Rage!

How do you represent an emotion in a tangible way?   At my last spinning guild meeting we had an exercise to help us expand our creativity.  We listed a few nouns and then came up with adjectives to describe them.  Our challenge was to pick one of the nouns and then spin yarn that represented it.  I spun “ice cream” - vanilla, my favorite flavor, with chocolate chunks, mint and strawberry for added color.  This was a very timely exercise since I was in the process of trying to deal with a bit of anger that I had been feeling for the past few days.  So, I decided that I would spin anger!  What does anger look like?  Anger is powerful so bright fiery reds, oranges and yellows were my color choices.   To the colored wools I added some gold tinsel to feel like lightning striking in all its power.  Not good enough!  I stripped the seams out of a red silk tie belonging to the person who my anger was directed to and ran my rotary cutter over it until it was only shreds.  Then I ran all of my representations of anger through my drum carder to make a batt to spin from.   The finished product – a skein of rage.  Makes me smile to look at it gracing my coffee table and calms me when I feel the anger surfacing again.

Currently Showing

Last week David Sharos of the Naperville Sun ran a piece about Naperville Art League’s latest project, “Between the Lines.”  I was surprised to receive David’s phone call but the very short interview turned out to be a couple of pretty nice paragraphs in the article.  I was pleased!  You can read it here.  I received the call from David because I’m showing one of my felted pieces, "Lily," in the Art League’s current exhibit.  David also included a large photo of another fiber art piece, "Americana," in the article.  Unfortunately the photo only downloads half way but I uploaded to my blog for you to see.  

This was my first of what I consider a large fiber piece.  The size (20” x 28”) and the 3 elements made it quite an undertaking but it successfully pushed me out of my “little” box.  I usually think in terms of 16” x 20” now and with needle felted detail this can become quite time consuming.  While I compare needle felting somewhat to colored pencil in the way I layer and blend and often work only a few “strokes” at a time I would never have undertaken a colored pencil drawing of that magnitude. 

I’m also privileged to have been juried in to the Naperville Art League member’s exhibit, “Spontaneous,” at the Schoenherr Gallery of North Central College in Naperville.  This show runs until August 22.  North Central College is my Alma Mater and my daughter is currently attending there so it really pleased me to be accepted.  The fiber piece, "Uganda Couple,” that I submitted took Best of Show at one of the league’s exhibits which qualified it for the Best of the Best in 2008 held at the Mayslake Peabody Estate in Oakbrook.  I don’t currently have the piece up on a website but you can see some of my fiber art here.

Carrot Juice

Back in 1993, after 3 years of dealing with 3 family members battling cancer, I purchased a juicer.  Both my dad and my brother went through alternative treatments and my brother especially was very conscious of the food he ate.  I learned to make whole wheat pizza crust (much better than white!) and was turned on to pure juices.  I’m still using the same juicer I purchased in 1993 but have to admit that fresh juices haven’t been a constant through the years.  Recently I’ve been looking at raw food cookbooks and found a “bunny spice” recipe that is super delicious!  Carrots, fresh ginger, banana (I keep a supply in the freezer), almond mild and a sprinkle of cinnamon.  It’s this recipe that got me thinking about carrot juice and the coaster design that evolved out of it.

If you're interested in purchasing these coasters visit my Etsy shop at www.kruser.etsy.com or directly at

http://www.etsy.com/listing/51831177/carrot-juice-wool-coasters 

Angora, Silk and Cormo Wool

This was at times an experiment in terror but I love the end result!  I received some angora fur from a friend some time ago and didn’t get to working with it because it needed quite a bit of work.  It took a lot of combing and in the end I still had lumps but decided to give it a spin anyway.  I blended it with super soft cormo wool, spun and plied it.  I didn’t end up with a lot of yardage but knitted up what I had – my scarf was a little short.  I had about 40 yards of silk from a spinning guild meeting where we had a technique session on spinning silk.  I didn’t want to take the chance of the silk being limp so I spun up some more cormo and plied it with the silk.  Then there came choosing the knitting pattern.  I’m not a fantastic knitter but I find that difficulty is based more on concentration than the pattern.  I sure picked the wrong pattern!  After many start overs I chose a different pattern and this is the finished scarf.  A final go around with a crochet stitch with the silk gave it a nice finish.

 

Charles Van Grooten

Charles Van Grooten is a House Rabbit Society foster bunny who came into my life after I lost a dear Californian rabbit to a heart attack during surgery. I was smitten by the sweet nature of big white bunnies with their contemplative faces and beautiful red eyes. After over a year of Chuck living with us he developed a bump on his side. The bump was an abscess that apparently developed from a BB that was lodged in his side from being shot before I knew him. Poor Chuck! The BB and abscess removal went well but he came out of the surgery with head tilt. He’s recovered remarkably well but he does lose his balance once in a while and if his 4 feet on not on the floor he’s not sure which way is up.

One of Chuck’s activities before head tilt was skyping with my daughter’s friends on her computer. She took an awesome picture of him staring into the computer screen. I couldn’t help but transform it into a fiber art piece. After needle felting a wool layer down with the color scheme I decided to use a mohair blend of yarn for finishing. There is some metallic yarn and flax as well. I still have to work the border but I couldn’t wait to get it on my blog for everyone to see. As me and my daughter would say, ahh, Chuck.