just doodling around

Not an original idea, but one I originally learned about from Catherine van der Hoeff in November of 2008(sorry, I can't find the link to her blog). Take an old thread spool, add wool rovings, water and soap. Rinse, let dry then add floss and beads. Four or five of these were felted at the end of last year to prepare for the 2011 Bead Journal Project. Number two is in progress, but I'm afraid that they're just doodles, not journals. But what are they for, you ask? Well, I was thinking of either making a bowl full, or just sitting one on the coffee table to hold stray needles and pins. Any other suggestions???

paper anyone?

Wonderful treats from the recent quick paper swap "Swallenge" that I received from LaWendula over at her Paper Swap blog. Thank you so much for all of your goodies! I'm amazed at how much you stuffed in that small envelope and how tidy you made the little packet! Mine was a little more unruly!! As for the rest of you, if you like paper and you haven't participated in one of these swaps, I encourage you to do so. They're wonderful and you get to meet the nicest people from all over the world! The good news is that LaWendula is planning on continuing these swaps through 2012, so there's still plenty of time for you to join and get a chance to beef up your paper stash. What are you waiting for, just do it!!! There's one going on right now that I'm participating in and another one in October. All details are on the Paper Swap blog.

Of course, I have to confess that I normally include some of my fibre offerings along with the paper, so you never really know just what you will get. That's what makes it so enjoyable!!!!

retro post - yikes!! wet felting!

Another orphan from a wet felting class I took at the Textile Museum of Canada. How many years ago you say? I can't remember! Who was the instructor? Sorry, can't remember that either! No real excuse other than the fact that I've never been good with dates or names and I think my brain is just too full right now. I do remember that it was an excellent class and the instructor showed some wonderful examples of her more creative pieces. Including masks made from soy silk. They fascinated me for some weird and wonderful reason!

Anyway this is an example of wet felting with a resist (heavy plastic) placed inside a wool roving sandwich to form a pocket. Multiple layers of roving on top and more on the bottom. From the little I remember, you felt the edges first (friction, water, soap, using your hands) and then the top/bottom. I have a vague memory of wrapping it around a piece of pool noodle and then rolling it around with my feet! When that was done "fulling" it by slamming it on the floor/table multiple times!! In my lofty imagination, I was making a beautiful, artsy purse. In reality, I forgot about the shrinkage factor and ended up with a rather useless tea cosy for a teeny little teapot. Anyway, I re-discovered the piece, while treasure hunting in a drawer recently. It's now proudly displayed on one of my bookcases!

From the little I remember of this technique, it was a bit of a pain! I was fumbling around with the resist and wet wool, while at the same time trying to felt in silk waste (the curly stuff) and woven fabric spirals. The silk waste wasn't a problem, but those other inclusions took quite a while to felt!!! Felting needles would have been a lot easier! Anyway, this reminds me that I have an entire tote full of coloured rovings that I should start playing with. When, you say? Who knows, I answer? It's going to be a very busy summer and I don't mean creatively!! Perhaps I should re-visit this rather cathartic process!

Detail shots!

The colours in this piece make me happy!!


Do you have any funny workshop experiments that you would like to share? Or older pieces you just can't bear to part with?

fat book swap - 2011

The wonderful results of a Fat Book swap that I participated in on the Mixed Media Art Friends Yahoo Group. This group is run by the generous and talented Belinda Spiwak. We were asked to make 37 pages of one technique on either cardstock or heavy weight watercolour paper. Some of the participants dropped out, so I received four of my own pages back. I guess that life interfered!!

On the back of each page are the instructions for the technique. What a wonderful resource for the future!! Belinda has had these huge swaps before, but the timing was never right for me to join. Of course, I regretted it every single time. The swaps on this group are infrequent, but she's hinted that the next one might be either a charm or ATC swap. I'm hoping for a charm one, because that's another I missed in the past. Boo hoo to me......because they were incredible!!!

Belinda's is the first one on the top on the left hand side.



Mine is the green one, second left on the bottom.







Three of my pages are in this shot. The mottled one in the middle of the top row and the two on the bottom.




Instructions for my technique are shown in my original post on the subject.

These pages will eventually be made into a reference book or I might even make a storage box. But for now I'll just fondle them and dream! As my bookbinding experience and time is limited, the final construction will need to wait.

Let the experiments begin!!!!! Now, does anyone know where to buy sequin waste?

what's blooming in Toronto 2

More images from Marilyn and Rain's garden.

The poppies are winding down, so this is was my last chance to catch the elusive sunlit poppies. It's no wonder you see so many of these in paintings. They're just breathtaking!







This clematis had a visitor!!



Living in harmony!




The lupin begins to bloom,



A beautiful new peony and quite long lasting as well.



All the pansy faces, remind me of a conversation grouping. I wonder what they're gossiping about?



This shot of the white rose was taken across the fence in the neighbours garden. I just heard that the lady of the house passed away on Monday, so I'll use this as a memorial. May she rest in peace.

what's blooming in toronto?

Peonies in Marilyn and Raine's garden. I confess that I can't resist the white ones so the "taken" is also literal, as I need to confess to pilfering three of these beauties......the smell is absolutely divine!!!





More flowers to come tomorrow..............

receiver's choice update - sara's block

As many of you know, I've been working on a "Receiver's Choice" block exchange with my friends at the Sparkly Chickens Yahoo Group. This one is for Sara who's just about to escape from the toils of the classroom for a relaxing, creativity filled summer vacation. I thought that the image of the escaping kite, would be a particularly appropriate image. I envy Sara her extended time off (sigh!) and wish her sand in her toes, wind for her kite, a wonderful collection of shells, thread for her needles and an exciting and creative summer. Use your time wisely, it goes pretty fast!!

Sara's theme was the "Beach"!

Hand applique, hand embroidery, couching, commercial batiks and other fabrics.




Detail of the kite and the waves:





Detail of the driftwood, the couched Kite string and the waves:



Sorry, Sara! I was trying to convey the foam on top of the waves, with the white french knots!! Any shells on my beach would have been greyish and mixed up with the driftwood.

receiver's choice update

A couple more additions to my Receiver's Choice swap from the Sparkly Chickens Yahoo Group. My theme for this swap is "Botanicals".

The first one was sent to me by Liz, who chose to make a lovely Tree of Life with fused applique and teeny, tiny hand embroidered, blanket stitches surrounding each piece. She used a very fine thread for the stitches and her technique is flawless. I must find out what kind of thread she used, because I'm sure that I need to add some to my stash!!



Jean sent me the purty, pink tulip that's oh so appropriate for the damp, wet spring! The colour makes me very happy!! She used a raw edge, fused applique technique, and added machine zigzag to finish off the edges. It just "shows to go you", that you don't need complicated techniques to be effective! My apologies to Jean for not noticing the loose thread. I'll fix it the next time I pull out the camera.



Thanks to these two blocks, I know have an idea on how I want to finish the quilt. Of course, with six more block to go, my idea could change many times......keep tuned for more updates!!!

blue mood

A few shots of the piece that will be displayed in the Southampton Art School Gallery from now until September. It's a sample for the Introduction to Fibre Art class that Deb Milton and I will be co-teaching, July 30 to August 1st. This piece was trouble from the very beginning!! I had a vision and the muse insisted on making me sweat! I knew what I wanted to do, but couldn't seem to translate it into a finished piece. At the end, we came to terms, but it was almost scrapped and replaced. I'm glad that I perservered!!



Acrylic painted cotton and silk, heat distressed organza, machine wrapped braid edging, beads, hand embroidery, free motion machine embroidery, stitching over a gap with watersoluble stabilizer and just a touch of shading using Neocolour II Watersoluble crayons. Another example of my designing without a net! Everything was cut freehand............



Mainly machine stitching, with machine over hand seed stitches in the sky)



I do love the ruffly texture in these flowers. I'm glad that I had just the right colour of organza in my stash.



I call it "Blue Mood" for obvious reasons!! Do you think that it was worth all the angst?

adventure on a saturday

Just a few photos from a lovely drive I took with Deborah Milton, yesterday. We dropped off a couple of pieces, for a class we're co-teaching at the Southampton Art School in the summer (more info to follow in the near future). No pretty little sandy beaches here, but instead a wild and wonderful beauty, on the shores of Lake Huron in Ontario. Despite the rather gloomy mood of some of the photos, it was a beautiful day for a three hour drive (each way)! Lucky for us, the art school is within walking distance of the beach.

The beach looks pretty lonely now, but I'm sure it will be packed by the next time we visit!



The gull was scoping out dinner!



I spotted a few blooms.



Dandelions were popping up all over the place but, I didn't expect to see one on the beach!




Spotted along the route. I couldn't resist the big, black crow and the rustic fence, now could I?




Hundreds of these windmills help to power the Toronto area. At least that's what someone told us when we inquired. It's funny to see what looks like hundreds of these, plonked down in the middle of farmer's fields. What the heck are they growing??

a few signs of spring

A few signs of spring from Marilyn and Rain's, rather wet garden.

Bleeding Heart - at it's prime!



Violets - don't you love the water droplets?



Candytuft - when this plant is blooming fully, it will be completely covered in white. However, I love the contrast of the white against the rich, dark green!

colourful treasures from down under

I received two lovely packages from Australia during the month of April. The first is from my friend Kaite in Bathurst, NSW. I had admired her googlie eyed koala, that was originally destined for a child in New Zealand, so she quickly made another and sent the original to me. Now doesn't that just make me feel special? She also sent some naturally dyed fabrics, a sample of her silk twining, a special little button (a little birdie told me that there were only two in the world) and a teeny sample of waxed irish linen thread. Do you believe that the pink fabrics were dyed with a green avocado? I feel oh so lucky to be the recipient of all this bounty!! Thanks my friend!

Did you notice that the Koala has been tarted up just a little??




The second package was from my new friend, NormaMc in Longwarrin, Victoria who, unfortunately, doesn't have a blog. In 2010, I discovered the wonderful paper swaps hosted by Lawendula. The following photos show the goodies I received from the very special Scavenger Hunt Paper Swap that Norma and I participated in. We tried to be faithful to the swap and had the best intentions, but in reality we both cheated just a little, by leaving out a few things and including some extras (fabric anyone??). It was fun trying to beg, borrow, steal and buy things to include in the package. Norma's to me was Australian themed. Mine to her was an eclectic mix of whatever I was able to throw together. I hope that she enjoys reading the Chinese newspaper that I sent!!! LOL! I think that I also sent a page of something in an arabic type script from a book I purchased in the library garage sale last year.

Included in the package were some very special things:

Some colourful bits and pieces that include some wonderful Japanese paper, a cute little doggie, a hand cut and painted house (and lots of other stuff).



A lovely, felted ATC sprinkled with beads and hand embroidery(does Norma have an embellisher?).



Three pieces of Australian themed fabric. The yellow one is my favourite!



A vintage Christmas postcard with the following written on the back:

"To Martin,

Wishing him a Merry Xmas from his Teacher

Dec, 1912"

I'm soooo in love with this little bit of history!!!




Thanks Norma for a great swap! I hope that you send some photos of my goodies when the envelope finally arrives. I was in such a rush to get it in the mail, that I forgot to take pictures. I'd like to post them on the blog.