The Big Hard Sun

(Dimentions are 42" X 42") And this is meant to hang from the ceiling horizontally...but I haven't gotten it hung yet

The reviews of this piece are widely mixed. In fact, I've never gotten as much negative feedback before on a piece since this one horrible experiment I did back in college, LOL. Overall I'm almost finished, and almost happy with it. There is so much to talk about with this one...

I've already expressed my need for more sunshine in my life, and so I decided to create my own sun. What I haven't mentioned before is the negativity inside myself that I've been pushing to work through. Like my Mother/Daughter piece, I've been working this piece for therapy and striving to be my higher self. It's been over 2 years now that I've been living with Lupus, and I still struggle with Self-Pity and Jealously surrounding my lifestyle changes. And frankly I'm sick of it and I've been working hard to put it to an end.

Sometimes when friends or family talk to me about what they've been up to: an afternoon hike, a swim at the beach, rock climbing the gorge, or a bike ride around town...I feel like I want to scream. I'm sick to my stomache with jealousy, and I hate it. I want to be able to truly celebrate the great things that people are doing, not just pretend to. I know other people struggle with similar feelings. "How dare everyone else's life go on like normal!" I've done the research and my brain can adjust to the idea that this is part of the process. But I've been completely uncomfortable with these feelings, and I'm hoping this therapy has brought me much closer to emotional health, LOL.

Okay, so about the art. I began with inspiration from an old book from the early 1970's...obviously!! And I thought that was appropriate, since I was born under a 70's sun! My other beginning inspiration was from the image of a simple sun drawn by a kindergartener...the simple circle in the middle...with oddly shaped triangles protruding from all sides. LOVE IT! What says "sun" better than that??!!

Then of course, as everyone is probably sick of hearing...I've been obsessively inspired by artists, Mandy Greer and Andy Goldsworthy. So there are elements in this piece that are my tribute to them. The rest is just joyful fun! Playtime at it's best! An experiment in Order and Chaos!!

Pic of the finishing pieces before they went on. With so many little pieces going into the whole, my goal was to make each one it's own little work of art, trying to make each interesting if it had to stand alone. I admit that I wasn't quite successful...close though!!

Please ignore the mesh hanging behind the sun, I'm desperately running out of wall space for all my works in progress!!! I'll get better pics eventually.

At first I wasn't sure, but I'm loving how this piece is driving other people batty!! I feel like it's a great stepping stone on my path as an artist, and a very worthwhile exercise in creative freedom.

Twilight wanted alot of detail pics, so here you are chica!! They say God is in the details...well so am I!!

My Chaos Yarn

Remember my grocery sack full of yarn scraps? I save every little snippet of yarn and put it in the bag. Crazy you may say, but as we hardcore yarn addicts know...it really adds up!! Thank God for a bestfriend; who's incredible skill can turn this chaos back into yummy yarn!!!

Twilight's spinning really has become quite incredible!! I told her that I really felt like I needed this yarn for part of my next art piece "The Other Side", and being the angel that she is...this is what she created for me to use!! All for the very expensive price of: a ton of my homemade cookies!!

These pics here are stolen directly off of Twilight's Blog!

There are so many areas of my life that Twilight shines her love onto, I can't imagine life without her. But I have to say...having a bestfriend who knits, crochets, felts, spins, and creates beautiful art...well, it's the coolest thing ever!!!

4th of July

For July 4th, we celebrated with our friend Bedrock. We went to his housewarming party for a BBQ since he just finished and moved into the house he's been working on for the past year, YEA!! D and I lit off fireworks which was fun, and then we all sat up on Bedrock's roof and watched the town fireworks off in the distance.This is a funky rainbow windsock type of thing that I made for Bedrock's housewarming. He loved it!!

Another Placemat Idea

Omg, since I got the new table I've been seeing great placemat ideas all over the place, but I still have to stick with the materials at hand. So I decided to go with a braided style that matches the braided rugs that I've made. This wool is soooo bulky and soft, it's alot like braiding roving!!

And of course now I've decided that I need to make a new braided rug to go under the table, for during the winter, to keep our feet from freezing!!

New Table - New Placemats!!

My loving man brought home this awesome table set! It's hand made in Mexico...all real wood, extremely sturdy and in excellent condition!! I was so estactic when I saw it. All she needs is some good old fashioned polishing. This is our first table in our new house...not counting the folding ones that I use in my studio, lol. Daniel traded one of his rifles for it, I was so touched. I love how it fits into our space!

So now that we have a "formal" eating place...I set out to make us some cool placemats!!

I started with some leftover over felt and used a large mixing bowl to trace circles. Then used our Ying-Yang incense burner to trace the pattern. Then I began needle felting on yarn. I'm going to do one fire/water set...cuz those are our elements...D is fire, I'm water. Then I'm going to do a standard black and white set!!!

The work was wonderful. It really gave me the feeling of painting, which I've been missing. I used both a little needle holder with 5 needles in it, as well as a single needle for those little pesky spots.

The first one turned out beautifully!! It lays perfectly flat!

And of course, here is the final test!! I love it!! I think it suites us perfectly!!

Progression Pics

Here is 'The Other Side' after the first layer was added. These branches are actual sticks that I collected. It was great fun searching for the perfect forms that would fit against fence right and give me the demensional effect I wanted. I wrapped each one and then added leaves and flowers and little beaded catapillars. Then wired them into place.

These branches became so magical, I'm certain I'll be working with these again! I'm already planning another sculpture based on them.

Tropical fern leaves, partially felted and then strung with wire for shaping.

I crocheted these leaves in alternating rows of feltable wool, and non-felting yarn...this gave me a great shape with just enough stitch definition to create a leaf vein pattern.

Now I'm really into the building process! I've added and added...then taken it off, and started again, lol.

I'm loving how she's coming alive, but there is still a lot to do before she's done...maybe we're at the half way point??