Tag Archives: giraffe

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!

Latest Batch of OOAK ornaments…

Latest Batch, or Last?

As there is still a week until Christmas, I doubt this is my last batch of ornaments for this season. These new One-Of-A-Kind (OOAK) ornaments will be headed to the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts later today. Each is a unique original sculpture. I do repeat themes. Some ideas seem to capture the eye more than others. For example, there was a brown bear on a sled a few weeks ago. This week I created a polar bear cub with a long magenta vintage style hat and scarf piloting a sled. He is titled Polar Slide.

needle felted anthropomorphic polar bear w/sled in new batch of OOAK holiday ornaments — Polar Slide

Earlier, I had a pair of polar bear cubs teamed up to hang a star. This week it is a giraffe who needs no partner to reach the top of the tree. This one is titled No Ladder Needed.

needle felted anthropomorphic giraffe w/star in new batch of OOAK holiday ornaments — No Ladder Needed

Warm Wool is the next OOAK ornament in the batch. I haven’t done a sheep this season. There were others who didn’t really need their winter accessories either, but they look so fetching!

needle felted anthropomorphic sheep w/hat & scarf in new batch of OOAK holiday ornaments — Warm Wool

Also, completely new this season is Checking Santa’s List. This little owl with spectacles is helping out St. Nick. He has his reading glasses on, so he can double check Who! is naughty and Who! is nice.

needle felted anthropomorphic owl w/glasses and hat in new batch of OOAK holiday ornaments — Checking Santa’s List

The last ornament (at least in this batch) is Ornament Care. He is a Male emperor penguin. Ornament Care is protecting an ornate glass ornament in the same manner the male penguins incubate their eggs. They balance the eggs on their feet, and squat down to cover them with their bodies.

needle felted anthropomorphic emperor penguin in new batch of OOAK holiday ornaments — Ornament Care

Coming Soon…

All of these new little friends will be at HGA later today. I’m guessing there will be at least one more posting for the holiday season. Next, we have some group shows for January and February. I will be telling you all about those soon.

Peace and Procedure –

First a little Peace.

Seems we could all use a little peace right now. My latest anthropomorphic figure sculpture is a “tie dyed” giraffe named Peace. I looked at numerous sources for the symbolism attributed to the giraffe, and grace, gentleness, and peace came up over and over. You may recall several other giraffe sculptures, like last years’ Change Up. They are an animal that I find I enjoy sculpting. Giraffes have such interesting forms and proportions. I think I find them simultaneously graceful and comical.

Peace is a "tye dye" giraffe sculpture. Needle felted wool over wire and quilit batting armature. — Peace

Peace stands about 15″ tall, and casts a glance at her viewer from under long magenta lashes. She is needle felted wool, over a wire and quilt batting armature. Her hooves are hand-stiched faux leather, and her eyes are iridecent glass beads.

close up of Peace "tye dye" giraffe sculpture. Needle felted wool over wire and quilit batting armature. — Peace’s portrait

I created Peace using a different approach. Needle felting is usually done with loose wool roving fibers, but this unique hide pattern required something different. I hand dyed wool prefelt using alcohol inks, and then cut the individual blocks of color and needle felted them to the sculpture.

Not Quite Tie Dye Procedure

There is a faux tie dye method you may be aware of that uses permanent Sharpie type markers, and alcohol. I modified that process using drops of alcohol inks in place of drawing dots with markers.

Tie dye process 1 - fabric stretched across cup — Tie dye process 1

Tie dye process 2 - applying dots of alcohol ink — Tie dye process 1

prefelt fabric is stretched across plastic cup and secured with rubber band
drops of alcohol ink
alcohol is dropped over ink drops allowing colors to spread and mix
mixing of colors
complete panel
dyed prefelt after rinsing and heat set in dryer

Peace will probably not make an appearance in the gallery until this summer for my feature show at the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts. She is the first of several sculptures for that show. These sculptures will feature animals that have distinctive “animal print” coat patterns that I have altered in some way.

Birds, Balloon and Bling!

What do the three words in the title have in common? They accompany the main figures in this post. I have three new friends to introduce to you, a girraffe with a michevious ox pecker entourage, a baby rhino and her balloon, and a snail with a lot of bling.

First Up, Is Change Up

needle felted anthropomorphic giraffe sculpture with ox pecker birds and color surprise — Change Up

“Change Up” is my newest creation featuring a giraffe as the main figure. This time I had a bit of fun with the giraffe’s patterning. The ox packer birds are applying her distinctive coat pattern. However, it seems that the bird at the back has some different ideas about color. The giraffe looks interested, but it is unclear if she approves of the pop (or is that bling?) at this point.

Change Up is needle felted wool over a wire and quilt batting armature. All have hand sewn glass bead eyes.

Bling!

Bling! is a snail with an eye for embellishment. They are decked out with a bright blue shell that is encrusted with beaded barnacles.

I began Bling! with a wire armature and a pouch of poly stuffing beads for ballast. That base is wrapped in quilt batting, and the surface is sculpted in wool with felting needles. All the beaded (including eyes), sequined, and fringe elements are hand applied with “invisible” thread. I’m kind of in love with their goofy expression.

needle felted anthropomorphic snail sculpture with highly embellished shell — Bling!

This Balloon is My Bling

My little rhino titled My Balloon, seems enamored wirth her possession. Perhaps it is because her balloon provides a bit of bling too? Whatever the reason, she looks pretty happy. In fact, she appears to be making double sure that her balloon doesn’t get away. She has the string both looped around her front foot, and firmly clasped in her mouth.

My Balloon is needle felted wool over a wire, poly bead, and quilt batting form. The balloon is needle felted wool over batting, with yarn felted around a wire core for the string. Her eyes are hand sewn glass beads with frayed yarn lashes.

needle felted anthropomorphic baby rhinoceros sculpture with polka dot balloon — My Balloon

Stay tuned

I’m not sure when each of these sculptures will show up in the gallery. More than likely Bling or My Balloon will make an appearance first, as Change Up is a more suited to the theme of my September feature show. I have been a playing catch up with inventory these past few weeks (one reason you haven’t seem many posts.) I will let you know when I drop anything off, or make it available for purchase elsewhere.

Dare To Clash

Next week a new show installs at the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts. Entitled, Stirrings, the show will feature new work by HGA member artists. For my contribution to the show I thought about the first few anthropomorphic pieces I created. Though I had sculpted animal inspired art dolls before, this was a whole new direction. High Fashion, was one of the first of these creatures, and she has remained one of my personal favorites. Dare to Clash recalls her predecessor. This giraffe is displaying her own unique style.

Perhaps she is over doing it just a bit with the animal prints, but her purple flats are on point. She also seems quite happy with her visor and large hoop earrings. They show off her long slender neck.

“Dare” stands a little over 13 inches high. She has bright glass bead eyes capped off with long black lashes. Her custom footwear is hand sewn from faux leather.

This piece really a represents a labor of love. I fully recall how labor intensive adding all of the giraffe spots to High Fashion was. Now I added leopard spots, and tiger and zebra stripes to mix! Needless to say, she took quite some time.

Close up of dare to clash — Dare close up

Dare to Clash will be at the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts starting Tuesday, February 22nd. Come and check her out along with all new the “Stirrings”.

Sculpture Detours

I don’t know about all artists, but I prefer to get in a groove in the studio. I encounter periods where my sculpture seems to flow from one to the next, and though each is unique, there is a connection between them. With luck, these periods precede an upcoming featured artist show, and the result is a cohesive body of new and exciting work in the show.

There are also times where the work comes in from widely varying directions. The last few weeks have been one of these periods. In fact, I would go as far as saying that I didn’t have much of anything to do with the origin of my last few creations. I have instead worked on a couple of commissions, and made a couple of not-for-sale original versions of existing characters.

High Fashion Giraffe Offspring

My anthropomorphic giraffe sculpture from my last feature show, High Fashion, was purchased last year. The owner asked me to create an offspring to accompany her. The finished version sports a pink hair bow, and vintage beaded ID bracelet. The image here is a work-in-progress photo. She will be off to join mom her new home shortly. This commission was fun. It allowed me to revisit a piece I truly love (High Fashion is currently featured on my gallery bio-cards) but look at it in a different way.

needle felted baby giraffe before her bow and ID bracelet accessories — Baby Giraffe commission

This was not the case with another recent commission. One I almost declined. With the exception of my puffin and polar bear ornaments, I prefer to not recreate any of my designs. Though, I will revisit an idea or theme and take a new look at it, I prefer not to simply reproduce something I have already made. To me it lessens the original. I had someone contact me and ask if I make them a new version of a piece that had a red dot (sold) in the gallery. Try as I might with questions about different colors and numbers of items in the piece… The customer was undeterred, and wanted one exactly like the piece they were unavailable to purchase. I’m not exactly sure why, but I did create the piece. In the end it made someone happy, so I guess that’s a positive.

A Real Sculpture Departure

In a real departure for me, I spent a little time making a couple of anime characters. These two pieces were not to be sold, but rather helping out with a club project. Fans might recognize my versions as a needle felted Totoro, and a hand sewn stuffed Pikachu with needle felted embellishments. They were an enjoyable diversion and challenge, as I was going for a definitely handmade while still true to known character aesthetic.

Before anyone asks… Sorry, but no. This was a one time, and not for sale thing.

Back To The drawing Board

Now I guess it is time to take out the sketch book, and see were the next flow of work all take me. At least I hope so.

Anthropomorphic Art Dolls Moving On?

…But they’re not gone!

This week is the last Friday of the month. A new featured artist show, Construction, is going live online for HGA. But, Three Narratives isn’t really going anywhere. My anthropomorphic art dolls will remain available both within the gallery featured sales pages, and here on my Available for Purchase page.

Multitasking anthropomorphic art doll — Multitasking 12″x7″x12″

At the Gallery

Those same anthropomorphic art dolls are now at the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts awaiting our controlled reopening. As you can imagine, a space where patrons linger, converse, and touch objects is rife with contact concerns. The HGA owner artists are carefully considering all the angles we can think of to safely start to welcome visitors back. The current plan is to offer private appointments one weekday, and open a few hours with precautions on Saturdays. Details on both options are still being finalized. I will share all that information with you here, as soon as I can.

High Fashion anthropomorphic art doll — High Fashion 7″x18″x10″

Not Just Anthropomorphic Art Dolls.

Even with the move towards careful reopening, we are building and refining HGA’s online sales offerings. As you might imagine, something that required building on the fly has experienced a hiccup or two. The experience of the past few months has taught us that we need to develop this side of our gallery further. Keep checking in with me here. I will continue to share new developments. In the mean time, take a second look at our special Art Under $100 show. This show features pieces donated by the HGA member artists, and all proceeds go to maintaining the gallery.

Blue Butterfly Bag — Blue Butterfly bag 8″x11″x1/2″

Flower Necklace -purple and turquoise needle felted flowers on leather chord — Flower Necklace

Fashionable Anthropomorphic Climate

High Fashion Girrafe

In my last post, I detailed how this newest body of anthropomorphic figures grew out of the creation of a single white rabbit. This was an additional nod to Alice in Wonderland, an inspiration I’ve returned to a number of times. The first idea that appeared in my sketchbook was the slightly absurd image of a giraffe wearing two pairs of cloven hoof pumps.

Dressing a Giraffe

I have to say that giraffe morphology is quite unique. I poured over reference images online, and then worked and reworked her form. There is a balance between realistic and illustration that I’m trying to strike. I don’t want my animal figures to look like stuffed animal toys, but I also don’t desire them to be hyperrealistic either.

I also find a balance is needed in imbuing each with their anthropomorphic elements of human attire. This seems driven by each individual piece. High Fashion really only needed a few items to relay her idea. Additionally, I didn’t want to detract from the bold body conscious animal print jumpsuit she’s modeling. Especially, when it took what seemed like a lifetime to form and add each one of her brown patches and spots. Her shoes were also a labour of love to attain the oxymoronic effect of high end pumps made for the foot of a giraffe.

What Else Would an Anthropomorphic Polar Bear Do?

Nell Chandler, Michele Yellin and I decided on the title Three Narratives for our feature show. It seems appropriate for my figures to not only appear pulled from a story, but perhaps have their own tales. Last winter I created a number of polar bear ornaments for the holiday season at the gallery. This larger version, Climate Report, appears to have quite a bit more to say than his diminutive brethren. If a polar bear were a reporter, one can imagine that the news would revolve around the elements of everyday polar bear life. Any changes and impacts to that life would be noteworthy. My intrepid reporter is busy doing just that work. He is stylized more like he stepped out of a black and white film than a children’s book. After all, he is dealing with non-fiction issues.

Climate Report anthropomorphic art doll — Climate Report

Pieces, Prices and Pics

I’ll share one or two more of these new anthropomorphic pieces in a few days. I’m working on a few last items, and getting things ready for the launch of the online gallery on the HGA page. I will share it all here with you here as soon as it’s ready.

Lynn Wartski Sculpture

Art dolls and mixed media sculpture