Noren, felt snakes, and a mobile

Some leftovers from my watercolor class have become a noren (Japanese door curtain) and a mobile. Also dug out some mustard-colored roving and felted it to make a hanger for some cloth pouches. (The latter will hold index cards for a research project I'm doing.)

felted "snakes" support cloth pouches which will hold index cards for a research project

A noren hangs in the doorway of a closet in order to use the "see-through" paintings I made for class -- I have to look through them in order to walk through the doorway.

mobile made out of two-sided paintings

opposite sides of the paintings in above mobile

Fleece lore and painting idea

Alpaca! It's soft, it's dense and drapey, it's exotic, and it comes in lush, natural colors. For Christmas I'm sending my mother-in-law an alpaca scarf. I added some Navajo Churro and some Jacob (both are Heritage breeds) to the yarns I spun for the contrasting stripes. The body of the scarf is naturally-colored alpaca blended with some Border Leicester lamb. Peggy's great-granddaughter carded some of the wool for the pink stripe. This was great fun to make and took a surprising volume of fleece -- 8 ounces -- alpaca has quite a dense "hand."

The decorative painting below is the endpaper from an Hena Khan book -- Mehrdokht Amini is the illustrator. I shot it to capture material for an upcoming project --  no reference to the scarf project, just wanted to capture it before taking it back to the library.

Handspun and dyed (by me) alpaca scarf. Alpaca is from Sherwood, a neighboring city.

Bits of five different fleeces went into the scarf -- all are uncommon breeds raised by Willamette Valley shepherdesses.

Kitchen rugs and musicians draft

Last month I made a composition draft for a painting of musicians -- it was to be part of the mask project. May not get to painting it for a while, so have documented it here.

The kitchen rug project begun last April has been coming along nicely -- almost have four rugs completed -- see below.

Still under construction

Whole Earth beings

More images from participatory Water Media mask assignment:

Whole Earth mask assignment

My art teacher invited me to submit a mask for her Water Media class. The project expanded! Soon there was a "whole earth" backdrop (which one viewer said looked like a "mask" of earth expanded to reveal what's really going on beneath the familiar facade). The submission became a participatory installation in which class members discussed controversial social and environmental topics, then mounted images on the backdrop.

"Earth" backdrop

This pair of images (see below) is more of a socially controversial topic than the other, environmentally themed ones

Fossils added to round blanket

The blanket I started two years ago is finished. (See Into The Woods 10-14-2012 and Pithy Circle 11-10-2012)

The yarn-hungry process of knitting a 5' diameter circle made the various colors accumulate in narrow bands which reminded me of layers of rock "telling" geological time. So the embellishments represent organisms from various parts of the fossil record:  agnathans, bryozoans, crinoids, gastropods, a shonisaurus, a dragonfly, a gingko leaf, a sea star, and a trace fossil. Mother turtle occupies the center of the circle.

circular blanket can also be worn as a shawl -- note armholes near turtle image

Shonisaurus may have been 50' long!

an Agnathan

a Crinoid

center of circular blanket embellished with turtle figure

Spring Term Watercolor, 5

Top view of assemblage for watercolor class final

Side view of assemblage

Assemblage representing feudal fortifications enclosing a broadcast tower

Adjoining assemblage for watercolor final -- figures in the sky stand for information dissemination via the internet

The whole class participated in placing the village's houses on the "internet" landscape

Again, the feudal castles which surround broadcast tower image

Spring Term Watercolor, 4

Bowl and dipper made by our friend Jerry

Gourd dipper from Clinton KY is paired with an alarm clock for "metaphors" assignment

Studies for metaphors assignment

Spring Term Watercolor, 3

Southwestern scene for "skies" assignment

Negative space painting assignments

Six-minute timed exercises on gesso-ed cardboard

Spring Term Watercolor, 2

Study for assignment on scale juxtaposition

Tiny buffalo herd passing through a grove of enormous dandelion plants

Composition studies for scale assignment

Stars over coast range campground

Spring Term Watercolor, 1

Peninsula Park Rose Garden

Storm over southeastern Utah

The Oregon coast near Bandon

Old growth forest scene

Summer Rug Progress

Finished two rugs and started a third this summer:

20" x 55"

20" x 42"

This one will likely be 2' x 4'