Strange Blooms

Yesterday I got to spend the whole day with my granddaughter Raven. For two years now Tuesday has been Our Day. I pick her up from middle school (just blocks away from) and we hang together, have a nice meal, and go to ArtReach. Alas, that's going to change as she will be entering high school next fall and schedules and logistics are changing.  So I'm intent on enjoying Tuesdays with Raven throughout the summer as I can, fitting them in between her usual summer travels (Raven has the blended family bounty of 8 living grandparents, who all want a little Raven time.)

Yesterday we spent most of the day out on the back porch, felting these alien flowers:

I'm very anxious to get back to making some of my little felted vessels and to do some new things, so this was a wonderful opportunity to try out wet-felting techniques.  I used a tutorial from Spiderfelt
and some of my stash of Deb Brandt's fabulous tie-dyed roving.  Her rovings are wonderful for felting work - so many colors and one color blending into another.  My friend Linda, an artist in many media, does extraordinary needlefelting and loves Deb's rovings.

The tutorial was well written with great photographs and it was easy to follow.  It was also a small, not-so-messy process.  And that's important to me as I don't really have workspace to do felting with lots of water dripping and splashing about.  There seemed to be too much soap involved, but that may have just been me, doing this for the first time.  My usual felt M.O. is to felt small knitted objects at the kitchen sink, relying primarily on the alternating hot/cold water and agitation, with little soap.

Thinking about felting set-ups, I remembered the site of Elina Saari and Aki Leppänen, Finnish felting artists. They collaborate as Felt Faction and they felt in a sauna (tiled floor, a drain, perfect workspace!) Do check out Felt Faction and see their wonderful creations and their studio/house in the section they label "Lifestyle."