New work- home decor felt/silk flower series

These are in a series of pillows I made called my 'Felt/Silk Flower Line.' The flower are made from a collage of alpaca felt scraps and pieces of hand dyed silk fabric. The silk fabric was left over from my time at Penland School of Craft, where we studied natural dyes. The natural dyes really seems to work with the natural palette of the alpaca felt. 

These are still considered eco-friendly, all of the fabric is from natural sources, the felt is being recycled verse being thrown out, and the filling is from pillows obtained from thrift stores.
More to come

New work- home decor

I produce a large amount of felt scraps from my work and I had started bagging them and selling them in my rockymountainfibers etsy page. But I thought I should try and use some in my own work. The first pillow I made was the "rainbow in the breeze." I had had a rough day- one of those days when we artist feel like selling our equipment and getting a 'real' job. As I was laying on my couch celebrating my pity-party, I had this really strong urge to just go into my studio and make something just for me. Something totally new where it didn't matter if the buying public liked it or not, just creating something for the need to create something. And that pillow resulted. I'm am going to continue with the design rather and make curtains and a duvet cover. I think that would be pretty cool.

Sometime the feeling of disappear and a readiness to through the towel in feeling, is what we need occasionally to remind us why we do what we do. We need this to break though into new artist development.

Krista

'New' old work

This is a piece I also did for the Nudes show in Jackson earlier this year. I also showed it in the Art Associations 'Members Only' show- taking home a "People Choice Award" for it!

The top photo is the finished piece and the following photos are the work in progress
Krista

Figurative studies

These are some pieces I made for a local show in Jackson, all about nudes.  Below is my artist statement for the show. There was a third piece, but I'll show that next time.

Artist Statement

Ever since I was a young child, I have always been making art of some kind. As I grew and developed my artistic talents, I found a true love for both drawing, particularly the figure and textile art. I never thought the two would merge, but that is what my current line of work is trying to do. I have swapped out my charcoal for a needle and thread to execute the line work. Then I am using various natural fibers to help fill space. I am trying to incorporate traditional fiber and needlecraft techniques to new subject matters, the nude figure. 

Some work I have chosen to work with a natural, neutral based palette using the natural color of the wools and alpaca to give a more realistic look. Other times, I am using bright, bold colors to make a statement about something.

I plan to develop this work further and see where it chooses to go.

what I've been up to the past few months

One of the new projects of the year was me teaching my first felt making class. Here are some photos from the project I taught to the class. I don't have any photos from the class, as my camera was AWOL for the day.

The class covered the basics of wet-felt making and finished with the project of making a pair of either mittens or gauntlets using resist felt-making.
I love to see how much of a beast the piece started out as and how small it ended! YAY to felt making and all that lovely shrinkage!!!!!

See you around the craft table soon....

Handmade Do-It-Yourself Holiday Gift part 2

Last week I was up to my elbows in wool, soap and water and eventually felt, so I took a break from blogging, but I thought I do a couple of short post this week. I am in mad-high-production mode while trying to build up my inventory for my winter shows.
during my last couple of post, I showed some of the stuff I have done with my scraps and wool roving. But what I should have said was 'Here are some great ideas for handmade holiday gifts!'. So this week I thought I re-touch on the ideas and show the kits and supplies listed in my Etsy shop so you can made your own.

The first was the longest scarf in the world- not really, but sometimes it feels that way! The supply pack I would recommend are my 'handmade wool felt square bags':

They have pre-cut felt squares that all you have to do is sew together two of the edges together and proceed down the scarf til the desired length is reached. It really is a very easy, but dramatic and functional handmade gift for the holidays!

my Thursday mornings-Farewell

The farm is closed for the season and the workshares are done! The last day was one of the hardest we have had on the farm. We spread the 500, which I am not even going to get into here. If you would like more info, please search biodynamic farming! But I will tell you spreading the 500 is a strenuous job! We walk the entire length of the farm with liquid filled 5-gallon buckets and 'spread' all the hippy-dippy goodness. So we did that twice, then we worked to remove a green house that had been in one spot for 5 years. Trying to pull a tarp up that has 5-years of grass growth through it is not easy!

But, it is now done. We did get a few last crops that day: garlic, basil, kale, carrots, rutabagas. And as my sign-off from the farm until next year, yes I do plan on worksharing again, here is a photo of my favorite carrot of the season... careful it is a bit racy