Life Imitates Art II - The Journey

Partner in Crafty Crime

Elizabeth Shippen Green

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Taking time to smell the roses...be back soon.

Needle Felting

I love wool in all its forms: freshly shorn, washed and carded, dyed and spun into yarn. And I love all of the things that it can be made into. I once saw a book cover made from a plain piece of wool and some carded fleece. I thought it was beautiful and I wanted to learn how it was done. The person who made the book cover told me the process was called needle felting. While searching on the internet to find the materials I needed, I happened to meet a lovely woman in the UK who makes and sells plant-dyed carded fleece.


Isn't this gorgeous? Not only did I get beautiful wool, I made a friend as well.


So here's the little project I've been working on. I started with a scrap from an old wool cape, and I drew a freeform flower design on it. Using a needle especially made for needle felting, I take a small piece of the fleece and lay it on the spot I want to fill in. Then I stab at it repeatedly with the needle until it fills in the area I'm working on, like coloring with fibre. The stabbing causes the raw fleece to knot up in the wool, so it stays put.


Caution! Needle felting needles are long and very sharp. You hold the fleece down with one hand and the stab with the needle using the other. Should you miss and poke your finger, the less disciplined person might find themselves shouting something unladylike...ahem.


Now when I have seen pieces of this type, people display the fuzzy side as their finished side. But I don't care for the fuzzy look, so I use the back as the front. To me it looks like tapestry. When this is finished, I plan to make a small pillow with it.

Woot!

Our local library sells used books in their basement - 50 cents for a hardback book, and 25 cents for paperbacks. So happy to find these treasures. Didn't notice the theme until I got home. Actually it was my partner in crafty crime that pointed it out to me. I am one lucky duck.


My partner in crafty crime, a budding author, got lucky as well!

Time Travel, part II

The Pennsylvania Colonial Plantation is a living history museum and working farm. The plantation offers workshops for school aged kids each summer. There they learn 18th century farm life, foodways, and crafts.
Some examples of the camp offerings include: hearth cooking - building a proper fire to bake in a beehive oven; basketry - soaking reeds to weave a beautiful basket from scratch; pottery - handbuilding period items; farming - interpreting techniques and animal husbandry of the colonial era. There really is so much more than can be captured in this small space.
I taught a pottery class during this week. I would love to have taken more action shots of what was being taught by the talented instructors, but being busy with our workshops, I was glad to grab some pictures on the last day.

Time Travel

Once a week I get to dress up as an 18th century farm woman and teach school children what life was like in the 1700's. I work with some really excellent people and have learned a lot myself. Candlemaking and hearth cooking are among my favorite things to do there. The photo above is of a co-worker and was taken with my cell phone. I love it. To me, it looks like a painting.

Hearing in Color

When I hear music, I see paintings in my head. When I hear words, I see color. That's how my brain works, and I thank God for it. So listening to music and drawing and painting go hand in hand for me. Some of the most artistically inspiring music for me comes from a group called The Innocence Mission. Their song Bright As Yellow, written by Karen Peris, from their CD "Glow", is a favorite. Click the link and have a listen.

Bright As Yellow

And you live life with your arms reached out.
Eye to eye when speaking.
Enter rooms with great joy shouts,
Happy to be meeting.
And bright,
bright,
bright as yellow,
warm as yellow.
And I do not want to be a rose.
I do not wish to be pale pink,
But flower scarlet, flower gold.
And have no thorns to distance me,
but be bright,
bright,
bright as yellow,
warm as yellow.
Even if I'm shining, even if I'm shining here inside.
Even if I'm shouting, do you see that I'm wanting,
that I want to be so
bright,
bright,
bright as yellow,
warm as yellow.