Monthly Archives: August 2024

House Hippo?

I didn’t know what they were either.

Recently I came across several posts on social media where the poster was very excited about finding a house hippo. These were usually accompanied by a photo of a figure from a thrift shop. I became intrigued. What was a house hippo, and why would someone be so exicted to find one?

So I Searched House Hippo (digitally)…

I found information about a Canadian public service announcement commercial from 1999. The original ad campaign was aimed at helping kids decern fact from fiction on television. An updated version was launched in 2019 and focuses on digital media by Media Smarts.

Take the time to click the link above to the original commercial. It is charming, and effective. The former science educator in me loves it when critical thinking is delivered in a creative way. No wonder people were happy to find a house hippo of their own. I decided to create one. Now, someone can come across this one in the gallery and provide it with a happy home.

One-of-a-kind needle felted house hippo figure sculpture holding a (felted) potato chip — Happy House Hippo Found a Chip

As you see, he already found a potato chip to snack on. Maybe that may help to keep him out of the snack cupboard? However, I can’t make any promises that he will not steal a sock or two to make his nest.

This sculpture was created without a wire armature. His stout little legs are more than sturdy enough for him to stand on. He is needle felted wool over a core of quilt batting. I mixed two different tones of grey to make his hide. The eyes are irridecent glass beads that are sewn in place. The potato chip is needle felted wool, and felted in place. I added a few whiskers by sewing in dark “transparent” thread, and eyelashes by working the wool above the eyes with a reverse needle.

This little hippo will show up at the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts soon. Of course, I have to bring myself to let him go from my house first.

Show Ending, and More Holiday Previews

a view of Natural Patterns: Flora and Fauna show at HGA — Natural Patterns: Flora and Fauna

You still have a few days left to check out my feature show with Ellie Snow at The Hillsborough Gallery of Arts! The show officially comes down Sunday (August 25th) after HGA closes at 4pm. It has been a great feature. Some of the items will remain in the general display space of the gallery. Pieces purchased during the show will be on their way to their new homes!

Some More Holiday Previews

This past week in the studio I created a few more holiday ornaments. This time around they all have the connection of being marine creatures. It all started with an octopus who is ready for a snowball fight. I was recalling one with a santa hat I sculpted last year. This year’s cephalopod ornament is titled “Armed.”

needle felted octopus with snowballs holiday ornament — Armed

“Special Delivery” is a great white shark with a festively wrapped gift for someone special. Don’t worry, he will not bite, he just has a very toothy smile.

needle felted shark with present holiday ornament — Special Delivery

The next holiday sea creature is Deco-lobster. A crustacean who wants to lend a hand, or claw, in decorating the tree. This mini-sculpture features beaded legs, and tiny ornament ball for your tree.

needle felted lobster with ball holiday ornament — Deco-lobster

Jingle Jelly, is a new vrsion of an ornament from last year. This year my jellyfish is executed in seafoam green and aqua. This ornament features sparkily glass beads hand stitched to its top and knotted into its tentacles.

needle felted beaded jellyfish holiday ornament — Jingle Jelly

Last, but not least, is Santa Whale. This ornament sculpture is a humpback whale with a santa hat perched to one side. Though I like each and every one of these ocean dwellers, I must say this one is my favorite of the batch.

needle felted whale with santa hat holiday ornament — Santa Whale

These one-of-a-kind mini-sculpture ornaments and others will be available at HGA starting the third week of November. I will continue to share more as I complete them.

Cliche?

This little pig is a little cliche, and a little different

“When pigs fly” is a somewhat over used animal idiom. So much so, that when I thought of creating a pig with wings, I almost stopped myself from being cliche. Just today, scrolling through social media I saw another needle felted pig with wings. I had just finished taking photos of my own sculpture, and was glad that there was not much resembelence.

A Little Cliche is a needle felted anthropomorphic pig with wings sculpture — A Little Cliche

My pig is sitting sraight up looking at its viewer. I created a pair of brightly colored butterfly wings instead of birds wings. I think that the fragility of the butterfly wings increases the unlikely nature of flight. It also provides the figure with a more magical fairytale quality.

“A Little Cliche” is needle felted wool over a wire and quilt batting armature with glass bead eyes. The wings of this piece required some experimentation. I started out wet nuno felting the fibers on cheesecloth. I was not as happy with the amount of fiber on the backside of the wings, so I started to work them with needles. This unfortunately broke some of the netting, so I had thread ends sticking out. My solution was to felt that nuno felt to a thin layer of prefelt. This encapsulated the netting (and broken threads) and provided a nice amount of soft coloring on the inside of the wings. I spray starched and pressed the wings to provide a little more stability, and then added them to the pig figure.

An Original

The other small sculpture I completed this week is Singing Shroom. There isn’t much that is cliche about this figure. He is a continuation of my mini pieces, though he is a bit larger than the others. This anthropomorphic fungus is singing a tune. He is needle felted wool over a quilt batting wrapped chopstick segment, and secured to a natural wood base.

Anthropomorphic needle felted singing mushroom sculpture — Singing Shroom

As Promised

Last week I promised to share some ornaments that began life as wool dryer balls. Here are two that I’ve created so far for this year. These ornaments are more like “painting” with the wool fiber on the curved surface of the dryer balls. Each is finished off by stitching and felting a yarn loop on the top.

needle felted holiday ornament with silhouetted moose/lansdcape design — Moose Twilight

needle felted holiday ornament with cardinal bird on branch design — Moose Twilight

A Little Bird

A Little Bird Told Me.

My brain usually needs some downtime after putting together a new show. This break does not need to be unproductive. I provided myself with this cognative break by working on a few of my one-of-a-kind holiday ornaments. Yes, that’s right, I said holiday ornaments. They take time to produce, and it’s less of a mountain climb if you do a few at a time. Following a few of these celebral “palate cleansers”, I started to ponder idiomatic expressions that contain animals. I’ve have at least one past work “Out of Water“, a koi with a parasol that falls in this category. The idiom I chose this time around is “a little bird told me.”

needle felted anthropomorphic indigo bunting bird sculpture with hat and messanger bag on natural stick base — A Little Bird Told Me

The result is an indigo bunting perched on a branch with a cap and a messenger bag. This cheery little fellow has a message for the viewer. He is one of those pieces that seems to bring a smile, so I can only assume he has good news to share.

Little Bird is needle felted wool over a wire and quilt batting armature. His large black glass bead eyes are sewn in place. The messenger bag is stitched and felted together from felt fabric, with an embroidered metallic thread “clasp”. His legs combine wire and pipe cleaners that are wrapped with black yarn that is felted in place and wrapped with thread. The stick base was stripped of its bark, sanded, and sealed. I attached the bird to the base by drilling small holes, and stitching the clasping feet in place at those points.

It’s beginning to look a lot like…

No, it’s not. It’s 90+ degrees out, and thunderstorms are probably on the way. Even so, I have been working on holiday ornaments when the opportunity presents itself. I I’m not going to say a lot about them right now. None of them are available for purchase at this time, but I will let you know when they are.

Chicken (bird) with antlers one-of-a-kind needle felted holiday ornament for 2024 — Rein-chicken

raccoon with snowball one-of-a-kind needle felted holiday ornament for 2024 — Rein-chicken

This is just the beginning of these special little mini-sculptures. I’ve also started several ball type ornaments that begin with a commercial wool dryer ball as their core. I’ll share some of those images next time around.

Some More Process

I received positive feedback last week when I shared a bit of work-in-process video for my Chimera. This week, I used the time-lapse setting on my phone camera to capture me creating a botanical mono-print. These one-of-a-kind works on paper are an enjoyable addition to my gallery offerings. The result is a piece of original art that is very affordable. You may recall, that I also use this process to create original images of my sculptures using a photo transfer method.

Making a botanical mono-print

Show Still Up!

Don’t forget, my featured artist show along with Ellie Snow, Natural Patterns: Flora and Fauna is still up through August 25th at The Hillsborough Gallery of Arts. Hope you get the chance to see the show before it ends. The work displayed together is kind of magical.

Process

Each year, the gallery produces a video for each artist for feature show promotion. I’m not a fan of these videos personally, but they are useful on social media. I like my work to speak directly to the viewer, not me. I do my part, and film my video. If you follow the gallery on social media, you may have caught mine. If not, you’re not missing anything if you’re a regular reader here and know what I’m creating anyway.

I do like to produce videos that show my process and techniques. I have been trying to improve taking them as I work. It is a challenge, because you have to stop and start while you are working. I tend to get into a flow when I’m sculpting, and then realize that I didn’t stop to film! I did take a step to help myself improve on this by buying a new work lamp that also serves as a ring light and phone clamp.

Chimera Process

I took some video clips while sculpting the last piece I shared with you, Chimera. I edited these little clips into a short video. Watching a process video can answer many of the common questions people ask me about my work. Is there an armature? How to you attach the eyes? How are the different colors and patterns in the wool achieved? In the video you will see that the answers are: yes, sewn in, and by felting different colors of wool to the surface.

Making Chimera

Stop In And See The Show!

Natural Patterns: Flora and Fauna my feature show at the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts with painter Ellie Snow is up through August 26th. Stop in and see all my newest work in person. Perhaps you will find that one of my creatures needs to find a new home with you!

Wartski Art Dolls and Sculpture

Art dolls and mixed media sculpture