Oh my gosh how times flies! I haven't posted here since Christmas Eve. I haven't had a lot to say I guess. That and the fact that I've been spending too much time at the new Shetland Sheep forum. Above is a photo of the latest things I've been working on, not the knitting so much, but the felting.
Well yesterday was an exciting day for me. I met a small group of extremely talented felters and I was blown away by their work. Fabulous vessels, garments, jewelry, hats! I felt pretty humble sharing my needle felted sheep and heads and my nuno felt scarves and landscapes. But they were incredibly gracious and helpful. After a delicious lunch we fulled a couple of my scarves and then watched really cool felting DVD (by Judit, I forget her last name, but the video is available from Susan's Fiber Shop). I'm so inspired, I hope to get some serious felting done. I have been experimenting a lot with the medium lately. This morning I even felted an egg! Okay, so it's of no use for anything, but it looks kind of cool.
After the felters group I met a friend and we went in on a FLOCK of Baby Doll Southdowns. I only wanted a couple wethers to keep my boys company and to see how the Baby Doll fleece spins up (and felts?). But the owner wanted them all gone at once, so I called in a friend for help. I can't take any of the ewes due to them not being enrolled in the Voluntary Scrapie program, but I may wind up getting a black two year old ram and a couple wethers. They are terribly cute little guys! Yes, this really does go against all that I've been working for getting my sheep numbers down. I was so happy to be down to 20 and now I'll be up by 3 or 4...if only I didn't need companions for my rams. I'm not brave enough to keep them all together like Stephen does. I would never forgive myself if one of my BFLs was hurt by the Shetland with those huge horns. So anyway, these guys are very small and very cute -- they are all two years old and the wethers are very tame. I'll be picking them up this weekend and I will try to get some decent photos with my new camera.
Oh and that reminds me, I'm getting a couple more chickens too. I can't stand paying $2 a dozen for the terrible eggs in the grocery store. I think two or three hens will keep us in eggs and not cost too much to feed. Here's one of the first eggs I did, it's watercolor on the front and dyed black on the back. It was from a Giant Dewlap Toulouse goose we had, those Dewlap Toulouse geese are very regal and gentle. But too heavy for breeding. We never had a fertile egg from her, but they were kind of a cool shape.
I've never known an artist with so many unusual and fascinating media!
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of things did the group felt? And did the video "teach" felting techniques or show photos of finished objects?
ReplyDeleteI'd also love to get more "into" felting but doubt I'll ever make the time. I can't wait to see what YOU do though.......
LOL Michelle! I wish I was more focused, but it's fun to learn about everything. I wanted to work on some watercolors this morning but had to hunt through all the egging supplies and jewelry making supplies just to find my watercolor supplies (the wool stuff is in another room thank goodness). So I wound up cleaning out the cupboard instead. I need to organize all my stuff.
ReplyDeleteNancy, the group on Wednesday had really great hats, purses, one-of-a-kind long drapey artsy vests (in nuno felt and regular felt with cutouts), and one member wore a really awesome seamless felted coat. She had more photos of several coats - they were really something.
The video showed the felting process and explained how each project was done. The first project was a beautiful rug, then there were a couple hats and a big stuffed lizard which came alive through animation. It was a fun video, I'm going to see if our art association will purchase a copy for the local library.
I've been worrying about getting all those baby dolls and now I'm just going to take the one black ram and hope he and Dougal will learn to get along. If not, the Baby Doll will have to go. I feel better not taking on so many more sheep. But they were cute and I'm anxious to check out the fleece.