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

The fun just never stops!

I am having so much needle felting! I just can't stop!!!

Hubby requested a jack o'lantern and a Frankenstein. I thought I had some pics of the jack o'lantern but I can't find them so I will have to show him at a later date.

Here is Frankenstein. I used pipe cleaners in his legs for stability and he can stand on his own. He is about 6 inches tall and has a very Elvis quality about him lol.
I then I got hooked on sheep. My college roommate, Helen, says they are so adorable that she demanded I sell her one. She says....poofiness creates a major cute factor lol

So, I made one for her....but the poor guy missed the photo shoot. He is carefully packed in his box and waiting to be shipped to his new home.

These guys are 2 1/2 and 3 1/2 inches tall.
I got the idea that I wanted to create a koi....bad idea! He is so bad that it really had me wondering if it was just a fluke that I had made anything worth looking at before.

I had to really force myself to sit and concentrate today....this was the result. :-)

He stands about 3 1/2 inches to the tip of his ears. I was so thrilled because every part of him turned out just like I wanted (a first in felting for me).

I think he is my favorite so far. :-)

I have no idea what is coming next, I do know that there is a Santa on the horizon...he has been showing glimpses to my brain so he may be making an appearance soon. lol

Little Bandit strikes again!

I woke up this morning and just felt (heehee) the urge to create a raccoon. They are just so stinkin cute!

This little guy was caught in the act of stealing a goldfish! Shame on him!!!

It is actually paying homage to our poor goldfish....a few years ago, hubby got the idea that our backyard fountain needed some goldfish. So, he bought 2. Little tiny things, they happily played under the planted he so kindly bought for them. Such a peaceful existence for about 3 weeks...and then the neighborhood thief came to call! We have a huge raccoon that wanders into the yard on occasion...he is the biggest one I have ever seen! And our other neighbors, who have caught glimpses, agree! This guy is humongous! So, he ate one of our little fishies the first night and then had the other for dessert the next. Poor hubby was devastated! I am sure the fish were none too thrilled either!

Even to this day, every couple weeks or so, we see evidence that the thief has returned, he shoves things around in the fountain. I am sure he is looking for another snack.
My little friend stands about 2 inches tall and other than stealing this little felted fish, I think he is pretty harmless. :-)

I think I am addicted!

I am totally hooked on needle felting!!! I find I can be creative while sitting in my recliner catching up on my favorite shows! :-)

And, I completely lose track of time.....for someone with stress issues and chronic back pain, this is amazing!

I tried my hand at using a pattern today. I want to make some birds so I tried out the goldfinch pattern in the book Wool Pets. If you want some cute ideas with good instructions and tons of photos, you should check out this book.

Maybe because I was trying to match up the dimensions and such so closely...or maybe I just can't follow directions....but my proportions are bit off. But she is still cute (and only 2 inches long).
I love teddy bears! I have been making them and collecting them for most of my life. So, I am not sure why a teddy wasn't the first thing I tried to make lol

This little guy has a tiny pot belly and seed bead eyes. AND he is made from alpaca. Boy it that stuff slick and slippery!!! Way more difficult to work with than the merino I have been using. But I love the color! He is much darker than in the photo, almost like a burnt umber with blond and gray strands. He only sits (no more standing guys until I figure out what to put in their legs for support). He is 2 inches tall.

I think he may have to come sit on my work desk and keep me company all day. :-)

I always keep my promises

I made plaid soap! I struggled but managed to turn out some cute soaps that smell nice so it is all good. :-)

Here are my strips layered in my pan. The pan is red, my strips are yellow and orange...makes for a difficult picture. I used a 9" silicon pan.
I then added the last layer of white, let the whole thing cool, then cut out soaps with cookie cutters. I have pumpkins and crinkly circles. They smell wonderful! Pumpkin Pie!

And while waiting on soap to harden...which is not as exciting as you might think....I felted this little lady. I had purchased the green wool just because I knew it was perfect witch's skin color lol

She stands about 5 inches tall. And, because someone asked me, I know for a fact that she weighs a whopping .2 ounces!

Here is a close-up of her lovely complexion....and beautiful hooked nose. :-)

And of course, how can it be fall and I NOT make a scarecrow????

This little guy stands 5.5 inches tall! And has his little crow buddy on his arm. I am definitely in 'learn as you go' mode and just exploring and playing. Next time I think I will add some sort of support in his legs before felting them. For this guy, I think I am going to have to try to insert some sort of stabilizer if I want to make him stand up.

Here he is close-up with his best friend.

Always Learning Something New

I have wanted to learn how to make soap for about 20 years but the thought of having to deal with lye and rendering down animal fat left me, well, a bit queasy.

But alas, just a few weeks ago, I heard about Melt and Pour soap making. Holy Cow! Why didn't someone tell me about this before????

I get to melt down and mold my own soaps with my choice of color and fragrance....right in my own kitchen! Using just my microwave!!!!! I am a very happy girl!

Below are the soaps I made in just my first few days.
The large round was molded in a 3" PVC pipe. The small rounds were done in a silicone muffin pan and the leaf was from an autumn silicone pan that has leaves and pumpkins (the leaves are scented with "AppleJack and Peel" Yum!)
Here are some more using the silicone muffin pan. I used mica colorant....isn't it the coolest thing? You can look into the depths of the color! And I scented them with "Orange Spice". They smell good enough to eat! lol

I just got my package of new colorants so this weekend I am hoping to make some plaid soap! Yes, PLAID! You will definitely see pics....even if I mess them up! lol

I bought all my supplies at BrambleBerry. They have a huge selection and really awesome tutorials on youtube. Just look for Soap Queen.

I think I must have artistic ADD....I can't seem to learn enough different things! Usually I leave some space between new projects but not this time lol We were over at the coast last weekend and stopped in a sweet little wool shop in Langlois (Oregon), Wild Rivers Wool Factory. They are currently totally hooked on felting (another art form I have been dying to try). I loaded up the car with all kinds of felting supplies (actually, just one shopping bag - and wool is very light so it weighed next to nothing lol)

I ordered a couple books from Amazon.....hurry up and get here please!!!!! But I couldn't just let those wonderful new supplies just sit so I began playing around.

Here is my very first attempt...not great, not horrific. At least you can tell it is a bunny. Or at least I hope you can! haha
He is not firm like I wanted but I'll keep him around. :-)

I read online the best way to learn how to shape the wool and practice with your firmness is to make balls. Ok. But who wants a bunch of little balls rolling around the room? (other than the cats!)

So I made a ball....then made it into a pumpkin. :-) The actual pumpkin is about an inch tall.

More ball practice....this time they morphed into a snowman. But I couldn't just have a couple balls stuck together. He needed personality so I gave him some chubby cheeks and a spiffy hat and scarf. His mouth isn't as 'smiley' as I wanted but for just my third project, I am very happy. (and those cheeks make me smile)

I thought I would share one of my coast trip pics. We went out to the lighthouse at sunset. This is my favorite lighthouse and it just glows in the setting sunlight.

Coquille River Lighthouse, Bandon, Oregon.