Art with Friends

Lately I've been doing some art with friends or, thanks to Kristen, "social crafting"...I love that term! It's a great way to spend some time learning (or teaching) a new skill while hanging out with friends for some fun. It's also been a way to keep my new years resolution to spend some time each week doing art just because I want to! Last Friday a friend and I got together to try our hands at some needlefelting. As we were pretty much completely new to the craft, we started by buying a couple of kits from Woolpets on Etsy. They were everything you could possibly want in a new craft experience; lots of supplies, great instructions,...and she shipped them incredibly fast! I highly recommend her shop if you're as new to this as we were, it rocks!

So we sat down and started to felt and had a marvelous time! Eventually our husbands arrived bearing wine and appetizers to cheer us on at our play. It was great and the finished products were very satisfying. I had ordered a Polar bear kit as I want to eventually make an East of the Sun, West of the Moon set of dolls. Here's a couple shots of the finished product:

Isn't he great?! Everything you could want in a Polar Bear. And my friend made a kitty. Here's hers;

Total cuteness!

I've also gotten a group of friends together that meets every couple of weeks to craft ( I had mentioned I was thinking about doing this in my previous post...rant...on the word "craft") and so far it's been terrific fun. I've been teaching them to knit, which is actually pretty hilarious since I'm a mediocre knitter at best, but none of the rest of them can knit at all so, by default, I'm teaching! Whee!

Have you tried your hand at social crafting lately? If so, tell me about it, and if you haven't, give it a try! See you next month...Spring is almost here!

The Perfection Predicament

Okay I admit that I'm more then a bit of a perfectionist..I don't just like a clean house, on some level I need it to be clean in order to function. I so envy people who can just let things go and concentrate on their art. I believe that on some level my perfectionism is due to growing up in a house that was always in a constant state of disorder...and not just the physical mess, though that was pretty awful...but there was always some sort of psychological upheaval going on as well. Maybe that's why I feel the need to have as much calm and order as I can achieve around me now. I think I'm getting a little better about choosing to let some things go ...gosh I hope so...the older I get, but there's always an internal dialog. "That bathroom is getting really disgusting." "OK, not really...I can work on that tomorrow, finish those dolls today." And for me perfectionism can be a form of procrastination as well...I can't start that because it won't be exactly right....I just have to keep telling myself that the process of discovery is the fun part and messing up can lead to a wonderful finished product....repeat as needed!

Ah and then there's the perfectionism in my work. Yesterday I decided that a doll that I had already finished and listed in my shop, just didn't look right...the mouth was too big, the arms too long...yuck. so I took the entire thing apart and redid it. Well you be the judge...was I right?
Here's the original...



and here's the redo...



Much better? Or was it all in my head?
I finished another one as well and I think she's just fine the way she is...Thank goodness!

Happy Valentine

Happy Valentine's Day from the Fairies's Nest! Spend lots of quality time with the ones you love.

Ta Da! The Answer!

And the correct answer was Crow woman legs...but bird legs will do as well. :) So these

became this Crow Woman.

Isn't she lovely in all her feathery glamor? I'm making her my entry for the ADO Burlesque Challenge because I love the way crows like to strut and show off; they seem the perfect candidates for a burlesque show; loud, boisterous, teasing, and full of fun...and lets not forget those iridescent feathers!

I also finished a new Gnomeling child this week...and hopefully I'll have another done soon. My aren't we being productive?!

What is this?!

Can you guess?

Thanks and A Bit of Work

Wow...the responses to my last blog post were simply amazing! My inner word geek was thrilled ...of course now her head is so swollen that she may pop back in here at any time so you are all forewarned. But seriously I'm thrilled that so many of you stopped to read and comment and help give the word "craft" the respect that it deserves. Hugs and kisses all around!

I actually did manage to get a bit of work done last week, even a couple of projects...in keeping with my resolution for the year, heretofore known as the NYR because ...well for no good reason except I get tired of typing it all out and acronyms seem to be all the rage. Anyway there were two NYR projects completed. I made a postcard to send to the swap that the Cloth Paper Scissors magazine is running this month...



and I finally got around to playing with a paperclay head. I've been wanting to make a little fox maiden for awhile...I don't know why, it just was floating around in the back of my mind and this seemed to be the medium and the time. I Love how she came out! That tail took forever, each piece crocheted and locked in, but thankfully there was a fascinating episode of The Splendid Table on the radio at the time to keep me occupied. I'll definitely need to make more but this one is MINE ALL MINE!



And lastly I made a few flower fairies and this little gardener for the shop...Can you tell I'm ready for Spring!? We're on the third day of no school because of snow and ice, very unusual for this area, and I'm ready for it to go away. Yesterday was Inbolc so, YES!, we're half way there!



And for those who might be interested, I now have a Twitter account . I'm still trying to figure things out but it looks like fun so far!