conversations with the residents

Yesterday you may have caught a glimpse of something I've been working on.  That spiky little guy is my latest textural stone and what I'm calling one of my "conversations with the residents".

Often when I'm out woods-wandering I'll find little mementos left by the woods-dwellers.  Some of these are not things I want to bring home (ahem) but sometimes I can't help but wonder what I can make with some of these found treasures.

A tuft of deer hair, a turkey feather, a couple of porcupine quills...

I've been holding on to these and waiting for the right project.  I like the mix of textures and the idea of combining found natural materials with cultivated natural materials.

I think I also like them because they're a little strange.

These little guys will be in my shop tomorrow, along with another set or two of textural stones. 

lil fish studios : shop

Have a great day, everybody.

dyeing (and playing) with acorns

After making my acorn flour from yesterday's post I was left with a bowlful of acorn shells.  I've seen them discolor water before so I thought I'd see if I could leach enough color out of them to dye wool, rather than just toss them back into the woods.

I put them all in the dyepot with some water and let them steep for a full day.  There was definitely color in the water but I decided to warm them up on a low burner for about an hour to coax more of it out.  Eventually the dye water turned to the color of coffee and I figured it was good to go.  I drained out the acorn shells and plunked my alum-mordanted wool in the warm dye and let it sit for several more hours.  The result was a pale tan, not unlike the color of the nut meat.

I wanted to make a little wool acorn out of this color so I wet-felted a bead and glued it into a cap and you know, it looked just like a little head with a fringe of hair sticking out from under its cap.  I figured I was due for some play time so I went in search of a body and wings and came up with this odd fella.

I'm not sure if he's a bug or a fairy or what.  I'll let my kids decide.  I've left him by the big oak, the one with the fairy pond in the middle, for them to discover.

Since I still had several gazillion acorns in the yard I also decided to play with one of the whole acorns and came up with this bitty ornament, complete with tiny wool mushroom.

It's good to play now and again, isn't it?

I hope you get some play time too.

Have a great weekend.

Land Art With The Wee Ones

A quick thank you to everyone who stopped by yesterday's post.  Your comments really made my day.

The boys and I played in the leaves this wandery weekend and tinkered with a little land art.  While the leaves on our trees have mostly fallen or turned brown, color still abounds closer to the forest floor.  The raspberry bushes have remarkable colors right now so we decided to grab an armful of them and explore.

We arranged our leaves in a gradient of color, running from red to green, along a large downed pine.  There were many tiny thorns to deal with so momma got this job.  The boys placed stones where each leaf overlapped.

After dinner the wind had died down a bit so we went back out to remove the stones and free the leaves to change with the forces of nature.

Oh look, here comes a force of nature now...

swish!

swish!

This was all that remained after hurricane E blew through.

  I guess she thought our work could be improved upon because after she cleared ours off, she began work on her own.  (she's opting for a more monochromatic arrangement)

Have you played in the leaves lately?

Acorn Mushroom Ornament Tutorial

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.

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Here's an earthy little ornament project for you to try.  The boys and I had fun making these and wanted to share them with you.

What you'll need:

• acorn caps without stems
• twigs cut into lengths of about an inch
• glue (we used wood glue because that's what we had, but something like Tacky Glue would work better)
• cotton balls
• a toothpick or other pointy tool
• hemp, twine, or ribbon (if you intend to make hanging ornaments)
• drill or dremel tool (if you intend to make hanging ornaments)

Flip your acorn cap upside down and put a generous dollop of glue in it.  Let the glue set up for a few minutes until it starts to get a bit tacky.  This will help your twig stay upright a little better. 

We put our caps in an egg carton to keep them steady, and to contain glue spillage.  (after all, my helpers are a bit messy)

When your glue has set up a bit, insert a piece of twig into the acorn cap.

Unroll a bit of cotton from your cotton ball and using the toothpick, poke it around the stem into the glue.  The boys really liked this part because they thought they were needle-felting.

Allow your mushroom to dry, and voila!  An adorable little mushroom!

If you'd like to make a hanging ornament, drill a hole in the top of cap and thread through a piece of hemp, twine, ribbon, etc. and repeat the same process.

I think these will look great tied on a package or hanging in the Christmas tree this year.

The boys and I had a little fun hiding some of these in the woods.  You can see some of those pics here on my flickr page.

Enjoy!