Thursday, October 31, 2013

Working but not posting...

I don't know where this summer has gone... my son got married to a lovely young woman- so there was a whirlwind trip to Nova Scotia for a beautiful wedding... my eldest daughter decided she wanted to make some life changes and is now happily living here with us, going to school... we adopted a sweet girl to be Riley's BFF (another lab)... and somehow with all that and work and the other stuff that pops in and out of our lives... well, it's November tomorrow.

But I have been keeping very busy. I gardened all summer. Other than copious amounts of herbs, I didn't get much to SHOW for it all- but it was just great to be out there working with the plants all summer.

I made pickles and canned tomatoes and have put lots of veggies in the freezer. I have been cooking delicious dinners all summer, and enjoying myself immensely while doing it.

I have also been wading through fabric.

I made a stack of place mats for our table. I have been finishing up old projects- and- GASP- throwing out ones that I hate, are ugly, or aren't worth my time anymore. I am taking Heather's advice- if I have already learned what it has had to teach me and I don't want it- out it went. Boy, did that feel good.

And I have continued on my Elements series. The first was Water, my mermaid girl. She's done up to the point where I showed you. I won't finish any of them past that until I decide how to mount them- finish them- because I want them to have some unity as a group. I want them to be able to hang as a series, even though I expect to give one to each of my three daughters and they likely won't.

Anyway, the next one I have almost finished is Fire, my phoenix girl. I actually intended for her to be a dragon, but she came out a phoenix. Funny how that happens, isn't it???

Here she is, with all of the fibers and everything laid under the water soluble plastic. This plastic is top and bottom, and helps the sewing machine glide over the fibers- otherwise it would be a mess for sure!


Here is a closer look at her face, again done on Lutradur (photocopied on there from a sketch of mine) and then colored in with Prismacolors. I have used a variety of fibers throughout. For her hair: wool and silk rovings, Angelina, and ribbon. For her wings: dyed cheesecloth. For her body: various ribbons, crinkly cardboard, silk carrier rods, and thread.


Most of her hair is quilted in the photo below and one wing is done. Once the other wing is done, the body fibers are tacked down, and her face is outlined enough to hold it down, I can gently rinse off the plastic and let her dry.


I will show you what she looks like when I get to that stage. Which should be tomorrow, because I am determined to get started on the next one ASAP. I have all of the supplies I need and am itching to get her going. She's been in my head for a few days now and needs to come out!