Felt-a-licious!

For a year and a half my fabulous felt group has been preparing for our first gallery show. We have actually been creating felt things for nearly 4 years now, but the gallery event has been on the books for over a year. It seemed like so far in the future but now we're hanging the show.


All 14 of us are doing our own pieces but we 'felt' that we needed a large dramatic installation. We created four panels representing the four seasons of a dogwood tree. I dyed 80' of tulle netting (54" wide) in blue (sky), green (leaves) and brown (earth).


We used my dyed wool roving...


...lots of it


and laid out the roving in little fluffy tufts.


The 'rocks' were done with grey and brown swirls of wool.


We rented the Barnesville town hall as we needed a large enough space for our 20' foot panels. It took us 4 different days and a few more hours to finish them off. We put 6 long tables together to accommodate each piece.


Laying out 'Summer', we had made pre-felt green leaves, adding the leaves on top of the base of green and blue.




This is 'Spring' with the dogwoods in full bloom.


Bev is busy making the 'branches' by rolling roving.


After laying out all the fiber, it is wetted down with soapy water.


We all get along so well in this group. It really was fun to work together on this common vision, to roll, pat, tap, cut, rub and encourage these pieces do to what we wanted them to do.


Then it's covered in plastic, patting it down to make sure all the wool is saturated with water, and gently rubbing the wool to embed the fibers through the tulle netting.


After rubbing and tapping for about 1/2 hour, the piece is tightly rolled in a bubble, tied into a bundle...


sometimes on the floor because it's so large...


.... and then the rolling begins. When our hands tire,


...we use our feet, rolling away as we plan our next project.


We started out with pieces beginning at 20' x 5' and ending up with 13' x 3'. This is 'Winter', with the dogwood buds just starting and a full moon on a winter's eve.




"Summer'


'Spring'


'Fall'

These photos are taken at my house and do not do the pieces justice. Bev and I have been hanging the show at the Saville Gallery show in Cumberland for the last two days and tomorrow more photos will be coming as the show is installed. We're nearly done, a bit of tweaking to be done and we're good to go. Tomorrow Bev and I are working on one more piece. I thought it'd be fun to have a whacky pod, with tendrils and spikes coming from it. We'll see hat we can pull off. The opening is Saturday, so we only have two days to wrestle some felt.

Something Smells

Doesn't Trapper look all sweet and innocent?


Just lying down taking it easy on his big old pillow bed...


soaking up the sun's rays. But a few weeks ago....

...THIS happened! Pheweeeee! We were out for a walk and he came barreling out of the woods with his head shaking, whimpering and running quickly towards to show us what had happened to him. Before he even got close I could tell what had happened. Damn! I hate that wretched smell. When we got him back home, I Googled "what the hell to do when your dog gets sprayed by a skunk and you can't get rid of the dog". I know...everyone says tomato juice. I wouldn't have minded a Bloody Mary right then, but I didn't have any tomato juice and I read where that just masks the odor. What it did suggest was hydrogen peroxide, water and dish soap. I borrowed some hp from Ann, mixed the solution and Houston and I went to work. You only wash where the dog got sprayed (Trapper's neck). The soap cuts the yucky skunk oil and the hydrogen peroxide breaks down the thiols in the oil. Whatever. I just want the damn smell gone! It did pretty well, we dried him off and let him in the house because it was cold out. So, after nearly a month, when he gets wet, he STILL smells a bit like skunk. I think it's time for another bath.

Community Spirit

This photo has nothing to do with this blog post but it's pretty and makes me think of summer which is just around two corners.
We have such a great community out here in the country. Most of us have lived here for nearly 30 years, have raised our kids as one large unit, have helped each other with major projects, (felling a 100-year old oak, narrowly missing our house, building studios, leveling a concrete floor, roof work, barn raising, renovation projects and on and on), and have just been there as friends who may need help. One of those friends (happens to be my brother-in-law) needs some cheering up after losing his daughter in January so my friend, Dick, decided to host Barnesville Boys Billiards, Basketball and Beer on Thursday nights. Here's the e-mail he sent:


> Subject: Barnesville Boys Billiards, Basketball and Beer (Not Book Club)
>
> You are invited to participate in an on-going Thursday night casual "Boys
> Night" at the Thoms Billiard Parlor. The plan is to continue this event on
> Thursday nights thru the dark time until the weather improves to allow biking,
> paddling, golf, etc - i.e., thru the Big Dance.
>
> First game begins at 7:00 PM Thursday, February 10, 2011.
> There will be food and beer - but no vegetables or silverware or
> fancy-schmancy beer glasses. This is, after all, a MANLY event.
> There will be TV tuned to ESPN (no Grey's Anatomy of Desperate Housewives
> here)
> There will be Pool - and competition will be encouraged, perhaps a team
> tournament - Bragging rights will be on the line.
>
> This Thursday's ESPN schedule includes Conn. v. St. John's or Florida State v.
> Georgia Tech at 7:00 PM, Alabama v. Vanderbilt @ 9:00 PM if we are still awake
> at that point. Next week begins the ACC tournament, etc.
>
> RSVP - so we can ensure adequate provisions (of meat and beer, of course)
>
> Hope you can make it.

But not to be outdone by the boys, my friend, Tina, quickly organized an alternative event for Thursday nights:

Girls,
I can’t promise to host every Thursday night, but in response to Dick’s manly night..,,,well I couldn’t help myself.

Our Low key feminine approach= no fussing- minimal work-for Barnesville Babes on Thursday Nights

• Beverages- not a lot of alcohol-one bottle of white, hot tea, diet soda, seltzer. So bring what you want to drink beyond that.
• Food: popcorn, fruits and veggies, cheese and hummus. (NO MEAT) Add to the feast, as you please.
• Cable or Netflix Movie: bring whatever chick flick you want.
• Manicures & Pampering: nail files, etc. and a few cucumbers for our eyes.
• Candles lit
• Zi avi cd playing
• Activities: knitting, quilting, drawing, watching movies, relaxing around the fire.
• Timing_ anytime that feels right after 7ish
• Place- Tina’s haven
• Come if you like-stay in bed with a good book if not

So, for the past 3 Thursdays, the boys go in one direction and the girls in another, and we have a great evening doing our girl things or boy things. Last night I hosted and we got a peek at the items that are going into our felting exhibit next week. Lots of oohs and ahhhs! I am so happy to be a part of this loving community, reaching out to cheer someone up and having an excuse to drink more wine!

Florida part Deux

While visiting in Florida, I hopped on my friend's bike and rode around neighborhoods, poor, posh, old, new, small houses, smaller houses, messy, neat, cute, ugly. I love looking at architecture around the country and see how different we all live in this vast U. S. of A. Most of the houses in Gainesville sport a porch or if they're newer that 1950, a Florida room, which is off the back of the house.


There were cute little stone houses...


homes with a Spanish influence,


and the truly charming Victorian type houses. I love the double porches, the gingerbread and all the detailing.


These older homes were in an area called the 'Duck Pond' which is where the Sweetwater branch meanders through.


Can't you just see sipping lemonade on the porch in the summer?


Sunshine drove us out to Micanopy, a sleepy, artsy village just 10 miles from Gainesville. I picture myself spending a slow winter here, writing or knitting or felting or spinning...


taking strolls down the live oak lane...


stopping in for a late afternoon glass of wine with friends who live in this house. A girl can dream, can't I?!!


And if my car breaks down, I can take it this old garage to be repaired, except that now it's an antique store.


While walking down an alley, I spotted this old fan and window. Thought the fan looked just like a flower.


Back in Gainesville, I biked by the student ghetto. This was one side of the street..


and this was the other side of the street. The university bought an entire square block, razed all the shacks (giving the owners good money for their property, or so I hear) and put up these pretty stylish student apartments. I have to say that I like these a whole lot better than the fall-y down-y, messy hovels that they tore down. Sometimes progress is a good thing.

Frolicking in Florida

It's always nice to get away in February, especially to somewhere warm. I used to live in Gainesville, Florida in the mid-70's and went back to visit friends last week. My girlfriend, Sunshine Plants (yep, that's her real name!) still lives there, right across the street from her daughter, Aowyn. Aowyn is nearly through growing her baby daughter, Satori, so I went down there for the shower.


Getting there was a bit of a problem as I got bumped from my flight. The ticket agent said I was so nice about it (I didn't feel very nice but I didn't yell and scream and carry on like I saw others do...what's the point?) that she gave me not one, but 2 round trip tickets and a meal voucher. Booyah! Instead of having a direct flight, arriving at 12:30, I arrived at 6:00 via Philadelphia. Oh well. But when I went to get the car I had reserved, they wouldn't let me have it because my credit card has a different name than my driver's license. (yea, I'm going to legally change my name now!) I had a little breakdown at the counter, tears, weeping, sobbing, then back on the shuttle to take me to the airport to try to lease a car from the big names like Alamo. Because it was Daytona 500 weekend (whoopdedoo), a car was going to cost me $200 a day. Yea, right. So after more tears and feeling really sorry for myself, I discovered there's a shuttle that will take me right to Gainesville, picking me up just out the doors of the airport. Smile! I even saved $120! Not too bad... 2 free flights, a free burrito and dollars saved. It was just me and the bus driver for 2 hours. Just a little scare when he got lost down a very dark road and had to pull over. I thought, well, this day is going from bad to worse and now they'll find me in a bag alongside the road. But he just needed to look at the map, turn around, and all was good again.


I moved to Florida in 1975 with 3 friends, 3 very large dogs, 10 very cute three-week old puppies, 3 cats and a whole lotta stuff (including 200 deer antlers, explanation to follow) packed into a VW bus (Sunshine's) and a 1964 International Harvester pickup truck (mine). We left Colorado in a blizzard in November, going over a 14,000-foot pass, losing my tire chains as we came down the pass. We went south to Texas and took a left. It was the first time I'd been to the south and my eyes were like saucers and my mouth was agape. I loved the big live oaks with Spanish moss dripping from them, the small 'cracker' houses in the country and rural blacks walking to church along the road in their Sunday hats. I'm not making it up, it was just like a movie. I was young and impressionable and I loved every minute.
We had just $900 between us and we were about to set up a business making deer antler jewelry, sawing the antler into sections and inlaying it with coral, turquoise and shells. At first we settled into a friend's field then found a house to rent (with electricity!). We went to craft festivals and made a go of it for awhile. But I soon found out I was pregnant and we needed just a bit more money for food and gas so my boyfriend and I got a job at a printing place. I started out sort of a faux hippie, but soon blossomed into a full blown hippie. I even had my baby at home, which was a rambling turn-of-the-century Victorian home with 5 porches, 6 bedrooms and vines growing in into the bathroom. I had no midwife as they were illegal at the time. I read books, gave the books to Sunshine and she was right there to catch my boy, Aramin. There were 12 people at the birth, the boys spent the afternoon playing cards and the girls helped a baby come into the world. Someone even made a butterfly 'birth-day' cake.


This is my sweet boy, Aramin who went everywhere with me. After he was born, I soon discovered that I didn't need two babies to take care of, and said sayonara to the father and became a single mom with lots of help from wonderful friends. Sunshine opened a natural foods breakfast restaurant, where I worked as a waitress, making pretty fair money and taking the occasional seashell and love note as tips.


A year later, Sunshine had her baby girl, Aowyn (I attended the birth along with a midwife) and Sunny was also a single mom. Remember, this was Florida and the 70's and we just walked around with bare bellies, full of baby or not. So now I'm celebrating Awoyn's baby, who is due in the next couple weeks. Her name is Satori Kai (Satori means 'enlightenment' and Kai means 'ocean').


Aowyn is just one big smile.


On Friday night some girlfriends hosted a 'Blessingway', a Native American ritual to give a blessing to the new mother to be. We had all brought beads that will be strung on a cord and worn at the birth. We gave a personal blessing/wish as we handed the bead to Aowyn. I had felted an aqua wool bead and embellished it with tiny green and turquoise beads, to symbolise the ocean.


Saturday was the shower/party with about 40 people (men and kids included) attending.


With the 40 people, came about 40 gifts. It took over 2 hours to open them all! She got so many cute clothes, including these little pink crocs. When one of the men would wonder in, I told them that when a gift is opened, the key words were "cute, adorable, darling, ahhhhhhh!" All in all, it was a fine time and even the kids had fun on the moon bounce in the back yard.