working on the background

I have started working on the background piece today. It has to be done in stages because the table is not big enough - well who has a 4m table anyway!

First part is felted, I left it open on 2 sides to add more

Then I rolled it up

and layed out more wool waiting to be worked on now.

Of course there is no turning possible, so it is a process of wetting, surface felting and 'massaging', quite terapeutic, though I could imagine, a sander would come handy. I never worked with a sander on felt, the combination of water and electricity is not really to my taste.
It will need adding another piece for the width and then the same procedure to get the right length. Once this is all done and fulled, I will need less space. Lots of flowers and leaves and strings have to be done, embroidered/beaded and then attached to the background.

go ahead!

Got the go ahead for the commission piece today including an installment for material. I am happy to start now to do some proper work, it was a lot of planning and investigating the last time. I love to do a big piece, will probably use my big living room window for hanging it temporarily once I have finished the background to place all the flowers and leaves and vines I am going to make. Well the whole house is a workshop anyway - thank you Alex for your patience :)

Challenge

I've got the wonderful opportunity/challenge to do a big wall hanging for a great  house right at the water. It is a wonderful light house with lots of curves, which I like so much. It is filled with light and you can feel how carefully the owners have chosen every piece. Everything is just right, nothing overdone, very classy. I feel very happy to have met the owner, a great person, which knows what she wants but is open for everything. I think we could work together very well, her guidelines will stop me to get too enthusiastic and will keep me on track. I am very grateful for this challenge which will help me in my own development. And it will sharpen my sense for quality, my own home certainly needs more style. It is a bit embarrassing to do nice things for others and to live in a messy home myself.

time?

I finished 8 more angels and 3 birdies and finally sent a large parcel to another gallery yesterday: www.kina.co.nz . The lady has rang me and was so excited about my birdies! Well I hope she can also sell them - my babies....

waiting for christmas

can we fly your dreams?

I am so grateful to Cornelia from Cornits Filzzauberschule to teach how to make angels. I am more and more developing my own style now and I have already in mind to develop them into fairies of some kind, fantasie people of Lord of the Rings or Avatar.... I would really love to meet her in person when I am in Germany. In fact I would love to meet a lot of european felters, their work is so inspiring!
I am taking part again in the adventskurs and now, that I am free - not bound to any coop, it is so much fun just to explore and experiment! All this surface enhancing was not my thing originally and it takes some time of course. But it teaches me patience and it calmes me, it is really pleasant.
I get also a lot of practical inspiration/advice from a friend here in NZ - Suse. She is so practical and has great ideas to minimize the effort when felting. They have a large farm and she works very hard, but still finds time for her craft work and she has always a good word for everybody.
Lots of plans in my mind, but first I have to sell the stock I have left, so many scarves.........

more birdies and more angels

After finishing some more angels yesterday and posting them today, I started working on some more birdies today. I had received an email from a gallery in New Plymouth asking  for my birdies. Finally somebody who likes them as much as I do hopefully. She was also interested in angels and keyrings. Good, I still have a lot of keyrings, but of course I will make more angels. They start to become characters too, thats good. I might change some to fairies, hmmm will see where it leads to ;)
Besides I want to do some funny things for the garden, still dreaming about a 'tree hugger"....

back to weaving

Now that I am not a co-op member anymore I can finally not only paint but also weave again. It is very embarrassing, I still have a project from a workshop 2 years ago on the loom and now I am struggling to remember how it was done.
If've got all the notes just need to find out where I stopped, will take me a bit.....

I managed on the weekend to update my website a bit and this morning I sent enquires to some galleries if they would take on my work. Well let's what'll happen.
Last weekend at the market I did together with my friend Suse a guy offered us all his wife's knitting machines including yarn for free, just need to pick them up. She was a professional knitter, but after a stroke cannot work anymore. There is even an electronic machine included, very tempting. I just need to find a way to pick it up. I better don't mention my storage problem.......
Next weekend is Heritage Day at the Lake House Art Centre. They have asked if I would join the market, but I am not sure. I would need to get a light table and an easy to assemble gazebo to manage this. Not sure if it is worth the hassle. Though it would be fun to go to the Heritage Day

Auckland Trip

We went on Tuesday to Auckland for the opening of the exhibition Reflexions of Aotearoa at the Lake House Arts Centre where some of my work was included. It is such a lovely place! Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera, so I have only taken a photo with the cellphone of the walldisplay which included some of my work

It is nice to have such a great outlet for my work!

The next day we celebrated the birthday of Alex brother with a nice lunch and in the afternoon we took off to the Auckland Art Gallery. The new display is so great! I wanted to see the collection which were gifted by Julian Robertson and is on display until end of October. Real Piccassos and Matisse and and and.....

This giant flowers hang at the entrance and they open and close

The drive home this afternoon was really pleasant, lots of sunshine and we stopped at Jack Morgan Museum in Hukerenui. The display there is great and tells the story of the pioneer spirit.