Busy, Busy, Busy!!!!!!!!

Some things tend to get pushed off the plate when one gets super busy and I have found that computer time and writing blog posts and visiting all of my glorious friends blogs has been one f those things!!  I have truly missed the blog hopping and visiting and as I sat down today to finally write a new post I was a bit shocked to see that I have not updated you since April 6!!  That is inexcusable!!
So as evidence to show that I have been truly busy I am going to share a quick photo tour of what I have been doing art wise. Of course there has also been family stuff, house stuff, the garden, taking care of all the PR for our gallery- Artful Dimensions.  BTW we would love it if you would check out the gallery on FB and "Friend us" if you are so inclined!! Here is the link.
As many of you know I have been experimenting with felting and combining harvested silk gauze and wool roving to make unique wraps of wearable art.  Here are a few of my latest creations!!

( Click on any picture to enlarge.)

 This is my latest piece.  I am calling this wrap Peaches and Cream.  I put it all together using ultra soft merino top roving , silk fibers, and some Rusty Nail Angelina fibers sprinkled in for a bit of sparkle.

As part of the felting process I have added in clusters of silk flower "blossoms", made from some of the fabric and rolled and attached solely through the magic of the wool fibers.

Some of the silk fabrics have shots of metallic gold threads running through them, perhaps you can see the shimmer in the upper left.  This will be on display and for sale at Artful Dimensions Gallery of Art and Fine Craft.

I have finished  a new free form beaded collage bracelet as a commission for a good friend who owns a wonderful knitting shop on Cape Cod.  ( If any of you vacation on the Cape and are out on the Outer Cape- Orleans area- plan on stopping by and checking out the wonderful offerings of yarn and great hospitality at A Stitch In Thyme.)

 My friend wears lots of soft blues and green tones, quiet earth tones you might say.  So I had a grand time sorting through my bead stash to find the perfect beads for her bracelet.  the closure is made using a loop of seed beads and a vintage mother of pearl button.

 In this bead soup you can see beads made from porcelain, some Picasso Jasper dagger shaped beads ( a bit left of center with the brown veins), a glass face bead, several recycled glass beads from Tanzania, and lots of different seed beads.

She should have received the bracelet by now and I hope that she likes it!!

Here are some other felting projects that are on their way to becoming pillows.  Each will have a flange around the outside- kind of like a ruffle but NOT ruffled, so as not to loose the wonderful organic edge of each piece.

 After taking a wonderful class with the AMAZING Margo Duke, I learned how to add fabric roses, ruffled and pleated silks and gauze fabrics and how to incorporate some of my hand dyed vintage crochet pieces into the felt work.

         After the felting process comes the even more fun part, the beading and hand stitch work!!!

This purple piece is on it's way to becoming a very special pillow for a special friend.  The others will become part of my first ever Featured Artist Show to be held during the month of September at Artful Dimensions.

I made this quick little bracelet for a special visitor who will be coming very soon!!! This specific pattern is called Tapestry and was created by the amazing Carol Cavanaugh of Beads On Parade a wonderful bead store in Fredericksburg, VA.  The pattern calls for using two different colors in several sizes of beads but, as you can see, I modified it just a bit!!

          I have also been working on curriculum development for a new Class that we are offering as a camp this summer at ADG. (Artful Dimensions Gallery)  A good friend Barb Posey, and I are offering a Fairy and Troll camp for all ages 10 and up.  We will be creating our own fairies and trolls and then working with found and natural objects to make environments for those little people to live in.  We are very excited about it and I have really gotten into making little accouterments for the fairies!

 This little baby fairy is based on instructions offered in a wonderful book by artist Sally Mayvor.  I discovered Sally's wonderful work from a listing on Pinterest.  I have since learned that she lives on Cape Cod- where I used to live and where I still have family.  She is a very gifted artist and shares all of her techniques.  If you are at all interested in crafting your won fairies with very simple supplies check out her book Felted Wee Folk.

 Here is the little guy hanging out with his new pal Mr. Cicada.  We are currently in the midst of a 17 year swarm hatch and the buggers are everywhere!!

                       This is our sample of a troll for those who do not wish to create fairies.

 Here is baby fairy with his Momma seated in their little moss and bark floored environment, in front of her mosaic table and serving up a polymer clay strawberry cream cake and tea in blue ceramic mugs!!

A better shot f Mr. Troll with his bones and his fish bone stool.  I\did his dreads  ( hair do) with brown wool roving and twisted it quite a bit to get the right look.

Here is a detail shot of the mosaic table- I used molding paste and little broken shell bits to craft the table and polymer clay for the other bits!!
 We have had quite a few adults inquire about the camp and we have decided to offer some classes for adults as well.  We had a nice write up in the local paper last week about our classes so hopefully folks will really follow through and sign up!!

So as you can see I have been working very hard and I will try more diligently to keep you up to date on my creative projects in a more timely manner! I hope that wherever you are the cicadas are not driving you nuts, the tornadoes have avoided you and you can find cool or warm place to create beautiful works of art of whatever type you choose!! ART ON!!!