Gold, linen, knitting and virgin wool - new upcoming project

And today is about the doll, not actually a doll, but sort of angel – knitted, sewn and gold-painted. Next I‘m gonna work out some details and wings to finish it. 

It‘s been a while since I‘ve been thinking about introducing some golden elements in my work, and it has been rather a vague intention for nothing particular for a long time. I‘ve waited and gathered materials, untill I've suddenly stumbled upon and bought that golden synthetic yarn in deep sparkling reddish old gold, almost bronze, last Saturday. From that moment on the puzzle of golden elements has got together and I got into action, and this project finally moved forward. 

And I‘m slowly getting it the way I‘ve wanted it look like – being knitted, sewn, with linen, sculpting. A couple of another techniques/materials would possibly be applied to details/wings. I woudn‘t say I‘m gonna make dolls, but elements like sculpted faces and hands has always fascinated me and I‘m happy I have them finally involved in my work - angel being a perfect opportunity only to use those (the face and hands) - exactly what I'm interested in right now.

Birch studies in textile/monochromes

Another monochrome, waiting to become a next tote bag. Another one with a knitted piece. Featuring another winter motif  - the birches' trunks. Maybe I‘m gonna add some details tomorrow like handquilting or embroidery, I do not know yet. Here's a peek preview and I‘ll keep you posted.

New serie - Winter monochromes

Here‘s the serie I‘ve started at the beginning of the week – „Winter greys and knitting“. It‘ll be about winter the next time – greys, greyish browns, greyish greens – all those typical colours of natural unbleached linen  - yes, still my favorite, and I do not think it‘d ever change.

This time I‘m introducing knitted elements. I used to become a passionate knitter as the days got shorter and colder, and even more passionate collector of yarns – linen yarns, wool, bamboo, cotton, mohair, silk – in maybe TONS of different colour gradations. And besides of knitting itself, I like making samples – trying different patterns, and recently mixing different qualities of yarns. 

The idea was to make useful those experimental pieces  from pattern-learning, and  to introduce some more interesting haptic and visual texture as what I‘ve been already doing with different sorts of fabrics.

This new tote (another one for going to the library with my little girl) – is made of linen, heavy linen. It has been lined and a bit padded on the front side. Padding was actually meant to make some handquilting possible on the bottom piece of linen, but I stopped after having made some lines – it was just the right amount and seemed enough.

If the monochromes are appealing to you, stay tuned, because I adore them and gonna make more of them this week.

Peek into new projects

A small peek inside my studio – new faces for new dolls – waiting for paint. They gonna get that angel-like look with long decorated dresses and wings – to become decorative pieces to be hung in the kid‘s room. After having tried some other possibilities of making faces, I‘ve chosen that way – some wire to get the basic shape, papier maché and then air-drying modelling clay. 

And yes, I‘ve got those somehow distinctive and prominent features, though actually I wanted more smoothness, abstractness. Despite of that they make me think now of some sort of fusion from what I‘ve seen in Paris in the Musée des arts premiers du quai Branly – the wooden masks from the civilisations of Africa and also with some influence from the russian icons.

About pivotal moments....

I‘ve been thinking and doing lots of different things lately. Making new sketches. Throwing them to the waste paper basket. Working and destroying, and starting over again. Thinking. Walking. Making another sketches. And trying to make some sort of synthesis or finding some structure within everything I‘ve learned and seen, and establish a new balance.

It‘s always a challenge – feeling the change approaching and facing it. It demands to take risk, to let something go, to loosen a bit the expectations and so having enough freedom in mind and hands to get into it. It demands to take time and get ready for all the possible failures and that it may not work out as expected. It demands some excessive stubborness to keep digging despite of  thoughts like „Do you really believe it‘s worth your time and efforts“. Well,  I wouldn‘t have started this blog at all, if I were not stubborn that much and sort of "mentally" deaf to all the sceptical thoughts like above, and somehow persuaded, that I should go for it.

I keep telling to myself that the opportunities may be somehow hidden and not easy to get that bare-handed. I‘d like to derive something more systematical and revealing for myself from everything I‘ve recently tried and done. So now I‘m getting it all together and making my own rules, rules that will guide me.

Now I‘m feeling I‘ve got to some pivotal point, or maybe the first essential pivotal point being only one of them, and that‘s why I‘m talking about change. I‘ve already wrote a whole lot of words about opportunities, changes, risks before, and yes, the work flow at thoses times was somehow meandering, but going forward. Now I‘m more hopping back and forth, and fast. And this is sort of movement without clear focus, that‘s why I‘m talking about finding new structure and balance – to be able to move forward.

I‘ve had that will to focus on more learning instead of more doing, to get some fresh idea sources, to explore different corners of applied arts, to learn more about principles, to take my time and build some sort of system within. And I still have that will, though now I feel more incentive towards practical doing. 

There‘ll be a whole bunch of projects to share – like new dolls, new pouch designs, new sketches, and I wait till I feel that they are ready to get to this blog, till the established direction feels right, till I‘ve got that balance. I work with papier-maché, with modelling clay, I use all the ornamental techniques I‘ve recently learned, I work with more linen and wool (winter‘s approaching, I need to get my hands on something more warming and cuddly), and yes, of course, there‘s a lot of fabrics involved. 

In the meantime I learn making lace – thanks to that fabulous opportunity to get straight into the course for advanced lace makers.

No photos today – I‘ve forced myself to hold off, but they‘ll be coming soon.

Have a great week!

Lacemaking - yes, I've got started!

Remember, a while ago I was talking about my new vintage finding – lacemaking pillow? I‘ve also mentioned that I would one day get myself learning how to use it for it was not intended for only staying like a beautiful decorative object?

Last week we got back home from the public library with like tons of books about lace making with very inspiring examples. Even more inspiring was walking around Rauma and seeing them real, made of beautiful linen threads. And to top it all it‘s even more tempting seeing someone making lace – that‘s what I‘ve come across last Saturday (yes, I‘ve gone into that lace shop knowing that there‘s always someone making lace). And yes, they wanted to share it and had time! I‘ve spent like one hour learning how to make this sample with three basic motifs that is now pinned on the right at my pillow.

Now I‘m reproducing it, it‘s not so fast and I have to correct my mistakes myself and unravel it or re-start if necessary, but it‘s fun! And as I‘m still a couple of days in that sabbatical research thing, where I committed myself to starting any project appealing to me, no matter how out-of-the-ordinary it may look like, well, now I‘m in!

As for now, my sabbatical weeks are coming to the end, but not the research. I‘ve not made that much in terms of finished pieces, because of reading/learning/searching, but I‘ve finally managed to force myself to get started and to learn how it works, and that‘s important for me. I‘m thinking about spending further some hours on folk arts on regular basis like a couple of times a week and maybe writing one-two posts about it weekly.

Hello teddy bear

It‘s getting colder and snowing, and one good way to adapt oneself for another season change is a bit more of hard physical work to keep warm. That‘s why while my little girl is hopping and jumping all around, I‘m sitting at the kitchen table working the modelling clay for a new teddy bear pattern. This clay is particularly tough so that it can stay in form for nearly any model, and that means lots of efforts involved to get it in the right shape. This bear‘s gonna be middle-sized – about 15 cm high, and I needed another pattern because of another shape and proportions. This one will be sewn, not knitted/felted, as my summer bears, because it has to be stuffed firmly to have some weight and stay in form.

So today I‘m sharing a rough draft in modelling clay and gonna work out the pattern coming weekend. Teddy bear making is particularly nice and pleasant during the cold season, maybe be that‘s why they are popular in northern countries like Germany,USA/Canada, Russia. 

It‘s still snowing outside, and it‘s all of a sudden full of that „Winterzauber“ – with all the fall‘s greys gone. They have been replaced by winter's greys.