Fall Projects

I have done only a few art projects lately.  

This one was inspired by a print I saw using a Shaker "Tree of Life" motif.  The Shakers used this often to decorate their work, always very simple and symmetrical. 

I don't really care for too much symmetry, but I tried to keep the "simple" aspect. The background is watercolor on watercolor paper and for the trunk and branches, I put that paper on my sewing machine and stitched away!  That part was challenging-- it's hard to "steer" the paper and I realized that there isn't a lot of room on the machine for paper to fit.  I had to curl it up sometimes.

 I cut the leaves from Gelli prints I had made and glued them on the tree.

I have some other ideas to riff off this one-- I might try it with felted wool leaves next.


Speaking of wool... "Fiber Days" with our local wool expert started again for the cold seasons here.

The kids were so excited and it was just lovely to spend a rainy day playing with wool (away from home, where we were getting a little stir-crazy).

The kids did some little needle-felting things by putting some wool into a cookie-cutter and then poking with the needles.  Usually they love starting these, but then get worn out on all the poking necessary to finish.  They end up with little blobs of half-felted wool...  But they also got a lesson in making "dryer balls".  These are hard balls of felted wool used to help clothing tumble efficiently in a clothes-dryer.  "Junk" wool is used for the center and then the ball is wrapped in white roving with colorful bits added for decoration.  The balls are put into old pantyhose to hold them together, each one separated with twist-ties.  We made 22 that day, all sprawled all over the the kitchen floor, and then all the balls were put in the washer with a load of clothes.  The agitation felts the wool, then we peeled them out of the pantyhose to see the results!

I really enjoy needle-felting, so I worked on a little pumpkin.  I used some pretty dyed wool that had not been carded smooth, so it had some natural crimps and wrinkles.  I really liked the texture and it gave the pumpkin (or maybe it's really a gourd?) a "warty" look and interesting texture.

I was really happy with how this turned out.  Much better than some previous attempts at needle felting.  I put it with the rest of my fall decorations, which are not coming down until at least the day before Advent starts.  (Even though on Instagram everyone has been decorating for Christmas for weeks already).