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Inspiration Photos

Inspiration Photos

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The photos of the felt piece I was going to blog about today didn’t turn out, so I thought I’d share some photos I took recently for inspiration. I was up early enough to enjoy some morning sunshine in the back garden, so took lots of photos of anything which caught my attention. The first thing was these little wild geranium flowers which grow everywhere in Spring:

They look nice, but they are really invasive and have a pretty unpleasant smell. I know lots of people hate Dandelions, but I’ve always really liked them. I had no idea the centres looked like this until I got a camera with Supermacro settings:

The next thing was this little glass cabochon. I used it as a weight on a stencil a few weeks ago and it got flecks of spray paint on it:

I’m not sure what this plant is or even if it’s something I bought or something which found its own way here, but it’s another thing whose detail is lost (to me, anyway!) without the Supermacro camera setting:

I’ve taken photos like this before, and I’m pretty sure I’ve shared them on here. This is a leaf from a teasel plant. I love the way it looks when it starts to die/decay:

I love the texture of Sage leaves, especially when they are young:

I’m not sure what is clinging to the ‘hairs’, but here’s a cropped close up:

If any botanists know, please enlighten me! The cat who has adopted us joined me in the garden, she enjoyed rolling around in the dust. She has nice patterns and markings anyway, but the sun seemed to make them more obvious. Even though this is really soft, it reminds me of a hedgehog:

I took this photo because I really like the soft hair behind her ears, but when I looked closer at the photo, I noticed that on just one small part of her head she has lots of different types of hair/hairs:

I only took this photo because I think the cat’s chin is really cute:

But when I looked closer, the fur seemed to be in a kind of pattern, kind of like the pattern of Sunflower seeds or a Dandelion seed-head. I’m not imagining it, am I?

I took these last photos a few weeks ago at the park near the well being centre. I wouldn’t be surprised if I’ve shared photos of these trees here too, they’re at the entrance and always make me want to photograph them. I thought it was interesting the way the clouds matched up with the trees.

This tree has a really unusual trunk, it seems really fibrous:

There’s a tree behind it which has really interesting seed pods, at least that’s what I think they are! I thought this might be something which Ruth might find inspiration in:

I don’t often sit down and plan a project directly from the inspiration photos I take, but I’m pretty sure the textures, colours and patterns influence my work anyway. Do you take or collect inspiration photos? What do you do with them? Please feel free to use any of these photos for direct or indirect inspiration.

Inspiration Photos

Inspiration Photos

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I’ve still not decided on a photo to work from for Ruth’s Fauvism Challenge. I’ve looked through lots of my landscape ones, and have narrowed it down to a couple, and I planned on making the background this week. Then we had the boiler changed, a 1 day job which still hasn’t been finished a week later, so apart from the mess everywhere taking up my tables, I can only have the hot water on if I have the heating on too! It was really sunny on Saturday and Sunday so I thought I’d take some inspiration photos in the garden instead. I know nearly everyone hates dandelions, but I like them. And Galina does too, so at least one other person will like my photos! I loved these two growing close together like pom-poms:

I took this one on the Saturday after I’d been doing some tidying up in the garden, when I zoomed in, I saw how filthy it was!

I don’t know how many different types of actual Dandelions there are, but it’s amazing how different they look at different stages of growth:

And they look different during the day, depending how open they are:

I was surprised to see some tulips blooming this year. The last couple of years they just grew leaves, so I thought they were too old, I’d probably had them in the same tubs for 10 years, so I tipped them out onto a compost heap, where 4 of them decided they liked it! It looks like the sun is lighting them up, but I took these two when it was shady, it’s just their colouring:

This one is blurred, but I liked the shapes:

I took this when it was sunny:

One flower I have masses of is wild geraniums, they grow everywhere. They look nice, but strangle everything else, and smell like a cat has been marking its territory 🙁

I know it’s not felt or fibre, but I hope these photos give some inspiration to some of you 🙂

Felted Flower Samples for a Class Next Week

Felted Flower Samples for a Class Next Week

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I got a request for a felted flower class after some people in my guild saw a  picture of some very delicate flowers on Facebook.  It is going to be a short class done in the evening. I haven’t made any in a while so I had to do a sample.

I made a stem

rolling stem  stem

I also did some stamen. I wrapped them in plastic wrap so they wouldn’t stick to the rest of the flower while I was rubbing and rolling.

stamen

For the body of the flower I used a silk hanky and added a very thin layer of merino  wool.

silk hanky add some wool

and this is the result

finished flowers I also made some little rose like flowers to show them.

roses

Flowers are fun to make and do not take long.  I am going to work on some other methods and see what they want to do at the class. We will make them 2 different way in the class do to time constraints. I will take pictures at the class to show you how the students do.

Second Quarter Challenge Finally Done.

Second Quarter Challenge Finally Done.

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That’s right I have it done and with days to spare. 12 whole days at that! Here are the details of the challenge if you missed them.  Challenge

I have know what I was going to do for ages I just hadn’t done it. I like Stephenson’s mirror pieces but I also liked the flower pieces so I decided to combine them.

stevenson 1  stevenson 2

I used a thin piece of black prefelt I had and doubled it up for the back ground. I then used my own handspun for the stems. I added silk throwers waste for the flowers and then more hand spun for the spirals. I wasn’t sure how everything would stick. There was not a lot of fuzzy about any of it. It worked out fine though.

I forgot to take a picture of it before felting but here it is finished. I like it a lot more than I thought I was going to.

stepnenson picture

I found this frame on my front porch ( have no idea why it was there) and laid it over the picture and I like it even more.

stepnenson picture frame

If you haven’t done a piece, go ahead and give it a try, you still have time.

Don’t for get to visit the Forum to see how others have interpreted the theme.  Challenge

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