Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn, 2008!

Well, it is time for me to really get to work!  Just received acceptance into the Renegade Craft Fair here in Brooklyn for June 14th and 15th, 11-7 at the McCarren Park Pool in Williamsburg. Renegade is held four times a year around the country; in Brooklyn, Chicago, NY, and San Francisco.  Very excited to be a part of this wonderful event.

You can also catch the brooklyncraftcollective at the Brooklyn Indie Market on May 24th. Phewwfff, this means I need a lot of stock!  My fingers are already feeling the pain, but it is all for the love of the craft!  Hope everyone can come out and see us for these events; can't wait to see friends and meet new ones!

Wednesday, April 9, 2008




Here is an example of the process I use when making wall hangings.

For this particular piece, 'Mr. Gnome's Underground Adventure', the scene came to me in a dream.  I actually made myself wake up enough in the middle of the night to concentrate on the image that had come to me, so that I would remember it well enough to sketch in the morning (I didn't trust my 2 a.m. sketching ability!).  

A few days before, I used one of my birthday gift certificates that I have been saving, and bought two lovely new sketch books. There is truly a difference, reaching for a book that I love to hold in my hands, with thick pages to put pencil to paper.  

Creating a scene in my book, and then facing the challenge of contemplating how I will accomplish the task of transferring this image into wool art is daunting, yet satisfying when I feel I have been successful.  After I feel comfortable with a sketch, I then break down the image into pieces, deciding which medium I will use for each part.  I then like to re-sketch each part individually, and lay them out of the background I'm using, adjusting pieces here and there and letting myself become inspired with additional ideas.  

For the above piece, I ventured into the use of more needle felting within the tapestry, although I retained the use of touches of wool felt here in there to create variations of texture and depth. Practicing the use of perspective in a piece is a learning process for me.  I found, through trial and error, that layering twisted pieces of wool roving onto the piece as I needle felted helped greatly in creating the perspective within the birch trees.

Truly an intensive labor of love, such a complex work has a unique satisfaction, yet I also love creating wall hangings in a more simplistic form as well.  I love stripping images to their basic outline in a more abstract approach, such as in Tufted Spring Rebirth

I will love to look back, as my work is consistently led in new directions, at the variation and progression of drawings in my sketch book.  I try to always sketch images and ideas when starting a piece, so that I may look back and see where the process began for me.  I hope you enjoy seeing a sample of this process as well! 

Friday, April 4, 2008

More Fantasy Figures



As promised, I am working on some new needle felted fantasy figures. New little Olly gnome is listed on Etsy (Sidney gnome went to his new home!). Like Sidney gnome, Olly was also named by a friend who associated his little face with someone. It is great to see that their personalities are coming through! I also just completed this new wizard today, and will list him soon.




Our website, brooklyncraftcollective.com, also has a new look, thanks to the very hard work of Cary! A new collective blog has also been added, and will include news of our work, where it is available for purchase, our upcoming craft fairs, and also great info. on local craft related events and stores.




I also want to thank Aunt 'Laine', Cary, and Wendy for your incredible support. To be surrounded by such a great support system from family, friends, and our wonderful craft collective is truly a gift. Thank you.