A Feathered Visitor

 Look who was up in our tree this morning. This is a tree right by our house with all the bird houses, feeders etc on it. It's a grouse.

 Usually you see grouse on the ground and I've never seen one up this high before. He/she sat willingly to get photos taken and stayed in the tree for about three hours.

The colors of his/her feathers were absolutely beautiful and I was glad I could get some close ups to show all of you.

Cocoon Jacket Class

 I taught the second session for the cocoon jackets today. Unfortunately, we had two students that were unable to attend. But Vicki and Diana made two beautiful jackets. Here's Diana starting on her layout.

 Here are Vicki and Paula perfecting their rolling technique. We did LOTS of rolling.

 Diana is getting her piece warmed up in hot water in preparation for fulling.

 And here she is doing some gently throwing. After lots of work, both of these lovely ladies ended up with absolutely gorgeous jackets. We pinned the shoulder seams together so we could get the fit right.

 And here's Vicki in her jacket. She added fringe to the ends so the fringe ended up along the shoulder seams and was a great addition.

 Here's Diana in her jacket. She is wearing it with the silk side out. These are reversible jackets so they can be worn with the wool side or silk side on the outside.

It was a really fun class and we all learned something. Especially about fitting the jackets. Thanks Diana and Vicki for being great students, I had a blast!

Making Paper

 Our local fiber art group met today and we made hand made paper. I've never made paper before because the preparation always seems too overwhelming. But Carole really made it simple. She had all the screens ready and showed us a simple way to make small sheets of paper.

 I have tons of dyed paper towels that I have been saving so I tore some green, yellow and blue ones up and soaked them in warm water. Then whirred them up in a blender and poured the pulp in a tub with extra water. I got so involved that I forgot to take any more photos. But you take the screen and scoop up paper pulp and then squeeze out the excess water.

Here are some of our finished sheets of paper. The bright colored pieces are felt that we used for soaking up excess water. My pieces are the two bright green pieces towards the bottom. It was lots of fun and now I have to see what the paper looks like when dry. Next time we are going to learn some bookbinding techniques so I think I'll save my paper for that.

Craft in America - Threads

If you're in the USA, I thought you might be interested in this program that's coming up on PBS. Here's information from Carol Sauvion about the program.

Dear CRAFT Professional :

We are pleased to announce a new episode of the Peabody Award-winning PBS series, “Craft in America: Threads” – will be aired on PBS stations nationwide on Friday, May 11, 2012 at 9pm*.

Please check your local station for exact airdate/time and tune in!

And PLEASE let all you friends, family, craft community, social network followers… and all craft lovers nationwide know by forwarding the attached postcard – your help is so important to us!

Craft in America: Threads explores work by Faith Ringgold, Randall Darwall, Consuelo Jimenez Underwood, and Terese Agnew – nationally acclaimed fiber artists who through story-quilts, fiber collages and woven textiles go beyond pure technique. Throughout history, man has sought ways to craft a domestic environment that is warm, comforting, and redolent of meaning and memories. Through interviews with nationally acclaimed artists working at the forefront of their media, artists devoting their lives and pushing boundaries of technique in the pursuit of their art, Threads looks at ways in which the needle arts have evolved from the functional to the meaningful.

The Craft in America series is the result of years of advocacy, research and filmmaking. The story of American Craft is integral to the history of America - its immigrant experience, natural resources, and vital creativity – a story of creating beauty from humble materials.

*check local listings

Please take a look at the "sneak peek" preview:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en77AmkHItA

We very much appreciate any help you can give us in our efforts to tell craft lovers across America about this upcoming episode!

The story of American Craft crosses all cultural, geographic and political lines.

Enjoy the show and THANK YOU for your invaluable support!

Carol Sauvion & Craft in America

1120 S. Roberston Bl.; Suite 301

Los Angeles, CA  90035

Tel: 310.659.9022

www.craftinamerica.org

Cocoon Jacket Class

On Friday, I taught the first session of the Cocoon Nuno Jacket class at Camas Creek Yarn. I had four students but one had to leave early. We worked on making a sample and then the rest of the day was spent designing, measuring, figuring and deciding what yardage was needed for each jacket.

 There was lots of calculating, measuring, trying on and re-calculating.

 We used newspaper and muslin to make a pattern and to see how the jacket would fit.

 Here is Judy's sample (not really this green). She is going to make some changes on her final jacket as she didn't like the dark blue blobs.

 This is Vicki's sample. She is planning on doing much thinner edges and thinner strips of wool on her jacket.

This one is Diana's sample. She is planning on dyeing her jacket after it is felted. She used a yellow piece of silk but will be using white on her jacket.

The class meets again in two weeks and we'll be felting all day. I can't wait to see the finished jackets :)

Picasso Challenge

 Here is a photo of my piece I made for our group's Picasso challenge. It's my hubbie on his tractor. And I have to say it looks just like him! LOL

It was fun putting this together. I didn't spend a lot of time on it thus the use of packing tape but it was fun.

This is the sculpture by Picasso that inspired me. I have never really liked his paintings so when I was looking him up online, I searched under sculpture. And this intrigued me. So I tried a cardboard sculpture. Have you studied any artist's work and then done something in their style? My local group is doing just that each month. It's been interesting.

Picasso Dogs and New Silk Screens

 I met with my surface design group on Friday and we had fun playing with a drawing exercise and making new silk screens. We used the EZ Screen Print sheets and Bunny's Yudu machine.

 This is the result of the Picasso dog drawing exercise. I heard about this idea from a podcast that I listened to here. It might have been the one from Diana Trout but I can't remember. Anyways, you keep turning the page and adding an eye, a foot, a tail, a snout etc. Then you connect the lines to make a Picasso dog. Mine is the bottom left one. It was fun for our Picasso exercise we did this past month. I don't seem to have a photo of my Picasso tractor sculpture that I made. I'll have to show you that later.

 Here are some of the silk screens we made. Most of us were going for background type texture to add to our projects. My four are on the left. Several of mine look like bark, can you imagine? Jan's are in the middle and Louise's are on the right. Isn't her cheesecloth one cool?

 These are Carole's. The one on the bottom right is my favorite.

 And here are Bunny's on the left. Her flower on the top left printed out really well. I am planning on doing something with these screens soon so more photos to follow.

Have you used a hat form before?

 I recently got three hat forms from Hat Shapers to make more felt hats. In the past, I just shaped my hats with the washboard and fulling techniques. I would then put plastic bags inside to hold the shape while the hat dried. But to make a hat that is really specific, it works wonders if you have a hat form. The hat above was an experiment and was only partially successful. It was going to be a flat beret with a brim but it ended up looking really silly. So I turned it into a baseball cap with the help of a hat form. It still looks a bit silly but at least it doesn't cause people to fall down laughing.

 This hat is a sample made using a Columbia wool from Oregon. It comes in these really nice tweedy colors. It doesn't felt as quickly as merino but it's very sturdy and works really well for hats. I used the fedora hat shaper for this one and it actually looks like a fedora.

I used flax and bamboo fiber to add a little embellishment to the brim. I'm still trying to work out where you put embellishments that will end up in the area of the hat band. It's hard to determine that exactly because of the shrinkage and how the hat form works. I never thought I would like making hats but with the hat forms, they are really easy. I have no connection with Hat Shapers but I do like their products.

Nuno Felting Class Coming Soon

I am working on a class to make these style of cocoon jackets with nuno felt. Take a look at my recent post over at the Felting and Fiber Studio to see more. Keep an eye out on the website for Camas Creek Yarn to sign up. For those of you who are from out of town, Camas Creek has flats to rent right upstairs so you can stay and learn.

Inspiration Deck

 In February, I found a blog by Jess Brogan called In Search of Dessert. She was hosting a inspiration deck swap which you can read about here. So I decided to join up and participate. I applied gesso to a deck of playing cards on both sides and then painted them.

 This is what they looked like after I painted and stenciled them.

 Then I printed out a bunch of inspirational sayings on white paper, cut them out and glued them down with a combination of gel medium and walnut ink. That way I glued down the paper at the same time as giving them a coat of walnut ink.

 On the back of the card I put my name and blog addresses. I hope no one was offended by this one but it makes me laugh.

 On Friday, I received these in the mail. A deck of 52 cards from different people with inspirational sayings. Now when I'm in need of inspiration, I can take out the deck and find some. I can also check out 52 different websites or blogs of people who made these.

 I am going to show a few of the cards that I received. Aren't they wonderful?

I always think it's great to see what other people come up with when they follow the same instructions. This was a fun swap and thanks to everyone who participated for making my cards. And thanks to Jess for coordinating and making up all these packs of cards. It was fun.

I've been felting for the last two days so more photos to come soon.