New Writing Project!

Hello, all one or two people who may follow this blog when I update! I've started another site recently, this time a writing project based on a story I've had percolating in me for years now. I've started self-publishing it as a serial novel at sweaterbird.com if you want to take a peek at it.

It's a fantasy/suspense/mystery style story so far. Not a romance or comedy at all! I know the subject matter is not going to be everyone's cup of tea but it's the kind of story I've always wanted to write. It takes place here in Kingston, as well, because I found that easier than making up my own city or trying to set it somewhere else. The action actually begins around an apartment building I used to live in, although it's been turned into condos since then.

Check it out and if you like it let me know!

365 Project

Yes, things have been sparse. Needle felting was going well for a while until my daughter managed to snag a felting needle and poke herself good. I had to not felt around her any more so things slowed down considerably.

I've begun a new online project, though, that is definitely keeping me doing something creative on a daily basis! It's called Art On My iPhone. I got an iPhone for my birthday this year and discovered the endless variety of creative apps available. So now I'm producing a little piece of art on it every day and blogging about it. Please go check it out and let me know what you think!

A couple of robin shots and some musings.

Well, the robin is now firmly ensconced in his new Ottawa home in a provincial government office. So far he seems to be enjoying the sights and his new neighbours:



Also here is a general idea of his size for those (Maysie) who were wondering:




I don't have new pieces to show at the moment but I did want to muse a bit about my plans.

One of the first things I told my mother when I began needle-felting was that I probably wouldn't continue with it. The process is too labour-intensive and time-consuming, I complained. Then as soon as I finished my first project I started on a second one. And then a third one. And a fourth, and I found I just couldn't put the needle down.

I'm more excited about the needle-felting method of sculpting than I have been about any other. It feels more natural and intuitive to me than anything else has. That said; I still want to develop a more streamlined method for making my birds as I mentioned a few posts back. My new(er) idea is to sew a basic bird form out of sheet felt rather than cotton and needle-felt on to that with wool and yarn. I want to have templates of various bird sizes and shapes so that there will be continuity in my designs.

Sculpting the bodies from loose fiberfill is fun but at times a little bit unpredictable. I can intend to create a certain type of bird and have it end up looking like another. That's usually OK as I can either make the new kind of bird or take steps to change the shape so it more resembles the originally intended bird. Infrequently I mess a form up so irretrievably that it is relegated to the graveyard of effed-up birds. It takes quite a major screw-up for this to happen, though, as needle-felting is an immensely forgiving process. The robin was a rescue from the graveyard, to be honest. He was an early attempt at sculpting a bird form whole; beak, tail and all. I gave up on it when it looked too much like a hummingbird but took him out again, cut off the beak and tail and transformed him into a wee robin.

As much as I love sculpting I also love hand sewing. LOVE it. Last night I sewed the crow body from Abbey Glassenberg's The Artful Bird out of red felt and experimented with needle-felting some acrylic wool to it. It worked as well as I'd hoped so the next step for me is to come up with my own bird body patterns and go from there. As I was sewing I got the calm, peaceful feeling that I always get when I'm doing that or embroidering and I was very happy to think I could incorporate it into what I've been doing. Of course I'm going to attempt machine sewing the bodies as well but I have a feeling the hand-sewing will be more satisfying if not easier.

Not much else to report art-wise. Etsy store coming within the month, I hope!

Teeny tiny robin

As soon as I started making birds people began requesting robins. What is it about robins that people find so appealing? Is it because they signal spring, especially here in Canada where we wait impatiently for the return of the geese in the sky and the sight of these little brown and red birds hopping in our yards? Whatever it is people seem to want them around.

For this robin I went very small. He's the smallest bird I've made yet. I wanted to make him this tiny because he's for Andrew's desk at work and I figured he should take up as little desk space as possible.





Compare him with the fancy crow/raven/whatever size-wise:



Speaking of which; the fancy bird is about as finished as it's going to get although I may take off the legs and either make them longer or make him a flying bird. I added more detail to the tail and tried to neaten up the edges on both the tail and wings. I do know that I'll never again make tails and wings the way I made his. There has to be a better way!

Picture-heavy!

Here's what I've been making since my last post. A lot of experimenting, trying to figure out what works and what doesn't. These have all been gifts for family except for the doves which are for a friend's wedding. These are in reverse order of when I made them, unfortunately, because the uploader did me wrong.

Needle Felting!

Yes, it's been quite a long time since I updated Aesthetic Ability and it's a shame because I have actually done some creative work between September and now. I couldn't post about it before Christmas, though, because my plans were all about the gifts I was making for people. I ended up changing those plans as Christmas drew near and made something else entirely (embroidered pendants for all the women in my family.)

Since Christmas I haven't done a whole lot creatively other than make more pendants as I've been planning a new project involving them. Computer troubles prevented me from starting that project as planned and then I agreed to an art swap with a friend of mine so decided to jump into a new art form that I've never tried before: Needle felting!

I'd seen a lot of examples of needle felted sculpture online and been curious about it. I'd also recently gotten a copy of Abby Glassenberg's book The Artful Bird and was very excited about birds in general. My friend Melanie had a picture on Facebook of a bird painting she'd done and I was in love with her style and how she painted; in watercolours, no less! She'd seen my bird mobile from the first post in this blog and was equally enthusiastic so we decided to do an art swap; a painting of a seagull for me and a sculpture of a tree swallow for her.

I went out and bought some felting needles and wool roving (plus a foam pad for felting against.) I already had a bag of polyester fiberfill to use for the core sculpture as it felts up just as well as wool. After a few false starts (and bloody, sore fingertips) I started getting the hang of it. I decided to try sculpting an elephant for my mom to start with using the un-dyed roving I'd bought. I was shocked to end up with this:




Well; that went better than I expected! My mom loved it and I was pleased. I took a deep breath and moved on to Melanie's tree swallow. I had an old, beloved sweater that I'd been saving to incorporate into art projects and the dark blue stripe in it was the right colour for the swallow's blue back. Another old sweater had a cream stripe for the stomach and a ball of variegated wool yarn had the colours I needed for wings, tail and legs. I managed to get it all pulled together in a bit less than a week, all told, and assembling the pieces together was like magic. Suddenly there was a bird in front of me! I'd used black beads for eyes and black felt for the beak and putting those pieces on last brought it to life.




I have BIG plans for more felting; birds in particular. I like the process of sculpting the original bird shape with a felting needle out of polyfill but it's time-consuming so I want to experiment with sewing bird bodies out of plain cotton fabric and felting the details onto the surface. I also want to incorporate embroidery for the finer details and end up with a truly multi-media product. Glassenberg's book will be invaluable when it comes to learning the finer points of pattern design and I already love embroidery. As soon as I finished Melanie's swallow I wanted to start another bird, so it looks like I have a new obsession for now!

The Saga of the Pop Tab Purse

The pop tab purse of persecution.

Back in March my sister Alannah asked me if I could make her a purse out of pop tabs as a birthday gift.  You know, the metal dinguses from pop cans that you open the can with.  She showed me a project she'd seen online and I figured I could do it after looking at the instructions.  So my whole family collected pop tabs for months and months until I estimated I had enough.

A couple of weeks ago I set about making this purse, and in doing so entered my own personal creative hell.  I started out with the tutorial but figured out after a while that the method outlined used too many pop tabs in a really inefficient manner.  I did some research, found some better methods and undid all my work so far.  I began again, but the second method I tried didn't work with the material I was using.  It called for wire and I was using clear gimp.  The stretchy quality of the plastic lace caused the pop tabs to tighten up and overlap where they shouldn't have, no matter how I tried to avoid it.  I cursed myself and undid all my work yet again.

I started researching pop tab art like crazy,  searching for the perfect method for what I was trying to accomplish.  This was a gift for my sister.  I wanted it to look good, not cheap, and I was trying hard to avoid the pop-tabs-surrounded-by-wads-of-yarn look that many of the purse projects seemed to have.  I wanted it to look a bit industrial and the clear gimp is practically invisible from just a few feet away, leaving the pop tabs to shine in all their aluminum glory.

FINALLY I found a method that worked perfectly.  I found it on an instruction site for making faux chain mail but the idea was the same.  A large, flat, flexible sheet that I could attach to other sheets.  Phew!  So I sat down and obsessively strung pop tabs onto gimp until I had the pieces all created.  Then I put those pieces aside because that night I had a dream about pop tab chain mail.  No joke.  When I woke up I decided to give myself a day off from pop tab purse making because my tenuous sanity is important to certain aspects of my life!

The strap across the body of the purse.  I used a different method for the strap so that it would be strong.

The next day I grimly set about attaching all the pieces together.  I was getting pretty discouraged at this point because there were flaws about the construction that were glaringly obvious to me; specifically that there were tied-off gimp ends showing where I did not want them to.  I bitched and moaned and complained to anyone who would listen, but my family just kept telling me that it looked great and that I was the only one who'd notice the flaws.  I decided they were right and kept going,  eventually getting the body of the purse sewn together with clear fishing wire.  And if you looked at it from a few feet away it DID look pretty good.

I realized I should line the purse, though.  Pop tabs are not gentle things and I didn't want Alannah's stuff to get scratched and marred by rough edges so I sewed an inner lining out of black felt that I had.  I hand-sewed it which was the most pleasant part of this whole process.  I enjoy sewing quite a lot, and once I had the lining finished I sewed it into the purse using black crochet thread.

Then more problems!  I realized that I had enough pop tabs for the strap but not enough to make the flap to close the purse.  So the purse is not quite yet finished, but hopefully will be in a month or so; however long it takes to collect enough tabs.  Now that it's all assembled (except for the front flap) I am pretty pleased with how it looks.  As I've told my family, though;  this is at least a $500.00 purse what with all the time, labor and stress that went into it.  So ... while I do love this purse I don't imagine I'll be making one of these again unless I find an even better method.