Whimsical Blue Bird and Funky Beanies

So what do you think? I managed to make a whimsical little bird, well he's actually not that little I guess. You have to understand I've always had a hard time making silly and funky things. For some darn reason my stuff always ends up looking more elegant versus fun and/or silly. I've been trying to figure out why that is ... and I really can't explain it. I guess as an artist we all have our own way of making things look a certain way, which ends up being our very own, I guess, signature look? I never gave it much thought until I started making beanies for the beanie festival in Alice Springs. My kid and husband both kept telling me to make something more crazy, outrageous, etc. Well I tried, I tried for 3 yrs but each time I ended up with something just not crazy enough, again my hats turned out looking elegant ... except maybe for this last one I made. I had basically given up on trying something crazy until I started digging into my bags of yarn and found a bag full of metallic yarns my mother-in-law had given me. I just picked a yarn and started crochetting, not trying to think of what the end result would look like. So I kept on going thinking what else I could use to make it more silly, I remembered a huge bag of emu feathers my husband had purchased for me (thanks honey!) he figured some day I would find some use for them ... so I did. As you can see in the photo I used lots of emu feathers on that thing hoping to make it look more silly ... not sure if that really added to make it a more fun/funny beanie but I tried my darnedest.

Fleece Camel Hat

I felted this hat while living in Alice Springs Australia and entered it into the Beanie Festival. It didn't win any prizes but somebody bought it and is hopefully very happy with it. I made it out of sheep's fleece and camel fleece which I got at the Alice Springs Camel Farm. I really loved that hat and wish I had brought back some of that camel fleece. I do miss Alice ...

Violin Girl

Since I'm not sure where to start with my story I might as well just jump in and go with the flow. In case you're wondering about my violin girl ... I created her, I made her from wire, painters tape, foil, 2nd hand T-shirt, some other fabrics and a textile medium called Powertex. She's one of many girls I made while living in the Australian outback. I haven't made any for about a year since I got in a rut and wanted to experiment with other things, so I went back to felting, another one of my new found loves. Well, maybe not so new since I've been felting for about 4 yrs.

Back to violin girl. I was never sure of what to call my pieces ... statues, figurines, art dolls? Not sure where they really belong, or what category to put them in so I just called them my girls. I did make a boy one time, I will have to post the photo down the road of the little guy, he was part of a mother, daugther and son piece I made for a client of mine. After making and selling about 100 of these girls over a 2 yr period I realized I didn't want to go mass producing them, that just took all the fun out of creating them ... so I stopped.

But, for some reason ... today I made up my mind that I need to get back to work on making some more of these girls and share them. I know they will sell, I've had some people here in the US asking me when I start making them so I figured it's time. I will not go crazy and mass produce them but pick and choose which one to make and make them very special. I hope that all the ones I've made in the past have a good home, wherever that might be. I wonder sometimes where they are at, who purchased them and why. If you happen to be the owner of one of my girls ... I would love to hear from you. My business name in Australia was called Purple Platypus in case you are wondering about the name. I changed my name to Bits of Fiber since Purple Platypus was already taken here in the US.

Love to hear from you.