Monthly Archives: October 2024

More to Adorn the Tree

Just in case I haven’t shared enough new one-of-a-kind ornaments to adorn your tree, here are a few more.

anthropomorphic needle felted mouse ballerina ornament to adorn the tree — Sugarplum Mouse

Last year, I created a sugarplum bunny, this year my primary fairy dancer role goes to a mouse. She has a magenta tutu and matching slippers. The skirt of her dance dress has some sparkly spangles, and her neckline and tiara feature cut cystal beads. She is ready to entertain and delight.

needle felted ornament with pair of polar bears teaming up to adorn tree with star — Star Placement

In past years I created batches of polar bears and puffins. They were the first needle felted ornaments I designed. This year I’ve decided to do only one-of-a-kind ornaments, but I had two little polar bear cubs left from last year. So, I decided to team them up into a Star Placement team. I changed them a bit, sewed new eyes, and added toe and foot pads. They have their first star and are ready to go to work. Maybe they can help with your tree.

Perhaps something a bit more exotic?

Anthropomorphic needle felted zebra ornament adorned with a festive polka dot scarf — Festive Print Mixing

Continuing my exploration of animal prints from my feature artist show this year. Festive Print Mixing is a zebra with a colorful contrasting polka dot scarf. She is ready to make a bold impact on any tree.

Anthropomorphic needle felted camel ornament with tree — Overland Tree Delivery

Overland Tree Delivery is a camel on a treck to delliver a tree ready to adorn with all types of its own ornaments. This dromedary requires no GPS, and can deliver enchantment for no extra fee.

Many of these holiday ornaments, and the others I have previously shared will be arriving at the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts in a couple weeks. I am also planning on doing a one evening holiday market just prior to the installation of our gallery’s holiday show. I am waiting on the information and promotional materials for that event, and I will pass them along as soon as I get them.

Ornament and Occasionally Ornery

Ornament, Ornament, Ornament

Needle felted ornament - donkey with baskets of glass bead ornaments — Ornament Transit

needle felted Musk Ox with elf hat ornament — Ornament Transit

As you can see, I am continuing to work on my winter hoilday ornament inventory. It never seems to be enough, especialy if one is contemplating doing extra shows or events. More on that later, as the time comes closer.

This week let me introduce:

Ornament Transit, a donkey toting baskets of ornaments
Musk Elf, a musk oxen elf
Festive, a flamingo with a tinsel scarf
Jolabokaflod, a bear with cocoa and a book, named for Icelandic tradition of giving books on Christmas eve, and reading them while enjoying chocolate
White Stag, a magical white deer
Aurora Reflection, a wool “painting” on a dryer ball base

These ornaments along with the others you have seen will be available once the holiday season begins. I will tell you where and when.

Why Ornery?

I have been working on some other items the past few weeks, but they were custom orders, so I will not be sharing them here. These items were all, created after informing the inquiring customer that “I really no longer do commission work.” For some reason, this is never satisfactory, I’m then regaled with why this request is special, small, different, please, please, please…. Ugh, sigh. Not wanting to be rude, I end up relenting, and saying ok. And, then wouldn’t you know it? They all end up reminding me of some of the reasons why I don’t do commissions any longer. I will spare you the annoying details, the artists out there know what I’m talking about.

Instead, I thought I’d might pass along a bit of public service. We are entering the season when with lots of festivals, markets, and open studios where art and hand-crafted items are sold. These hard working artist will be sharing a bit of themselves with you. It is always a good idea to know how the game is best played. I perused some attending an art fair dos and don’ts.

Some of the advice was common sense:

Don’t bring food or drink into the tents
Ask for permission before photographing anything
Haggling is not encouraged
Keep an eye on bags, umbrellas and children’s hands
Try not to congregate in tent entrance
If you pick something up, place back in same location, or hand to the booth attendant

I also found a graphic credited to the California Arts Council that provides some things to help you be a thoughtful art fair consumer.

Instead, tell the artist what you do like about their work. Ask them about their process. This is a little different from, “how is this made?”, unfortunately many artists do have their original designs stolen and copied. Do inquire if they do custom work, or commissions, and be prepared to pay part up front for an order.

For a little practice, one of my Hillsborough Gallery or Arts co-owners hosts a wonderful show at her farm each year. It is this Saturday, and the weather report looks good. Here’s a link to Art at Lady Bug Farm. If you’re local take a drive out, it will be worth the trip!

More Lights

New holiday ornaments

I’ll start with the new lights. For the past few years I have created “Solstice Lantern Houses” for the holidays. These little structures have white walls and colorful roofs. I place battery powered tea lights inside each house. The glow from the “candles” shine through the windows and doors, and make the walls softly glow. The balloon lights I purchased for Holly & Mistletoe provide me with an even more versatile light source to play with. I decided to use them to make an ornament sized version of my lantern houses. Another artist sometimes creates little house ornaments, and I thought that the two might be too similar. So, I instead went magical with my design. The result are Elf Cottage Ornaments, They are just the type of fairytale abode you might expect Santa’s helpers to dwell in.

needle felted elf cottage holiday ornamets with balloon lights — Elf Cottages

Each cottage is slightly different. They have multiple window openings to allow light to shine through, and their small size allows me to keep the walls relatively thin. This enables the walls to glow as well. The switch for each balloon light is on the bottom of the house so the light can be turned on and off. The cottages are needle felted wool, with a base of foam core covered in sticky felt. The base is sewn and felted in place.

No Lights on Speedy

needle felted anthropomorphic turtle ornament with holiday package — Speedy

Speedy is my latest one-of-a-kind ornament. As you can see he is a little turtle with a present to deliver. Speedy is needle felted wool with iridescent glass bead eyes. He will be conveying his parcel to its recipient soon.

Some More Fungi

I will drop off a couple of additional mushroom mini-sculptures to HGA later this week. They don’t seem to hang around the gallery long. This week’s offerings are Mush 6 and Morell Wave. Like thier predecessors, they are needle felted wool over a wood (chopstick) core with a natural wood slice base. Each has iridescent glass bead eyes.

needle felted anthropomorphic mushroom mini-sculpture, magenta with orange polka dots — Mush 6

needle felted anthropomorphic morell mushroom mini-sculpture with waving arms — Mush 6

Wartski Art Dolls and Sculpture

Art dolls and mixed media sculpture