I have been trying to balance my art creation time between
wet and needle felting projects. After
the boys are off to school each morning I transform the kitchen into a wet
felting studio. The height of the central
island is perfect for keeping my back happy as I work. I have been playing more with colors as
I create vessels that are dimensional and textured. It has been a lot of fun to explore little experiments using
merino top with different colors and exterior patterns. I’m learning about how the wet felting
technique itself affects the outcome.
For example, if I do the entire felting
and fulling process on the resist (a balloon), I can encourage the fibers
closest to the balloon to migrate to the surface. I realized this because when I use two colors of fleece I
can get the lower fleece to peek through the upper layer. If I do the fulling without the resist,
the process happens more quickly but I don’t get as many inner fibers peeking
through the surface layer. I have
some more ideas on how to create new textures on the surface and I’ll
experiment with those this week. I
feel like I’m on a fun working vacation by taking a break from my weaving.
I have spent a lot of time creating tiles that will act as backdrops
for my new my individual felted fruits and vegetables tiles. In this project I have benefitted from
the fabulous advertising job that Cardinal Stage Company does in town. They use corrugated plastic yard signs
to get the word out about their shows, but unfortunately the material is not
recyclable.
I have found lots of
uses for them in costume and prop creation for Pippin, but now I’m using them as
a rigid support for the black felt background for my small tile pieces. This week I focused on creating
turnips, oranges, and jalapenos to feature on the tiles. My collection of felted pieces is
steadily growing, so I should a nice collection by November 4th. That’s the opening date for the
Artisan’s Guild show at the Convention Center, which runs Friday from 5 to 9
and Saturday from 9 to 5 on November 4th and 5th.
Saturday proved to be a wonderful day for a morning visit to
the farmer’s market. The weather
was cool, crisp and amazing.
Marina at le Petit Café served us hot cocoa and mocha to warm us up
until we got into the sun, but soon we were focused on the abundance of fall vegetables. We will have family visiting each of
the next two weekends for Pippin and I’m planning to make a big pot of vegetarian
chili and freeze it in meal size units.
I’ll be sneaking in a lot of yummy vegetables—red peppers, onions,
eggplant, zucchini, summer squash—and may be even sweet potatoes. I love to have meals in the freezer! They are also perfect for family evenings
when everyone is exhausted and no one is excited about making dinner. It is good to have something ready to
pull out. The last word of the
week goes for a pie report. I
finished the last slice of the apple pie on Friday and no replacement appeared
on Saturday! I didn’t see any raspberries
Saturday at the market, and I guess it’s too soon for another apple pie. Grandma and Tim are visiting this
weekend and I’m sure they’re going to want a pie. I can’t wait to see what happens!
Until next week,
Martina Celerin
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