Worker Bee…

As promised, this post has photos!

My mini get-away was just what I needed…

Meals on the porch, breezy temps in the 70’s, great friendship, stimulating conversations, and some wonderful Baroque music, my friend is a vocalist and I play Baroque recorder.

Before I get too far into my fabulous felt adventures with Amy, I wanted to back up to the ASG conference, still no pictures to share, but I have a couple of post notes on one of the workshops I actually attended.  I actually attended three workshop/seminars at the conference in LA this weekend, two of them were lectures in using Photoshop Elements for fabric design and for organizing your sewing patterns.  Both were really excellent and Deb and Kris the Pixeladies were hilarious, a regular dog and pony show.  Imaging laughing through an entire presentation on using Photoshop.  And I’m really proud to say I learned a lot, even though I can use Photoshop in my sleep.  Go figure.  They offer online classes in the subjects and I highly recommend!

The other workshop I took was with June Colburn who gave a one day workshop in a new product called deColourant.  It is a non-toxic discharge paste activated by heat.  We did all the stenciling and screening in class, and let the fabric samples dry for a few days.  I took advantage of Amy’s studio and iron and spent a large part of yesterday morning trying various methods of applying heat to get the deColourant to activate.  The iron worked the quickest but even that was painfully slow, I spent a good half hour on a couple of the samples, and also discovered that the deColourant doesn’t seem to remove screened ink.  It only seems to work on dyed fabric.  Anyway, it is a fun product and I can see all sorts of applications and I’m thrilled I got a chance to try working with this stuff.

The only casualty seemed to be the fact that my fabric disintegrated.  I’m not sure why, maybe I ironed it too much? Al of my black samples seem to dissolve under the stress of washing.  It is a mystery…  Or cheap fabric?

My fiber buddy Amy Morris is a surface designer turned weaver turned felter.  We all eventually focus on a medium that speaks to us, and often that changes in our careers as fiber enthusiasts.  Amy took to felting after a couple of workshops and hasn’t looked back.  At least she has a warp on her loom, which is more than you can say for me at the moment…

Amy makes vessels, something I have no experience in, and she graciously put me to work helping her produce a couple of additional larger pieces for an upcoming exhibition.  There is some grunt work involved and felting is pretty physical.  I was happy to help and hopefully learn something too.

We started with a large vessel and later tackled the behemoth.

I loved the whole process and watched Amy carefully as she molded and tweaked the felt once it stuck together.

Then we tackled the monster ball.  Amy’s delightful husband Bill acted as host, making meals, bringing us drinks, and keeping the camera close at hand.

Problem was, the wool covered ball wouldn’t fit in her industrial sink.  I suggested the gorgeous glass enclosed shower in the guest bathroom.  It had a pebbled floor that would create friction.  So we donned our bathing suits and climbed in the shower, with pots of boiling water and some soap and some wicked rubber gloves.

Once we had the felt to where Amy thought it was adhering well, we could remove the stocking and deflate the ball.

OK, we got a little carried away!

Amy pulled and tweaked the piece and left it to dry upside down while we ate a delicious dinner of whole wheat pasta and the freshest heirloom tomatoes you have ever tasted.  Of course there was wine and fine Canadian Chocolates, each one Bill carefully cut into three portions so we could sample the whole box.  OK, we got a little carried away…

In the morning the vessel was turned right side up and carefully manipulated some more.  This is a pretty substantial vessel, the largest piece of felt I’ve every worked on.  It was a great experience and I learned a lot and I wonder how my husband would feel about a pebbled shower floor?

Off to the San Diego Zoo for dinner…

I hear I’m missing all the fun on the East Coast, the earthquake, the hurricane barreling up the coast line…

It is perfectly lovely here in Southern California…  I wonder how my husband would feel if I stayed just a little bit longer…