Felting away

I have had an 'interesting week' this week. I have not fancied chatting to anyone much, just hiding out in my studio. I'm not in a funk or anything, just pondering my navel, thinking about 'life and all that stuff'. Plus getting some 'need to dye and felt wool' out of my system!

With the thinking about life and what I want to do with it thing. I have always wanted to have a functioning studio/gallery. You know, the kind where you practise your art then display it for others to peruse and possibly purchase. Well, that's what I was thinking more seriously about. My studio is too small to set up as a gallery and the people next door, being the kind of people they are they would not be happy about 'hoards' (I wish) coming into their street.

So what to do? I want my cake and eat it too you see. I only want to  be open maybe 3 to 4 days a week and not every weekend. I decided today that I want to be able to stop, smell the roses, pull weeds, maybe bake some scones between rolling the felt and fulling it. And I don't want to have to pay too much for it.

Scones made between rolling and fulling

 

Maybe I will have to wait until the next house we build (down the road a bit away from the neighbours) which is at least 2 to 3 years away. We will build exactly what I want in that home.

In the meantime, I will put it out to the Universe to sort it out for me!

This is what I have been up to this week.

Dyeing wool

 

Felted squares ready to be turned into glass cases or purses.

2 felt cases that I made yesterday. The bottom one sold overnight (yee ha)

Ive sold three of these little fella's since Monday, so guess what I will be doing for the next week!

Felted Glass Case

Howdy doody all

I came home to a commission to complete. A white needlefelted and beaded scarf for a bride in the US. I had ordered some wool as I had trouble finding white wool (I normally purchase my coloured wool and dye the silk roving and scarves) Unfortunately the wool was unbleached, a kind of creamy colour. So thought that bleaching it wouldn't be too hard. Ha! lessons in science. You cannot use ordinary household bleach for whitening wool, it turns to mush! And the strength peroxide i can get here just doesn't cut the mustard either.Oh oh, what to do? My bride is going to need her scarf soon!

White beaded and felted bridal scarf

 And trying to buy some white wool now is going to take too long. So I decided to ask the Universe for help. I said (to the 'powers that be'). " I will find the perfect wool for this bridal scarf today". I repeated this three times (power of three) and ended with a smile, a thankyou, and then let it go.

I then went to do the weekly shop and dropped into a craft shop (the one where they have been struggling to get my coloured (and white) wool) and what do I find tucked up in a corner? A small bag of perfectly white wool! no one knew where it had appeared from, it was just there!. Now I have to remind you that I live out in the bush about 20 minutes drive away from a small country town. Not too many craft shops to choose from (one).

So thankyou for my white wool. Ive got work to do now!

Very crowded beach at Waikiki, people treading over each other to get to the water! The water was so warm though, ours is very fresh! (for those just dropping by, I am popping in a holiday pic from Hawaii in each post)

And here is the project I completed with my felt square. I had broken my reading glass case whilst away and wanted a new one. This completed felt was just the right size.

Great Barrier Reef Felted Glass Case

Detail of machine embroidery and beading

My glasses are now snug and safe!

I feel another one coming on for my sunglasses!

A spot of drawing, cherries and felt

I have some old adirondack chairs crying out for a colour scheme just like this! (I'm not joking)

. Jimmy Buffetts cafe on Oahu

 After having a few days of getting over our holiday, and not feeling at all inclined to doing anything other than sitting in a corner, watching clouds pass by and drinking tea and eating far too many biscuits. It was time to get cracking again with my art.

But before I tell you what Ive been up to in the last few days, I should let you know a little about my holiday to Hawaii.

Well I have to admit, I didn't get much drawing done. In fact only one! Not that I wasn't inspired, the gardens and tropical flowers are amazing and the scent of frangipani everywhere, just lovely! I had my pencils and books all ready to go.... but no, no impulse to draw, nothing, zilch! So I went with that and took lots of photos which may or may not become the  jump off points for art yet to come. Obviously I was meant to have a rest. And who am I to argue with the Universe?

Here is the one drawing of a croton that I played with. These colourful plants surrounded the building in which we stayed on Maui.

Crotons

You'll have to forgive the darkness of the pics. I haven't edited them yet. But what I will do is haphazardly drop in photos from the trip over the next few weeks. They may possibly be totally out of context with whatever the content of the post is. But I'm sure you wont mind. :-)

But we did have a lovely relaxing time,  and the people of Maui, Kauai and Oahu are incredibly friendly and easy going. Oahu and mahalo to you all!

Back to art... Before I went away I had purchased some merino wool. I had decided that as I was already dyeing my silk for my felted scarves, it possibly wouldn't be that difficult to do the same with the wool. So this became my next adventure in art.

Dyed merino wool in soft blues and greens

 After the wool had dried I decided to try my hand at wet felting. I gathered together my supplies, turned the kitchen bench into a work space (my husband is still sighing over that one) and spread out the wool and added a touch of golden tussah silk.

Wool spread ready to felt. Silk added 

After kneading,rolling,kneading,rolling,squishing and more squishing I came up with this....

Just the perfect size for a glass case.... show you that tomorrow. 

Till then have a great night/day wherever you may be

x Julie

Oh, nearly forgot the cherries! I thought I had died and gone to heaven when I found these whilst shopping. Yay, its Spring! (nearly) 

Home Again!

Aloha all!

I'm just dropping by for a quick hello. We have just walked back in the door after our holiday and I am ready for bed! But of course I had to check in and was blown away by the lovely comments on my last post. I love our community here and even though we may not have met in person, I feel like I have so many friends out there in blog land. It is just lovely, or as the many Hawaiians and Americans we met on our journey would say. AWESOME!

I will catch up again in the next few days to show you some some of my photos of our holidays. In the meantime, goodnight and God Bless.

x Julie