spin or felt?

I bought this wonderful merino/silk roving 'late atumn' last year from fibre2go at the Kerikeri Creative Fibre Festival.

She spun it thick and thin and plied it with a black fine thread. It looked amazing! Hmm, should I give it a go? Or rather use it for felting......

working on a Wingspan scarf

I am having a go on a Wingspan scarf.

nothing exciting to write about

I have not done much fibre work recently. There is so much left from the Origin time, that I feel guilty to produce more. And I haven't heard from the gallery back, who wanted to represent my work, I guess that was just a joke and they changed their mind. That is weird here in New Zealand, people don't tell you what they really think. Everything has to be polite and so as a German you believe what they tell you not realizing that they just didn't want to say they don't like your work. And as a German you can upset Kiwis very quickly by speaking out what you think.
Somehow I lost my energy, its quite depressing to sit here in the middle of all that things  I have done, which nobody wants anymore and I guess they will end up to be prezzies for the family for the rest of my life, and they will get sick of it.
In town has opened a new shop 'Feltings and Treasures', I was stunned to see that and I wonder how can she afford the high rent in such a prominent position! It is a lady new to Kerikeri and she sells only her own work. I must admit - I think I have seen better work and I am not talking about my own work, I wouldn't go this far. But here in the region are at least 3 other felters who definitely produce much better work.
I am looking forward to our trip to Germany in the hope to see one or two markets with some feltwork. The felter scene is so exciting in Europe and the variety of material one can get is incredible!. In this sense we are a 3rd world country here. It is hard to find things, one has to order from far away or use kiwi ingenuitiy to compromise. And it is also not really a place to sell things, mainly only tourist buy something, most locals either don't have any money or are not interested in wooly things, probably both. Would be great to catch up with some felters to see their work, to get a bit of motivation back just to do things for myself, for my own joy, thats the best anyway. Not to think what would somebody else like but what do I like! And what do I want to do! Just for the sake of my own happiness.
And doing creative things makes happy! I am missing this happiness and hopefully I will get it back.

a little play with water colours

Instead of finishing the vessel I played a bit with my water colours

work in progress

I started another vessel, this time by using a balloon as resist. I started with a layer of dyed silk cap then added 4 more layers, black, purple, green and blue. I put 3 resists between purple and green, just shapes cut from a shopping bag and then covered it with 2 old panty hoses and put it in the washing maschine. I did several 15 minute cycles on 40 degrees and in the end it was so firm felted, that it was hard to get the panty hoses off

I was surprised how easy it was to find the plastic inlays and with a deep breath I cut them open.

Then I worked  a bit on the open cuts, they wool was still very soft there, and finally I decided to put it in the washing machine again for another 40 degree 15 minute cycle. The result is quite nice

I planned originally to cut a pattern in, thats why I used the different coloured layers. Now I am not so sure about it anymore. I don't want to overdo it. I had made some yellow and dark purple felt beads to add to the open bits, but I will leave them out now. Not sure about adding some small sead beads. I think I try it out tomorrow. I can always take them off again, if I don't like it.