Another Felting Day

I've been meaning to get these posted for 6 weeks now. My felting group brought in a Turkish felter, Mahmet Girgic, for a workshop on the Osman technique on felted rugs. Above is a sample of their work. The colors are amazing and the felting is perfect. Mahmet is a master felter from Turkey, following in his father's and grandfather's footsteps, using traditional felting methods with more modern designs.



His felt pieces resemble paintings, with the colors flowing gracefully.



All his wool is vegetable dyed.


We spent a few hours laying out our design. Using prefelt, a base of wool lightly felted with muslin, we laid out wet wool, patting it down a bit. This was like painting with wool and we could get quite detailed designs.


These are the mats that Mahmet has made in Turkey.


Our pieces are laid carefully onto the mats, 5 or 6 at a time.


And then the rolling began. This is called appropriately 'kicking'. Zita and Judy made quite a good team.





Ann and Nan giving it a go, totally concentrating so as not to fall.


We then unrolled them from the mats and continued to vigorously roll for at least an hour. Mahmet said we should keep rolling for a couple more hours to achieve the tight look he desires in the felt. This takes more energy than one might imagine, even for a manure, dirt, rock, hay hauler like me. Ann is getting critiqued on her rolling style.


Six hands are better than two when it comes to rolling!




Then Mahmet showed us how a true master felter does it. He was rolling so briskly that the camera couldn't keep up.


And these are our finished felt pieces. JoAnn's dog.


Zita's modern piece.



Judy's fish in the sea.


Nan's traditional design.


Renata's art deco style.


And a close up of the detail she achieved.


Francine's modern design (and no, she's not naked!)


My plate of beets.


Christine 'painted' Starry, Starry Night.



Bev's design was from a photograph of her daughter-in-law, Kelly, on her wedding day.


Ann's landscape is from a photo taken in California.


Not only did Mahmet and Theresa teach us felting techniques all day, but while we broke out the wine, they prepared and cooked a delicious Turkish meal for us! Best teachers ever!!!


Mahmet chopped mint, tomatoes and garlic for at least a half hour.


And this is the delectable feast we got to eat. WOW!


We ended the night with laughter, our bellies full, our arms tired and thrilled to meet and spend the day with this felting duo. Thank you Mahmet and Theresa.

Over the Pond for Rain

Last month our very bestest friend from Cambridge visited for two days. It was lovely, sunny, warm and wonderful the day before he got here and the day after he left, but the two full days he was here, the skies let loose with a torrential downpour of rain. I was hoping to show him something other than typical English weather, but it wasn't to be. He did take pictures of the rain coming down as he hadn't seen rain like that before. It tends to spatter and spit in England, not pour from the skies. My hope was to bike on the C&O Canal to Harper's Ferry but we did walk around the town with the 10 other people who were out in the wet.


We parked the car and walked across the former railroad bridge, which is now a ped bridge. We looked out over the confluence of the Shenendoah (I love the sound of that word) and the Potomac rivers. We kayak here often and it's fun to look down on the rapids that we play in.




I like the backs of buildings as well as the fronts. The backs show the building's true character.






If you're looking for a fixer upper, this could be the place.


Clemens wearing a very silly American hat.

Frilly Flowers

These tulips are now done showing off their fantastic blooms. The one above has been altered a bit with my photo program and I love how the color was intensified. Below is the real blossom.


This particular tulip resembles a peony, it is so large.


And this one was my favorite this year. The delicate green with the pale pink was just the perfect blend of soft colors. New colorway for yarn?





There are a few plants that do extraordinarily well on Dancing Leaf Farm and bleeding hearts is one of them. This one was just planted last year and it's now like a shrub. I love this plant with the little hearts hanging all in a row.


And luckily lilacs are another one that I can just get in the ground and they just take right off. I'm trying to get many varieties from very deep purple to the palest pink. This is my favorite spring flower. I pick huge bouquets and place them all over the house. I love the old fashioned scent, reminding me of old aunts and hankies.


Tulips just make me smile!

Haircut

Casey, one of our golden retrievers, get so matted, muddy and mangy that I have him sheared every spring. Forrest wanted him to have a 'lion' haircut, with his chest fur left long and a tuft on the tail. But I told the groomer to just cut off all the hair as it gets so dirty, especially in the front. She did leave a tuft on the tail though and Casey seems to really like it. He did come home looking quite ashamed at first though. Being shaved shows how really fat he is. Time for a diet, Casey!


Tasman is gloating a bit because he does not have to be shaved and is rather proud of his smelly coat.


Casey got over it quickly and was soon out rolling in the grass, feeling pretty
good about life.

Men Working?

How many men does it take to fix a hole in the road? Answer: 7. I looked out the window and saw this scene in my front yard. Six men hanging around and one guy working. Supervising is such hard work.

Tiptoe through the Tulips

I had an ah ha! moment the other day. My side lawn really needed mowing and I was feeding hay to the sheep because my back field is closed off to let the new grass seed grow. So I made a deal with the sheep. If they would stay out of the tulips, I'd let them have a grass smorsgasbord. I opened the gate and luckily stood aside or I would've been stampeded.


They were very well behaved. I had visions of them running down the road like the old days when they'd break through the electric fence. But they were so happy to have grass that they just stayed and ate and ate. I don't have gates on this part of they yard , so there were many ways to escape. Once one of them got a bit close to the neighbor's yard and I yelled, "Mocha get back here!" She looked up and ran back. I was surprised she listened. I was working in the studio this entire time and kept looking out to check on them. I just couldn't get enough pictures of sheep and tulips. They're both so cute and happy.


After about an hour of nibbling, Brambles had enough and just settled down for a little nap. Sheep and tulips.


When taking sheep pix, more often than not, you get sheep butts. But with tulips, even sheep butts are cute.





Leopold and Mocha and lotsa tulips.










My neighbor's redbud was a great backdrop to the tulips and sheep. I put the sheep back for the night, and let them back out in this area the next day. But they lasted just about 1/2 hour before some wandered over to the neighbor's yard and some down the lane. I told them they lost their privileges and back to the field with just hay.


But I found a solution. Aramin and I fenced in another part of our yard so let them eat the grass down. They were really happy with this idea and settled in for day of munching.

I'm Dyeing To Know

I had perhaps the most bizarre dying experience EVER the other day. I posted the pretty tulip picture first because the others are not so pretty. Anyway, I had a huge day of dyeing, getting ready for Maryland Sheep and Wool Fest. My dye workshop is in the basement and I leave the double basement doors wide open to let the humidity out from the dye pots. Mid afternoon I turned off all the dye pots and went upstairs to print out patterns. I heard our two retrievers downstairs and it sounded like they were wrestling. I went down and shooed them outside. Back upstairs to print. Five minutes later they were down there again making noise. Back downstairs to shoo them out. But Tasman was acting weird, the hairs on his back raised. So I slowly looked around our messy basement and in the far dark corner was a critter. I thought it'd be some sort of rodent. I also smelled this absolutely horrible stench. I squinted my eyes and saw......... a VULTURE!!!!!!! I screamed like a girl and yelled, "Holy Shit! There's a vulture in our basement!!!!!" I ran upstairs to tell my husband who was in the office working. I said, theresafrickinvultureinthebasement!!!!!! He barely looked up and kept type, type, typing. He's not the vulture, rat, bat (yep, we've had em all!) removing guy. So I ran outside where my oldest son was talking to his girlfriend on the phone. I said "You gotta come help me get a vulture out of the basement!" He told his girlfriend, Hon I gotta go get a vulture out of the house like he was gonna go make toast or something. So down we go to Wild Planet to make our basement a vulture free zone. Aramin grabbed a mop and I grabbed a long pole and we poked it a bit to try to convince it to leave the building. That didn't work so well. It took off flying in our 7' tall basement and with a wingspan of about 4', it wreaked havoc. I screamed like a girl again, ducking out of the way. Of course it flew over to my dye kitchen and knocked over a huge jar of dye, spewing green liquid everywhere.


He/she? hopped over to the dye pan and stood in the water. Luckily it was no longer hot, just warm. At this time, I ran upstairs to get my camera. Vulture bird stood hunch backed in the warm water, hissed and lifted one wing to ward us off.




Aramin tried to get vulture bird onto the mop. He/she put one leg/claw on the mop but just wouldn't get on.


It walked over all my open dye jars as I held my breath, hoping that no more jars would fall.
It took off again and got its beak caught in my white yarn. I had to get close and unhook the yarn and it finally got out the doors and we watched as it flew over the apple tree and headed west. Phew! But what about that horrid smell? I grabbed the Oust and sprayed nearly the entire can. An hour later it still smelled so put out a bowl of vinegar. I left the doors open all night hoping vulture bird didn't come back but the stench would not go away. I put out some charcoal thinking that that would do the trick. But days later, it just smells like vinegar, charcoal and vulture. Ewwwww!