Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Filling my time when I gallery sit

I gallery sit 4-6 days a month at Studio 40 in Spanish Village as part of my partnership there.  It's a lovely and comfortable space (You should visit if you haven't yet.)  But it isn't a good place for wet-felting, at least not the way I do it -- splashy, messy, equipment-intensive, and spread out on every available surface! 

So what to do during those five hours in the Village, in between helping shoppers?  Prep and finishing of wet-felted pieces usually isn't enough to fill the time.  Yet I want to be somehow making art, not reading magazines or watching movies on my computer.

It turns out that needle-felting is the perfect activity.  I can work on a small desk, the materials are compact and portable, and I can easily stop and start as people come and go in the studio.


I've always said I don't like needle-felting.  It's tedious and repetitive and yet requires full attention in order to avoid stabbing my fingers.  That's still how I feel. 

But I confess:  I am madly in love with these little critters I've been making!  I hope you can see why. 













Sunday, August 16, 2015

Adding some magic

Eucalyptus Series:
Blossoms & Butterfly

A couple of years ago, I created three small wall pieces, each nine inches square, on a eucalyptus theme.  One of them, Eucalyptus Grove (See image on my Wall Art gallery page), sold relatively quickly.  The other two hung unsold at Spanish Village for quite a long time.  And the longer they hung there, the more they bored me.  I finally took them down a couple of months ago and brought them home to my studio to consider how they might be salvaged.
Eucalyptus Series:
Nuthatch


I liked the work I'd done too much to put the pieces on the recycle pile.  But they both needed something more.  What might be found on the trunk of a eucalyptus tree?  What might hang on a branch besides leaves?  What would look natural on the backgrounds I'd already created?
Here are the pieces, before and after.  I'm very pleased with them now.  So however long they may hang before they sell, at least now I will enjoy looking at them.









 

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Really, still here!

Although I haven't posted here in months, I am indeed still here and still making felt.  Life continued to get in the way until recently.  But it has moved aside at last, and I am happily following some new directions in the studio. 

I've added two recent pieces to my "Wall Art" gallery.  I hope you'll take a look.  More photos to come soon.

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Surprise -- a prize!

I learned this morning that the piece I described in my last post, Fireflow, won third place in the Fire section of Art...It's Elemental, the all-member show at Spanish Village.  I'm thrilled!  I couldn't make it to the opening last weekend and haven't seen the show yet, but I am looking forward to it even more now.

If you can get to Spanish Village between 11 AM and 4 PM by April 12, do see the exhibit in Gallery 21.  There's also a nice exhibit on the history of Spanish Village, which is 80 years old this year.

Life's been getting in the way again, so not a lot of new work to post.  But soon...  I'm also way behind in my on-line felting courses but even so have learned a lot so far.  And I will catch up eventually, I'm sure.  

Sunday, February 1, 2015

New year, new opportunities

February 1 feels like the start of my new year 2015.  Life got in the way big-time in January, and I'm more than ready to get back into the studio.  

In December I completed a piece for the Spanish Village all-members' show, scheduled to open in March in celebration of this centennial year of Balboa Park (which is also the 80th anniversary of Spanish Village.  The theme of the show is the four elements, and I chose fire as my subject.  The piece is a flat work called Fireflow, depicting the power of liquid fire in the form of lava to alter the landscape.


At the end of this week I will be starting two different on-line classes with felter Fiona Duthie:  Surface Design and Felt Illuminated.  Through weekly lessons and assignments, I'll be learning techniques that I hope to begin incorporating right away into my body of work.  Can't wait to get started!