Hand-Felted Beads

Last year I bought some lovely wool roving and needle felting tools, intending on embarking on a new craft. I ended up putting all of the felting tools up in my closet, but recently they have been calling to me. Over the past week, I made a few embarrassing attempts at needle-felted brooches and so forth, when I decided to try hand-felting some beads since it looked like a lot of fun. Last night, I made my very first batch, which you can see above. I'm quite proud of them!

Basically, you take some wool roving, wrap it up into a ball, very carefully pour hot and soapy water onto the wool, roll it about in your hands for several minutes (add more water and soap), add pressure more and more as you go, until you are happy with the shape. Once you are, rinse the ball in hot water, and then rinse it in cold. Let dry overnight and you have your beads! I plan on doing more experiments with this new medium because I find it so very fascinating and so much fun.

I love new crafts!

The Yellow Bird

I'm always inspired by nature and particularly by graceful, sinuous birds like the Snowy Egret. I decided to draw upon this bird for my latest collage, which I call The Yellow Bird. I like the curving shapes and how they are contrasted by the squares of blue sunlight in the background.

This image is now available in the shop.

Materials: Mat board (11x14), card stock, handmade papers, glue stick.

Three Birds In a Row

I was positively desperate to do something artistic last night, since I have been lazy in that regard for a few days. I looked through my "Bird" book for something to paint when I came across these three little gems: Southern Carmine Bee-Eaters. They are too cute for words and I love how they are all looking in the same direction for something. I'm quite satisfied with the result and it's always a good sign when I can feel good about something the next day!

UPDATE, March 2008: This item has been SOLD!

Materials: 8x10 gessoed artist panel, acrylic paint

Bathing Beauty

While trolling through the clearance rack at Michael's the other day, I came across several pads of "Windpower Vellum Bristol" by Strathmore. Since I love the smooth texture of bristol board, I decided to grab a few pads, especially since they were on sale for the unbelievable price of $4.00 each. The above drawing was composed on this paper, and I think I have a new love. Not only is it just as nice and forgiving as regular bristol board, but it's environmentally friendly, too!

If you are interested in the image above, I have it for sale in my shop.

Materials: Strathmore Windpower Vellum Bristol board (11x14), Prismacolor colored pencils.

Seahorses In Love

I finally got around to painting this cute little pair of seahorses who are in love with one another. I think they are adorable! These tiny creatures are absolutely fascinating.

Update, March 2008: This item has been SOLD!

In related news, I bought a book called Ocean the other day on Amazon; it is filled with the most amazing underwater creatures you could possibly imagine and I'm finding it to be extremely inspiring.


Materials: 8x10 artist panel, acrylics

Ruby-Throated Hummingbird

Back to birds! I think the Ruby-Throated Hummingbird is one of the prettiest birds around, and I love that they reside in the United States. Perhaps one day I will even see one with my own eyes. I decided to step away from the glue and scissors this time and paint. The background was painted with acrylics on an 8x10 canvas. I drew the outline of the bird and flower in pencil and then went over the outline with puffy T-shirt paint to give it a three-dimensional look. I like it!

Materials: Acrylic paints, pencil, artist tape (for blocking off the stripes), T-shirt paint.

The Wonder of the Hole Punch

I found a new use for hole punches tonight. While looking at a picture of a woman in a sequined evening gown, I thought that I could use hole punches to simulate the sequins. I'm sure someone else has thought of this before, but it was a real brainwave for me.

Update: this item is now available in the shop!

Materials: Mat Board (5x7), Gloss Paper Mod Podge, card stock, scrapbooking paper.

Two for One

I was all up in some creativity this evening and came up with two new collages. These are my first two attempts at "fashion" collage, and I'm fairly happy with how they came out, although I certainly do see room for improvement. Both were made with card stock and scrapbooking paper adhered to mat board using Gloss Paper Mod Podge. I really need to get some Matte Mod Podge soon; the glossy might be a bit much. I bought some really awesome trim from Hobby Lobby a while back and I use a bit of black trim for the belt and hemline in the bottom collage. I have lots of neat ideas about making these kinds of collage more detailed in the future, but for now I am happy working with simple shapes.

Materials: Mat board (8x10), scrapbook paper, card stock, Paper Mod Podge, black fringe.

A Return to Mat Board

In 2007, I made quite a few collages using mat board (or "matte board" as I tend to want to spell it). Instead of taking a nap, which I really wanted to do, I got out all of my fun papers, glues, and cutting utensils and went to work. I ended up with what you see above, a Long-Tailed Broadbill bird. I think he's rather cute. At first I attempted to collage a different kind of bird, but it was a massive failure. I think I was getting too detailed for my own good, so I scrapped that bird and decided to go as simple as possible for this bird. I hope to do another collage at some point this weekend; hopefully something fashion-esque like most of my drawings.

Update: You can now buy this collage in the shop!

Materials: 8x10 mat board, handmade papers, card stock, Elmer's Glue Stick, Paper Mod Podge

Cock-a-Doodle-Cockatoo

Another image gleaned from the bird book I got for Christmas. This particular cockatoo is a Major Mitchell's Cockatoo who lives in Australia. Instead of using regular Prismacolor colored pencils, I used Prismacolors Art Stix, which are large rectangular chunks of colored pencil lead. They look very similar to pastels, but the nice thing is that they don't get on your fingers and you can cover a much broader area with fewer strokes. I have the 48-color set, which is indispensable. I hope that one day Prismacolor will come out with the entire 120-color set. (Please, oh, please!)

Materials: Strathmore Medium Drawing paper (9x12), Prismacolor Art Stix