making faces

A break in the (work) action and just what I needed. Permission to play.

After several weeks of no creative time, I decided to pull out a package of paperclay and just play.

I ended up making a face. And it was fun. So I made another the following day, and the day after that.

Now I'm out of clay, which is probably good because I have a lot of work to do.

The nonprofit that I work for is moving to a new location and there is much that needs to be done. 

But then, I might have just ordered another package of paperclay so maybe there is a little time for play...

 

tutorials, openings, and general busy-ness

Regular busy-ness at work with grant writing, meetings, and the like, coupled with the opening of our children's art exhibit and a basket weaving class the next day, a segment on the local radio station, and two appearances on our public television station is enough to wear ya right out.

In the midst of that I taught two rabbit workshops to some truly lovely people, and began work on writing my "how to stitch stones" tutorial, which I hope will help people manage some of the basics and gain some confidence in creating them.

A glance at my week...

Over 400 people came to the opening of our 'Young at Art' exhibit celebrating children's art work.

You have to have fancy finger food at gallery openings. We made sure the kids would enjoy it. These are nilla wafers with a mint cookie sandwiched in between with red and yellow icing to look like little hamburgers. The "fries" are shoestring potatoes.

We had a whole group of kids and grown ups come to our Second Saturday to learn to weave baskets. We provided two projects, one involving reeds, and one where kids wove yarn into plastic berry baskets. They all turned out just great. 

25 people, over two days, learned to needle-felt bunnies. My favorite part is how they all turn out differently. These two were made by young twin girls who hung in there for the long 4-hour class. They did so well!

The lovely Zoma traveled up for the class and made such a sweet little bun.

I also made some prototypes for my next needle-felting workshop - cacti. I think this one will be fun. I'm also working on a couple of wet-felting workshops but am trying to find just the right space to hold them in.

All good stuff, but I'm ready for a little nap and a curl up on the couch with a cuppa.

For those that celebrate, have a wonderful Easter.

on my work table

A peek at what's on my kitchen work table this morning.

More pictures to come.

Happy Friday!

chilly kitties and stitched stones

A pile of blue sky stones await me on this decidedly grey and chilly November day.

I snuck some stitching time last night and my hands were grateful for the task. I plan to give them a little more time today.

Mother Nature sugar-coated the woods last night.

The kitties aren't as happy about as I am.

This guy refused to follow me out on my walk, mewing his complaints at me from the yard.

"I is displeased right meow"

Have a cozy day, all.

November 10

Life has gotten busy again.

We have two new friends, apparently dropped off on our doorstep, as happens when you live in the country.

 

Our Empty Bowls fundraiser was a great success, allowing us to make a nice donation to our soup kitchen again. It's a lot of work, but a really rewarding project.

I've been doing some needling on pieces for a show that opens on the 20th. I now officially have 4 pieces in various stages of completion. At this point it's a mystery which one/s will be done in time.

I really need to hide away and reconnect with my art for a while. Anyone have a spare hermit cave they can lend me?

stitching has begun

Thank you to those of you that have agreed to help me keep my stone-stitching underway. I've got a few stones in my bowl already.

I was on the road back "home" to Illinois just after posting about the stones last week. My uncle had passed and I needed to be with family. The long drive was an opportunity for quiet reflection and I've returned feeling...quiet. And in need of my stone-stitching "therapy", so thank you sincerely for helping me along.

hugs,

Lisa

awaiting finishing touches

The mushroom has been captured and is awaiting his finishing touches. The last peek before my show in September.

In other news, I'm expecting a delivery of wool today. 102 pounds worth. I'll snap a pic.

Happy Monday, all.

dot dot dot dot dot dot dot...

The dots are done and now it's time to tame the stray hairs that get roughed up as I work. I'll use my fine gauge needle to smooth the surface and then trim up with a small battery-operated trimmer before I fit it with a base.

Hopefully a bigger sneaky peek soon.

Happy Weekend, all.

dot dot dot

So many dots.

works in progress

A new desk with new works in progress.

I have a workshop in my basement that unfortunately has been prone to flooding, which necessitated my moving all of my supplies upstairs. I end up working at the kitchen table and then moving everything when it's time for dinner. That kind of daily disruption is awfully hard on the creative flow. We have a very small office attached to our bedroom that has, up until now, housed a spare computer and our printer. Looking at the dust on the keyboard I made the executive decision that the computer would go and I would have myself a new place to stitch. It's small, but at least the work can stay laid out until I return to it.

Small victories.

landscapes with sheeps

Oof. It's been a very busy week. Weeks. It's been a very busy couple of weeks. My day job has been full, full, full, and my work time has been very slim.

Very slim.

I haven't scheduled any new classes or worked on my many in-progress pieces but I did take a little bit of time to make up these brooches. A while back I had scheduled a class for a spinner's retreat in the area and that is coming up this Friday. They wanted to make a sheep brooch of some kind and after much mulling, I decided to go with a landscape (which is well-known and comfortable for me) with wee sheeps in it. Because the class will be done in 2 hours I kept the design very simple and doable for beginners. 

I hope they enjoy making them. I did.

How about you? Are you making time for creativity? What are you working on? I'd love to hear.

weekend nest-making

My hands are nest-making. Hoping to lure in Spring.

I have plans for these wee nests and hope to be finished before Spring arrives for real.

Hope you've had a lovely weekend. Here's to a good week ahead.

mounded with fiber

If you dare walk past my wool fort I will throw wool balls at you.

I'm dyeing wool today and that's not an optical illusion, my kitchen table is mounded with fiber.

My version of heaven.

Happy Sunday, all.

a full weekend

I've really been looking forward to some good productive working time and I got it, for the most part, this weekend. Between my dayjob, teaching classes, and hauling a teenager to and from driver's ed (gulp), there has been very little time for my work.

 Despite a full house and chores to do I managed to finish a stone and get a start on two new landscapes for a show I'm doing on Jan.3rd (more on that to come) .

I was pretty pleased with my productivity, especially considering this happened too...

More to come on that later too.

In the meantime, have a glorious Monday, all.

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?

:)

work in progress wednesday

I used to do "wordless Wednesdays" but wasn't always successful at the "wordless" part so today I'm going to say this is a "work in progress Wednesday".

A small pile of stones is starting.

A collection of tones that remind me of the changing foliage outside my door, the richness of Autumn.

I'm hoping to get a sizeable stack of these completed before I put them in my shop.  I'll share photos in the process.

The maples and cherry trees are already glowing with color here and the light has that warm golden glow.  I could live in Autumn, but the joke here is that Fall is the best week of the year here in MN.  The only way I know how to prolong it is to spend as much time outside as I can, capture the moment in color, and eat lots of caramel apples.(side note: I stopped in at Fancy Pants Chocolates in town yesterday because I had heard that Nancy had caramel apples, and caught her right in the middle of making them. She handed me a honeycrisp covered in still-warm thick handmade caramel. It was wonderful.)

How are the seasons changing by you?

overcast

Leaving my stitching behind on this overcast Monday morning to greet the week.

Work, workshop (with the amazing Naomi Schliesman), meetings, school shopping, chauffeuring, stitching...and some planned fun, an intermission of sorts, though I don't know quite what that will be yet.

Wishing you all a great start to your week.

squish

A change of pace.  Needing desperately to unwind after a long day, I decided to grab some of the clay I had dug from the yard and slaked long ago.  I rolled and squished and played until I made some forms that have been in my head for a while.  I envision some little woolly worlds in these and I'm hopeful they'll make it through the firing process.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

I hope you get some play time in too.

a mouse in progress

 A wee mouse is peeking out of his hole beneath the boletes.

A piece I'm making for a fundraiser for a local charity.

I just need to finish up a few details and the wood base.  Almost done.

As always, this piece is made of solid wool by means of a felting needle.  No gluing, no structural sewing, just poking wool a gajillion times with a barbed needle until it tangles into a shape I like.