Felted Vessel Class

I had a great time in the vessel class taught by Pamela MacGregor at the Textile Center over the past three days.  All the vessels made in class were fabulous.

Class vessels still in progress, but near the end of class, unfortunately Jeanie's bag isn't pictured here.

It's so much fun to see how people work with color and form.

This photo shows the beautiful large vessels in the back better.

I'm a sucker for purple and blue, so I always gravitate toward that.  But I love the way others use green, reds and golds. And the use of the printed fabrics with nuno prefelt.  Lots of inspiration!

Pam giving me some pointers on how to embellish the lid of my vessel. I used BFL britch wool, merino and the purple was hand-dyed Finn.

A big thanks to Kris Post for getting this class organized and special thanks to Pam for coming all the way to Minnesota.  It was wonderful to meet fellow Minnesota felters and those that came from out of the area. I was lucky to sit across from Judy Colvin's friend, Kim Miller, from Montana.

Despite the long drive back and forth to Textile Center each day, with a visitation on Friday night for my dear friend Nancy Hoerner, and shearing squeezed in on Saturday morning, I am energized and excited to try making a larger vessel.

Camille's Lambs

According to my observations, Camille was due on March 29th while I was in training at Kansas City.  My son Alex took a week off of work to stay here and care for Ozzie and all my animals.

I had a great time in Kansas City. It's funny that the second fellow student I met there was from Minnesota also and she happened to be the daughter of a longtime member of the KCAA (the local art group I've been in since 1981).  What a small world!  We had a good time shopping and eating and swimming in the hotel pool in the evenings after class.

I called Alex on my breaks to see if Camille had lambed.  No, nope, nothing. Well, that was okay, I figured she must not have taken on the initial breeding. When I got home from my classroom training, there was a lot post classroom self-study and then 2 days of on the job training and then work all week.  It was a BUSY two weeks.  Exhausting, but interesting and fun.

On Sunday I got a chance to look back over my records from last fall's breeding season.  Sure enough, two weeks after the initial breeding notation, there was a note saying that Hansel thought Camille was cycling.  So I marked her due date for today, April 12th and started to keep a closer eye on her.

Yesterday morning about 11:30, I got off the phone and didn't see Camille out in the paddock.  When I got to the barn, there she was licking off a little musket ewe lamb.  It looked kind of small and thin and so I was pretty sure she'd have another.

I sat with her for quite a while, clipping and dipping the baby's cord, stripping her teats to make sure the milk was flowing.  It was a long time before the second one came.  I took some video of her in labor...this is the smallest one...

The twin was another ewe lamb, very small and petite.  A moorit, mioget, fawn or maybe even musket  gulmoget.  I will have to wait on identifying her color. Both lambs are brown toned, with light under the wool tips, so they both may be Ag (from their mom) and will be musket. 

 I have been wanting muskets in my flock again.  And the fleeces on these two are so tightly curled, like terrycloth. I think they will be really nice!  The gulmoget is actually much smaller than her musket twin.

With all the demands of my new job, I decided to opt out of teaching the lotion making class at Shepherd's Harvest.  And with my rented space in the Anoka Fiber Arts CoOp, I decided to opt out of having a booth at Shepherd's Harvest this year. I will still be there to judge the felting competition and enjoy all the other vendors.  Maybe I'll even take a class.  I'm really looking forward to just going and enjoying the festival this year!

 I'll be working at the Fiber Co-Op this Saturday, if you get a chance, stop in!  The Co-Op is located on the upper floor of the Shepherd's Choice shop, 210 2nd Ave. N., Anoka, MN 55303.

Next week I'm excited to be taking a three day Felted Vessel class from Pam MacGregor at the Textile Center.  Pam is a master of felted vessels.  Her previous experience as a potter really comes through in her covered felt vessels.  Last year when I failed miserably to make a felted vessel for Stan's ashes, I vowed I would take a class.  What a great opportunity this is to have Pam coming right here to Minnesota to teach us!  Thanks to Kris Post for organizing this class.

I will have to be a little late for one day of the vessel class because the shearer is coming early on April 21. YAY!  He's from Wisconsin and doesn't get over this way everyday, so I decided my desire to get the sheep sheared outweighed my desire to attend every minute of the class.  Hopefully I will only be an hour late.  I know the girls will appreciate getting rid of their wool!  And I can't wait to get my hands on it. :-)

Lambs! -- and a Felted Purse!

I'm still crazy busy, but the Shepherd's Harvest booklet is finally at the printer and lambing has started!
You can download the booklet on here --
http://www.shepherdsharvestfestival.org/New_Site/?page_id=559


I only wanted to breed three Shetland ewes, but Hansel had other ideas... So what we have now are the intended pregnancies.  Hattie started it off with a set of twin gulmogets on Sunday night around 10 p.m.  She always seems to lamb at night and outdoors. Last year we lost one of her crossbred twins due to the cold temps and extreme winds on March 13th.  What a change of weather this year!

Who would have ever thought I would be out under a beautiful starry sky, with a warm breeze blowing on my arms (no coat required!) witnessing the birth of lambs in Minnesota in March!  It was so beautiful, there's something very special about being there with your ewes at the birth of their lambs. 

Hattie's ewe lamb, very solid black gulmoget. Very spunky, good size lamb.

Hattie's ram lamb, might be mioget, smooth polled and the best looking fleece of all the lambs so far.

My 4 yr old wether Socks is now in with the ewes (since Hansel went into the freezer in February).  And this was his first time being around lambing ewes.  He's a big Shetland/Bluefaced Leicester cross, in full fleece.  He quietly stood behind my shoulder looking into the calf hut as the newborns were being licked off and finding their legs. It was the first time since Stan's death that I've felt everything was totally right with the world.  What a good feeling!

I went out early the next morning and was surprised to see Heddy come running in the barn with the flock looking for their morning hay accompanied by a set of twins.  What a surprise, Heddy wasn't due until Wednesday.  It's the second time I've missed Heddy's lambing. Darn!  But she did an excellent job with her first set of twins - she's only 2 years old.  Her dark moorit ram lamb (with horn buds) is the first solid colored lamb I've gotten sired by Hansel.  I may need to wether him for a fiber pet, his fleece is SO dark brown. 

Heddy's ram lamb on left and gulmoget ewe lamb on right. She looks like she got her mom's Ag.

Heddy's ram lamb is very dark moorit and the first solid colored lamb we've gotten from Hansel. He has big horn buds.

 

 

I'm pleased with the four lambs so far.  Their ear sets are all very good. Last year I had some airplane ears and longish tails sired by Hansel. River Oaks Camille (Ag grey gulmoget)  is due next week when  I'll be out of state for training for my new job.  My oldest son will be staying here to tend the sheep and chickens and keep poor Ozzie from getting too nervous without me around.

I also had an absolutely wonderful visit with Heather on March 9th.  It was so much fun to be with her visiting the Textile Center, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and StevenBe's yarn shop! We are both Pisces, her birthday is two days earlier than mine, and both were just last week.  Heather made me the coolest felted bag, I just love it!  All my friends have swooned over it.

Back view, the colors are so rich. The other photos don't show them off as much as this one does.

Front of the purse, closed.

Opened to reveal the button closure and a bright red fish.

fully lined with two pockets and the coolest wooden label.

Check out Heather's blog for the process she used in creating it here: http://woollove-functional-fiberart.blogspot.com/2012/03/marine-life-purse-for-pisces-part-3-of.html

I hope to get Heather to come back to Minnesota again to teach some felting classes. She's a great lady.

New Job, New Shop!

I'm taking a moment from working feverishly on the Shepherd's Harvest booklet and getting all my new hire information submitted (I got new job last week!), to share a photo of the half-space I rented in the newly formed "Anoka Fiber Arts Co-Op", located at 210 2nd Ave. N., Anoka, MN, 55303.  We're in the upper level of the Shepherd's Choice shop.  There are 9 vendors offering lots of luscious fibers, yarn, spinning and weaving equipment, shabby chic, rug hooking, and of course felting. Stop in and see us!

You can see I'm selling my full body mannequin (on a wheeled base), a  60" x 90" 2 pound Ile de France quilt batt, the raw felted Lincoln fleece (3' x 5'), along with roving, top, felting sheets, matted photos, felted scarves, and more.

So I am SUPER busy right now, with the booklet, the shop, and the new job. I'll be glad when things get back to normal. I worked with the Census Bureau in temporary positions in 2009 and 2010 and I'm thrilled to be going back on a permanent part-time basis. :-)

Getting ready for the Vasaloppet Art Show this weekend

A lot has been happening here in my little corner of the world, but I don't seem to have time to blog about much these days.

I'm putting the finishing touches on my pieces for the Vasaloppet Art Show this weekend.  Due to the fabulously warm and snow-deficient winter we've enjoyed, there will be NO VASALOPPET SKI RACE this year.  But the art show goes on regardless.   We have invited Jan Wise to come and speak about the work on display at the show.  All of my entries are pretty autobiographical, but abstract. I hope people will enjoy them.

Here is one I call "Handle with Care".   It's made of hand-felted, hand-dyed wool from my Shetland Mule sheep and a goose egg from the Shetland geese. (I applied a stiffener to make a funnel of felt that stands up on its own.)  The other three pieces I'm showing are a series of framed hanging pieces which incorporate hand felted natural colored wool and paper transfer resist dyed felt with twigs, eggshells, stones and feathers attached.  I will try to photograph them before sealing them up in their frames.  I also hope to donate a felted birdhouse to the Silent Auction which benefits the art organization's scholarship fund.

I know I'm late to the game, but I made yogurt for the first time yesterday! Who knew it was so easy.  It tastes great too.  No more buying little plastic containers of yogurt for me.   I'm straining some of it now to see if I can make it into greek yogurt.  Sorry to see how rusty my strainer is in this photo.

Anyway, it all started the other day when I bought some greek yogurt and wondered why it was so expensive.  My neighbor was over and before you knew it, we were looking up how to make yogurt in Carla Emery's book, "The Encyclopedia of Country Living", it seems like no matter what you want to do, she's got the directions in that book.  I bought some whole milk and a small container of plain yogurt to sue as my starter.  I thought incubating in my over-the-range microwave with the light on would keep it close to 110 degrees while the bacteria got started. It was taking a long time, I let it go for 7 hours before I realized the temp was under 100 degrees.  Darn, by then it was almost bedtime.  I got out our old electric heating pad (as mentioned in the book), wrapped it around my quart and pint of yogurt-to-be, and turned it up to high.  Within an hour it was thickened, yeah! I had no idea how thick to let it get, so I put the heating pad on medium and went to bed.  I wanted to be sure to get up in the night and check on it because I didn't want it to get too thick and tart tasting. I managed to drag myself out of bed at 1 A.M. and decided it was thick enough.  So I put it in the fridge and tried to get some decent sleep.

Next time I'll make sure the temp is maintained at 110 degrees, so it should thicken up much faster.  I see by Googling that some people make it in the crock pot too. That sounds easy. Anyway, I put some jam in with it this morning and yummm!

I taught felting to a group of five ladies in late January.  We met at Woodland Cottage in Elk River, MN.  It was a fun but exhausting day.  The all wanted to make something different! I had practiced up by making these felted mittens with Shetland Mule fiber, Finn fiber, and the undercoat from my old livestock guard dog, Schachah (who is now on duty at Sabrina's north of Bemidji, MN).  You can see that Great Pyrenees fiber sheds quite a bit when felted.  But dog fur is supposed to be so much warmer than wool, so I wanted to give it a try.

That same day I whipped up these slippers from black karakul lamb's wool and my white Shetland Mule wool. It was good to get in the studio and work.

Next time I will use black Shetland instead of the black Karakul.  It's a little too hairy for slippers IMO, but it works wonderfully in other projects that need to retain their shape, like birdhouses.

Okay, back to the five ladies, they were all very talented and stuck to their projects. Here is what they made (click to enlarge): a birdhouse, slippers, a wallhanging, and two pieces of decorated flat felt.

And of course there was food and drink after the work was done. :-)

I hope to organize more felting classes here at my studio and at Winnie's Woodland Cottage and perhaps at a log cabin retreat center in Pine City, MN.  I have also lined several up at the Pine Center for the Arts this spring. And I will be teaching lotion making at Shepherd's Harvest Sheep and Wool Festival in May too.  It's going to busy that weekend because I'll be judging the felting competition and having a booth too.  I'm not sure how I will get it all done.

Some photos of the Animals

Hansel got a reprieve from his appointment with the butcher on Monday. He's such a sweet ram, not aggressive to people in the least. And he's been behaving so well with the flock, I called and cancelled his appointment.  His fleece is a beautiful grey under those honey colored tips and I want to get my hands on it again this year.  That's Socks, our wether (and the famous Lena's twin brother) behind Hansel.  Socks' fleece is always in great demand by handspinners at Shepherds Harvest, but I hope to raw felt it this year. Socks is a 50/50 Shetland/Bluefaced Leicester cross.

My Shetland flock, Heddy, Mia, Maddie, Hattie, and Camille, Hansel and Socks (the Shetland Mule) in the back.

I only hope that if my Bluefaced Leicester yearlings lamb this year, their babies will have that same crimpy fleece that Socks and the other BFL sired crosses have had. It will be interesting to see how doing things the opposite way (BFL ewe and Shetland sire) will affect the lambs.

Socks, Mia, Heddy, Maddie, Hattie, Camille and Hansel in the background and Leta or Luna in the doorway.

And here's Ozzie on a happy outing to the west 40 in Ogilvie.  Ozzie gets so excited whenever I ask him if he wants to go to the land.  I swear that Ozzie knows so many words! He's my loyal companion these days.

This is the Buff Chantecler rooster I plan to keep.  I've got one other purebred Buff Chantecler plus three beautiful black roosters that need to go. Anybody want one? Or two, or three, or four?

Good bye to 2011

The end of the year is upon us. As usual, 2011 went by way too fast.  I could have never imagined all the changes that have taken place in my life at the beginning of this year, but the year was filled with beauty, excitement, love and grief.  Certainly a year filled with LIFE and LIVING and that's what it's all about.

Last year at Christmas I was on a creative bender, enjoying all the things I could do with felt.  The purchase of the felt rolling machine made it possible for me to make yardages. I made my first felt garments and then started mixing my felt with stitching and twigs and rocks from the pasture. The compositions were just falling into place so easily!  I knew it was a special time.

In February I was involved in several grant projects and  the Vasaloppet Art show where my work was hung front and center for all to see when they walked in the door.  It was quite an honor to finally get placed there. :-)  I was still working on my rolling machine grant and trying to do as much felting as possible.

Lambing started early in March with the BFLs.  It was the first time we've lambed that early.  The BFL lambs did great in the cold temps, in fact they seemed to grow even better in the cold than they do in the heat.  We lost one crossbred Mule lamb to a combination of wind and freezing temps-- it never even occurred to me to lock up my experienced Shetland ewe that night.  Live and learn.  Shearing was in March too, lots of fun with fleeces.

April saw the arrival of the Shetland lambs and one last BFL lamb to a yearling ewe.  I was away at an Arts Leadership conference and had to rush home when Stan called to tell me he found a lamb with no mama. I was so appreciative to have Stan take care of my animals when I was gone even though he was never a fan of the sheep.  He followed my directions and tried to give that orphan a bottle I had prepared before I left, but the lamb wouldn't take it.  Everything worked out fine in the end, it was just a bit of a rocky start for that young BFL and her lamb.  The conference was a really good experience for me too.  I had an "Ah-ha" moment when I realized that the more I looked inward at what was important to me, my core values, etc. the more my work could serve others.  It's a paradox, but so true. The more we are true to our own purpose, the more our actions will ripple out and affect others. Just think we can be selfish and generous at the same time!

May was filled with excitement at having Jeanne Carbonetti here for the watercolor workshop. I've always loved her philosophy of art and living a creative life.  Her teaching reinforced what I had learned at the conference. It was wonderful to have her here in Mora and get her feedback on my fiber work.  I look forward to working more in watercolor and incorporating some of her painting techniques in my fiber work. 

To be selected as a Forecast Public Art planning grant recipient was wonderful too.  I loved the birdhouses I created and put out on display.  They were a big hit with all the people who saw them.  Little did I know that they were the only part of my grant proposal that I would actually get to explore, but they touched my life in such a symbolic and personal way -- and they are the focus of my next big project!

June was busy with felting, doing booths, finishing up my rolling machine grant and the Carbonetti grant report. That was when Stan first started feeling that food was getting stuck at the top of his stomach.  I knew that was serious and I told him to make an appointment with the doctor, but he didn't do it right away.  One night he threw up right after supper and that's when I decided to get him in to the doctor the next day.  I was so worried on our 36th anniversary, but Stan was always optimistic.  He was never one to worry.  He remained that way right up until his last days in October. He was always looking on the bright side and when it became apparent that the bright side was a permanent end to his suffering, he was brave and practical as we made plans for how I would carry on.  I was brave too, little did I know how hard it was going to be.

His illness taught us both a lot about people and about God and the meaning of life. It was such a privilege to see people living their faith, giving their special gifts to make things easier for us -- the doctors and nurses, our neighbors, friends, co-workers, families, and people we didn't even know.  Each had his or her own specialty that was given to us.  There's nothing more important in life than that.


So goodbye to 2011, and hello to 2012 where I hope that my special gift in service to others will make a little bit of difference.