First of 2

Yay. I have been working at these sculptures for a while now. I have never worked with electronics before but thanks to a bit of help from my clever dad I have the first one up and running. Optic fibre is wonderful stuff.

Beautiful Texture

Vilte has been sharing

The eyes have it

Aren't they just too much fun!!

Some pics of school work

Still working on the finishing off the hangings for the Kindlehill school. I am trying to also prepare for this weekend's workshops and get myself making some sculpture for an exhibition at Braemar Gallery in April. I also have a couple of dresses to finish for a fashion Parade at the  context art forum  here in the Mountains in April as well. I am going to the workshop with Anita Larkin and there may still be some vacanies so if you are nearby why not join me??

Here are some shots of the process with the gorgeous children of Kindlehill.
There is the literal pulling together of community to make these pieces but there is so much more community built in a more subtle way too. Children learn that it takes time to produce such work, persistence and co operation with friends to roll a felt. Parents work with children showing how much they value the work too. I am often asked how do you do this at home? " I can't " is the answer. I need the community to bring the work to life!!

love the orange glow here

Promise to get to the full finished pics as soon as possible.

Decisions

I always amaze myself with the variation between idea an actuality. I am currently up a ladder playing with lots of small balls to see which way is the best to put together. This is one panel from the school work I did last week. I will show more when they are all complete

Dimension and texture

In preparing for this weeks residency I undertook to make a small 1.5x1m wall hanging to show some of the techniques we would be using. I loved the range of responses to the textures. Some said the dessert and others a topographical viewpoint and the ideas kept flowing. The inspiration was in fact the sea. Seaweed, urchins and rock formations.

Borrowed camera and not too familiar with it so the colour is more like the second or something in between actually. if yo are in the Netherlands this October and think you would like to learn how to do this Contact Truus  from the workshop coloum.

Go and get merry!!!

I just want to wish you all the best Christmas and New Year. Get Merry and make sure there are lots of warm fuzzies out there.
I have made my family a hamper each. Had fun making this lot and My son helped me with the labels. I have included a random sample.

Quiet?

Those who have read this blog for a while will know that if it is quiet online then there is usually something brewing here or I am hard at it working. Apart from the usual madness this time of year making product for my 3 regular outlets, The Nook, The Rocks and the etsy shop, I have been working with the local preschool as Artist in residence.
We have been making prefelts with the children and the parents and staff helped me this past weekend put the whole lot together. The children love gardens and have been learning about suns, moons and stars and so these were of course included in the final work.
 I had taken most things into account when preparing for working with this age group and it all went really well apart from one thing.

I forgot that 3 and 4 year olds are short!!!! My back was killing me! I don't know how those early childhood teachers do it.
Some pics of the work at early stages and then completed though there may be the odd bit of stitching to add I can't quite decide.

Some of my hard working team.

I think this section is my favorite

Not Spam but Pam!!!!

Hey I may know what has happened to my lost comments on blogger. Seems that blogger has decided my lovely affirmations are indeed spam!!! Please have a look in your spam and mark me as not spam and we will see if that helps. I miss not chatting to you all. I can leave comments here on mine or on wordpress but not anyone else at present.
Thanks for your help.

How long is a piece of string?

Not long enough!
We've  had five glorious days here in the Mountains with the beautiful  India Flint. We wandered and bundled and concocted potions and relaxed with women. We ate and drank and chatted till late. It was all over too quickly.
I learned how to make string and find that incredibly satisfying.

Another summer

My husbands mother for decades declared she wouldn't "make it through another summer". She was of course eventually correct. We have a maidenhair fern on our front porch that we salvaged from her garden. It was in a pot that had almost completely fallen apart and had always been there. This plant has come to the brink of death on many a summer day, through some neglect in watering but still manages to survive. I cut a frond off to see if it would make a nice resist in some dyeing. I thought I had tried it long ago for colour with no luck. so was only going for the shape.
Look what happened on some optim and silk. Some more pretties follow.

You can see I got a bit carried away with the little star leaf of this weed. But it is kinda nice.