Beautiful Things

My deer head is finally finished!  I had a strange vision of crocheting a taxidermy deer head and a dear friend (homonym humor) and I took our girls on a Hobby Lobby excursion and I picked up a paper mache head that would work just perfect for what I had in mind.  After some experimenting, I decided to use my thin sport weight yarn and worked in single crochet stitches starting with the antlers.  It was no easy task trying to wrestle the deer head into the proper positioning on my lap while holding the stitching onto the form and each stitch was a tight squeeze between the previous stitching and the form.  It took me forever!  I had wanted to do swirls and circles but in the end, the straighter stitches seemed to work best, at least for my first attempt!  Then came the tricky part of figuring out how to mount the head.  The paper mache came with no hook or mounting bracket and I was afraid to tape or glue something on fearing the weight of the yarn would eventually rip the paper mache.  Phil made a plaque and rounded out the center to fit the slightly wonkiness of the base but was unable to keep the deer head from slipping out of it and then the plaque cracked.  Plan B was to get a piece of wood twice as thick and try it again.  That seemed to work and then he fit a flush piece of metal on the back and screwed it in to keep the head in position.  It worked perfectly.  

TA DA!





I have been working on felted water lily "paintings" and learning so much in the process!  I have several water lily impressionist pictures printed up on the wall so I can see the way that light dances off the water, how artists use color, what makes a pleasing composition, etc.. for inspiration.  Felt is a tricky medium, I never quite know how it is going to turn out but I have been practicing blending colors and I am pleased with the way silk, glittery fibers, and wool locks are working together to create the piece.  I lay out a back ground of white fibers and then I work on creating the background and the composition - blending fibers together, cutting and twisting shapes, snipping little pieces of wool for accents, etc..  

Then comes the felting...water, soap, and a whole lot of "elbow grease".  After the picture has dried, I put it up on the white board with magnets and study it pondering where to add shadows, how to soften colors, define shapes, fix little mishaps where the wool shifted during the felting process, etc..  I do this by needle felting.  Then, back up on the white board it goes until I am happy with the results.  This is pretty much the look it will have from a distance.  

Next, comes the machine stitching.  I free-motion stitch the entire piece down "sketching" in the fine details with assorted colors of threads.  Sometimes the tension is off or it doesn't look right and I have to pick out stitching and start over but by the time I have finished, the picture really has a lot of up close interest and detail.  Some pieces have a lot of stitching and others a small amount.  It just depends on how everything is pulling together through each step.  

The final step is to hand sew and embroidery on the piece.  I place stitches where I think an extra highlight or detail is needed or if I need some unity or flow.

Before felting...


...After felting.

A finished piece.

Before Felting...

Sewing in French Knots


This piece has a lot of sewing both machine stitching and hand stitching.

And of course, inspiration is all around me!

A lupine blooming in my garden.

A cactus bloom.


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