Category Archives: sculpture

Holiday Preseason Ornament Sale!

I’m Trying Something New This Holiday Season.

Each year at the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts, we host a preview show for the Orange County Artists’ Guild’s Studio Tour. The tour runs the first two weekends of November. When the studio tour ends… the holidays begin at HGA!

For several years now I have created mostly one-of-a-kind needle felted ornaments. Each is a unique mini-sculpture, and they seem to be quite popular. Here’s a link to a YouTube video that I created a few weeks back showing many of the ornaments I have sculpted for this season.

This year, I’ve decided to do a little marketing experiment. I’m making several ornaments available online for the next two weeks. You can get to my sales page by clicking on the Curling Rabbit ornament below, or through the image gallery currently on this site’s home page. I will add new ornaments if these find new homes quickly, but they will only be available online through November 10th!

One-of-a-kind needle felted rabbit ornament with rustic broom and curling stone — Curling Rabbit

Other New Work.

Since, I stopped making regular blog posts, I haven’t shared much in the way of new work. Here are a few recent pieces:

Needle felted anthropomorphic mixed media badger sculpture. Figure wearing striped nightcap, glasses and slippers reads a book, and has a cup of tea. natural wood base — Cozy Badger

Cozy Badger – Needle felted wool/mixed media. Anthropomorphic badger figure with a blue and white stripped nightcap, slippers, and “pince nez” glasses, sits on a natural wood log reading a book, with a cup of tea beside him. This piece will be available at HGA for the holiday show.

Harvest is an anthropomorphic mouse figure sculpture with a pumpkin. Needle felted wool — Harvest

Harvest – is an anthropomorphic mouse figure with a pumpkin. Needle felted wool. This piece is currently available at HGA.

Fish Out Of Water anthropomorphic needle felted koi figure with parasol and obi belt — Fish Out Of Water

Fish Out Of Water – is a re-work of an earlier sculpture. Seated needle felted koi figure holds a blue decorated parasol, and has a obi belt fashioned from the fabric stash of a beloved art quilter. This sculpture is also currently available at HGA.

Art Colors Life – Feature Show

Show Opening Reception Tonight 6-9pm!

Gallery entry view for Art Colors Life featured artist show.

The opening reception for “Art Colors Life”, my featured artist show with painters Chris Graebner and Marcy Lansman, is this evening during the Hillsborough “Last Friday” Art Walk. If you are local, I hope that you can brave the heat and stop by the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts to enjoy the art (and our air-conditioning!) Downtown Hillsborough will be alive, with music, art and activities.

If you are not local, here’s a link to a YouTube video I put together after we installed the show on Monday…

Last Minute Details

I’d love to write some more, but have some things to do to get ready for this evening. Hope to see you tonight.

Something New

Actually, Many Things

Hi, I know it has been quite some time since I posted anything new here. I have been quite busy with things in and out of my studio. A redesign of my website is just one of those tasks. In fact, I am still in the process of the redesign, so if you click around, things might be different next time you return. This post is also a check, to make sure that the redesign still allows those of you who have graciously subscribed to my blog to still receive them.

The biggest change in my site is that I now have a static home page that doesn’t update with each post. That page is still very much a Work-In-Progress. My posts will now live here on the Blog page. Posting will not occur with as much regularity as in the past. But, I will write each time there is an event, or new development in my work I want to share with you.

I have updated my Current Gallery page, and will be working to keep it as up-to-date as possible. I am playing around with making some items directly available for purchase from time to time. That requires some interplay between this site, and my Square sales to allow for convenient and secure transactions.

I may also try to work a BlueSky embed into my new home page. That way you can see what I post there (daily) without needing to have your own account… I think?

New Work

Here are some pieces that I have worked on since the last time I posted.

Needle felted mother and calf giraffe sculpture by Lynn Wartski. Needle felted wool over wire and batting armature. — Love is Nurtured

Needle felted turtle sculpture with stylized boho flower design by Lynn Wartski. Needle felted wool with sewn glass bead eyes. — Love is Nurtured

There do seem to be quie a few new pieces here that I had not posted about!

Several are for my upcoming featured artist show at the end of July. I will tell you about them in the run up to the opening. A couple, Luna Mouse and Venetian Canard, have already sold. Boho Slow is currently available at The Hillsborough Gallery of Arts.

All, are my usual construction of needle felted wool over a wire and batting armature. Some have unique qualities like the embroidery on Venetian Canard. I incorporated upcycled denim in Avoid Shiny Objects, and Rabbit Moon and Family Photo both are hanging display mobiles. Fledged, is unique in that is doesn’t include a figure, only the suggestion of one.

I hope your summer is off to a great start!

Pollinator Ready

I have two pieces this week that are ready for spring to arrive. One is a mystical looking deer with antlers that form blooming branches. The second is a Pollinator Purse for the HGA spring Pop-Up event.

Spring

My interpretation of Spring is a melding of botanical and animal. I wanted this meditative looking ungulate to appear to be pulled from some boreal mythology. I’m not sure exactly what magic this creature possesses, but I’m guessing that it is ancient and powerful.

Spring is needle felted wool over a wire, batting, and wood (antlers) frame. I fashioned the unique antlers from chopsticks, skewers, and tooth picks drilling and gluing them peg fashion. The flowers and leaves are glued and felted to the antlers and the yarn wrap “bark.” You can watch a time-lapse of his creation on my YouTube channel.

Spring features sequin and bead dappled spots on his back, and iridescent glass bead eyes.

Pollinator Purse

My Pollinator Purse features a needle felted and embroidered bee and dandelion design. This bag is also an example of upcycling, as the base of the pouch is a section cut from the leg of an old pair of jeans. Two pockets, one on the back, and one sewn to the interior lining came from the same pair of blue jeans. The cross body length strap was recycled from another denim bag. The zipper of the bag was also recycled, and the pull was changed out for bee charm and copper beads.

detail image of Pollinator Purse by Lynn Wartski shows lining and zipper and bee charm pull. — Pollinator Purse zipper and lining detail

A slide show process video of this bag can also be found on my YouTube channel. I think that I will be hanging on to this bag until the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts’ Spring/Mother’s day Pop-Up event on May 10th.

Bonus Work!

I had a couple of other pieces, one just completed and another from a couple of months back that were both gifts. They were both just delivered, so I can now share them with you!

The first was a sea life hanging mobile sculpture for above a baby crib. It is tricky to get an image of the whole mobile at once as all the elements are moving and twisting. So, instead here is a little collage of all of the seperate parts.

detail of needle felted sea turtle from sea life hanging mobile sculpture

detail of needle felted sea horse from sea life hanging mobile sculpture

detail of needle felted humpback whale from sea life hanging mobile sculpture

detail of needle felted regal blue tang fish from sea life hanging mobile sculpture

detail of needle felted ray from sea life hanging mobile sculpture

detail of needle felted octopus from sea life hanging mobile sculpture

detail of needle felted jellyfish from sea life hanging mobile sculpture

The other sculpture is a small snowy owl on a natural wood base. Both pieces traveled to their new home this week.

Needle felted snowy owl on natural wood base — Snowy Owl

Three Little Figures

A Llama…

Here’s a little of what I’ve been creating the past few weeks. Recently three figures have emerged from my studio. As I wrote last time, I have been mostly posting process videos of those works-in-progress (WIP) on YouTube, or sharing on my BlueSky feed.

needle felted athropomorphic llama figure sculpture with bright (klimt-esque?) surface pattern — La-La-La-Llama

La-La-La-Llama is a small anthropomorphic llama figure that I recenlty described as lovin’ life. This “just for the fun of it” sculpture features a brightly colored almost “Klimpt-esque” pattern. Llamas are rather comical looking animals, and this one’s title is inspired by Sesame Street “La La La” song by Bert and Ernie. She is needle felted wool over a wire and batting armature.

March Hare..

needle felted leaping hare figure sculpture with bright spring surface pattern — March Hare

My March Hare might not be crazy, but certainly appears to be on the move. As with the Llama, I was continuing to play with bold surface patterns. I used a small weighted concrete base (encased in the little mound of earth) to counterbalance this figure, and make it appear to defy gravity.

Both March Hare, and La-La-La-Llama are currently available at the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts.

Last of the figures is a WIP?

needle felted figure sculpture of winged liberty "statue" rising up — Tattered Liberty Rising (work-in-progress)

I just took photos of this completed figure piece yesterday, but I feel she may as yet still be a work-in-progress. It continues to be hard to just produce light hearted work, as things in the world continue to be insane in a larger sense. So, as I was sketching in my journal, the idea of a winged liberty pulling herself off the ground emerged. This piece is what had developed. Unfortunately, I have to admit, she’s too cute, not beat up enough to convey what I was thinking. So, for the time being, I have set her aside, and will work on her again in the future. You can catch the WIP video of me creating her

Reminder…

This coming Sunday, February 23rd there is a special event at The Hillsborough Gallery of Arts from 4-6 pm. The poet Jeffery Beam that we’ve collaborated with for our current gallery show will be doing a reading. Stop by and check it out

Milk and Apples

Meet “Milk and Apples”. They are the latest anthropomorphic sculpture to emerge from my work table.

I must admit, they took some time. Not with regard to the actual sculpting time, but more in a manner of conception. I think I experienced something similar to a writer’s block, but not in the area of coming up with ideas, but more the desire to create? Events of the past week or so, don’t exactly inspire light joy-filled work. During this time, I also took a bit of a social media break. The owners of some of the platforms I use decided to dispense with fact checking and decency. So, I decided I didn’t want to consume their products. I’m not sure if I want to go back. In fact, if you want to follow me on social media (minus the ads, bots, and crazies) I did start a BlueSky account. You can check out things I post there at:

@lwartskisculpture.bsky.social

I also add all my sculptures to my Lynn Wartski Art Dolls Pinterest board:

This little social media break also made me reconsider what I do here. I will be honest with you. Maintaining my website as a blog is really just another chore I’ve assigned myself that really doesn’t do much. I have more interaction with the spam bots that manage to evade the filters every time I post or update, than I do with actual readers. I’m still considering options. I will update you if/when I make any decisions on that front.

Back to Milk and Apples

These two rather contented looking porcine characters were inspired by a quote from George Orwell’s Animal Farm, “It is for your sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples.” For those not familiar, this is an explaination offered to the other farm animals as to why only the pigs would be enjoying those particular goods. This seemed timely to me. So, I felted my dismay into a light hearted wool wrapping. I don’t know if this has made me feel any better, but it did inspire some charming art.

The pigs are needle felted wool over a wire and quilt batting armature. They each have hand sewn iridescent glass bead eyes. Individual elements (pigs, bowl of apples, milk can) are stitched and felted through the top two layers of the base. The base is made of three layers of heavy wool felt: green, brown, and grey (not shown).

I am not sure if Milk and Apples will show up at HGA right away. I may hang on to them for my feature show. That show opens the last week of July.

Lynn Wartski Sculpture

Art dolls and mixed media sculpture