Stairway to Heaven...............

This is a synopsis of all my projects for the time being!! I still have a lot of work to do photographing each piece one by one and I've got soooo many new ideas in mind!! My ultimate goal is to upload all my older work and then get started on my new projects, but there just never seems to be enough time for anything anymore!! Seriously, it takes me almost a whole day to complete one project and each piece is one of a kind. I can make something similar but no two scarves can ever be alike................that's the beauty of art!!!
"There's a lady who's sure all that glitters is gold
And she's buying a stairway to heaven
When she gets there she knows, if the stores are all closed
With a word she can get what she came for
Ooh, ooh, and she's buying a stairway to heaven"............................

Bending the rules- Part 2

Synthetics (whether it be yarn or fabric) WILL NOT incorporate into silk!! As a rule of thought, I must always remember that I need pure wool to "glue" everything together. This is one of my very early projects before I knew that!! The "proper" way to have done this was to have merino on the bottom and on the top of my synthetic gold fabric. I was fortunate enough, though, to add enough merino to hold on to the silk and after the shrinking process this is what happened:

 The poor thing has been in and out of my recycling bin a zillion times.........Personally, I like it!! It photographs very nicely, it has wonderful color contrast, it's catchy, unique and different................YUP! I'd wear it...........but I'm a bag lady with weird taste...........I'm curious to see what will happen to it after a couple of washings- I have a positive feeling that "Old Gold" will become "Frayed Wildness"!!!

Bending the rules- Part 1

Super wash merino or a mix of super wash merino plus tencel roving WILL NOT FELT!!!! I found that out the hard way!! I spent almost a whole day laying out my design on this fab silk scarf and as soon as I poured soapy water on my "masterpiece", it turned into a slushy mess!! Seriously, I was almost in tears because I really thought this project would be one of my best!! Fortunately I was able to save the scarf for another project. Like I have said before, wool has a mind of it's own- you can only do so much with it but eventually it will have the last laugh. Once you figure out it's little quirks, though, you can play around with it and it will compromise. The greatest lessons I learn are from my mistakes!!
Super wash merino/tencel will felt as long as you combine it with merino or other natural roving!! My second attempt was opening the merino/tencel mix like I would do in a cobweb felt, and added merino on the ends. That started out about a meter long and when I was finished with the process, it ended up being a mile long!! Darn!!
Although it was an interesting piece ( and I have another brilliant idea!!) I didn't trash the whole thing. I incorporated it into another silk pashmina and this was the final result:

Hee! Hee! Lets play the "find the original felt" game!!!

SOOOOOOOO, in a nutshell, I need merino to work as my glue for super wash merino/ tencel roving My third time round I added merino all over the edges and this is what happened:

Now that I know how to "play" with it, I can't get enough of that slushy mess!!! I'm psyched! So many ideas, too little time..............

Aladdin's lamp, genies in bottles and other "hairy" tales.............

Flower Power!

Can you see my felted flowers?

Lets give it another shot from a different optical angle.................

I've even got it in Japanese rock garden versions............

The pictures are superb but unless the scarves are seen in a more "conventional" manner (I hate that word), it really doesn't do them any justice............

Red, Red Wine.........................

I like this one!! It's got texture, it's got taste............... like fine red wine................... I enjoy the mixed flavor of eccentricity and elegance...........
Knops, slubs, nepps, novelty yarn, alpaca, silk, merino.............you name it, we've got it, baby!!!

"They call me mellow yellow"..............

A wonderful piece of finesse! I used a dual color yellow silk scarf and added circles here and there of a fine merino/silk mix roving. Nothing like the bag lady stuff I'm into!! See for yourselves:

I suppose we can play that find the felt game again, but because I'm a pretty good kid I'll give you a closer up clue:

Now if you can't see this, you really need to get your eyes examined!!!

..................and of course I always have to mess around to give it that psychedelic flavor I love sooo much!!! GROOVY BABY!!!!

No need to tell you that this is one of my fave photographs- and quite possibly another of my more elegant works!!

Autum leaves

Fortunately I had the opportunity to visit my cousins out house in Kineta (near Korinthos) this weekend. A wonderful house with a wonderful view of the sea and mountain, but we showed up a little late and missed the morning light plus we didn't get the chance to hit the beach for a couple of snap shots that I wanted to!! Although we did have enough time to turn the whole place up side down into a complete chaos...............I seriously doubt that she will be looking forward to seeing us again!!! 8-) I don't mind, cuz!! I still love ya!!!LOOL!!
Here we can play the game of find the felt................

AHA!! That's where you are!!!!Zoom me in baby!!

I simply cut some strands of novelty yarn and kept the whole thing together with some leaf shaped merino roving. The colors remind me of Autumn..........one of my favorite seasons of the year but, unfortunately, here in Greece we hardly get the opportunity to to see the colorful beauty of the fall months...........we kind of go from summer straight into winter- leaving out all the "in-betweens"!!

Sail away, sail away, sail away.............................

Another one of my futile attempts at cob web felt!! It just didn't come out "holey" enough but it makes a wonderful warm scarf. I used Wensleydale wool and bamboo silk which gives it those shiny waves. The beauty of Wensleydale roving is the fine curls it makes after felting- which are best seen against the light.

Another example of cob web felted Wensleydale is the scarf I used for the background of my blog. I incorporated sari silk yarn into the project which gives it an even curlier effect. Eventually at some point I'd like to make a similar project, quite larger- something like a curtain. I can just imagine the morning sunlight passing through it....................

 

Lu "C" in the grass with diamonds

This was just an experimental project.........if I had a penny for every time I put this in my recycling bin and took it out again I'd have a couple of euros in my pocket today!! I took one of those vintage 60's dresses-you know the ones that make the curly q'z on the hem- and cut it all around. I felted a mix of  silk/merino on the one edge and voila!! If you wrap it around your neck a couple of times it ends up looking like a Victorian collar and/or an elegant, fine murder weapon!!!

Ohhhhhh! Check out the psychedelic version of it!!!

Can I ..................

                                                                                                                       soon???????????

But on a more serious note..................................

Chess anyone...................................????????