It all began with making a swan couple from the book Needle Felting Winter by Rachel Austin.  Now that I had these swans, where should I keep them?  In a pond of course, but I wanted one that would hang on the wall.

I made a glorious mess pulling out all my gorgeous fibre to pick out the best colors. (Ohhh, fibre!)  I had a picture from a children's book for inspiration and I wanted their home to be a hazy and hot Summer day.

First:  the logistics.  I found a good, deep wood frame with no glass.  How would they be able to sit in their pond in a frame?  There would have to be 3D and 2D parts merged together.  So first to make the ledge the swans would be secured to:

I cut foam to fit into the frame and sewed the layers together.  Then I started felting! 

This 3D part is the water under the swans, going down to the sediment at the pond's bottom. 

Next the 2D part was mapped out, the hazy sky, light blue pond and still lush green field around it.

It came together really nicely!  

I added the hint of a fish behind the weeds and a paper frog and dragonfly.  And thanks to my sister for reminding me that there needed to be shadows under the swans!

And then it was time to frame the piece... this was tricky.  I had to stitch the 2D part to cardboard that I cut to fit the frame so that the fibre wouldn't buckle...  

...then glued a clean piece of cardboard over that to make a nice clean back.  

And it was finally finished!  

It was June 20 so the piece is named Solstice Swans,

enjoying each other's company in their own little paradise. 

Spotlight

Would you like to meet some of the soft sculpture characters in the display cases here at the Flying Leap?  

Our landing on the second floor provides a great location for a little display area, and here's where the Scratching at the Window
creatures who are looking for new homes await adoption.  All were handmade by me from my own original designs.

Of course, it's hard not to be up-staged by a dragon with a 6-foot wingspan!  Fawn impressively oversees the landing as you climb up the stairs.  She took 2 1/2 years to construct and is not looking for a new home.




In the display case await the lady bears, with Lorelei the Merbear on the top shelf,  Emralda and Annette on the middle and Venus, Caviara and Seian on the third.

 Venus, Annette and Emralda are all about 14 inches tall, made of European mohair and built over a wire frame so they're very poseable.  They have glass eyes and doll wigs, and handmade costumes that were a lot of fun to create! 

Here's Seian as a bellydancer.  She also is not looking for a home.

 On the wooden shelf, we have 

Cere and Bella, two ratty brothers

Devina, a lady rat in her Hallowe'en best

Squirt and his mom Pearl

and my Titanic bear, with the commemorative 100th anniversary postage stamp.

If your keen to know more about these critters, please visit my Scratching at the Window website.  As you'll probably notice, some of the girls are not there yet so just contact me and I'll send you the adoption details.

On a cloud!

I have amazing news! The Maple Leaf Doll Club will be hosting it's Doll Show this year!!! Yippy! Since 2008 it's been missing, but now they have a new location which can hold 50 artists/exhibitors and they're ready to go! How exciting! This area of Ontario has so much talent and incredible art in the doll and "Teddy" field, it's really wonderful to have this show back again! September 11th, be there! For details, visit my shows page. (The picture is from the 2008 event.)

This weekend saw Cere's feet come together, here's a picture. This is slow and careful work, but so much fun! I love seeing the Fimo claws line up properly and "come to life"! I had to switch out a few claws as I went along due to size, imbedded dust, etc... but that's why there must always be extras! The wires will make him poseable right down to his toes!

Lastly, this weekend was Stratford's Swan Parade weekend with lots of swan-related events. To top it all off, my swans were on view in two places: at the public library and at the Lyrical Goddess poetry event hosted by Gallery 96 and part of the "Goddess: the Art of She Within We" week-long celebration. All a little bit last minute, I was none the less welcomed by the organizing committee of three incredible ladies, Lucinda Jones, Lesley Walker-Fitzpatrick and Cairenn Russelo and given a wonderful opportunity to show my work as "instillation art" (as one lady put it) right on the stage! The poetry and readings that stirred the air that afternoon were powerful, magical and heart-felt, it was an experience! And it reminded me of the Goddess and how I used to be more connected and open to such experiences... ah, twice bitten, thrice shy! But perhaps there is room to grow new wings...