Felting

I've been on a felting kick lately. This is wool that I dyed felted onto a base of teal silk crepe de chine fabric. It was wet felted in a big sheet, then I cut out a vest shape. It is one piece, with the only seams at the shoulders.

I stood in the art shack for the first time on Saturday. Previously, when you opened the door, there was a big wooden apparatus directly inside that prevented me from physically getting inside the building. I dismantled it on Saturday, (with a wrench, a hammer, crowbar, and some well-chosen expletives) and just stood in there and got a feel for the space. Dreamed a bit. Thought about window and door placement. Loom placement. Dyeing station placement. Felting station placement. Pottery wheel placement. Big comfy chair placement. You get the idea!

It's getting closer, closer

Yep, it is finally here. I wasn't sure if it was going to make the corner turning onto my high, narrow driveway, but they did it. It is still up on cribbing so I can insulate underneath and come up with a better foundation, probably until spring. What I had there was basically destroyed in their moving back and forth trying to get the building in position. It turns out this building is heavier than a normal building of the same size because of the type and amount of wood used. The walls are 2 by 6, 12 inches on center. She's a sturdy one, designed to hold many tons of grain. Just think how much fiber she will hold! Apparently, my building is a girl.

Pottery Class

My first wheel-thrown pottery piece. A plate. That fancy edge? An attempt to cover a mistake. When I was trimming it, I had it secured on the wheel well enough for me. When the instructor sat at my wheel to show me how to do something, he kicked that wheel much faster. My poor plate went flying. It was mostly ok except for a gouge on the edge. So I just cut gouges all around the edge, and tada, a sprocket plate. There is also a crack in the middle, but it held together. I won't be able to use it to serve food, because the glaze wasn't able to seal it.

This little lopsided bowl is my second piece, my first bowl. Just the right size for ice cream!

One of the other students commented that "Art takes a long time." I had to laugh. I was thinking,wow, look how fast this is, one minute I have a ball of clay and a half hour later I have a bowl. There are additional steps of course, but to me it was way faster than the dyeing/carding/spinning/knitting or weaving I usually do. Once again proving it's all relative!

In other news, the Art Shack is coming on Sunday! Woohoo! The man who is moving it stopped by today to do a dry run and look over the site. He is the one that took it off its foundation, and he said that the building didn't flex one bit. As he bluntly put it, "That building is built like a brick shithouse!" Now, that is exactly what I thought,(maybe not exactly in those terms!) but it felt good to hear it from someone who actually knows about these things and who is an impartial third-party. Yeehaw!