Colleen's Gaelic Gifts

My wonderful friend Colleen, she gave me the Scottish Girls Rock! tee, had fun catching up.

She has a great shop, Colleen's Gaelic Gifts.  If you're looking for something different and special, she has an online shop too.

Michigan

I went home to Michigan for a wedding. More about that one later. My mom and cousin gave me a get together so I could see more friends while I was home. I didn't have many days there and here are the pics.

Me and my good friend Lillian. We've known each other since 7th grade.  My best friend from high school also showed up but she didn't want her pic taken.

Chris is like a younger brother. He and his mom lived next door to me and my mom for a couple of years. I babysat him and now...

he has a family of his own. I'm feeling my age. Yikes!

This could have been an Eastern Michigan reunion. There were five alums there that day. My friends Diane and Kellie.

Sally, standing next to me, also went to Eastern. We were partners in theatrical crime. Next to her is her sister Patti and mom Peggy. All of them are fantastic quilters.

My cousin Tam. My birthday is right after hers. A lot of June babies in our family.

My mom's friend Marion, cousin Pearl, and Aunt Bev.

Friend (relative at this point because we've known each other so long) Wanda, her mom Mildred and my mom Marian. Whew! The food was great, the company even better. Happy Birthday to me!

It's July

I have been neglectful of my blog and visiting other blogs. June just flew by. I celebrated the whole month for my birthday, went home to Michigan for a wedding, and visited with many friends. Now I play catch up.

Here is what's left of my birthday cake I got from the people on the job.

Here's me in my new t-shirt from a good friend. A cool birthday gift. Scottish Girls Rock!

I love trains. This was a caboose my friends and I passed on our way to Old Salem. I really would love to have one as a studio. My pals Maya and Amanda took me to lunch at Dioli's where I got the yummy vegetarian sandwich. Grilled eggplant, red and green peppers, onions, mozzarella cheese on foccacia bread. Oh my! And then I had a Starbucks and a mini chocolate mousse in a chocolate cup. We ate at Bethabara Park, then headed to Old Salem.

At Old Salem, they were running the pottery kiln that is over 100 years old. As you can see the hot flames on the inside. He's adding more wood to raise the temperature inside. There's a wall behind the fire and that's the chamber that holds the pots.

Wood to be used in the kiln.

This poor guy was in wool. Old Salem is a historical working village but there are also sections inhabited by regular people. It was in the mid 90s that day and that with the wool outfit and heat from the kiln was quite warm.

 He was very informative. They have kept a running journal of the firings since way back when. And they are learning how to do it the historic way by keeping the journal. They do have the aid of a temperature gauge (unlike the potters of the past) but those people of the past were masters and knew exactly how hot to get the kiln. A lot of learned technique.

After Old Salem, they took me to the movies. We saw X-Men the Beginning. Great movie. It was a lot better than I thought it would be and I love Michael Fassbender. The cameos were cool too. I had a great birthday day.

Beatrix's Hat

I finally got Beatrix's bat hat done. Along with her face and hair. She fits well on her stand, maybe now I can finish her. She is the third in the Ghostie Girl series.

She looks a little bit distressed because she's had a great time at the Bat Festival and has had way too much to eat, drink, and too many trips on rides that go up and down and turn around.

There is a bat button on the cuff of her felt hat. The first one I made was too small for her very round head. The second one was way too big. Sounds like another story doesn't it? The third one was just right but then I sewed the white band on wrong and had to do some creative stitching. Now she needs her cotton candy and toys she won playing the games.

The Reader- in progress

It's hot! But I was able to continue work on The Reader. I had her armature done, so I guess I'll show that pic. This is another version of a stump doll.

Her skirt form is a floral styrofoam cone. Heavy floral wire forms her torso arms, and neck.

I marked lines to figure out how long her arms should be. I had to remember that hands are going to be attached on the ends of the wire.

I forgot to take a pic of the felt around the cone. It's now ready to be wet felted. This is my fourth time wet felting. Twice have been short of disastrous, so I was keeping my fingers crossed. This was the first time wet felting over a support. I got directions from Marie Spaulding at Living Felt. After putting and lightly needle felting wool onto the cone, I placed tulle over the cone and then a stocking. Then the felting began. Soap, hot, agitate, cold, hot, agitate some more, cold rinse, hot, cold again, and a little squeeze. I truly didn't know what to expect. If it was a massive fail, I could cover the cone with fabric. As I held my breath, I took off the stocking and was quite pleased. I wasn't ready to get excited just yet. Then I took off the tulle and just about cried like a baby. It had worked. It feels soooooo good when something works.

As you can see, it came out quite well. I'm so tickled and I will most definitely try wet felting again. Now I have to let this dry and work on her head. 

Cheers!

The Reader

I aided in a workshop with Akira Blount and created some lovely faces. One face in particular was quite lovely and I wanted to finish her and call her the Reader. I wanted to make a series of readers because I love to read and I think that everyone else should partake in the fun. Since I'm working in a new medium and need as much practice as I can get, I thought I'd do her in wool instead of cloth.

Here is the cone that will be the base of her skirt and a papier mache fake book that will be part of her stand.

My friend Katie was nice enough to pose for me holding a book.

I like the position of her free hand and the curve in her stance.

A close-up of her hand with the book. She is quite unusual in the holding of books when she reads. She apologized for it but I think I might use it. We readers are unique individuals anyway.

A different view of her hand and book.

And I like the tilt of her head. I've gotten started with the armature but haven't uploaded the pics yet. I'll probably start needle felting tonight too. Thanks for stopping by.

More Minions

I thought my voodoo doll pins were just the cutest so I'm making more. Soon I'll have an army. Bwahhahaha!

The ones with the striped legs are the last of the voodoo dolls and the light ones are going to be goth voodoo dolls. Black, white, and red. I have so many wicked ideas floating through my head. The first group were fun to do, this group, oh my!  So stay tuned.