Phoenix

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As usual, I thought I should take photos of this as it went along. As usual, I failed. However here is a picture from when this bird was fist made.

It’s one of the test pieces I made when doing a commission for the RSPB, it’s sat quietly in the cupboard waiting for it’s day to shine. A Phoenix was an obvious thought for the upcoming exhibition so I dug it out, carded some fibres and set to work.

I covered the whole bird in flame colours. Made new pieces for the head and seven more for the tail. At which point I thought it was done except for that little niggle at the back of my mind.

I went back and needle felted a curly gold design all over and was finally satisfied. I knew I wanted to attach it to wood and spent a few happy minutes rummaging in the wood pile. Attaching it was somewhat problematic. In the end, I went for the simple approach and hot glued it in two places, it’s surprisingly stable.

I do enjoy 3D work.

 

Rising

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This is a small piece that I made for next week’s exhibition.

The idea, in case it’s not obvious, was to show a phoenix rising from a dying fire. It’s a Merino wool wet felted background onto which I’ve needle felted and then lightly wet felted for a second time. I’m not one for drawing but the beauty of needle felting an item like this is the ability to remove anything which isn’t right, or that you don’t like and then have another go.I’ve really enjoyed treating them as fluid line drawings, maybe I’m finding a liking for needle felting after all!

Flames

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Flames are very much on my mind at the moment. This year, the theme for Felt United is flames and Tracy Markey and I are arranging an exhibition around flames and the sun to coincide with the day. So it’s no surprise that when I came across this remnant from a previous project in my cupboard, I immediately thought phoenix.

The basic bird shape is good but obviously the colouration is completely wrong for a phoneix. So my first move was to transform it with flame.

I find it much easier to concentrate on shape when I’m not distracted by colour or pattern. Now the bird is a uniform  colour I can see the changes I’d like to make to the shape with the most change being in the tail area. This is as far as I’ve got so I’m afraid you’ll have to wait to see morre but I will show you as soon as I do it.