Can you hear the waves crashing?

When my sister was here on vacation, we did a paint-along on Youtube together, but we painted with fibre.  This was our aim, a beach with rolling waves washing up onto the shore.  Lovely!  It's a JOONY Art that you can watch here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5exfXe300A4

 

I had gathered the fibres together in advance and she brought along some that she thought would also be useful, especially textured fibres for the clouds and white caps.

It was a lot of fun, and we got pretty far along in our one session.

Afterwards, we both finished our pieces on our own and it's amazing how different they are!  Each is unique and beautiful!

We'll have to do this again sometime soon!  It was a good learning experience and really quite fun.

Friends at the End of the Day

I love needle felting beaches for dogs to run on, even if the dogs are only in my mind's eye.  It was time to make another beach...

I was inspired by two images, one of a pink sunset on a beach and one of two dogs sitting on a cliff.  I thought to combine the two and place the sweet dogs on the lovely beach... 

The pinks in the sky are a blend of 3 colors.

First I completed the beach, here it is:

I cut out the dogs from the picture I liked in a few different sizes and picked the one that fitted the best:

Then I cut the dogs out of prefelt (from Fibrecraft, lovely stuff to work with) and tacked them in place.  

I felt that the black dog was too harsh and looked like a silhouette so I was inspired by my sweet Russel to give him some white markings.  This also made his face easier to see.  Finally, I used a black bead to add a little glint to his eye.  Charming!  

The shadows made it look more finished, but they were a little short so I lengthened them...

These two have enjoyed the perfect day at the beach and are watching the last of the sunset, good friends and good times.  I like their story.  

Sabotage

 This posting on Facebook really struck me:  

It's sabotage on a scale that's hard to imagine:  we've made it harder to just be happy, to just do something because of the pleasure it brings.  

So how do you dance "like no one is watching"?  More importantly, why can't you dance and not care that anyone is watching because it's not up for critique or judgement?  You're just doing it for fun, for how good it makes you feel?

Same with creating anything... How to create because it's enjoyable without worrying about the end "product"?

So, I present to you this beach with grassy dunes.  It was fun to make.  I don't want you to tell me the waves aren't perfect, or the clouds need work.  Tell me you hear the sound of the waves and feel the sun on your face and that's all I want from sharing this piece.  

One hour and twenty minute beach

Regarding my post of July 20, once again what I hoped to do got pushed to the bottom of the list and didn't get done.  So today I'm following my own advice and doing it first!  And what I want to do is write about the second workshop we did:  the "twenty minute beach".

While my sister was here, she took the reins and guided us through the creation of a 2D needlefelted beach scene. 

This was inspired by a piece she gifted me for my birthday, a 3 3/4 x 6 1/2 inch beach image (along with a luscious fibre "Paradise Island" Living Felt sampler for making beach projects).  She said it was just a quickie, something she did in a twenty minute session.  Wow!  Just twenty minutes?  So she said we could all try it and see for ourselves!

The first thing we needed to do was choose an image for inspiration.  We easily found lovely examples online.

Sadly Mom backed out at the last minute (but after seeing the results she said she'd be willing to try if we do it again).

  

With pieces of backing felt cut to size (Kunin Felt made from recycled plastic bottles from String Theory) and fibre covering the table (from Fibrecraft, My Butterfly Green, Heidi Feathers and Dimensions Crafts), we jumped right in, the timer started!  

Choosing a dark color, we placed our horizon lines, then outlined other major features.  Doris advised that the sky should be dealt with next, and then the water.  This is where she showed the super easy way to blend fibres together, creating beautiful, unique two-tone lengths.  Lovely!  

This is where it also became obvious our session was going to be a one hour and twenty minute beach workshop!  With instruction and guidance, of course this was entirely expected but I think we were both surprised at our finished pieces.  Doris' little seagull and boat were a challenge and my stairs gave me a bit of trouble.  

 

Ta da!  

As you can see, my beach is very fluffy and loose, while Doris' is smooth, sleek and tight.  It's a very individualistic craft and allows for a lot of personalization.  

It was a really worthwhile workshop and I learned a lot of techniques and it's very different from doing a 3D object.  I think my fluffy image is me struggling to do something flat, I really want to try it again and pay more attention to my sister's technique.  But for a first try (and also a timed effort!), I'm very happy with my piece.  The goal for me is to get good enough to create "the" perfect beach with our dogs running on it, Willow's favorite place of all.  So next time we get together we'll hone our skills!  

Seize the day!

Summer vacations are becoming more and more important as I grow older.  Perhaps it's because of the perception of time, once they were endless, now they are far too short and fleeting.  Once, everything seemed eternal, now end-times are approaching and each day shines with a value and brilliance totally unappreciated during the monotony of work.  Here, then, is how to seize the last days of Summer as demonstrated by Willow and Merlin on the beach near Bayfield.  Enjoy!