Yes, indeed, pictures ARE worth a thousand words.............

Darn!! Has anybody seen that missing text?? I've been looking for it for what seems like ages..............

But where's the felt?? I'm not wearing anything that I made today ..........well the only thing that I did "make up" was my face in the morning- but hey, it's my party and I'll  cry if I want to!! Seriously though,  this blog "thingamajiggy" has been a learning experience for me and my official photographer aka Mz. P. Floyd! Although still an amateur, she does have a crafty eye for photography (and cooking!) so I think she deserves a little promo too........ These pics were taken near and around the ancient Greek burial tombs in Keramikos........

Hong Kong Garden

Well.............what can I say?? A picture is worth a thousand words................

TWILIGHT....................

Mz. Floyd (my official photographer) and I had to wait for the perfect lighting to snap these shots........
I nuno felted one end of this silk/wool combination scarf with a mixture of alpaca/merino/silk fiber roving. On the other end, I cut out little flowers from a similar but completely botched scarf I found in my recycling bin with the same motif, and needle felted them right onto the scarf. I also added some extra light blue fringe out of cotton yarn and small wood beads. The silver sequins were already embellished onto the original scarf so that saved me the extra work!!! This is probably one of a few elegant projects in my collection.....................not that bag lady/shabby chic style that I'm used to!!!!
All wrapped up and ready for its new owner...............

A walk in downtown Athens.........

Lazing on a sunny afternoon............well not exactly sunny but the lighting was perfect for taking random pics of the city. I am proud to announce that this is the first scarf I managed to sell and had the opportunity to photograph before sending it off to its new owner. It's made of 100% silk and merino wool. I really like the fact that you can put your hands through the checkered fringe and give it that bolero look.

I love the graffiti!! All I need is a shopping cart and a nice warm corner and I'd be a perfect bag lady!!!

Out of Africa...............

Being raised in Africa, some of my projects have that "Mama Africa" influence. For starters I absolutely LOVE dreadlocks dangling all over the place from my scarves- either like a fringe on the ends or just cropping out from every which way but they are very tedious to make. Hopefully now, after my long break, I'll have the patience to create that ultimate Jah Rastafari look (which I've also done on seaweed- how typical of me???) I thought this scarf made of an alpaca/ silk mix looked pretty fancy with the bowl of ostrich eggs my moms collected since who knows when...............

But it looks even more spectacular hanging from the Ethiopian crosses

And one more African theme made of an alpaca/silk/wool combination, with bamboo silk and silk scraps

Incense and peppermints....................

While away on my hiatus from felting, due to the"higher powers" that I have no control over, I have been waxing glass bottles and painting mandalas on rocks. What does this have to do with felting?? Absolutely nothing!! What I'm trying to say is that as long as I'm creating something, I'm also emptying the garbage that my mind picks up during the whole day!! It's amazing how long I can stare at an open flame melting wax and crayons and thinking about absolutely nothing. Just me, some good music, Nag Champa incense and melting colors..........wonderful meditation!! Now I get to use them as props for my work!! Before that I was in my "fractal phaze" creating all these psychedelic pictures with the use of pure mathematics. (see my slide show). Yeah, sure, for a computer graphics freak they seem pretty dull but to me it's a big deal especially since math isn't one of my favorite subjects!! Here I have a nuno felted silk scarf made of 100% merino and sari silk. The silk is what gives it that stained glass effect.

One of these days, I'm gonna felt that dog!!!!!!!......................

Here's another pic with one of my many futile attempts at shibori nuno felting. The scarf shrank up to infant size but with a funky pin it could make a great neck warmer. The bottles are pretty cool, eh??
Speaking of futile attempts at shibori, here's another scarf that came out semi decent with uddles of bubbles on the ends. After this I decided to give up shibori for a while- for my mental sanity- because it was driving me crazy not being able to get it right!! Now I have an idea of what I'm supposed to do so hopefully I will manage to shibori properly without going insane!!

"But still they begin, needles and pins................."

OUCH!!! I've never been too keen on needle felting which is such a shame because you don't need the tons of space, that nuno felting requires. I find needle felting "confining"......I need the space, guys!!! This is my first (and last) free hand needle felted flower.



I have needled felted on some of my dresses, just to "snazz" them up a bit, though!! Nothing spectacular, just your typical "cookie cutter" flowers and "sugar and spice, and all that's nice, that's what little girls are made of" stuff.  Here's a synoptic, typical Sunday, wash view- with the exception that the kids NEVER help me hang out the laundry!!

     And some more closer up "artsy" pics...............

        
  And thus coming to the end of my needle felting career............although I really need to practice the technique!! I'm putting my needles and foam mats on the side for now cos I've got a bigger project in mind: I will attempt to nuno felt one of my mohair dresses. Something sort of like this shawl

       Hopefully, I'll have pictures of that wild dress in the near future!! I will continue to needle felt on already nuno felted silk scarves- YES! It can be done................but that's another story about bending the rules of nuno felt, and, believe me, I've done lots of that!! Most of those projects have ended up in the recycling bin but the few that have worked out always leave me pleasantly surprised!!

                                                                  

Somebody put something in my drink..................

Enchantment Under the sea..........

Gosh!! That story about yesterday is starting to become the nightmare from yesteryear!! I've been on a hiatus from felting for about a year and a half because .....well, life is life and shit happens and I have been completely uninspired. Not to mention that felting is definitely a winter sport for us over here in Greece. You don't want to be anywhere around wool in warm climates and our winters are short and brisk. Terri, honestly, I don't know how you manage to do it over there in Florida!!!

 
I have a significant amount of old projects in my sack and I'm trying to figure out a way to present them to you guys without making you nauseous!!! I think I'm going to group them up in categories to give you a brief synopsis of my style and then maybe go through each one bit by bit analytically. I'm not going to get myself all stressed out about how this will end up..........I'm just going to go with the flow. I need to get this done so I can start creating all these new ideas which are exploding in my mind.

I'm "baptizing" my first group "Enchantment Under the Sea". Why? Because that happened to be the title of my very first ballet recital. After opening up my old sack, (and finding myself pleasantly surprised that the months didn't get to them yet) I realized that I've got a significant amount of felted scarves that remind me of seaweed.........it's definitely got to do with to the Mediterranean blood I've got flowing in my veins!!

And alas, we finally come to the story about yesterday -or the day before yesterday-depending on which angle your looking from!! I woke up in the morning, grabbed a piece of seaweed, wrapped it over a pair of purple leggings with safety pins and freaked out everybody at work!! Imagine! Wearable art!!People actually liked it!! Since it was such a "hit" and very tacky held up with safety pins, I've already got in my mind to make some felt material and to cut out fish and starfish for button closures!! I'll have pictures with the final result as soon as I complete it. but you can check out the "rough draft" below. Many thanks to my sweet daughter/model, Anna-Maria, who nearly froze to death with all my wacky ideas!!

How I "felt" the magic.................

I suppose this is the spot where I'm supposed to write something...........but where do I start from?? Let's see... It all started yesterday.........NO!! That's another story and I'll have to post pictures and stuff, so unless I get the hang of this, I'll just have to stick to writing - bear with me for a bit!!

It really all started about two years ago, the first time I rolled my very own felt ball and made my first dreadlock........the energy exchange between me and the wool was so positive- most likely because I was working with a "live" raw material, wool,  in which no animal had been killed or slaughtered for. I felted balls and needle felted  little flowers all over my clothes for a while until  I discovered the magic of nuno felting.......

I was tantalized with the realization that there are no boundaries, and with nuno, the sky is the limit..........I had my canvas, paintbrush and full anticipation to see the final result.

Anticipation..........that's what keeps me up till 3am because wool has a mind of its own. You can only do so much- eventually the wool makes it's final decision and goes every which way it chooses to!!! So, a touch of mystery is what keeps me on my toes!!!

I have experimented with almost everything synthetics, shibori, tulle, silk paper, angelina fiber, wenslydale, alpaca (which most of the time ended up as a hairy mess)- and I have millions of things to still try out..........I've thrown away a lot of projects when I'm in "experiment" mode and have ended up with a huge recycling bin- much bigger than my bag of completed successes!!

 
Most importantly I want to thank two extremely talented women who, without their help and guidance, I would have never "felt the magic". Thank you Terri Pike for your wonderful you tube presentations and patience to answer my million and one questions via e-mail!! You can visit Terri's site at http://www.feltinglessons.com/  for in detail tutorial/seminars. I found them extremely enlightening!! And Katharine Huggett aka "wonderwoman" (who I still don't believe lives on the same planet I do- when we have 40 degree heat waves and it's snowing in her neighborhood!!) Both of these women have been my inspiration and mentors with their kind generosity, patience, open heartedness and expertise!!! Thank you tons!!!!

I want to thank my dear friends (you all know who you are) for giving me good slap upside the face and getting this show on the road. Finally, after what seems like forever, I'm starting to feel the first sparks of inspiration and creativity again, so I'm pulling my bag of projects out of the dark closet of my mind. We all need a good kick in the butt to shift into gear sometimes so thanks for the boot guys!! Anywayz,  I've been waxing too many glass bottles and painting too many mandalas on rocks lately..............

Thus the birth of this blog!!I originally wanted to call it "Liquid Sky", because that's what a nuno felted scarf looks like to me but after the flash of Mz. P. Floyd's gnarly teeth I decided to go with something more conventional. It probably will end up being a liquid sky eventually.......

So to all my crafty friends, fans and followers, please feel free to post your creations, constructive criticism, comments etc etc etc..........(now all I have to do is figure out how to upload pictures- then I get to tell you the story about yesterday!!!)