Friday, July 26, 2013

R& R Part 2 : Heading toward the end

Working on getting these wall hangings made. This week has been focused on making the hangers for the 'Bluebird' piece and a smaller  abstract one that hangs on my inspiration board.

I choose to wire wrap my Rose of Sharon twigs after they dried out for several days.  The 'Bluebird' hanger is about 17" long and made up of 4 twigs.It is wrapped with a tarnish resistant copper core #22 green  wire.  Wiring is only in the center of twigs, leaving about 5' open on the edges to hang other embellishment on.
This piece is the smaller piece unnamed as of yet, that hangs on my inspiration board. it was a wrapped with a nickle plated copper wire #26 multiple times and beaded with 4 glass beads in brown and teal. its back is was left unfinished so the needle felting is seen on both sides, however wool base is very thick so the felting is light. hanger is about 9" and the NF piece is about 7" wide.


The 'Fire & Ice' is not finished as of yet. I have been looking for a frame that will be suitable for it. I really wanted it to be rustic , finding one has been difficult  so I am leaning toward making my own. Possible woods I am looking at are Tulip, Walnut and or Cedar.  Cedar is a good choice, it naturally repels moths  making it a great  wood for wool based fiber arts. Tulip has a cool smooth light toned bark, where as Walnut has a nice ripple effect in larger branches, smaller ones have a slight ripple but not as defined as a more mature branch. there are loads of choices to chose from at the farm so we will see what we can find.



Back to the 'Bluebird' piece stitching was done to reattached the wool to the reverse side and cover the stabilizer. I machine stitched using a free stitch pattern all the way around then trimmed as needed.
a sleeve  was hand stitched on the back to attach it to the hanger with several pieces on twisted wire.
 







Next I added embellishment fibers to keep with the bird nest theme. These were hand-stitched in a random pattern, knotted and beaded in places along the top and sides.
The twig hanger was attached.











Finished attaching the hanger to the piece, added a few more hidden beads. Simple but I like it.

Stay tuned for the "Fire & Ice' fiber art wall hanging as I'll post when I get it finished. this ends the 
Re-purpose and Recycle post , at least for now.           -TNfrmgrl

Monday, July 22, 2013

Re-purpose and Recycle Part 1 1/2

I know your thinking, what has taken me so long to get on with this project.I didn't forget or put it on the back burner. Thus, that's why this is named Part 1 1/2.
It has rained and stormed for the last several days here in the south. I checked the grape vine today to see if there were any old pieces I could harvest, it may be fall before it stops growing out of control and I can harvest it. Much too green for now. I did however clips some branches from my Rose of Sharon shrub/tree. This is cool wood, straight but loads of knots and knobs that will catch the fibers I want to attach to them. They are drying out as we speak.

I was playing around with the 'fire and ice ' piece today along with a 11' x 14 " wooden frame and some #8 Perle thread in turquoise and came up with this. The strings do need to to be much tighter, and is  NOT done by no means but its a work in progress. Thinking about drilling holes in frame and using washers or buttons to help tighten  it up. Should I paint the frame? Plus I am not sure on what to do with the bottom edge, should the stringing be all the way around it ? Or leave the bottom loose?

Just thinking aloud or out side of the box.

Hmm, ideas are a working.






I cut around the 'blue bird' piece but in disassembling it the wool back came off and the cheap stabilizer I had sandwiched between it had become a grainy mess. It will need a new piece before adding a back on to it. Lesson learned cheap is not better, stick to the good stuff, or at least better quality.

Thinking of using the branches I clipped today; I like the  image of birds, nest and branches. Plus there is lots of woodsy undertones in the fibers used in it.

So I'll get back to it. Part 2 coming soon. Stay tuned.

-TNfrmgrl