Woolnimals

I have so many ideas. I have a little folder full of them - drawings, poems, inspirational clippings - and IDEAS. Abundant and running amok. My creativity is sparked and flowing and my hands can't keep up. I know a lot of artists feel this way - especially if they have day jobs and families to attend to as well. Life gets in the way, doesn't it? But Spring is coming..and I'm moving forward slowly, passionately, and without reservations. I've been painting. Sculpting polymer clay. Assembling jewelry. Considering my watercolors. Figuring out how mobiles balance. Sifting through my vintage wooden animal collection. Buying vintage books of animal sewing patterns. I'm looking forward to flea market and garage sale season. I'm letting my creativity fly. If you love what you are doing - you can't go wrong. I truly believe this. More (and diversified) art will soon be available in my shop. I'll do some blogging about it to share my bursts of inspiration too. Ev...

I've added a few more Plumpies to my shop! I bought some new backgrounds at the craft store last night...polka dots... ...a lovely purple which makes this bunny POP... ...and FINALLY a beautiful blue. I've been looking for a nice cornflower blue background for a long time. This one has white mandalas printed on it that you can ever-so-slightly see in the picture. My shop is actually, for once, reasonably well-stocked. It's a new year and I've finally upped my prices. I've debated for a long time about this, but finally decided to pay myself fairly for my work. Each creature takes 2-3 hours of work or more. The average is 2.5 hours. I've been "auditing" myself to see how long each one takes and evaluating if what I'm charging is paying me for my time. It really wasn't. I'm happy that I was able to offer so many creatures at a low price for a long time, but this year I'm resolved to pay myself what I'm worth. So, my new pricing ref...

(Image by Taeeun Yoo, via Yoote on Etsy ) I'm caught amid the perfect storm of beautiful sunny days, caffeine, and restfulness (at last!). My inspiration has been humming. The cicadas are finally screaming in the trees and I spend my evenings fully immersed in Lake Champlain dreaming about art projects and freckling in the late afternoon sun. Despite how veritably summer it is, I can already hear the leaves scuttling down the sidewalk as autumn descends in my imagination. My fingers are itching for afternoons of crafting. But I'm giving myself this time to float, to be suspended in a cool hug; to be weightless for a time. I'm considering the possibility that there are a great number of people who would like to learn how to needle felt. I won't say it's easy, but it's something anyone can learn to do. I have a strong background in sculpture, clay, and 3D art, so I took to forming sculptures out of a pile of wool pretty quickly. Kits are a great way to begin, also...

It's Monday morning...and I'm awake... But a little sleepy.... Okay....very sleepy. The fields, the flowers, the vegetable gardens, the fish, the squirrels, the birds, the trees, and little lowly me rejoiced yesterday as it poured and poured. I sat in my studio in my favorite pink chair and needle felted. I didn't stab myself even once. My cats slept in their various "spots" and the rain pounded the windows. It was cold. It was dreary. I was blissfully peaceful. I enjoyed two cups of coffee (a rarity!) with maple syrup and real cream (an indulgence!) and put my feet up. I had blueberry muffins. We made butter beans and spinach with Hungarian smoked paprika and polenta for dinner. I couldn't have asked for a better or more wildly necessary Sunday. I don't remember much of Saturday except that I took two pictures of my collection of sea glass (aka: beach glass) by the sunny studio window. I do love sea glass. I have jars and jars of it. I'm still sear...

Sleeping in the Forest I thought the earth remembered me, she took me back so tenderly, arranging her dark skirts, her pockets full of lichens and seeds. I slept as never before, a stone on the river bed, nothing between me and the white fire of the stars but my thoughts, and they floated light as moths among the branches of the perfect trees. All night I heard the small kingdoms breathing around me, the insects, and the birds who do their work in the darkness. All night I rose and fell, as if in water, grappling with a luminous doom. By morning I had vanished at least a dozen times into something better. from Sleeping In The Forest by Mary Oliver © Mary Oliver As of late I've been inspired more than ever to be out in the natural world. I have spent a long time trying to make changes in my life so that I'd feel better about myself as a person and stop feeling so uncomfortable with my lifestyle. I work at a job where I stare at a computer screen for 8 hours a day. I consume too...

So last night, after a particularly difficult discussion about what life looks like right now and the ways in which I could be supporting myself and be a support to my families, I decided that doing a craft fair may be too much for me at the moment. I don't want to continue pushing like I've been doing to build up an inventory. I've been neglecting a lot of important interactions to focus on my needle felting and it doesn't feel like right now is a good time. I talked with my husband and I'm going to back out of the craft fair for this year. I'm a little sad about it, but in a way I feel relieved to be able to focus on helping my family heal and spending some time soothing my own soul after a harrowing year. The good thing is, I have quite a bit of Plumpies to list over the coming weeks in my Etsy shop. Some of them are new and wonderful and I'm excited to just take it day by day, piece by piece, and one step at a time. This is good. It feels like the world ...