Sneak Peek (Co-Creations Exhibition)

I can't show you everything here before the opening, so is just a little sneak peak. Ceramics by Valerie Stuart, and felting by me. We both like this, and there will be more experimenting to come with this idea!

 

We need a name though...

Renewal 3

My part was very minimal in this one - not much felting at all! You can't cover these beautiful colours! I think pictures say it all:

Stitch-O-Coccus

After lots of experimenting with crochet stitches, machine (free hand) stitching, and dissolvable interfacing, I have come up with this. (Also to be part of the "Co-Creations" exhibition coming up next week.) I think its a bit growth like, a bit like bacteria - hence the name "Stitch-o-coccus". I did some research on bacteria names and found the 3 most common types are: spherical (-cocuss), rod shaped (bacillus), and spiral (spirilla). These have been mounted and framed.

 

STITCH-O-COCCUS (cotton & sewing thread)

 

Felt & ceramic sculpture

Another item for our "co-creations" exhibition coming up (21st Feb, 2015) is this:

 

The ceramic centre was hand built by Valerie Stuart. A wire was then attached to the end, which can be manipulated to easily. And then felted over. It is tricky to calculate the correct shrinkage items like this. If you start too big you will never get a good fit, but if you start too small then you will never get a good felt. Another consideration for the felter is that some of your favourite fulling techniques can't be used - a good solid throwing of your felt obviously can't be done when there is a ceramic piece inside!

3D felting - over a ceramic vase

 



Felted Ceramic Vases - Co-Creations

So this is the start of "Co-Creations" - combined mediums, two artists working together. My felting and textiles, my mums ceramics. It's the start of a beautiful relationship!

I have been very busy felting lately. I did a course on felting over 3D objects way back in Easter 2014, and I'm really putting that to the test now. My mum had some ceramic vases she made a while ago, and was getting tired of them, so we decided to try and felt over them, see what I could come up with. The above is the finished product, below are the pictures of the process. The wool I'm using is called a "ready spin", from Bendigo Mills - I know that doesn't say much! It is quite a course wool, and with my limited experience and knowledge on the many different wools, I would equate it to something like a corriedale.



The vase to be felted over

For size comparison - the wool is laid out and wet down

Design and prefelt stage

During the felting stage

The start of fitting the felt perfectly to the vase

I Mater cake!!

It was my nephews birthday party today, and I heard he wanted a Tow Mater cake - so last night I made one for him. My research starter really bad - my skill levels are no-where near a 3D, fondant covered, accurate model of a tow truck! And I couldn't seem to find any 'flat' cakes. But I did find this mater cookie on pinterest that I used as my inspiration:

I'm pretty happy with my first solo cake! So here are my steps (photos only) for anyone else who wants to copy.

I used a double quantity of a 'standard' cake size, and cooked it in my Chefs Toolbox Saute Pan which has a 28cm diameter.

Made a template, and 'stuck' it to the cake with toothpicks. I changed the shape a little so I didn't waste too much cake - there was hardly any left over/wasted.

Cut out the cake. (Ate some of the off cuts, lucky I left some though - notice something missing?):

Iced it with butter cream (chocolate), mixed a small amount of the chocolate icing with a bit of blue colouring gel and used that for rust/dirt:

Used fondant (from Aldi) for most of the details. The tyres were covered in black, some outlining and the mouth in black, and then the eyes/windshield and teeth in white. It looked like something was missing, so I added the wing mirrors, and some chocolate fingers for more detail.

Glad this wasn't a pinfail!
It was a hit at the party. I'm racking up those 'best aunty' points!!

Eye Piece - Steampunk Accessory

Of Course if you are going steampunk, then you need a few accessories. Here is my first:

I used a part of a lense for the base of the eye piece - it still spins around. One of the gears is mounted on the inside ring, so it moves around. The gears and 'things' are from the inside of an old clock that I pulled apart a while ago. The (fake) leather pieces were from a belt. And the fancy fasteners on the side (a bit like a hook and eye) were the only things bought (although not for this, I got them because I liked them and thought they were a bit 'steampunky'!). Elastic cord is threaded through the ends of the fasteners.
Outfit is starting to come together, just a few more accessories to go!