spring exhibition - works in progress

our local art group's yearly exhibition is on the horizon. which means that we've stepped up the creativity around here. i'm putting together some rusty bits and pieces with driftwood, to fit the "skrot" (scrap) theme.

these are going to hang from something or other in a way that's still but a vague and blurry (partially due to my eyes being very affected by the birch pollen in air) picture in my mind.

i like that this one ended up having a kind of talisman feel.  it has slightly less rusty bits, but that's just the direction it went in.

tho' i'm still composing in my head, i know that the pressure of the deadline and an otherwise rather busy week will work together to make it happen. that's how it always is. i'm a girl in need of a deadline.

this old bottle of ink i got in a box of goodies at the autumn flea market a couple of years ago. rather fun to put it to use .

this broken pot is a piece that our drink & draw group worked on together on friday evening. the hostess of the last drink & draw dropped it and thought it would be a good idea to paint the shards and try to reassemble it. so that's precisely what we did.

i love how it turned out, even if it did take me 2 days to glue it together. we've got plans for it as well, involving some old shoes, a horse hoof with the shoe still one (the rest of the horse was long ago fed to the lions at a nearby zoo - that's how we roll in denmark, after all, we do like to keep our lions fed). due to all of us using the same inks, it harmonizes but bears the style of each of us. i like that. i'll be sure to share the final version once it's finished. i've passed it along to another from the group now.

peephole stones :: work in progress

when i'm at the beach, i love to look for stones with holes in them. i also love felting stones, tho' i do always have a pang of anguish over covering up my carefully-selected stone. so last night i decided to experiment with felting a stone with peepholes, so i could have the felt and still enjoy the stone.

i ran a couple of experiments - wrapping the stones, cutting holes and then felting. that doesn't work too well. you have to wrap the stone (use lisa's great tutorial), felt it a bit, so the felt is tight around the stone, then cut your holes and continue felting.

i got a bit fancy with this one, using two colors. i felted the orange around the stone first, then added the red, felted a bit and carefully trimmed the red layer away from the orange before they got too stuck together. i loved that the stone had a little hole started and i wanted it to show.

a couple of them came off the stones and i ended up with these little felty vessels instead. i'm going to play with them some more to see what they might become.

i'm also going to add some more embellishment (stitching, beads, painting on the stone) to these, so they're still works in progress. but i just had to share them already now. i feel like they're a breakthrough in making the felted stone notion my own. and they're getting me closer to a picture that's in my head. stay tuned.

i played a bit with my new inks yesterday as well, painting a few feather stones and even a bit of driftwood (the inks bleed on it in unexpected ways). i am madly in love with the paynes grey. the sun has gone again and there's a light sprinkling of snow on the ground, so it's a perfect day to stay inside with a cup of tea and play with felt and stones and ink.

finishing friday - take 2

if you recall, i declared last friday to be finishing friday and i cannot believe it's already here again! this time, i mean business on the finishing (last time may have dissolved into a new soft flannel scarf for me). but this time, i've got to bind this quilt, because it needs to head off to its new home on monday! i've got it all cut out, it's just a matter of sewing it on.

this zig-zag quilt, i backed with the most wonderful mossy green wool. it's soft and rich and lovely. and even better than the minky fleece i used on the other quilt. i will definitely be using these gorgeous wool fabrics as backing for these couch cuddlers again.

i'm hoping to have this old chair recovered soon - it's the first piece of furniture that husband and i bought together and as you can see, it's a bit tired and various cats have used it as a scratching post. i do still love the color tho'. but i think i'll have it covered using the beautiful patchwork i got from heather moore - and which i couldn't bear to leave in the old house. it's not a task i dare to tackle myself, so i guess i've got to find an upholstery shop.

this vibrant pink tulle will be turned into part of a "girly spy" costume that sabin wants to wear for fastelavn celebrations at school on monday. if you're having trouble seeing that, you're not alone.

there are lots of unfinished projects going on here...sorting of beads, making of a bag for the aforementioned spy costume, a tea cozy, some garlands...so much to do on finishing friday, so i'd better get to it.

color me rainbow friday

thank you for joining me for my color week! i hope your week was colorful too!