber pictures. I naturally am doing some felt pieces. I told you about one before.

knots-cut-short

The second one is sheep.

I started with 2 layers or merino prefelt. I put a piece of cotton gauze in between for strength.

green-layers

I then used head cut outs to decide on the positions of the sheep.

layout-spacing

Then I added all the curls. The white and multi coloured sheep are Blue Faced Leicester. One of the others is Gotland, one is Wensleydale and the other I can’t remember. I added the legs and ears.

green-sheep-wet

Once it was felted the legs and heads disappeared a lot so I had to fix  them with needle felting.  I then mounted it on a 12×12 canvas using velcro. I forgot to take a picture of them finished  with faded heads and legs. And then I forgot to take a picture of it finished because it had to go to get its picture taken. Fortunately Judy sent me one of the pictures she took so I can show it to you.

annsheepsmall

Judy sent me to close ups too

annwhitesheep-1 sheep1close-1

Now all I have to write up the info for the show and  decide on a price to put on it.

If you Are Canadian are you doing anything fibery to celebrate this special year? If you are not Canadian what did you do to celebrate a big event in your country or town?

 

 

 

 

Finally Finished the Last Quarter Challenge.

Finally Finished the Last Quarter Challenge.

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I finally managed to finished Zeds 4th quarter challenge form 2016. Only 3 days late.  https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2016/10/08/fourth-quarter-challenge-2/

A friend of mine, Shirley, taught a dyeing class at the guild. After the yarns are dyed they cut the knots off to share them around the class. She saved me the knots.

knotts knotts-close

The next thing I did was create a neutral background.  I think the colour is called  antique

background-knotts

Next I had fun picking the knots to use an lay them out in a spiral

knotts-overhead-shot knots-angle-shot

I was quite pleased with the layout until I took a picture to show someone else. Then I thought that’s really boring. I went home and added some yarn and lots of little bits of throwsters waste.  Throwsters waste is a by-product of reeling silk.

Here it is all wet down.

finished-layout-wet

During the felting process one of the knots came undone. There was no way to tie it up again so I untied all the knots.

felted-and-dry-knotts

I really don’t like that. All the pattern is gone and you can’t see the background very well. Nothing ventured nothing gained so I decided to trim all the knots  short. It still need ironing to block it out to 12×12 but I like it much better. Friends say it looks like a pond with flowers.

knots-cut-short

 

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