twenty pound tabby: May 2016

I've been dyeing, sewing, painting, drawing, beading and felting in Denver, Colorado for quite some time. I especially love starting with a blank piece of paper or fabric and coming up with my own designs from scratch.

I've been making art dolls for several decades and out of this evolved my cloth pins and ornaments. Each one is like a miniature version of my larger art dolls.

My pins and ornaments are first sewn of good quality white cotton fabric and then stuffed with polyfill. Then they're hand dyed, hand painted and finally beaded. A pin back is sewn securely on the back of the pins. Because of the nature of the hand dyeing, no two are ever exactly alike.

My spouse loves to spin and weave, and I dye warps for his beautiful handwoven scarves.

I've been painting my entire life and especially love to paint in a celtic or medieval style, but pure fantasy is also great fun.

The well fleshed orange kitty that my shop is named after is Donovan who has his own web site.

Thursday, May 5, 2016

The Felted Gnome Journey

A few months ago I saw a video online on making gnomes by Sarafina. It was nice and simple, just a nose, ears, hat and lots of hair. I thought, that can't be too hard so I'll try it. But I can't ever do things exactly the same, so I added an entire face on this gnome, plus some simple arms and feet.

Next, I made one with a very simple armature for the arms and hands.

Earlier in April, our felting group met to make gnomes taught by one of the other members where I made this teeny tiny gnome. The teacher, Wendy, gave me some wonderful tiny Bluefaced Leicester locks for his beard.