Sunday 16 June 2019

Farewells and felting flowers

"It is brought home to me: it is no bad thing to celebrate a simple life.” 
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring (as spoken by Bilbo Baggins)

I've recently had a few weeks of not feeling able to do much creating - sadly, a relative was poorly in hospital and we eventually had to say farewell to him.

I had the privilege of getting to know my Uncle Terry more over the last few years, and I have lovely, happy memories of trips out with him.  He loved art, gardens, vintage motors and was a great collector of things.  He also had a deep appreciation for a good cup of tea and a generous slice of cake - a man after my own heart!

I brought some of the flowers from the funeral service home with me to enjoy around the house, and I love the bright colours of the roses and gerberas - particularly against a black backdrop. This image inspired me to create a new piece.

Here's a photo of the flowers:





I wasn't after replicating it exactly, more celebrating the joy of the colours and the contrast between darks and lights...this was the lay out of wool fibres before the wet felting began:



I was a little worried about too much black 'bleeding through' and dulling the brightness of the flowers so I did lay out a white 'under painting' where I wanted the vase and flowers to be, hoping that this would help the colours stay vibrant.  This is the result of gentle wet felting:


Next, it was some needle felting to give some more definition, but I'm still wanting to keep it quite loose. My camera seems to have struggled a bit capturing the colours properly, but you get the general idea!




I'm leaving it to one side for a few days, as I'm worried about over-working it - I think I'm doing my usual thing of getting too uptight getting the flowers to look realistic when what I really wanted to do was keep it more abstract...I'll come back to it another day with some fresh eyes and I'll share the finished piece with you next time.

So from sadness at losing someone I care about, something a bit joyful has emerged.

It was sad to lose him, but my Uncle Terry was a joy to all that knew him and he took great pleasure in the simple things in life, something which I find myself doing more of as I get a bit older (and possibly wiser!).

Going back to the quote at the top of the blog - 'it is no bad thing to celebrate a simple life' - there is much to be said for that, and I think my Uncle Terry would wholeheartedly agree.



What's next...?

I have some framing to do, and I made a felted bowl - haven't made anything 3D for a long time!  Love the colours and it's made with just thin layers of wool so that the light actually goes through it. 



Feel a need to try a few different things over the coming weeks, so hopefully my next blog post can update you on all of that!

Thanks for reading, wishing you health and happiness - and don't forget to find joy in the simple things in life!

xx  Tanya xx