Fun ladies and great felting

The Purl District in the lovely little town of Silverton where ladies gather, laugh, knit and play with wool, we had a fantastic felting class. I taught three 2 hour classes and we created a bag (or hat in some cases), the handle, needle felted a design, made a flower from a rock, a little colorful ball and covered a bar of soup in wool. It can’t get any better than that.

Celia the shop owner makes everyone who enters a friend, she is the one waving . Here we are in week one starting our bags.

and check it out a mouse on the back....

the soap smells sooooo good.....

flowers bloom in many colors....

fetching....

just look at that yummy color....

the possibility's are endless...

this one looks like a little brook trout...

and here little birds eat winter berry's...

what a fabulous bunch of gals thank you for a great class.

A close up on autumn

Autumn: a time of full maturity a beginning of seeds and planting, of hatching out to lay an egg. The glory of the flower in the summer sun is only there to produce a seed to be dropped in autumn. . It is a season of rejuvenation and rest. It all begins now in the fall lighting fires and dawning masks to frighten off evil, reading books, learning and thinking, preparing thoughts and food to sustain body and soul. It is my favorite time of year.


I am very happy with the photograph this time is looks nice if you click on the picture to enlarge them, the lady bug looks wet, the spider has thorny legs, the flowers and plants have such nice texture to see up close.

In autumn the littlest one among us can feel tall with long shadows.

an odd plant makes a final push to insure propagation...


mother makes a push of her own to gather food...

Nightshade, It has a long history of use as a medicine, cosmetic, and poison. Before the Middle Ages, it was used as an anesthetic for surgery, and it was used as a poison by early men, ancient Romans, including the wives of two Emperors, and by Macbeth of Scotland before he became a Scottish King.

Fly away little seeds find a nice bed and sleep until the earth warms again.

The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn.
Fall poem by John Muir

Assemblage under glass

I have been having fun with a new idea of combining the super shine of clean glass with the old worn assemblage items I'm so addicted to. Here a photo I love "chicken boy" or in this case three chicken boys ride around a real nest that is enclosed with a iron wire fence. On the next level is a real quail egg that has the appearance of it floating above the nest. And on the top stands a Flickers flight feather. The three levels are soldered together for stability.

This next piece looks so fun sitting on the coffee table, from across the room it looks like a hurricane lamp or an old light bulb, it's not until you get up close that you can see it is a assemblage.

The top or finial is a bell from an old type writer then in the small glass globe are old tin stars...

A boy on a pony rides among trees made from type writer hammers, the ground is covered in shinny black seed beads. The title of this piece is " A Ride Under The Stars"

There will me more to come I have numerous idea's....

Flying free

Monday morning is always busy at the immediate care center in Woodburn but this Monday a feathered friend needed immediate care more than ever. We think she flew into a window trying to escape from a mob of crows. The receptionist Ana saw this and got help from the nurse practitioner Liz and the center manager Becky, they gave immediate care and transportation to the Portland Audubon Society care center.

The patient a Sharp-shinned Hawk spent a few days in the care center and regained her strength. She has just fledged this year and is learning the dangers of flying into new territory.

Here she is getting ready to go home. I drove her back to Woodburn and.....

Ana, Liz and Becky set her free.....

she came out of the box like a rocket.....

we watched her circle getting her bearings until she was just a speck in the sky.

Good work ladies !!!

A little more information on why the crows would mob her....
A small hawk, the Sharp-shinned Hawk is a regular visitor to bird feeders, where it eats birds, not seed. The male and female show a greater disparity in size than any other American hawk; the female is nearly twice the weight of the male.

2009 Wild Arts Festival

This project is to help the Portland Audubon Society, the 6x6 canvases for every artists was donated by Art Media.

The theme is birds .... This piece is called "Oops"

All the art will be exhibited and sold at the 2009 Wild Arts Festival held at Montgomery Park. They will be priced at $40 each (can you believe that) and all the proceeds will support conservation, environmental education, and wildlife rehabilitation.

Click here to find out more about this event.

Home and back at it!

Home from Art and Soul !
I taught the wire sculpture crow class and what a fun time we had, the students were fantastic and made some very nice crows. Each one had a wonderful whimsical face and personality's to fall in love with.

Here a student concentrates on soldering a wing.

A finished crow drys after a paint job.

Lorna's crow was awesome, very animated!

This is a sneak peek at a new class being offered at Art and Soul in Madison WI. It's title is ART ON A HOT TIN ROOF, a cottage with a punched tin roof, paper cut walls that are illuminated from within. This will be a fun one and I just love little glowing lights.

New Muse in Town

I don't know her name but she makes me want to paint and hum....

Her wing span is 15" and she stands 25" tall.

She flew into town on resin wings just in time for Art and Soul.

The Inventor

Reginald Q. Wickham born to British parents in India was making great strides with the parallel circuit, he heard of Edison’s achievements with the incandescent electric light. But when he learned that Edison had overtaken him in the improvement of the dynamo he was utterly shattered. This is when he put on his light bulb hat and dedicated his live to time travel.

Reginald (Reggie to us who know him) stands on an 1886 cigar box. Gears, gauges, wires and an old light bulb help activate the magic ball he is holding. If it ever starts to spin Reggie will be off to the future, maybe.

Little known fact: Reggie coined the phrase "Damn the Dynamo"

I’m having fun getting ready for my crow class at Art and Soul. These are little bags made of clothpaper to hold all the goodies we will be using. I started out with the idea of making a plain canvas bag….but this is so much more fun.

Fiddling and Knitting

If some how you get a chance to see this show with Topol maybe in another city go he is so good, I think I'm in love. His voice you could listen to forever. The set was very nice and fascinating how they interchanged it all.

Knitting class is over but I think I'm hooked.

Just being around all the color and texture in a yarn shop is worth it.

The class laid out their handy work.

My sister Becky's beautiful scarf, she will still drop the stitches and then the real magic happens.

My scarf, knit 5, purl 5, add color and texture, drop a stitch and it makes its own fringe. OK now to remember it all.....

I will watch your eggs!

It is always a surprise to see who it is that comes out of the clay, I never go for the elf cute look but that is who emerged. So what to do with this fresh face? I made the hair look like feathers and thought to keep the colors in earth tones. The base is the top of a piano stool, the nest sits on a tree made from a spindle with branches from old type writer arms.

I rusted the nest in the bathroom so I could dunk it in water every time I washed my hands. It had help with some vinegar and salt, Norm thought it was a bit stinky to have in there. What we do for art.

I think a sweet song is being sung to the eggs.

The little eggs came from a quail and are real. My next job is to make a paper cut with this sculpture as the vocal point.

Odds and Ends

I was playing with my camera still trying to get the feeling for what it can do or should I say what I can't do.

An old stack, I love the worn corners, most of these books are over 100 years old.

The dice belonged to my grandparents they are old bakelite, maybe from the 30s.

Just a fun composition, and a study of values. I like how the gold on the pages show up but the wood blocks are too dark. The old shoe form is to make a woman's high heel. The nest has a lining of Winnie's hair, it dropped out of a fir tree last winter, I felt so lucky to find it..... yes I know her hair she leaves it for all of us.

Here are some very old woodland Indian moccasins and a choker from a different tribe, the bead work is unbelievable.

On my last post I took a picture of part of a old truck this is a card I made using it as the base.

And at last I finished this paper cut I started at Menucha at the end of May. It is now hanging at the main Multnomah Co Library gift shop with my other paper cuts for a show and sale.
I took a knitting class last night and hopefully in a week or so I will be able to show you how I did.