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.

Preparation for Felt United Day October 3rd PART 2

So far very productive day. No washing wool today, may be tomorrow just in case I need more. Have been dyeing wool the whole day, I don't think I ever done that much washing and dyeing in 2 days, call me crazy :) The wool has been drying slower than usual, well it's fall and why do I expect the sun to be very strong ? Well because it's Texas and we usually get plenty of warm weather on and off till January. As the matter of fact usually for New Year's we're in T-shirts, can you believe it's that warm. It was supposed to rain today, but the weather has been very cooperative with me, I really needed the sun. Tomorrow is the fun day, felting all day long till I drop and want to do some washing in between felting, multitasking....the brake is not for relaxation, but for doing more stuff :). Should be fun :)

Preparation for Felt United Day October 3rd PART 1

If you've been following my blog, not long ago I wrote a post about Felt United Day, which is going to be October 3rd 2009. Feltmakers around the world are celebrating this day by exhibiting their works, making demonstrations to public etc. Here in Houston local feltmakers are bringing their feltworks to Houston Center for Contemporary Craft and will display it in the community garden, so If you're local make sure to stop by and check it out.
At first when I learned about this event I knew for sure I wanted to do something, just wasn't sure what exactly. So finally, a few days ago I got an idea, but for now I'll just hold that thought. Back home we don't tell details until it's completely done, just for good luck...I guess it's a Russian thing. For my installation I'm using raw fleece, which came straight from the sheep with all the extra "good stuff", you know what I mean... I love the organic and natural look you can achieve with raw stuff. Today I've been washing it, about 6lbs so far ( I think I chose the dirtiest fleece possible, but who said life is easy ?) and dyeing in the colours from the colour wheel slice from yellow to red, that's the only requirement. I'm using all the local fleece, by that I mean from USA sheep growers. Merino and merinoXcorriedale are from Colorado and I also have some mohair locks and rambouillet from Texas. I'm trying to use my stash, which grows constantly and out of control, so I got the perfect project for that and I'm thinking not a small scale too, at least that's the picture in my head, hopefully I can get there.

The Great Indoors by Aurora Robson

Aurora Robson used 15,000 of plastic bottles in her installation "The Great Indoors" at Rice Gallery here in Houston in 2008. Water based non toxic paints were used to achieve the desired colours. Solar pannels powered the entire piece. She really tried to be as invironmentally concious as possible. I was completely blown away by the colours, shapes and forms that she created.

Photoes by Mr.Kimberly.

Mapping out Paradise

Mapping out Paradise is an installation made of felt, glass, fabric and photocollages made by Claudy Jongstra and Marc Mulders. Museum De Pont, Tilburg, the Netherlands.