Yesterday, I went over to my daughter's to use her backyard to hook since it was in the 70's and I wanted out of the shop. I had been looking at Create and Decorate Dec '08 issue at the hooked sheep and decided I really want to try doing some dimensional designs. So I ended up taking a bunch of different fabrics over for making hooking canvases. I took some of my Betsy Ross 16ct linens, Heatherfields, some 14 and 18 count aidas, and some burlap. I am still experimenting with using things other than monk's and rug hooking linen to do designs on. I'm especially interested in how strip and yarn sizes make or break designs.
I'm still trying to work out how I want to do a greenman purse that combines felting and hooking and is 3D. It will have glass eyes, a dimensional nose, the leaf eyebrows and parts of the outer leaves will come out of the picture along with the bread part. I'll be glad when I get space again to do handmade wet felting again and can make up some purse blanks. So that project is on hold until then. Though I did do an oval shaped greenman that may or may not become part of a purse. I drew it out on burlap and am going to attempt to do it in # 6wide cuts.
One of my on line friends Vicky Tandler of Pawling, NY sent me her old Frazier cutter with a #6 cut head when she got a brand new Bovliar cutter as a present from her husband. I just got it today and I am throughly overwhelmed by Vicky's generousity on this. Thank you so much. This cutter is going to be well loved and used and I will now have uniform strips--yeah!
Meanwhile back to my doodling--still in thinking about purses mode I came up with a phoenix design with flames on the strap on burlap. It's also going to be in the wide cuts. Then I got to thinking about dolls, and started designing weird ones for my grandkids. My kids had the strangest toys in the neighborhood when they were growing up as I loved making unusual stuffed toys and dolls. Dragons, a large Capicorn, demented crabs, serpents, bats, Muppet rejects and monsters. I've lost all the pics from that time period show I can't show you and the toys themselves have gotten lost. I always embarrassed my kids as our house was never like anyone else's. I was the coolest mom in the neighborhood to all but my kids. So I came up with sort of voodo or simple rag doll shaped dolls drawn out on the 16 count linen. I'm going to try doing these in fleece and yarns with more detailed work and shading. I'm going to try one of the dolls on monk's to see how the larger strips work for it. I've got some sketches for some more dolls and critters in my notebook that I'm going to do up later after I think about them some more. If I wasn't committed to doing the Hopes and Dreams I'd jump into the dolls. I really want to do one. Maybe I'll work it in somehow.
Here's the Hope and Dreams canvas ready to go. And these are 2 of the plaids I am thinking of using in the hearts section. Wish the camera was better as it's not really showing the colors as they are. The one of the left has a beautiful teal running through it and the other is a sort of light sea blue green or greenside aqua.
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