stones on the go

Stitched, packed, and on their new adventures.

Thanks to everyone who gave one a home.

random thoughts after an absence

I don't really mind the Creeping Charlie that surrounds my fish pond. Many shun this interloper but when I approach our patch and hear it humming from the bees that visit, it makes it okay. I'm a fan of diversity, so I don't want my entire yard to be full of it, but I can deal with this much.

We took a camping trip out to the Black Hills of South Dakota last weekend, stopping in some of our favorite spots, old and new. The kids got a kick out of Wall Drug, we all marveled at the changing scenery, and were amazed at the world beneath our feet at Jewel Cave. The highlight of the trip for my wee ones was a stop at a rock shop in Hill City where they got to "pan" for gems and fossils. They shook their screens in the sluice and pulled out some beauties that they traded and bartered for hours and hours. The simple things are the best.

I was talking to my friend Heather today about balance. Specifically when it comes to incorporating art time into our lives. Though I'm surrounded by art in my day job, the opportunities for my own arting time are slim, and the balance feels off. And that's never good. I took advantage of the long drive last weekend to do some needling while my husband drove. I now have a pile of pieces, and some day, perhaps something will come of them. We shall see.

My youngest picked me a bowl of Columbine flowers today to nibble on together because when she saw the "honeysuckle" she said it reminded her of how much she loved me. Normally I encourage the kids to leave the flowers for the bees, but when your baby brings you a bowl of honeysuckle out of love, well, you reckon the bees can have some of that Creeping Charlie for now.

I've been holding on to two finished stones for some time now, anticipating that I would have stitchy time, any day now! and I could get a batch together for a shop update. Well, since that isn't in the plans right now, I've put them both in my shop in hopes that they will find a home that loves them.

This one with the pale purple beads reminds me of lace... that bit of great, great grandma's that is in my dresser drawer, the dried Queen Anne's stalks at the roadside, and the trembling webs of spiders that lace the morning grass.

This stone is also in the shop and it's just joyous. When I look at it, I feel joy. Color, excitement, joy. I hope it evokes the same feeling for someone.

The stones can be found in my shop, and with luck, I can be found in this spot with more frequency soon.

If any of you are still out there, reading...thank you for hanging in there with me. 

day 2 stone

My day 2 stone. A messy, wild version of lilacs. Their scent is thick in the air right now and I love it.

It joins my day 1 stones. (I was so eager to begin, I ended up making 2 stones in one day)

how to make a solid wool felted stone

Work life has been very busy lately. To make the most of my art time, I've been looking at ways to streamline my process a bit. I've been wanting to do a hanging piece with my stones, without having the weight of actual stones. I've made solid wool stones before by needle-felting them firmly and then wet-felting them, but it takes time that I just don't have right now.  This method allows me to make a batch of stones at a time with much less effort.

Want to give it a try?

You'll need:

wool roving/batting that will felt

felted wool sweater

a knee-high stocking or a leg from pantyhose

scissors

washing machine

felting needle (optional but helpful)

plastic bag

dish soap

If you've followed my tutorial for felted stones, this will be pretty self-explanatory. We'll substitute felted sweater for the stone, following the same steps, but allowing the washing machine to do the felt work for us.

From the wool sweater, cut a basic stone shape. You'll want to cut one larger piece for the center, widest, part of the stone and two smaller pieces, one for the top and one for the bottom. No need to get exact here as the felting will alter the shape and make it nicely rounded.

Next you'll lay out a little mat of roving for your stone slightly wider and about 3 times longer than your stone. Lay a thin layer out with the fibers running horizontally, and a second layer with the fibers running vertically. This will encourage the fibers to tangle together more easily around your "stone". Roll the wool "stone" up in the fiber, tucking the sides in and making a neat little package.

Using your felting needle, tack the edges and ends in place. No need to needle the whole surface, just get it to stay put long enough to get to the next step.

Now repeat those steps until you have a pile of little wool stones-to-be, and grab your stocking.

If the stocking you're using has a seam in the toe, turn it inside out. I've found that the seam will make an indent in the stone, which is fixable, but easily avoidable.

Now slide your first stone down into the toe of the stocking and tie a knot right above it.

Keep adding stones and tying between each one until the stocking is filled. Resist the urge to whack people with your stocking of stones. The kids will see and follow suit. (I make the mistakes so you don't have to)

Now, if you want to make lots and lots of stones this way you can save up all your stone-filled stockings until you have a washer load full. If you want to make just a few, or if you are impatient, toss that stocking in with a load of jeans and let 'er go. I ran these for one cycle, but if you see they're not felting well enough, toss them in another load and let them go again.

They're pretty gnarly looking when they're done.

Get out your scissors and set them free. Cut above the knot and peel the stocking off of your stone.

Whoa. The surface is pretty unruly, but that's okay, we can fix the surface. We're more concerned about the center being pretty well felted. That's the step that takes time if you were to do them by hand. These are well-felted so we'll just address that surface fuzz.

Take your fuzzy stone to the sink and wet the surface with a little warm water and a drop of soap. Rub the stone using the plastic bag for about 30 seconds. Rinse off the stone and set it aside to dry.

See? So much better.

In a relatively short amount of time and with minimal felting effort you can have a whole pile of solid wool stones that you can use in your projects.

A few things to keep in mind:

Choose a wool center that won't bleed color, or choose a color that will work with your design if it does bleed. Grey is a safe choice, red might not be.

Some plastic bags are printed with ink that will transfer once wet. Turn your plastic bag inside out and avoid using the printed area.

After you rinse your stone, just set it down and let it dry. You can trim off any stray fuzzies with small scissors once it's dry.

********

Soon...well, soonish...I'll show you what I did with mine.

If you try this out I'd love to see what you're doing with them. Drop me a line or leave a comment and share!

If you find this, or one of my other tutorials, helpful and would like to make a monetary contribution to help me keep wool in my basket and ideas flowing, I'd be so grateful.  By clicking the "Buy Now" button below you can choose your own price for the tutorial.  It's completely optional, but oh so appreciated.

well that was fast

Just the other day I checked in on the mushrooms in a tree and mentioned that I would check on them again after the first snowfall.  Turns out I didn't have to wait long.  So here we go, mushrooms in snow.  

I'll check on them again at a later date.

In the meantime I'm stitching a few stones.  It seems that my soul is rebelling against the grey (and now white) landscape and I'm reaching for the sun in the form of wool stones.

I'm going to do one more "First Timers" grab bag since I still had some folks who wanted a stone but didn't get one last time.  I will do that this coming Sunday at noon, my time.  (Central time)  So folks on the east coast that will be 1pm your time, folks on the west coast that will be 9am your time.  I wish there were a "just right" time for everyone to get a chance at a stone but there doesn't seem to be.  With the demands of my day job and my family life, I just have to squeeze them in at my own "just right" time.  I hope you understand.  Someday I'll be working for myself full-time and then it will be different, but until then...

Happy Thursday, all.

ah, the weekend

Wanna guess what I plan to do this weekend?

:)

for Mary

A healing stone requested by a friend.

Heading off tomorrow with lots of well-wishes.

new stones in the shop

Three new stones in my shop.

Headed off to my day job, the last workday before a whole week off.  Family coming in to town, fun to be had, relaxing to be done.

Good stuff.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

storm stone

A storm's a brewin.

Will it pour purple rain?

Unrest and ridiculous.

Sort of sums of my mood.

into the woods

I think my fingers are telling me I need to get into the woods.

growing stitches

A bowl of green.  Slowly growing stitches.

random stuff on a Tuesday

I had a craving this week for something sweet and creamy.  I really wanted ice cream, but alas, we had none.  I did have some rhubarb stalks though and coconut milk.  I infused a simple syrup with the rhubarb (which, holy wow, is that tasty) and added it to a slushie I made with the coconut milk and grated ginger.  Yes.  Oh my yes.  About a gazillion calories, but yes anyway.

I bought this sweet little oil lamp from my friend Haddie the potter and my kids lost the wick so I turned it into a little water reservoir for an acorn.  I keep it on my window ledge at work and when I came back after the weekend I found that my acorn has sprouted teeny tiny leaves.  Happiness.

Betty thinks my patio furniture is her perch.  It is not.  Do you hear me, Betty?  Not.

In a few days I may be a grandma.  Our little Goose may be a daddy soon. Though I never count my chickens ducks before they hatch, two of the eggs in the incubator have pipped as of this morning.  They still have to make it through hatch, but there is a little hope that I might have two ducklings to love soon.  Cross your fingers for us.

Stones.  I miss working on stones.  My work life and my home life have been pretty busy and my hands are yearning for their own work.  I'm hoping to put some of these stones in them this weekend.

What's up with you?

shadow stones in the shop

Some of those stones I talked about last week have found their way into my shop.  Each with a shadow of a leaf imprinted upon it.  Stitched with the very same thread that bound the leaf and stone together during the long winter.  Coupled now in a different way.

Each is a worn grey, turned so by an afterdip of iron to highlight the color the tannins left behind.

When held in the right light you can see those permanent leaf shadows upon them.   Reminders of the seasonal change.

In my shop now as a set of three because I couldn't bear to split them up.