Tag Archives: needle felted

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.

Bubbly Whale

I decided to create a second piece for next month’s “It’s all About The Story” show. When scrolling through our guest poet, Jeffery Beam’s work, a second short poem caught my attention. It is simply titled The Whale.

I love creating sculptures of these mammoth marine mammals. I’m not sure what the pull on my imagination is. Perhaps it is the juxtaposition of something that is both hulking and graceful? Or, maybe it is how they are entwined into so many stories and mythologies? What ever the reason, I have returned to the whale several times. Ironically, one time I steered away from whales was for a Herman Melville inspired show. I figured there would be enough cetaceans in attendance there.

needle felted hanging whale sculpture with glass embellishments for Story show — Bubbling Leviathan

Not A White Whale

My whale piece is titled, “Bubbling Leviathan”. Like whale themselves, I find the word leviathan intriguing. Somehow, it strikes me as one of those words that sounds like what it is, large and hulking. Unfortunately, it is also usually equated as dark, sinister, or even evil. I didn’t want my leviathan to be evil, so I encorporated something light and bubbly. Literally bubbles, or more specifially the feeding technique of creating bubble nets that humpback whales use. Humpbacks blow bubbles from their blowhole while turning in a circle as the swim upward. This concentrates the small krill that they feed on within the bubbly enclosure as the whale swims upward with its mouth open.

My Leviathan is embellished with swirling gold patterns, glass elements, and metalic embroidery. I was striving to meld the natural and mythological I find combined in these creatures. Glass beads are suspended above and trail off the whale creating the illusion of movement and spinning of the bubble net. The sculpture is suspended from a thin bamboo ring. A spiral connector, and metalic ring complete the hanging connection.

Bubbling Leviathan will be at The Hillsborough Gallery of Arts starting February 10th.

Not A Whale

wet and needle felted vessel featuring yarn wrap — Vessel #12

I took some time this week to do a little wet felting. I tried the technique where you wrap a resist object, a balloon in this case, with some yarn first. Then I layered white and black wool. After wet felting, and popping the balloon, the resulting form was turned inside out to reveal that the yarn was incorporated into the felt as well. I worked the top edge a bit with my needles to create a finished edge. I had originally planned for this wet felt to become a bag, but I worked it into such a nice spherical shape, that it screamed to be left alone. My most trusted art critics agreed with this creative choice. So, Vessel # 12 it is. This piece will show up at HGA as soon as I get a chance to add it to inventory and drop it off.

Valentines?

I have a small selection of my hand pulled gel mono-print cards in floral and heart designs available at the gallery. Sketching a few other ideas. I’ll let you know if I come up with anything else.

Past, Present, and Future

Past and Present

I will get to the future soon enough. I missed sharing with you a couple of ornaments that went to the gallery during the the last few days before Christmas. Below are Puffin Present and Sloth Lights.

As you can see, I didn’t take images of them before I dropped them off. One of the other HGA artists helped me out, and took a couple of shots with her phone before they found new homes.

I’d also like you to meet Turk. He is an African Penguin. I made this little sculpture for the desk of a very special museum professional who works with African Pengins on a regular basis. I didn’t share him, as he was a surprise for Christmas morning. He was a present himself.

Looking to the Future

Lastly two pieces for the near, and somewhat more distant future. The first, is one of two works I have planned for our gallery’s yearly “It’s All About The Story” show. That show features artwork that responds to written work by one of the area’s many authors. This year we are working with the poet Jeffery Beam. The “Story” show will run from February 11th through March 23rd. There will be a reading hosted by the gallery on February 23rd, and a reception during the February Last Friday Art Walk on February 28th.

The first work I’ve created for the February show I’m titling “Dryad Slumber.” I will share the poem she is in response to later. For now, I thought that I’d just share her as her own visual art self. She is the first “human” figure that I’ve created in a while.

I will tell more about this piece as we get closer to that show’s installation.

In the very near future, The Hillsborough Gallery will be hosting “Moving Heaven and Earth”. This is an invitational show of non-HGA artists who’s work we enjoy. I was in the gallery today and saw some of the work that is included. It is a fabulous show, and well worth checking out. It will be installed tomorrow, January 6th, and will run through February 9th. Here is a list of the guest artist included:
Jane Filer, Sarah Graham, Katie Hayes, Ian Herdell, Alexis Joyner, Ley Killeya, Oami Powers, Suzan Scribner-Reed, Darcy Szeremi, Nadine Zenobi

For a bit farther into the future

I ended up creating the first ornament for the 2025 holiday season, though not on purpose. The initial snail that I made for “Dryad Slumber” was entirely too big. So I plucked him off, and made the smaller version you see in the Dryad Slumber images. The larger snail received a Santa’s hat and a hanging loop. He will deliver presents next winter at a slightly slower pace. I’m not sure that I will share all of the ornaments next year, it got a bit exhausting this time around.

That’s all for now.

Merry and Bright!

Last Shopping Day.

I thought I’d share the last few one-of-a-kind ornaments for your merry display, before we put a cap on this year’s gift giving season. Last minute shoppers deserve a good selection too.

anthropomorphic needle felted panda ornament for a merry tree — Panda Santa

Panda Santa is a round little elf with a brightly wrapped gift for someone special.

anthropomorphic needle felted squirrel ornament for a merry tree — Deck The Halls

Deck The Halls is a cheery little squirrel with a festive Christmas wreath. It may be a bad tease to include him in this group, as he sold right after I brought him in to the gallery earlier this week. This is a common occurance this time of the year, especially with seasonal items.

anthropomorphic needle felted deer ornament for a merry tree — Ice Stag

Ice Stag will be heading in to the gallery this morning. He is more of a mythical solstice type creature, and will provide sparkle to any yule display. The Hillsborough Gallery of Arts will be open 10-2 today for those last minute purchases.

anthropomorphic needle felted rabbit ornament for a merry tree — Gathering

Gathering will also arrive at HGA this morning. This cheery little rabbit is dressed warmly in matching boots, mittens, and scarf. He is gathering holiday greenery with bright red berries in his basket.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I hope you have a wonderful, warm, and cheery holiday. If you are out and about today, stop by HGA and say hello to the gallerists on duty. They will be happy to help you find that perfect hand-crafted item.

I will be back with updates soon. My attention will be turning to items for early 2025 group shows, and my own feature later next year. The first show going up at HGA in January will be a special invitational show with some non-member artist that we admire. So, I will not have any work in that show, but, as always will have work throughout the rest of the gallery. I will share details about the invitational show after it installs in the first week of the new year.

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.

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

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!

Wartski Art Dolls and Sculpture

Art dolls and mixed media sculpture