Monday, December 05, 2016

A weekend workshop!

I just spent the weekend in Burlington, VT at the Northeast Fiber Arts Center taking an amazing class with Marjolein Dallinga of Bloomfelt. The class was fun, challenging, inspiring and it was such a joy to take part in. Marjolein is an incredible teacher and is so generous with her knowledge and so very patient as she guided the class through the many, many steps and stages of our projects.

Marjolein's work can be found on the web at Bloomfelt and on Facebook.

It felt fantastic to have three full days to simply focus on learning. I'm now thinking of some new ideas to play with over this winter as the snow flies outside and the studio is warm and cozy. 

The photos show the beginning stage of one of the felting projects that began as a simple triangle and then was combined with multiple cords. And the other project which pushed my limits thinking through colors, layering wool and working with multiple resists to create a scultpture.



This is the final result of the initial triangle.


An this was the multiple resist project with layers and layers of wool!




Thursday, December 01, 2016

On the wall.

Just a quick image to share of my piece hanging in the gallery at The Hyde Collection in Glens Falls, NY.

The exhibit, Mohawk Hudson Regional, will be on display through the end of December. There is a special event coming up on December 16th, the exhibit catalog that was developed with the juror and Hyde staff showcases not only the pieces in the current show, but also a bit of the history of the show as this is the 80th anniversary exhibit.

My piece on the back wall on the right.

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

A Road Trip.


Otherwise known as 'I need to add to my stash to further my creativity!' This past Saturday I drove down to New England Felting Supply in MA with my sketchbooks and iPad in hand. I have a few sketches fleshed out to the point of working through colors and I've planned what I'll need to felt some of the backgrounds and various elements. 

I was all set with the amounts of polymer I'll need and the canvas sizes for the final pieces, but some of my colors of felt were low and I knew I'd need more of others to fully work through my ideas!

So it was off in the car for a road trip, a fantastic visit with much encouragement and assistance at NEFS and I am now back home with colors in hand! Seriously - being at NEFS I now know how my kids must feel when they enter a candy or toy store...

The wall of dyed merino was so fun to peruse as I matched colors!


Now the difficult part will be fitting in some studio time in the midst of beach days and adventures with the little ones.

Thursday, June 30, 2016

Accepted!

Whoooo hooooo!!!! So excited my piece was selected for the 2016 Mohawk Hudson Region exhibition! I am thrilled beyond anything because this is a new direction I'm exploring and truly love and am inspired to continue so it's amazing to have a juror feel strongly enough about the work to include it in such great exhibit.
Excuse me while I go do a dance of joy around the studio!!!




Monday, May 09, 2016

And onward!

I've had some time to sketch out ideas following this path of combining my polymer, felt, photographs and then creating a landscape piece. I'm excited exploring new ideas and find myself puzzling over how to create the different elements, how to combine them and how to best use the different mediums to create the textures, colors and final piece I have envisioned!

The sunshine at the barn felt wonderful as I sketched! A bit bright for my eyes... but the view of the mountain certainly was inspiring too!
The small sketchbook is primarily for my jewelry pieces, and I've started a new sketchbook for the landscapes and further ideas.

Saturday, April 30, 2016

And the finished piece.

And this is the finished piece, 'Through the Woods'. I've photographed it and am submitting it for consideration for the 2016 Mohawk Hudson Regional. It's the 80th Anniversary of the regional juried exhibit - the oldest regional juried exhibit in the US! We'll see... the exhibit is October - January 2016.

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

A new path to explore.

I've been sketching all winter and letting ideas stew and brew and finally got to work in the studio over the past few weeks to explore a new creative direction.
Landscape & nature photography, polymer and felt have been kicking around in my studio and my head for years now. 20+ for the landscapes, 15 for the polymer and now nearly 5 for felt... and I've kept thinking of ways they can work together. This new piece was a complete 'what if' moment and was so incredibly fun to just puzzle through and create.

The landscape... the layout of the roving just before wet felting.
The beginning of the felt rocks and other elements. I kept a palette consistent with the roving I was using and mixed the polymer colors to create the rocks and tendrils for the plants to match.

Wet felted with the polymer rocks imbedded to be revealed as I cut away areas of felt later.

The felt rocks and some polymer rocks mid layout and work.

A sunny morning in the studio with the landscape on the pin foam. I needed to set some of the felted elements and other polymer pieces to begin to add depth.

Elements are added to the 'trees & vines' and some of the polymer rocks are set with other areas of felt needle felted and waiting.

Lots and lots of stitching to set all the felt & polymer elements.

And then some more stitching to set the piece on the background canvas as it's final display.

A closeup of the foreground with the felt & polymer rocks.