Another Dragon

I had so much fun creating my last dragon that I decided to try another.

This one is a bit smaller at only 3 1/4" (plus balloon).

It is definitely harder to get details on the smaller projects (and the fuzzies get way out of control too! lol)
Since she is a baby (yes, it is a she lol) I decided she didn't need claws or teeth like my first dragon. I did however try something new and gave her little wings. :-)

I just finished her and as I was downloading the photos I realized I forgot to give her ears! Oops! So, maybe she isn't quite done after all. :-)

Just messing around

I haven't had much in the way of art time the past couple weeks. I have been setting up my new office! My stepson moved out and I gained an office! Yippee!!!

There was the cleaning, painting, shopping (when you grow from a 2x2 desk to a huge, U-shaped desk you find out you NEED things! including the desk! lol)
Then helping (better known as watching) hubby build said new desk. haha

Then came the hardest task of all.....regaining my art desk. 1/3 of it has been doubling as part of my work station for 4 years and now I am finally able to clear it off and reorganize. Currently I have regained about 2/3 of my 10 foot long desk! Yay!

I was so happy that I took time out from cleaning and stashing and I fiddled around in my art journal...something I haven't had room or inclination to do for many many months. :-)

Happy Chinese New Year

Last weekend Hubby and I attended the annual Chinese New Year celebration. It is a wonderful event with demonstrations, food, displays, lectures and an awesome parade.

Since this is the year of the dragon, I was inspired to create my own "Chinese" dragon. Or maybe I should say....Ready for Chinese New Year dragon. lol

As you can see, I shied away from the typical fierce/scary dragon and went in a cute and fun direction.

He is carrying his own dinner in a tiny takeout container and lighting his way with a little Chinese lantern. The takeout container is from a rubber stamp by Jim Stephan I purchased many many years ago. It actually stamps an image twice this size so I scanned the image and reduced it, cut it out and folded. Thank goodness for my crop-a-dile. It made it much easier to get inside there and set the eyelets!

Mr. Dragon was kind enough to do a slow pirouette so that I could photograph him from every angle. :-) Notice his fierce claws and teeth? lol

Here you can see he has horns and (tiny) ears. And spikes? scales? whatever you call those bumps down the middle of his back lol

He is my tallest creation at 5 inches!

I love his shade of green! I was in one of the local yarn shops, Middleford Yarn Shoppe in Medford and saw this lovely green wool. I just couldn't resist. I am so glad I grabbed a bundle. Because of the color variations, it creates such interesting color textures on the dragon skin! I loved it so much, I went back and bought some more...just so I don't run out!

Meet Rocko

Sometimes an idea gets stuck in my head and I have to sit down right then and get it out. This little guy was getting really persistant so I took a few hours and let him come to life.

I call him Rocko! And he just might be my new favorite. Every time I look at him I can't help smiling. :-)

He is the only one of my felted friends that has moved onto my work desk to keep me company. I think he just likes to be in the middle of things. lol
What is kind of maddening is how, when you photograph these little guys, they appear a million times fuzzier than they look in person....of course, blowing up a little guy from 2" up to maybe 10-12" might have something to do with it lol

Here is a close up of his face. Hubby says he looks stern. I think he just looks very intent. lol

He has a merino wool base with merino wool face, hands and chest. And alpaca for his fur. The alpaca is very soft so he feels very nice sitting in my hand while we watch tv. :-)

A Baby is Born

I can't even begin to describe how happy needle felting makes me. I have been an artist my whole life and will admit that '3D' mediums always left me feeling..well...lacking.

I had issues with proportion and the front might look fine but the back would look like a disaster!

To finally, after all these many years, to find a medium where I have no problems creating in a totally 3D format just makes me giggly lol

Here is my first new friend of 2012. He is a little "chubby' bunny. The core is made of merino wool then covered with gray alpaca (I love how soft the alpaca fleece feels!)

I gave him oversized eyes and nose to increase the cute factor. :-)

He stands about 3" tall to the tip of his ears.

And now for the baby. This took me 2 weeks to complete, not because he was difficult but because my neck issues have decided to flare up in a huge way so looking down for long periods of time sends me into horrible neck muscle spasms (trust me, it is not as fun as it sounds!)

I would like to introduce Seymore. He is a baby monster. He seems to have lost his mama (which I think is probably a good thing for me) but managed to keep a grip on his trusty teddy.

He also has a merino wool core and was then covered with a varigated baby blue. I am not sure what type of wool because I got this HUGE ball (at least 8-10 ounces) of it for free because an online vendor messed up my order and tossed in the blue as a thank you because I was patient and didn't complain. It is super soft! (some times it pays to be a patient customer) :-)

As you can see, he has a tight grip on teddy and is also sucking his thumb.

And, of course, a pic from 'behind'.

Seymore is about 3 1/2" tall.

He definitely strays from my normal bunnies and sheep but he came to me one day while I was day dreaming so I had to bring him to life. Now I have a gorilla floating in my head! We'll see if he appears any time soon lol

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a joyous New Year.

Everything was quiet and peaceful here. It was so nice to just sit back and relax and enjoy the season. Unfortunately, that also meant not getting anything 'created' either.

And here we are, over a week into 2012 and still no art projects started. My muse seems to still be on Christmas vacation. I hope she returns soon because I am getting antsy!

But, to kill the time, I have visited a few of the local antique malls. :-)

On Saturday, I found one of my coolest finds ever!

Isn't this just the most awesome cookbook you have ever seen? (and yes, I am assuming you are as hooked on cookbooks as I am!) :-)

Ok, it looks a bit grundgy and dirty....but I could see there was something beautiful under that black gunk!

See, I told you! Look how bright and shiny it is now! And all it took was a bit of liquid handsoap, a soft toothbrush and some hot water. Yay!

I had never seen a book with an aluminum cover before and when I discovered it was a cookbook!!! it had to come home with me!

Here is the cover page, see the copyright? 1933 This thing is in really wonderful shape for it's age. It almost looks like no one used it (which is sad for a cookbook) But one former owner did add a few of her own recipes into the pages so someone at sometime prior to me did make a bit of use of it.

I found out on Wikipedia that this cookbook is the first one ever to tell the cook to use a fork to flatten her peanut butter cookies....now loving peanut butter cookies as I do and having baked more than my fair share of them....I thought this was cool!

Each recipe has it's own little page with instructions on the front and sometimes the back. Kind of neat!

And in case you want to order your own copy, this page is printed in the back of the book. :-)

I hope 2012 is a very artful year for you all! (and hopefully soon for me too lol)

Gone but not forgotten

I know I haven't been here in quite some time. But I haven't forgotten my blog, just was so busy trying to get Christmas presents completed that I had to move something to the back burner. Unfortunately, it was the blog.

BUT that means, now that I am back, I have TONS of pics for you to see!!! :-)

It is a sock monkey Christmas! It is still amazes me how someone could look at a pair of men's work socks and think....hmm, monkey! LOL

If you want to make your own sock monkey, the original sock company is still making the socks and includes the pattern with every pair!

I am still needle felting for myself between gift projects.

I made this little guy for myself. He is only about 1.5" tall. No matter how many pics I took, the camera would only focus on his surroundings and not him (I didn't know penguins were so good at camouflage!) This pic is from my phone and although not great, it is the best one I have.

I made some ornaments as gifts this year. Who wouldn't love a leaping lamb on their tree? I know I would be thrilled with one (and maybe, if time allows, I might get to make one for me lol)

I made a chickadee ornament for our tree. I seem to have issues with proportions on birds! (remember the finch incident documented early this year) But at least this one is recognizable as a bird though maybe not a chickadee lol

And finally, what took most of my time, a needle felted nativity for my mom. (and no one from my family ever reads my blog so I don't have to worry about her finding out)

My mom never asks me to make her anything. I make her stuff all the time but she never requests anything from me. So, when she called this fall and said, "um, if you have the chance, and I don't expect it anytime soon....maybe by Easter but if you don't have time, you can take a couple years or 10...just whenever you find time.....I want a cow, 2 sheep, Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus". Well, I felt (no pun intended lol) that I better get on the ball and see what I could do!

Below is the finish project. I had hubby build the stable (he did a great job!)

You see Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, a cow, 2 sheep AND a donkey. Now, Mom did not request a donkey and I totally love how he turned out...he is way more adorable in person! I debated for a couple days whether Mom really needed a donkey lol But, he didn't want to stay behind when all his barnyard friends were going so he jumped into the box too. :-)

Here is a bit closer view of the Holy Family.

A close up of Mary and the cow.

Here is the donkey. He is the only member made from alpaca. He is incredibly soft.

Another view of Mary's face with baby Jesus. You can sort of see Jesus' features in this one. And no, the lamb is not licking his head lol

This set was really a challenge for me but I am very happy with how it turned out. I am thinking I need a set for me but since I tend to only do 1 of something (other than sheep lol) I have a feeling I won't get one for me. :-)

Since I doubt I will be back on here before the 25th (unless I complete some really awesome project in the next few days), I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

Lots of Joy, Love and Art!

Cheryl