Progress Report

Today was a long, slow day at work.  I did, however, have a chance to work on some sketches for my necklace.  Here are some very rough sketches of said necklace:

Below is a sketch from over the summer, but it is something I would like to revisit.  I have been developing grape inspired pins and stayed true to the brown stem and green or purple grape color scheme.  Ever since my last review board in May, I had been talking about using atypical colors in my pieces and yet have steered away from it.  I finally bit the bullet and cut my pre-felt to create a ruffled collar scarf.  It's now or never baby and it's time to make some blue and white grapes ! ... Well maybe not those colors but certainly something other than purple and green.

Closures, closures, closures.  Thinking a lot about closures.

Bike Rides and Thigh Highs

Nearly 70 degrees and it's almost December? Don't mind if I do.  This morning I left the house sweaterless and pantless ... well, I wore bike shorts and thigh highs.  Absolutely foolproof, I wasn't even cold and discounted any curious glances.  I took a casual ride through midtown (that's sarcasm by the way) to stock up on all kinds of goodies from my favorite bead store BeadsWorld - where I refrained as best I could from buying things I didn't need.  You could not imagine the will power involved when put infront of an entire store neatly packaged and color coordinated.  I am thinking about a few things:

- bead embellishments

- bead crocheted bracelets

- a necklace for myself. 

I recently got a haircut and collected a handful of images of 1960's babes to give my hairdresser a reference point.  Many images were the classic black and white photographs of chicks with their hair in a perfect bouffant or silky flouncing waves, but I was especially drawn to the color photographs.  Perhaps it is my affinity for everything mustard yellow, but many of the color photos have this great warm/yellowish tint to them.  It's kind of like the camera has a filter that affects colors the way brown tinted sunglasses do.  I don't know about you, but when I put on brown sunglasses the entire world around me is amplified with brown sunglass filter, it is warmer, yellower and best of all, I look tanner.  I may also be attracted to the vintage photograph/brown sunglass filter because that hue of color has influenced many of my color choices.  So, I'm looking at all these images from the '60s and came across these incredible archives of photos.   

These images were particularly inspiring:
  

I love the contrast of wood beads with metal chain.  It is the classic cliche art school juxtaposition(so over that word) of natural and man made.  I will be exchanging wood beads for felted beads and chain something I have not yet worked with for my personal pieces.

There is not much to say except that her necklace is absolutely out of control.  I love the texture and the layers, and the whole necklace meets collar meets body art adornment.  For a while I have been flirting with the idea of putting my sewing skills back to work and creating simple garments to accent my neckpieces.  Perhaps this is my kick in the butt? Maybe, maybe not but it most certainly gives me something to think about.

What The Felt

You may, or may not, have been wondering about the origins of "whatthefelt." Well, its punny and a tangent of my inner dialogue.  If that didn't do it for you, here is an alternative answer.  I make felted things:

- Scarves 

- Shawls

- Shrugs

- Neckpieces

-Necklaces

- Pins

- Pendants 

... you're all smart people, you get it.

Over the summer I was presented with the opportunity to have my own exhibition and trunk show at the Cambridge Artists Cooperative in Cambridge, MA: /http://cambridgeartistscoop.com/

This is incredibly exciting but, of course, requires a lot of work as I needed 18 new pieces additional.  So I have spent a lot of time felting, and complaining about my back, and felting, and complaining about time, and objectively looking at my work and asking myself "what is that?" But after at least 8 hour days 5 or 6 days a week making, hanging, kvetching, I think I need to share the preliminary stages.  Below is a series self promotional photos, of fancy felted works in-process (you can also view my site at www.HannaZien.com for images of my larger more experimental pieces):

Before I start anything, I start with colors.  Meet my friends - brown (Bitter Chocolate), blue (Teal), tan (Buff) and blueish-greenish-grayish (Dusty Green) merino wool roving (complements to http://www.mielkesfarm.com/).  This is also a glamor shot of my impromptu studio space/living room take over.  Visible here is my work table covered with pool covering.  The pool covering has bumps on it like bubble wrap, these bubbles massage the wool roving fibers so that they stick together creating what will become pre-felt.

This was an experiment I am still figuring out the answer to.  The photo represents layers of cross hatched merino wool - you have to lay out 3 layers, I start with one vertical, one horizontal, and a third vertical because I like the way the colors blend together when they are laid out vertically.  Once you've finished laying out all your wool you cover it with nylon fabric and drench it with soapy luke warm to hot water and roll it back and forth 3 times for 9 minutes each.  I call this piece my sea anemone. 

A friend to my sea anemone, this scarf pretty much uses the colors that make me happiest.  In my rolling process I try to roll as many scarves as possible.  But let's not get ahead of ourselves and make believe I have a factory like operation here, that number is usually 2 since you need to account for the wool shrinking when it is finished off.

Once you have drenched these bad boys with soapy warm water, you unroll them, take the nylon covering off, and flip them over.  Then you repeat the process of nylon cover on, soapy warm water all over it, roll it up, un roll, flip, repeat.  Like I mentioned earlier - you repeat this process 3 times.

If you are disappointed that my sea anemone and friend are not shown on the above image, forgive me, but I just had to leave an air of mystery! Instead this is an example of 2 other pre-felted scarves.  They are drying.

Photos of the finished pieces will eventually be shown, in the mean time I hope to build up hype by leaving you in suspense ! ... honestly though, I just don't have adequate photographs of the finished pieces.

Until next time ! 

You've gotta learn to walk before you can run

Naturally, there will be a lull between what will become anticipated witty banter between myself and you kind, dedicated readers of my blog.  Forgive me, as I enter the unknown territory of the interweb and search tirelessly for the gripping news of what I felt today.

Today I am feeling rather ill.  I sound somewhat like a duck, my head feels as airy as a blimp while simultaneously seeming to weigh 300 pounds, and I am tired...kinda, so, so very kinda tired.  This brings me back to Thanksgiving day.  It's barely 3 pm and lethargically laying out on the oversized "L" shaped couch are children of all ages, men and women watching the evening football game.  Perhaps it was sitting in a vehicle for an hour or two that put us to sleep, or the myriad of edibles presented before dinner time, or for those of age the uncharacteristically early consumed glasses of adult beverages, but it seemed all of us were tired....or chatting loudly in the kitchen.  My father, who I consider to be an enthusiast of sorts when it comes to vocabulary, observed that the energy in the room was "somnambulant."

"sub what?" I asked.

"Somnambulant - feeling, looking, being tired... lethargic basically."

Anyway, today was a long, somnambulant day and frankly all I want to do is take Nyquil and fall asleep.  Having no Nyquil and not feeling that tired, however, hinders this plan.  The good news is that on these here mustard colored pages, I actively integrate and try to remember one of Howard's many words.

Dearest future readers of my blog, you are welcome for the aforementioned vital information for your every day life (yes that was an "All That" when it was good reference) and now I must be signing off to tend to some more tea and water.  Next time I vow to return with pretty pictures instead of (not-so)senseless(to me) drivel.

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"I'd like to write something that comes from things the way wine comes from grapes."

 - Walter Benjamin