Although it’s been a few weeks since my last blog posting, I have not been idle! As you can see I made a reindeer over the Christmas season. I was following a great tutorial by fiber artist Sara Renzulli.
Once you have a reindeer, you have to have a sleigh, and then you need a princess to ride in it and of course there has to be a story… well that’s how my mind works anyway!
Did you know that reindeer’s eyes look blue in the wintertime? They have a way of altering the structure of their retinas by increasing pressure in the eye. That way their eyes see better in the long dark months of winter. Clever eh?!
How I got from just felting crazy critturs to illustrating a story went like this. While taking photos of my reindeer I thought it would look more appealing if I added a backdrop, so I utilized one of my many paintings. This one is a watercolor impression I painted several years ago of Dartmoor in England. Of course England is not the native home of reindeer, but that aside, as I looked at the resulting image an idea started to coalesce in my brain and before I knew it I was typing furiously on my computer and a whole string of characters and scenarios took shape. An illustrated story is in the making!
So, for the time being I have embarked on creating my various characters in wire, wool and wood, and thinking of how the story will unfold visually. Quite a challenge - and you, dear reader, will be the testing ground of my imagination is I create this little world. Stand by for a flight of fantasy!
What a difference a year makes!
As an aside I thought I would show this photo to illustrate my progress in felting. It’s almost a year since I first took up needle felting and I have learned such a lot. This medium is so much fun, and so challenging - it’s not surprising my imagination is all fired up! The pic above shows on the left the very first fairy I attempted to make, and on the right the beginnings of one of my story characters. This one will be Zuri, the grandmother. Panic not - she will have some clothes in due course!