finger knitting and no work stuff

I promised myself that this weekend I would not do work stuff.  I mostly kept my word and instead dyed lots of fiber, made some yummy treats for the class I'm teaching tonight, and taught my youngest how to finger knit.  She caught on right away and soon she had taught her big brother how to do it.  So far she has made herself a scarf and a bracelet, with plans for a blanket in the works.

I just might have to learn to spin some of this wool, to keep her supplied with yarn.

How was your weekend?

Happy Monday, all.

middlin's

Some medium-sized stones have cropped up on my worktable.  Larger than an art-o-mat stone but smaller than my larger stones.  Middlin's.

I haven't decided yet if these will become grab bag stones, go into the Sales Gallery where I work to benefit our non-profit, or something else.  In the meantime I'll keep adding to the pile and we'll see what happens.

Happy mid-week, all.

stone completed - as in greece

I finished a stone yesterday for my project.  I had high hopes of having all of my stones completed by now but then life tangled my yarn and I had to focus on other things.  I'm not going to set an official deadline for myself, lest that tempt fate to throw more tangles my way, but for those of you who have been patiently waiting for me to stitch your stones, work is underway.

Today's stone came to me all the way from Greece where Ariadne gathered it from the beach at the foot of the the Olympus mountains.  The thought of the water guided me in the color choice for the wool and the idea of grecian ruins and the lovely bits of sea finds that Ariadne incorporates into her own work led me to add random stitches and clay beads.

I hope the stone captures a bit of what you experienced while gathering it, Ariadne.  Thank you for sending it to me.

The gathering slowly grows.

Happy Friday everyone!

woo hoo!

It felt (no pun intended) pretty awesome to open up the new issue of Fiber Art Now and see some familiar lumpy, stitchy forms inside.

And the cover coordinates so nicely with the stone I'm working on.

My happy moment of the day.  Hope you get plenty of happy moments today too.

a golden oaks stone

Reflecting on the passing of a life, holding things close, and the life that springs up in places we might overlook.

A pebble is trapped under stitches, reminding us of what we hold close.  Icy ferns embrace.  The colors of lichens atop wool I dyed using leaves from the forest floor.

In my shop now.

small and quiet

I've been in my new job for almost a month now and I'm still learning so much my head is abuzz at the end of each day.  Sitting and stitching on a stone helps focus me on the small thing in my hands and away from all of the open questions and tasks left undone.

It might be avoidance, to some degree, but perhaps also self-preservation.  It is a loving thing to give yourself some of your own time and to nurture those things that make you happy.  Even if those things are as small and quiet as a stone.

What are you going to do to nurture yourself today?

another stone

Clearly I'm on a roll.  I managed to finish another stone this weekend, in between taking my kids to a puppetry workshop and watching the second Hunger Games movie.  I guess I really needed my stitchy time.

Inspired by those cool little lumps in the slime mold family.

In my shop.

a late night stone

Last night I found myself needing some serious stitching time.  I needed to clear my head and "check out" for a little bit so I sat at the kitchen table in the dark with my trusty old gooseneck lamp and worked until way past my bedtime.

A mound of french knots and tiny glass beads surround a cluster of coral.  Edges creep outward, growing, reaching new ground.

I'll put this in my shop this morning.  

Right after I have another cup of strong tea, to help keep me upright.

Happy Saturday, everyone!

a bird in the... plans

I'd like to start teaching classes at the Art Center so last night I was playing with shapes and found this little guy in my palm.  Perhaps a few songbirds will be my first project.

If you were learning needle-felting, what sorts of projects would you enjoy?

card sets on sale

Have a letter you need to write?  Blank notecard sets are on sale 50% off in my shop, while supplies last.

They can also be hung as art.

Or possibly folded into origami pterodactyls, if you're so inclined.

Find them here.

blooming brooches all done

All done!  10 wet-felted wool flower brooches completed.  I'll be submitting these to the committee at The Crossing Arts Alliance where I work to see if they'd be a good fit for the Sales and Gift gallery.  It would be fun to have some of my work in there.

This one has a clay bead center made by my talented friend Haddie.

Speaking of my work...I started a Pinterest page for The Crossing and need more artsy souls to follow.  If you're a pinner, let me know either by following me over there or by leaving me a comment here with your profile.  I'd love to connect with you there.

Happy Day!

taking matters into my own (pruny) hands

Spring is definitely not ready to spring.  Our high temp for Sunday is supposed to hit zero.  Again.  I'm not even discussing what the windchill is going to be.  I won't.

Some flowers were in order so I spent a few hours making some.  It was good handwork after spending a morning with mind-work.

Just wool, wet-felted.  Lots of soap, bubbles, and pruny fingers.

My plan is to turn these into brooches but right now I'm enjoying seeing them sitting on jars while they dry.  A shot of color against that snowy backdrop.

Hope you're enjoying your weekend.

Quadrat piece completed

Yay!  It's completed!

This is the needle-felted piece I've been working on.  Inspired by a call for art at the resident's gallery in the Franklin Arts Center where I work.  The theme is work that is exactly 12" x 12", and since mine is not an exacting nature, I had to ponder how I might be able to fit that requirement.  It wasn't until I started poking at some wool that I decided that I wanted to do a piece reflecting a portion of the landscape in my mind.  Like a quadrat, a tool scientists use to isolate a standard unit for study.

Though this scene is plucked from my imagination, it definitely has its roots in reality.  For example, my fungus here is influenced by the orange peel fungus by the duck pond in my backyard.

A sprouting plant with downy leaves is similar to the mullein by the driveway.

Waxed thread becomes my take on sporophytes that dot our back woods.

Pebbles and sprouting grasses atop mounds of moss and earth.

And pebbles, plucked from lakeshores, naturally.

This was a really satisfying piece to work on, especially since it allowed me to conjure up images of greenness in this otherwise winter-white landscape.

The frame was made from some planks I had in my workshop.  This piece hangs on the wall and I could see myself doing a whole series of these.  Hmm...

'Quadrat'

2014

12" x 12"

needle-felted wool, cotton thread

by Lisa Jordan

more progress

Almost done with my new piece!

If the light cooperates I should have photos to share tomorrow.

a work in progress

I spent the better part of yesterday needling away at some wool.  Forming stones and coaxing curly locks into moss.  I had the music on and my littlest needle-felting companion with me, needling on her own creation while the cat sat in a wood bowl and watched us.  Even though we clearly bored him.

Today I'll add some other shapes and hopefully a few sewn accents.  It's a fun piece to work on.  When I make my mushroom terrariums, I always take special joy in adding all of the details to the scene so this is allowing me all of that fun on a larger scale.

But speaking of scale, check out the mini scene my little partner created.  Momma is proud.

Happy Sunday, everyone.

let's pretend

Late summer at dusk.  The mosquitos have gone to bed and the fireflies hang in the trees like christmas lights.

Our ice cubes clink in our glasses as we sip on the last of the homemade kahlua and listen to the owls call to each other from the tall pines in the back woods.

We sit and chat about how the garden is coming along nicely, about how nice the day out on the lake had been.  We hear the guineas settle into the branches of the poplar.  The last sparks of the campfire lift lazily into the sky.

Our sandals dangle from our feet.  We start to think maybe we'll go throw a sweatshirt on over our t-shirts.  We catch the faintest whiff of impending autumn in the air.  And we feel content.

I'm not the kind of person that wants to live her life only looking forward to the next thing.  I'd like to embrace the present.  But I gotta tell ya, this snow-up-to-my-thigh and "today's high will be -10" is gettin' old.  So if pretending that I'm holding a chilled kahlua instead of a hot coffee is going to get me though this day, that's what I'm going with.

I hope you're in a good place today, no matter where that is.  Come join me for a kahlua.

a different kind of rhythm

It's been a while since I've done more "traditional" stitching.  There's something really soothing about the repetition of the blanket stitch through felted wool.  You just kind of get in the rhythm and your hands are doing their thing and then suddenly you're looking down at a finished piece and wondering how on earth that happened.

It's good to change things up every now and then, isn't it?

These are headed off to somewhere special.  More to come, soon.

I hope you all have a stellar Wednesday.  Go shake things up.

little stitchy 'bobs are here!

The other day I gave you a little peek at the Kit Lane pieces I collaborated on.  Well here they are!  They look a little shocked at what has happened to them, don't they?

They'll be headed to her shop sometime today

 but you can also see some other pics on her flickr page.

Psst...that little guy on the right, the sparkly white one, has a secret...

Hope you all have a great start to your week.

Happy Monday.