Felt United Day-my installation "Tree Huggie" at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft

Finally the day came. So much have been done from washing the wool fleece to dyeing and finally felting. The idea to make a "Tree Huggie" came to me exactly a week ago. I was at the Craft Center and looked at the garden. I saw this beautiful pine tree, just reminded me of my home country, Latvia, there're so many tall beautiful pine trees there and if you go to the woods the smell is absolutely wonderful. Immediately I've decided I wanted to make something special for that tree. When I needed to take some measurements a friend asked me how I was going to do that without a tape measurer and I said: " I'm just going to hug it." So that's how the idea came to life. The look I was going for was something wild, unpolished, natural, not perfect, organic, raw and I really love the way it turned out. The piece measures at 77"x30" and it looks just as it belongs on that tree. There were other feltmakers at the garden demoing and educating the public about this ancient craft (it's older than weaving) and I think kids really had so much fun and they even took their finished works with them home. The day was definitely a success and I can't wait to do it again next year. I'll post more photos to my Flickr page soon.