Who who? Another Owl

I know I am flip flopping quite a bit between mediums these days but I just seem to be compelled to take myself were ever I seem to be called to. So well here again, an owl. I first made the body out of quilting cotton and in the process of making the face, decided to fully cover this fellow in an old, felted wool sweater. Recycling at its best right?!
I am learning a whole lot and my fingers seem to get tuffer and am loosing less blood haha!

What I love about this one, is the attitude he (or she) seems to have. The cats like to knock him off the table tand drag him across the floor. I am not happy about it, since I spend so much time making this owl, but I find it funny they have taken a special liking or disliking to him.




Who? Who? I like you a lot!! And I promise to protect you better from those evil cats!

Needle felting and birds

If I have nothing to do with my hands I start chewing on my nails. A 41 year old woman really should not be doing that anymore but it is the truth. Thankfully there is always something new to discover and currently I am trying to teach myself to needle felt and how to sew soft animals/toys. I like to needle felt a lot but when they warn you that those needles are sharp, they are not kidding. You should see my poor fingers. My children sat around me and just silently handed me band aids. My youngest asked, why I kept on working when my fingers were bleeding. I said:" because it is fun." You should have seen the look she gave me ; )

A nod to our lion head bunny, Angus

Another endeavor I am on is to teach myself the art of making soft animals/toys with fabric. I started with birds because I love them and all the possibilities one has to use different fibers and embroidery to create a unique piece. My very first one, is based on a snowy owl.


The feathers are cashmere, a find at our local thrift store. And lots of stitching with colored cotton and added beads.



My second bird is a crow from the Aesop's fable, were the crow borrows feathers to look just as grand as the other, more colorful birds.





Books I can recommend for learning are: The artful bird by Abigail Patner Glassenberg. She also blogs!
And for needle felting I love these two books: Little felted animals and Wool pets.

But if you are going to start needle felting definitely invest in some good leather thimbles. Heck you actually need them sewing the birds as well come to think of it ; )

And one more!

Oh uh! And CRASH goes the chicken coop!

I actually have to thank Will Terry for this push to start drawing and painting again! I stumbled upon him on the internet many months ago and had his blog bookmarked. Then one day a bug bit me and I just emailed him out of the blue to ask him advice on how I could pick up were I left off essentially. He actually e-mailed me right back and asked me to call him. Usually I am really shy but I took a deep breath and called him. We had a long and very pleasant conversation on the phone. Will is extremely giving with his knowledge and you can just tell what a big heart he has. If you have not seen his books yet (on NOOK), go have a look (hey that rhymes). I am sure your children will love his stories and illustrations : )

Thank you for sticking with my blog even though I am doing blessed little sewing these days, but art is art in any form and I hope you enjoy my illustrations just as much as you do my sewing and other crafty projects!

No New Years resolutions!

Happy 2012 to all! I hope this New Year will bring less hardships and more happiness to all : )

Personally, I started the 2012 without any resolutions because they always get broken anyway ; )
I simply keep on working on what I know in my heart I need to change and hopefully, someday, my family and friends will see positive things happening in many aspects of my life.

One big step I took was to paint all day yesterday. If I keep the momentum, you will see more illustrations completed. It took me much too long to get this part going again. Somehow, while I worked at Pixar, I was too involved for anything that would require me to pick up a brush or a stylus in my "spare" time. Quite frankly, after a hard days or weeks work, that was the last thing I wanted to do. Then came the children and phew! Working full time and taking care of babies was simply too much. Yet... After years my creativity still needed to be tended too. I found many strange things happening. For one, I started making bows for ebay in my spare time. My co workers positively thought I had lost my mind!! I think I did actually....
Then I started sewing my first piece of clothing. I think it was a tulle skirt for Halloween for one of the girls and shortly thereafter my first Farbenmix item, an Olivia and you know I got hooked.

After Pixar I just kept on sewing. It took me a while to figure out why. Why, of all things was I sewing when, all my life, all I wanted was to paint and be an Illustrator? After a really awesome career at Pixar people were most likely also expecting me to go on to do more great things in art... Well something happened along the way, during my career that I just managed to put into words. When I painted at Pixar I was expected to perform my very best all of the time. And boy did I try to please!!! I succeeded too! I know I did fabulous but at the same time I developed this awful panel of judges above my head who will not leave me to this day and judge my every paint stroke, sketch and doodle in the most unkind way. The peace I felt as a child while I painted and sketched was gone and painting was no longer a source of great meditation.
Strangely my judges quieted when I sew and so I fixed myself to sewing. Longing for my creativity to still find voice but without the other negative voices that followed in tow. Sewing is/ was such a relief!
This sounds so strange but I swear that's how it is.. but I am damned if I cannot fight and finally kick out the panel of judges for good and reclaim my love for the painted art.

The only way obviously, is to actually start illustrating and sketching again and every time the negative blah, blah starts I will counter attack with a "shut it!" and hopefully I can turn into that joyful kid again and produce fun art!!

So here it is. My December 31st, 2011 Illustration.... One of many who I plan on becoming my very first book!! Ha! Take that evil, negativity : ))

Freddy was blinded by the beautiful site of the shiny,
red tractor. Without a doubt, it was LOVE at first site!