Tag Archives: anthropomorphic

Black Friday – Last Friday and Pop-Up

Black Friday – Last Friday, First

This Friday is “Black Friday” and It is also the Last Friday Art Walk in Hillsborough. After your Thursday feasting, head down to Hillsborough for extended holiday shopping hours, art, good companly, and maybe a glass of holiday cheer. The Hillsborough Gallery of Arts is all dressed up for the season, and our artist/elves are continuously busy creating amazing hand crafted art. Many of my one-of-a-kind ornaments have already traveled out the door. So, I will continue to work on new designs, and keep refilling my two copper display trees.

Chickadee Ball- needle felted "wool painting" on dryer ball ornament - chickadee w/glass — Chickadee Ball

I will add the “Chickadee Ball’ dryer ball ornament when I go in for the Black Friday – Last Friday festivities from 6-9.

Pop-Up Next Saturday!

Next Saturday, December 7th the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts will host it’s second annual Holiday Pop-Up from 12-4. Tents will go up outside the gallery and by noon, there will be additional offerings by many of our artists for your holiday gift giving. We make a special effort to make these expecially giftable items.

Last year, I introduced my needle felted one-of-a-kind ornaments. As you know, each is an original mini-sculpture. They were so popular, this year I have created all one-of-a-kind (OOAK) ornaments so far. To switch it up for the Pop-Up this year, I decided to create two “Limited Edition” ornaments. Several people asked me if I would make additional copies of “Hanging Lights”, an opossum hanging lights in a ring.

needle felted opossum hanging lights in a ring ornament — Hanging Lights

Well, no, sorry, I do try to keep the one-of-a-kinds one of a kind (he sold rather quickly.) But, that doesn’t mean I can’t do something similar. So, I will be making a batch of single tail hanging opossums for the Pop-Up.

Limited edition opossum ornaments for for HGA Holiday Pop-Up — Limited Edition Opossum

In addition, I am miniturizing my mini-mush sculptures a little bit more, and making them into hanging ornaments.

Limited edition Mini-mush ornaments for for HGA Holiday Pop-Up — Trio of Mini-Mush Ornaments

The opossums, and mini-mush ornaments will be available at HGA starting at the Pop-Up next Saturday, December 7th. I’m not sure what number I will limit these orament batches at (10?12?) It depends how far I get in their creation this week along with a few other items.

I will be at the gallery for both the Last Friday Art walk this week, and the Holiday Pop-Up, hope you can make it out too.

More Needle-Felted Anthropomorphic Holiday Treats!

Needle felted anthropomorphic mouse with chef hat and tray of cookies, holiday ornament — Cookies!

A number of my one-of-a-kind ornaments featuring needle felted anthropomorphic creatures have already moved on to new homes. So, I am busy creating new ones to fill the spaces on my two copper display trees. I dropped off “Cookies!” the mouse cookie chef last evening, and will get “Wrapping Is Easy” the octopus in to HGA soon.

needle felted anthropomorphic octopus holiday ornament — Wrapping Is Easy (with 8 arms)

I dropped off two others, “Battle Ready” the hedgehog and “Not The Christmas Goose You’re Looking For” this past Saturday. You’ll have to stop by the gallery to see them, as I didn’t take the opportunity to take images of those before I brought them in.

Replacement For The Window

I also was occupied creating a replacement for “It’s Snowing” the hanging polar bear sculpture that was displayed in the front window, as he already found a new home too. I still have a selection of bamboo hoops of varying sizes, so I played with the same theme, and created “Star Gazing.” This hanging sculpture features a pair of needle felted anthropomorphic polar bear cubs, swinging on the ring, and looking up at sparkling stars of needle felted wool and glass beads.

needle felted anthropomorphic hanging sculpture. Polar bear cub twins looking at stars — Star Gazing

I recorded some time lapse videos of the process of creating this sculpture. Below is a compilation video of those clips: (*video doesn’t show on email version of post, must view in browser on wartskisculpture.com)

HMaking Star Gazing

Holiday Pop-Up!

Saturday, December 7th from noon to 4pm, the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts will host it’s second annual Holiday Pop-up event. There will be tents set up outside of the gallery with an even larger selection of hand crafted art and fine crafts. Many of the artists take the opportunity to produce even more gift-able items. This event will coincide with that week’s “Sip n’ Shop” event (each Saturday in December before Christmas.) So, it will be a busy festive day with a tent pop-up, gift card drawing, and refreshments. Mark your calendars!

The Art of Giving

Each year the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts presents its special holiday show titled “The Art of Giving.” Our member artists create a wonderland of art and fine crafts to provide a wide variety of gift giving choices. Tomorrow, the gallery will be transformed with our work and some lights into this magical art emporium.

For The Art Of Giving

I’ve been working the past few weeks creating new sculptures, and one-of-a-kind ornaments for our holiday installation. Two of the new sculptures are specifically holiday themed. I shared one of them, Holly & Mistletoe, with you a few weeks ago. He was the raccoon with a working lantern who was collecing holly and mistletoe. The second is titled “It’s Snowing!” and features a reclining polar bear inside a bamboo ring who seems fascinated by the falling snow. You can find this hanging sculpture in the window of HGA starting tomorrow.

Needle felted anthropomorphic polar bear hanging sculpture inside bamboo ring, with crystal embellished wool snowflakes. For Art of Giving show — It’s Snowing!

Don’t forget, I am bringing in a varied selection of one-of-a-kind ornaments as well. Each is an original mini-sculpture that can hopefully become a cherished part of your holiday traditions.

Acorn Gift
Bling! mini
Peppermint Cocoa
Festive Print Mixing
Sugarplum Mouse
Star Placement
Jolabokaflod
Overland Tree Delivery
Ornament Transit
Aurora Reflection needle felted wool “painting” on a dryer ball ornament
White Stag
Festive
Musk Elf
Speedy
Elf Cottages
Christmas Past
Deco-lobster
Armed
Jingle Jelly
Special Delivery
Santa Whale
Cardinal Ball
Moose Twilight
Long Scarf
Hockey Bunny
Ski Mouse
Rein-chicken
Snowball Fight
Cozy Chick
Polar Cub Cocoa
Xmas Kisses ornament

Come check out the work of all my artist/owner parners. There will be something to catch everyone’s eye. The opening reception for the Art of Giving show will be the evening of Black Friday, November 29th from 6-9 pm. HGA will also again have a special “Holiday Pop-up” sale on Saturday, December 7th. I will share more infomation on that event in a future post.

graphic for the Art of Giving HGA's annual holiday art show — Art of Giving

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.

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

Winter Light

Holly and Mistletoe

needle felted anthropomorphic racoon art doll figure sculpture with felted and beaded holly, mistletoe, and working lantern — Holly and Mistletoe

My latest anthropomorphic figure is a needle felted racoon gathering holly and mistletoe by lantern light. As you may have already guessed, he will come into the gallery when we install the holiday show in mid-November. It takes a fair amount of time to create my holiday inventory, so most of what you see from this point on this year will be either winter themed, ornaments, or what might be considered more giftable items.

Holly and Mistletoe is needle felted wool over a wire and batting armature. This free standing sculpture balances on its feet, tail and lantern staff. His felted basket is full of holly with hand sewn glass bead berries. His head and lantern staff are festooned with felted mistletoe with white glass bead berries. The lantern is felted wool over metalic tulle and fusable interfacing. The lantern hardware is made of jewelry findings and decorative notions. Inside the lantern is a “balloon light”. These tiny LED lights are made for use in decorative items. The type of balloon light I chose has a tiny switch and can be opened to replace the batteries. As you can see, I created closure clasp with a loop and decorative brad on the lantern. This allows access to the balloon light.

Work-In-Progress?

Since I do have a little time before I bring this piece in to the gallery, I think I am still considering these images as work-in-progress shots. Should I tie the legs, tail, and staff together with some sort of base? I am also wondering if I should add some more width to his tail to make it fluffier? Now, that I’ve asked that second question out loud, I realize that answering yes to that, may negate the first question. Making the tail thicker may make his stance even more stable.

I’ve also been busy recently creating some special pieces that are intended as gifts, so I can’t share them quite yet as I don’t want to spoil the surprise! When they’ve landed in their future homes, I’ll share them here.

Dryer ball

Some Dryer Ball Sculpture For Now

I have shared an ornament or two in the past that started out as a wool dryer ball. So far those acted as more of a canvas onto which I felted a 2D or low relief image. Today, the dryer ball serves as a more sculptural starting point.

They help dry your laundry faster…
They reduce static. …
They help reduce lint. …
They are durable. …
They are environmentally friendly …

However, they can be a bit noisy to use, and they do not impart any scent to your clothing.

three fall pumpkin mini sculptures that began as wool dryer balls — Pumpkin Trio

I have created sculptures that could be used as fall/Halloween items in the past. However, I did not create any of those sculptures specifically for that purpose. This week I finished three mini sculptures that I will be bringing in to the gallery as items for fall. Each started out as a dryer ball.

needle felted pumpkin mini sculpture with mouse inhabitant — Pumpkin House

needle felted pumpkin mini sculpture that began as a wool dryer ball — Pumpkin House

For the Jacko pieces, I reshaped the balls by force and felting. I mixed orange and yellow fibers to give the surface of each texture and variation. The stem curls were achieved by working soapy water (wet felting) into them. These were heat set by winding around chopsticks and toothpicks, and drying with blow dryer.

Pumpkin House started like the other two pieces, but with minimal reshaping of the ball. I added a couple layers of wool to enlarge the sphere a bit. I carved the hole using scissors and an Exacto blade. The interior of the opening I lined with black and brown fiber, and edged with yellow. I sculpted the mouse head and hands, and added them to the opening.

Another For Later

needle felted holiday ornament from dryer ball based on A Christmas Carol — Christmas Past

Dickens described the Ghost of Christmas Past as, “… a strange figure — like a child: yet not so like a child as like an old man, viewed through some supernatural medium…”

I’ve seen versions of A Christmas Carol where the ghost’s “supernatural medium” was depicted as flame-like. I use that imagery in this one-of-a-kind ornament. The use of irridecent glass beads for the eyes adds to this effect. As you may expect, this piece will be available when we install the holiday show at HGA in mid November.

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

Wartski Art Dolls and Sculpture

Art dolls and mixed media sculpture