Tuesday 14 May 2013

Upcoming Show and Gallery

 
The Bragg Creek Painters Annual Show and Sale is coming up and I am busy getting ready for it!

 I hope to have some of my 2D felt there as well as paintings and stone pictographs.































Also, I now have some of my work at a gallery in Olds, Alberta. If you are interested in a nice day trip from Calgary, you might want to check it out. It is a quaint little shop called
Different Strokes. Olds, Alberta is a lovely foothills "Western Town." I made the treck up there today through four seasons of weather - ya gotta love Spring in Alberta. I highly recommend the Highway 22 route for beautiful views of the foothills and mountains. I had to stop many times to take photos that I hope turn out - the beautiful wispy, watery clouds got me inspired to make more felt!

Wednesday 8 May 2013

2D Felt - a New Obsession

I've been experimenting with wet felting and have found a new passion! Originally I was put off by the amount of physical labour and control issues. No kidding - my biceps, triceps, and back were singing. I started playing with landscape stuff on my own but it didn't click for a few years until I started browsing for ideas and techniques and voila!
Birds in Paradise
I've put together a few techniques to come up with one that works for me! I start with a composition and colours in mind, lay out a background supporting layer, lay dyed wool into the composition, do a first partial felting, dry and add detail with needle felting, refelt, (repeat as needed) and then embellish with stitching by hand or machine. I am not an enthusiastic sewer although have tackled some clothing and curtains over the years. My sewing machine and I had an uneasy relationship with more than one type of tension issue, so ended up buying a new machine along the way. I also had to learn to card wool go figure. Figuring out how to artistically support the final product so that it doesn't look like a blob of wool thrown on the wall is part of the challenge. In "Cardinals in Winter" I felted it with a folded edge backing so that a supporting board could be enclosed. 
Cardinals in Winter
 
I have two more pieces waiting to be stitched so best get back to it.
 
By the way, the Calyx Sale was awesome as always - thanks to those who dropped by!