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2021 is almost done, looking foreword to a better 2022

2021 is almost done, looking foreword to a better 2022

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It is almost the end of the year, which is good since this one has not been one of the best years I have seen. I must also admit it has had a few good moments.  We had tried to keep in touch with family and friends, through calls, zoom meetings and sometimes when we are very lucky in person.  There was even a bit of in-person fibre shopping towards the end! (ooh Fiber!!) This year I have been investigating wire and still have the ongoing investigation with samples of hairspray. I added a tiny dragon to the family and have one more nearing completion.

Speaking of Dragon, he was very excited about one of my Xmass gifts this year. It will take another day or two to get it figured out. I think I understand how my friends feel when I type too late at night! What I mean is that the instruction manual while written using English words, and most are incomplete sentences, is still incompressible. However, it is truly amazing how you can have a paragraph of words that are about the battery yet still do not tell you exactly how to add the battery!

It does have the specks I was wanting: 4K Video/Camcorder, 48mp, 60fps(frames per second in the very fine print it only seems to be available at 1080 setting.) it is also light enough to fit on my existing articulating supports.

1-2 Xmas present

Since there was also a gaping lack of instructions as to how to put the macro and wide-angle lenses on as well as the lens hood (not the lens cover that doesn’t actually seem to attach if you have the other lenses on.) it took me a while to figure out how it fits together. I have figured out the remote (YEAH! A remote) can turn the camera off but not on…..I did figure out how to plug in the mike.

I am not sure if the German, French or Spanish sections might be more helpful. So it will take me another day before I am ready to try it out. I am hoping to be able to use it for felting. This is considered a very entry-level camera so I want to try it out and see if it’s got enough function to do what we need. Maybe Ann and I can try it out for some of her study group work.

Dragon volunteered to help me show you it set up at the computer desk. Here is his photoshoot.

3-5 I think Dragon is a bit of a Ham!

I am hoping Dragon will have better luck with the remote than I have had so far. If this works I hope to be able to show you the results at some point!

 

I also wanted to show you a few Christmas shots of Christmas past to hopefully inspire you with better memories than the last 2 years.

6 -10 Shots from Oakville in 2016 (There was snow!)

Have a wonderful New Year!! I am sure we are all looking forward to exploring an exciting new year (one with a limited imagination on number selection – 2022)

Photos as reference and inspiration Part 2

Photos as reference and inspiration Part 2

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Part 2

(part 1 https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2019/08/12/photos-as-reference-and-inspiration-part-1/ )

 

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Thinking back to my earlier post on photos as reference and inspiration I was looking at the lilacs from my back yard and seeing inspiration for nuno felted scarves.  Using the flower petals for the ends (perhaps inverted with a block of the nondescript background for the middle. Moy MacKay’s technique with scissors may work with the petals or maybe bits and strands of silk. It would be a fun piece to try.

 

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This is one of my Alum flowers in the front yard. Its starburst multi peddled flower reminds me of graphic design from the mid-century modern period (think of the sputnic patterns ~1950’s). Again it would be an interesting end to a scarf.

 

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Here I have started to crop flip and play with the image a bit more. Sometimes a fragment of a photo will be more interesting visually than showing the whole object. It is also much cheaper to play with a design with cropping copying flipping distorting photos on the computer then using all that wool and silk until you have a couple ideas you really like.

 

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I think I would still elongate the sections in between the flowers. My brain then distracts me with what about adding the other 1/3 or the flower and making the edge round with little spiky bits like the flower itself. Oh you easily distracted brain you are going to get me into more trouble!

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What If I add a frill to one edge? Or maybe 2 layers of frill but different lengths?

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What would happen if I switched and made the longer frill patterned and the shorter one background colours?

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These are all symmetrical options. What might an asymmetrical option look like? How would it drape?

 

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I’m sure you get the idea try out the myriad of ideas that flit through the brain on paper or using the computer. A part of a previous idea may create an explosion of new ideas in a totally different direction or for a totally different completed idea.

 

What am I actually doing with the photos?

I have an old version of “Publisher” by Microsoft. Newer versions of publisher are available by subscription to Microsoft but this old version is working until I am forced to by a new computer and have to get into the 21st c with windows 10.

 

I am importing the photo to a blank work page and then make copies. I take some of the copies and flip them, invert them, crop them, stretch them. Then I start putting them back together.  I can take a pre-made shape and infill the image like this

 

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Then add a second rectangle for the body of the scarf. There is a colour select tool that is helpful to select colours from within the photo.  Sometime the colour you think you see is not the colour you see when its isolated. (This is also helpful looking at landscapes or portrait.)

 

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I have been enjoying “Photo pad” which is a free photo editing software for manipulating images too. It doesn’t have the ability to combine photos as publisher dose but there is always a printer, scissors and scotch tape!

 

Even importing images into word allows some photo manipulations;  Increase or decrease resolution, change colour. And there are a number of Artistic effects available.

 

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12 Original photo, 13 “Photocopy”, 14 “Cut out”, 15 “Paint strokes”

There are a lot of other options including one that graphs the picture. An earlier version had an outline effect that looked like a colouring book this edition seems to have lost that.

 

If you are not already using photography to help inspire your felting I hope you will now consider it.  If you have some of these programs give them a try and explore what other features you can put to use.  If you have other programs that contain a photo editing option check them out too. You may have another tool in your design tool bag that you had not noticed were there.  Have Fun and Happy Felting!

 

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Supermacro

Supermacro

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My camera started to die a few weeks ago, I could hear the focusing mechanism straining and the majority of photos were blurred, even more than I usually get trying to focus on soft fibres 🙂  So, a lot of my time has been taken up with a photography backlog, taking photos, retaking them as I work out my new camera settings, checking and editing photos, and getting distracted a lot with the Supermacro setting! It is so cool, it can see things I can’t see with the naked eye, tiny fibres on fingerprints, tiny cobwebs in the holes of volcanic rock, eyelash roots…. Oh, and the weave of fabrics or a dark guard hair on a piece of white felt, even tiny strands of fibre on the individual threads of a fabric 🙂

I thought I’d share a few of the fabric and fibre photos I’ve taken recently, I’ll upload them to flickr aswell in case you’d like to click on the full size images to see in even more detail. This first photo is cotton gauze and a chiffon scarf felted with merino prefelt.

This is a photo of just the cotton gauze and blue chiffon.

This is part of a pattern on printed cotton, it is about 55mm wide.

This is a synthetic fabric nuno felted, and some organza at the bottom of the photo.

This is one small piece of organza, aproximately 25 mm top to bottom.

 This is one piece of silk paper aproximately 25mm wide. It is taken from this piece of felt, I’ve added a note to show which square it is.

This is nuno felted silk.

This is Bamboo and Teeswater.

This last piece is blue nuno felted fabric.

I hope you enjoyed the photos, I love seeing the detail and texture of fibres, so I’d love to see your photos if you have any to share.

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