David's help with my art

Yesterday I spent a fascinating afternoon with a very talented group of women in the East Jordan area which is north of here. My friend Mary Anne (jewelry and lunch blog entries include her) invited me to join this group for the afternoon. They are very actively involves with the fiber arts in that area. There is a show in the fall which includes many different exhibits in the fiber arts. This group is going into the schools in that area to teach 'Needle Felting" artwork. I will go with Mary Anne to several schools and teach the children how to create their own little square of art work that will be displayed in the fall at the fall. This is the group that was meeting. We were able to practice what we are going to teach. First the children will get a 5" square piece of wool that has been lightly 'felted'. That means that it has been washed and kind of 'shrunk' to make the fibers closer together. It feels different than felt so it isn't to be mixed up with that felt stuff that you buy at the store for crafts. This was wool fabric that was washed and agitated so that it became a piece of 'felted' wool. The step that the children will do is to decorate their piece of fabric with wool that has been punched into their background with a very sharp needle. You take wool yarn or dyed wool and place it on the background with a piece of foam underneath. Then You poke the yarn into the background with the needle. When you do this the decorating colors form a picture or design. This is a design that one of the ladies was working on. I like her use of line and color.

This picture shows how you poke the needle into the background.

Here is the design that she was working on.

I started my a little before everyone else. I was 'moved' by this piece of red yarn so I started forming it into the body of a bird. I wasn't too sure if it would work out or just look like a red whale but I continued on, adding details until it turned out like I wanted it to. I dedicated this picture to Sara, Eva and David and will call it David's Spirit. I like it enough that I am planning to frame it. I don't know what moved me to start this piece but it was a beautiful spring day. We had a great setting with a lot of creative female spirit around that room and the cardinal almost created itself. Eva and Sara I hope you like it.