Sticks, Stones, and Paper Stew Blog

Dividing time: Aug 29 to Sep 4

What happened this week? I’m feeling like nothing happened, but thanks to keeping track via photos, I can look back at everything.

Last Sunday I did a bit of dying. Another half pound of wool and another striking color. The wool will most likely be spun and turned into a weaving project. I also dyed a batch of Periwinkle blue later in the week but failed to photograph.

Hyena in process. Slowly emerging with lots of color.

Monday and Tuesday were Hyena days. The image is resolving itself more, but not quickly. I just have to keep plugging along and (fingers crossed) it will all work out.

Wednesday was completely different. I spent the day scanning the diary from my great-grandmother. It was from 1886! Her handwriting is really tough to work through so it will take some serious dedication to decipher. Plus she wrote in pencil (hence the scanning to be able to darken the lines).

eggshell in charcoal, pencil, and quinacridone magenta

One morning during the week I happened to crack open a most beautiful egg. It was so lovely that I actually wanted to draw it…. and pull out my meager paint and study it more! I have to admit I have a bit of a yearning to purchase a few tubes of paint and just play. Of course, I also want to drag out the 50 pounds of clay waiting in the garage and make animal sculptures. And then there’s all the wool to work with! I think I’m going crazy. I just want to do everything.

Saturday was spent sanding and coating blue pine with a clear finish. Dave found some really interesting wood for the interior wall at our front door. It’s a tall space and has a small, non-functional window. We’ve talked for years about how to revamp that entry way and settled on a wood application. It took many years to finally settle on a type only because Dave happened to take his phone along to the home improvement box store. Now we’re spending the long weekend working through this project plus finishing the final bits of exterior house painting. I’ll post more at the end of the week.

And finally a look at our first harvest of Asian pears! We planted the trees early spring of 2020 and followed the recommended “no fruit” on its first year to help with root establishment. This year I let it produce! It did so well, I had to thin fruit several times. I’ll probably chop up a bunch of the bounty to dehydrate. The rest we will continue to munch through.

Our days continue to be dry but have really cooled down into the 70’s and 80’s. The smoke wafts north from southern Oregon and probably northern California fires. We’re so parched and yearning for the fall rains to arrive. Will they? Seems like all the water is going north to Canada (who also desperately need it! ) or flowing up the east coast. We need some water!!!

Ok, that’s it for last week. The long weekend sucked up too much attention and delayed the posting of this past week. So I guess you will receive 2 posts in one week! Anyway, that all for now. Thanks for checking in. Talk to you soon!

Gale

Finishing one project and changing my mind

This past week was filled with indecisions that finalized. What indecisions were on the table? Well, the donation for The Art Center’s Art for the Heart. I kept waffling between old and new ideas before settling on the Fat Sheep felted sculpture. I think it’s a better choice that the owl pictured below.

Sometimes I get rather wrapped up in a project that I’ve thought I would donate, then realize that it’s probably way above and beyond the set asking price, which is what’s happened with the Owl. It’s worth way more than the $75 price and I’m not feeling that generous.

As I was waffling, I started another project that’s now part of my Africa series. We will just call it the Colorful Hyena.

the start of the juvenile hyena colored pencil drawing

another step farther in the hyena process.

It’s amazing how crappy things look at the beginning of a piece and how layers and layers of color can help. I just keep plugging along and trying different things to see if I like the effect. Maybe by the end of next week it will be more resolved.

I had hoped to do some dying over the week but never quite got there. Today, Saturday, I finally have a batch of wool cooking as I attempt to reach a magenta using hot fuchsia and violet. At least it’s a fun looking dye pot!

Artist Raymond Hunter and his wife doing finishing touches on the Ballerina

One more thing of note. I actually went to see the current show at The Arts Center in Corvallis. If you’re looking for color, you shouldn’t miss this show. “Vibrant Fiber: Quilts in the Colors of the Rainbow” is on display from Aug to September 26, 2021. I visited with my quilting sister Kim and she really enjoyed it too. We also had a chance to talk to sculptor Raymond Hunter who was touching up the Ballerina sculpture at Central Park. She was reinstalled this week (after vandals tried hard to destroy her) with vibrant bronze and the original patina on her dress. He fondly explained all the parts and processes she went through before the return to her beautiful home since 1979. Quite a process and we look forward to the return of the squirrel who was also vandalized with a sledgehammer.

I think that’s about all for the week of Aug 21 to Aug 28, 2021. On a weather note, we’re finally experiencing more comfortable temperatures but have a Red Flag warning today: Winds from the north with low humidity. That sort of weather pattern gave us the raging fires last year, but this won’t be as crazy. We are almost a year to date from that weather pattern.

Ok, signing off for now. Hope everyone has a good week stepping into September!

Busy Week of Wool

Life has certainly been moving along. With my body aches subsiding, I’ve started working on wool with seriousness. I realize that I only have about 2 months left of outdoor drying as autumn approaches. Yes, dyed wool!!!! I’m loving the colors that are coming out of my crazy dye baths. Slowly but surely I’m starting to hone in on what I want with colors and actual purpose with my spinning. Go figure!

Current working fleece started out with 4.6 pounds! I’ve used about 1.5# thus far.

Let’s back up a bit: I do have several things in the works. First off is The Owl. It’s been coming together and actually having a true background added with “aged cedar”. I haven’t shown any images here regarding the owl, but it’s a donation to my local Arts Center in Corvallis. Below are a few progress images to the final piece (well, almost final!)

start of owl using wool from my friends sheep

Fluffy face before trimming. Wool used is NZ Corriedale

Lots of blending happened to achieve the “barn owl” color around their head. NZ Corriedale, Merino, and something else…

Owl with dark iron stained cedar. It’s resting on a waste piece of wood.

Cedar is a lovely color, but I really wanted a greyed out aged finish of barn wood. I recalled that my father aged the cedar shakes on the exterior of his houses using a simple solution of vinegar and iron. I stuffed a OO size steel wool bundle into a jar and pickled it with vinegar. After 24 hours I mopped it on after first treating it with black tea tannins. It went much darken that I thought, but I think it’s ok. Mounting of everything to come.

Next up: the weaving project! So, I’ve been dying wool this week and that’s been just lovely!!! The wool was a 2019 fleece shearing from my friends Cheviot cross ewes. This fleece was cleaned via my now normal fermentation process and washed with the Unicorn Power Scour (not Dawn Dish soap). The fleece was air dried on my homemade rack and bagged for future use. 4 or 5 fleece ended up in 5 gallon pails with lids out in the garage for safe keeping. So, I’m working through this first easily accessible fleece and totally loving the wool! I’ve even spun up a whole bunch for a near future weaving. First dye bath was for green.

Next dye bath was for a crazy intense blue.

First Blue dye bath and I love everything!

Now I’m just dying for more blues and Orange!

Second Blue dye bath with Turquoise, Periwinkle and Violet.

Carding has become more intense because I’ve been learning more. With my hand problems due to Psoriatic Arthritis, I need to card my wool multiple times. Originally I was only carding it twice. Now I card it about 6 times with all the color blending and it has improved the flow of wool through my fingers. The easier it flows, the easier it is on the tendons in my hands. Wow! I had no idea it would make such a difference. This year I also figured out that the roving processed off site requires multiple cardings before use. I originally thought it was going to be perfect from the start, but it wasn’t. Now I know and can work with the wool more in order to make it easier for my body to handle.

first bobbin on my regular Haldane type wheel.

second bobbin that’s much larger and on a different spinning wheel (Ashford)

Heading into the weekend I have more dyed wool, an owl donation almost completed, and a spinning project well underway for future weaving! I do have one more project/reworking in the mix, but the garage studio hasn’t been able to incorporate the mix as of yet. Hopefully next week will bring about it’s completion and I’ll show you then.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Lioness WIP

Drawing is my greatest nemesis that causes uncomfortable brain challenges, but pastels might prove to be a way in overcoming the pain. I’ve become glued to several YouTube channels over the past few months with one being a UK pastel artist who gives incredible tutorials. Since I’ve been floating around in the art world not feeling connected with any one particular medium, I decided to make a side step back into the world of drawing with the help of pastels.

I stepped into a charcoal drawing, initially thinking playing in black and white values would suit my brain, but the colors started jumping on the page.

The lioness model is from a photo I took one morning in Kenya. The group of sisters were snoozing under cover of a bunch of shrubby trees. Such a beautiful bunch of cats! I think there was a family of Black Backed Jackals skirting round the lioness group, looking for food scraps. This drawing is my first attempt with pastels and hopefully the image will be mounted on an 8″x 8″ block for a fundraiser at The Arts Center of Corvallis. Hopefully….. I still have plenty of time to screw it up.

Thanks for your interest! Pastels are Faber-Castell soft sticks and pencils. Paper is Sommerset. Hours more fun to come!

You can always find me on Instagram where I post more images than the blog.

Instagram: #gale.everett.studio

Oh, and there’s also a felted goat in process. It still needs a coat, but he/she is looking pretty fine for the first attempt!

Creating Cloth: A new experiment

The art studio is a total mess. I can barely walk into the space without stumbling over something or an overwhelming feeling of claustrophobia. Yes, the clutter and bins of wool have become too much! Ok, part of the problem stems from still trying to finish off the downstairs. Mudding, sanding and eventually texturing is a horrible job and one not to be doing when the weather isn’t great. We seem to finally be warming up again and venting to the outdoors is a possibility. As the house projects continue to bind down my space with the extras, I’ve jumped to another project that can be accomplished outside the studio. The art of weaving on a table loom has commenced!

I’ve never woven anything except little grade school projects. With all the wool around the house, I knew it was only time before a loom arrived in hopes of utilizing handspun yarn. This loom, a Nilus/Leclerc 4 shaft table loom, is on loan from a friend. Rather than jumping right into using my wool, I purchased cotton 5/2 string at the Eugene Textile Center last fall. To learn weaving (thank you YouTubers), I jumped in with a specific project for a niece who was married last fall. Maybe experimenting with a new artform isn’t the best idea for a wedding gift, but things are actually going quite well. They chose colors of blue, green and gray and I chose to create a table runner for their new home.

First decision, after the colors, was how long of a project I wanted to create. I picked 3 yards total for the warping board. Next choice was how much to wind on: between the thread diameter and the heddles available, I determined it would be 360 threads total. Wowza! That’s quite a few to wrap and eventually string through all the heddles and reed! The full process took me about a week of work from start to finish. I had to re-sley the reed about 3 times before everything was correct. Now it’s just down to creating the fabric.

Below are some photos of the process. It’s a bit much to explain everything, but you can at least see some of the process. I’ll post the finished product once off the loom and washed.

metal heddles waiting to accept the warp thread

Attaching threads through heddles and tying a slip knot in each 1 inch bundle

the clean shed (space between the sets of threads)

Spacer yarn and the start of the first true weaving.

Thanks for spending a little time with me. More projects to come…. whatever they might be! I’m already figuring how to create waffle weave towels and loads of other designs.

Getting Around

This month has certainly been filled with more activity. We took a mini-vacation to Bend, OR. It was our last visit with my sister-in-law before her move to Colorado. She and my brother never married but we love her dearly and I totally consider her part of our family. This was the first time our dogs traveled to central Oregon and stayed in a motel. With that said, it wasn’t the most relaxing trip due to the dogs anxieties, but we all survived. They even made a new friend with Amee’s little pup Willie. She’s so darn adorable!

Tumalo Creek with the Willie, Hazel, Moby & Dave

Saturday we went to Eugene for a little belated birthday party for my brother Tom. He grilled meat, we brought chips/dip/fruit salad, cake & ice cream to finish it off. People in Eugene have been more challenged with securing vaccinations. Tom hasn’t managed to get one so Sunday morning I signed him up for a Pfizer vaccination in Albany. Tomorrow he will get his first shot plus a nice road trip to Albany and back. I’ll be putting in a few hundred miles driving, but that’s fine with me. I just want him protected!

Today is Monday and I’ll be picking up the giant cow head. She’s spent her time at the gallery and received much love, plus the People’s Choice Award. Not sure where she will live as the studio space is crazy right now!

I think that’s about all for the moment. We have multiple house and yard projects in various states of being. Hopefully I’ll be able to show both beginning and COMPLETED photos soon. Completed is the state I want everything to reach, which means I need to pull myself away from the computer and get busy.

Thanks for checking in. The next blog posting should host completed artwork!

Community Love

Last night the awards were announced for the Howland Community Open. Red received enough votes to win the People’s Choice Award! Woo hoo! She’s thrilled and is looking forward to her remaining days at The Arts Center. I’ll actually be visiting tomorrow to talk about how she was created with a young fan and her mother. It should be a fun afternoon. I’ll bring along some tools and wool to demo the process. Maybe we can get another person hooked on the fun of felting!

So that’s the exciting news for the week. Red will return home to the quite studio after the 17th and eventually be joined by a tiger….

Fingers crossed that the cats won’t decide to destroy her!

Thanks for checking in!

On a different slant

Oregon just opened up vaccination for more people! WooHoo! I lucked out by checking with one of the local county health departments Tuesday afternoon and was placed into the queue for the following day! They processed 2900 shots that day! Yes, I had a sore arm and was completely wiped out for 36 hours, but today I feel back to normal. First one down, second one scheduled for mid April.

Wool work has slowed down this past week. I did have a wonderful order for 12 Easter eggs in natural colors. They went off to California and are already getting love. The eggs are about 3.5″ long and 2.5″ wide.

Oh, there were a couple of Owls created for friends. This was the small one that measured 5″ long.

This ewe had triplets, but one went off to be bottle-fed at another home. The lambs were 2 days old when we visited.

On the first day of Spring we visited our favorite farm near Philomath, OR. This is where I get my wool. Carol and Harry are amazing people and we helped celebrate Carol’s birthday. Plus there were lots of lambs. On a different day I visited my friend Heather’s farm (about 4 miles from home). No lambs there, but she has a flock of 6 Jacob sheep and a llama named Mo. Maybe someday a sheep or two will follow me home….

A new something has started on the design board. This project, which could potentially have multiple components, uses a new technique I’ve been wanting to learn for years: soldering! I’m currently limping along with YouTube videos as a teaching source but have a built-in teacher onsite! Yes, my husband is an excellent solder worker. He has a background in electrical and mechanical engineering, plus countless hours of building and refurbishing/fixing boards and other electronics for his profession. Now I can finally tap into his knowledge for an art project. Right now I’m just learning how best to approach what I want and not even trying to create the actual work. The final goal is to have several works accepted into an upcoming show focusing on Climate Change and “What Will Nature Do?” through our local arts center. I’ll try to keep some sort of weekly postings as things progress.

Anyway, I think that’s it for now. I hope everyone is doing well as we move into Spring or Fall depending on your hemisphere. Thanks for checking in!

Completed Cow and Genetic Dogs

Happy March!

My brain is already running crazy with the recent test results from our two dogs. I’m getting ahead of myself… let’s step backwards to the cow completion:

On display at The Arts Center of Corvallis Oregon

Here she is complete with a pink tongue sticking out. The stand is cedar with a round of gold leaf. Cow is 94% Oregon wool, 4.5% wool from Italy, 1% foam, 0.5% wire. The Italian wool/fur is so amazing! She turned out pretty close to what I envisioned. Working so large has been quite a challenge and I’ve learned so much for the next project (starting very soon!).

During the cow creation, I took a small break and made a quail head for my girlfriend’s birthday. Hopefully I’ll start dedicating more time to bird head explorations in wool. It was very fun to create.

Now, on to the dogs!

I finally turned in Hazel and Moby’s cheek swabs to the Embark company. After several weeks of waiting the results are in and a total surprise! First dog is Hazel:

Hazel’s mothers line is total Mini Schnauzer and her father is the mixed terrier line. The Supermutt has traces of Manchester toy terrier, Chow, and Australian Cattle dog. Such a total surprise!

Now Moby:

Are we surprised by the GWP? No, but 100% was a shock! He’s still a wacky dog and I think it’s time to get his brain back into Nosework. He would really appreciate having some fun with life again.

Ok, I think that’s it for now. Artwork, Artwork, Dog, Dog.

Oh, and I’m starting a new sculpture for an upcoming show at The Arts Center! Right now it’s just a bag of carded wool that will turn into something related to science and climate change…

More adventures to come! Including a 700 mile challenge!

Thanks for checking in! Stay safe and healthy out there.

Mooo-ving Forward

Last week I started a post talking about the amazing snow that we were having. Talk about short lived! Oh well, that’s winter in the Willamette Valley! It’s still possible to receive some more during the month of February.

In honor of the upcoming Lunar New Year, I’ve been working on a cow/ox head sculpture. Yes, year of the ox is almost upon us. Last year I started the new tradition of creating a zodiac head just before the new year. Since felting seems to be my current muse, I jumped into this head with gusto! Below are a few images as it’s grown.

Getting the horns on was a big step and made it start to feel like a real cow.

Tuesday I chose a specific breed : American Milking Devon. This is a heritage breed and boy is it RED! I’m in love with their color! They are a versatile variety that can cover about everything a farmer wants. However, their coat color is going to be an interesting blend which I stressed over. Rather than ordering from my usual Texas supplier, I went to a specialty shop in Maryland. For over a year, I’ve wanted to order from this group. I actually emailed them for recommendations on what fiber to purchase because I wasn’t familiar with the blends. The order has been placed and fiber should arrive early next week? The due date for this piece is Feb 16th.

One of the reasons I chose this breed is the color. The color red symbolizes prosperity for the new year. Red Ox for the New Year!

More to come!

Materials used: Local Oregon Wool, 18g wire, foam

You can also follow along on Instagram @gale.everett.studio

Thanks!