Autumn Rain Studio

Update for Stray

2012-02-09T05:57:00.001-08:00

What a time I had last night! It all happened so fast, it's hard to believe it really happened! best to start at the beginning. I saw that the weather report is forecasting snow tomorrow and a very cold weekend (highs in the 20's are typical for winter here, but it's been unusually warm this year), so I was very worried about the poor orange cat. Deciding I couldn't wait any longer for someone to claim him, I called the no-kill cat rescue where I volunteer and asked them to take him in. They readily agreed, and so I crammed him into a cat carrier (he struggled, but purred the entire time and never tried to scratch me!) and drove him there. They immediately got to work on him; giving him all of his shots and inoculations, cutting his mats off and brushing the burrs off his fur, giving him flea treatment, trimming his claws, and cleaning the motor oil off of his coat with dry wipes.

What a trooper! Although he wasn't crazy about some of it, he never even protested. He even purred and fell asleep for a minute on the exam table when it was all over.

While this was all happening, a woman came in to "look" at the cats. She was a total cat lover and just wanted to be around cats, since her own had died over a year ago. She was amazed (as were all of us) at how well-behaved he was, and decided to hold him while they groomed him. Well that was it. In less than an hour the poor, dirty stray became a clean, healthier, handsome housecat with a new home and a new name!

The workers at the shelter had his adoption papers filled out, microchipped him, and set her up with all the necessary cat gear so they could go home together right away. He's technically being fostered until he's neutered in two weeks, but I'm confident that he has a terrific forever home!

My cats and I are delighted that he's safe, happy, and away from my front door!

Stray

2012-02-06T13:49:00.000-08:00

So a new cat found our house and refuses to leave. Well, he comes and goes, but hangs outside our front door for hours at a time. He also comes in though my pet door and helps himself to my cats' food- something they're not happy about!

Since it's going to turn cold and ugly later this week, I'm hoping to find his owner, or barring that someone who'd be willing to foster him until his owner is found. He's SUPER-friendly and would rather be petted than eat when offered food. So if he's yours, you know his owner, or would just like to bring him inside your home, please let me know.

Snow

2012-02-04T07:01:00.000-08:00

I was lucky enough to find an 100% cashmere sweater that some poor soul had felted in their washing machine and thought that it would be perfect for a snowman pillow! I've always had a weakness for vintage snowman images, and I wanted to do a modern take on one.

I made its face out of 100% wool felt pieces, giving it coal eyes and a tangerine nose.

Then I knitted a little fringed scarf for it- the yarn is a wool/mohair blend. I though that the muted turquoise color went very well with the orange nose.

Because the cashmere still had a lot of give to it even after it was felted, the pillow grew a bit as I stuffed it, but I'm very happy with the size. It's large enough to use as a real pillow (rather than some tiny decorative item), but still small enough not to take over your couch.

The whole thing is handmade (sewn and knitted by hand) and it's for sale in my Etsy shop if anyone's interested:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/92194472/snowman-felted-cashmere-pillow

Here There be Dragons

2012-01-26T06:52:00.000-08:00

I've been making very small needle-felted and beaded dragons for a while now and have sold several on my Etsy shop (http://www.etsy.com/shop/sarangus?ref=pr_shop_more). I always seem to make a bunch at a time when the mood strikes me, and the last week and a half the dragon mood struck again!
Here are the three that I finished recently:

The first one is called Ivy, it's one of the smallest I've made; but it has a very long tail, the end of which is in the shape of an English ivy leaf.
The second is named Lavender. This one is bigger overall and has larger wings.
The third is a sea dragon. It has a really cute face- a lot like a seahorse, if a seahorse had little ears.

Here are some that I made a while ago but are still available for sale:

The one above is named Ember. As you can see it's a wee dragon that could easily fit into a pocket!

This one is called Rain. I don't think that the pictures I took do if justice, so I'll be taking new ones soon.

And this one is Sky. It's made with roving that has swirls of lilac-purple wool mixed in with the light blue- I LOVE this roving!

And here are some that I've sold. Of course, I could make similar ones if anyone is interested (actually I can make a dragon in almost any color or combination of colors if anyone wanted...).

This is Leaf. The first dragon that I ever made.

This one is called sand. It's made with local, undyed alpaca wool so it's very soft.

Snow was made from a mixture of rabbit angora and baby alpaca- oh so soft!

Stone was a special order for the same person who bought Snow. It has real (very small) quarts crystal fingers on its forehead and at the wing joints.

The rest of the Christmas Gifts

2012-01-01T10:56:00.000-08:00

One of my nephews is extremely hard to buy or make gifts for- he doesn't have a lot of wants and those things he does want he buys himself. Luckily he grew up a Harry Potter fan, and has a soft spot for owls. While shopping the after Halloween sales I came upon a little statue of an owl on an orb. It was painted black and covered with purple glitter, but the proportions were pretty good and I saw potential in it. Because it was an "eared" owl I decided to paint it as a Great Horned Owl.

I had considered painting the base to look like a globe, but instead I opted for faux bois; I achieved this look using layers of acrylic paint.

My niece, like many teenagers, is never without her cell phone, so I made a cross-stitch cell phone cover for her. I used a simplified portrait of Ted (the family dog) for the subject. I trimmed it in mini-ball fringe and used stretch velvet for the back, so if she switched to a slightly larger phone the cover will still fit.

One of my brothers is just as hard to buy for as my nephew. However, I remembered that he really liked a painting I had made last year. At first I was going to make a copy of the painting for him on a canvas, but there was the challenge of mailing it to him without it getting damaged (and without paying a mint in shipping costs). I thought about painting it onto an unstretched canvas, but then he'd have to find a frame for it and/or stretch it himself. Luckily I was struck by inspiration; I had a nice wooden cigar box laying around waiting to be painted and my brother appreciates a good cigar now and then, so I decided to copy the painting onto the outside of the cigar box. I used acrylic paints and gold leaf:

Of course it's a little more impressive in person, it's hard to see the crow because of the light reflecting off the poly, but you can get the general idea.

Placemats For my Sister

2011-12-31T11:06:00.000-08:00

My sister has a collection of holly-shaped dishes that she brings out for Christmas. She really loves these dishes, so I decided to make her a set of quilted holly leaf placemats and two bunches of holly leaves; one for the center of the table and one for the sideboard. I picked out one holly-patterned fabric, two shades of green that were in the printed fabric, and red that also matched the red in the holly fabric (all are cotton broadcloth). I then drew two slightly different holly leaf patterns out of big sheets of paper. After tracing the pattern onto the backs of the fabric and onto fusible fleece, I fused the fleece to the back sides of the top fabric.

I then sewed the fabrics together, turned, and quilted them to resemble the veins in leaves. After they were sewn I added yo-yo red "berries" near the stem of each leaf and the center of the two bunches of leaves.

My big score was finding the double-bowl (pictured above) in my sister's holly pattern in a thrift store a week or so before Christmas.

More in-law Gifts

2011-12-30T11:22:00.000-08:00

I only made one of the gifts for my other sister-in-law, another set of coasters. These I liked so much that I was tempted to keep them for myself, but I thought that they would go perfectly in their home. Besides, I can always make another set to keep!

Like the blue set, these are made by needle and wet felting wool. I started with the needle to get the rough shape, then wet-felting made them denser and smaller, then back to the needle to get their final shape. These wools are from both local and Scottish sheep, and the stems are made with local baby alpaca fleece (oh so soft!).

For my brother-in-law I followed the same theme that I started last year. In 2010 I made a poster featuring the face of their wonderful dog, Ted:

This year I decided to make a pseudo political poster that showcased two of their cats, Tom and Ollie. Tom and Ollie were both strays that adopted my sister's family at different times. Tom's the buff tiger, Ollie is the black and white cat. Both are affectionate and magnificent, but Ollie the newcomer is determined to drive Tom and their other cat, Rosie, out of the house. Which inspired me to make this year's poster:

Needless to say, they would NEVER pose together like this, but thanks to the magic of Photoshop we can see what it would look like!

Christmas presents

2011-12-29T06:07:00.000-08:00

I know that it's been a while since I've posted anything; most of my time and energy lately has gone into making Christmas presents for my friends and family. Of course I didn't want to post pictures of these until after they were received by their intended recipients!

I'll start with two of the presents that I made for one of my sister-in-laws. The first is a set of wool coasters, complete with an extra-large coaster for a pitcher of cold drinks or a teapot. These were made using a combination of wet-felting and needle-felting to get the right shape and density.

Next is a tea cozy made primarily of mohair. This I knitted flat into a rectangle, then I used the same mohair yarn to sew up the sides, leaving spaces for the spout and handle of the teapot. After that I wet-felted the cozy to shrink it a bit.

I then made flowers using several shades purple and green ribbon- both satin and grosgrain- and sewed a different type of white button into the center of each flower.

I'll post more presents soon!

Hall Table II

2011-10-08T15:03:00.000-07:00

I finally had a chance to work on the table some more! The top is pretty much finished now (I say pretty much because I might have a flash of inspiration and want to add to it). I've added several more colors and fleshed out the pine tree quite a bit.

Sorry, the colors don't show up exactly right on here, but it gives a general idea anyway.
Next I want to add a bit of a surprise inside the drawer- you'll see....

Hall Table

2011-10-06T14:30:00.000-07:00

Several years agot I picked up this little hall table at a garage sale for $3-. The legs were loose and it was slightly the worse for wear, but I knew that it had potential.
Here's what it looked like when I brought it home:

I painted it with a couple of coats of cement grey, then started on the background for the painting on the top:

Once I finished the background I started on the next layer.

After that I added more values of the same hue:

Next I'll start adding more colors!

(Finally) FINISHED!

2011-09-27T08:12:00.000-07:00

So the dolly is finished! Now that she's done I'm naming her Hester. I've added a lovely wool hat that's both wet and needle-felted and held on with a glass-topped hat pin.

There's a beaded brooch on her lapel made of teeny glass beads, and she now has a necklace made of real dyed pearls.

Almost finished!

2011-09-16T15:34:00.000-07:00

Dolly's almost done! She now has shoes made of leather and wool felt and a fully lined wool coat with real buttons! She also is sporting a fox pelt stole that is made of wool and lined underneath in hand-dyed silk.

And she has a friend; Anise the carrion crow.

All she needs is a couple of finishing touches and she'll be completed!

More Doll Clothes

2011-09-08T18:05:00.000-07:00

I've finished the third layer of Dolly's clothes. She now has a cotton velvet dress trimmed in dark brown braiding, and a full pleated skirt made of wonderfully soft and thick cotton flannel trimmed in velvet ribbon.

Doll Underclothes

2011-09-03T11:59:00.000-07:00

This morning I finished Dolly's undershirt, which go with her socks and panties ( I made those last night). For the fabric I used a used kid's t-shirt that I found at a Goodwill store. It was the perfect color, which I wanted to look kind of like old mummy wrappings. I'm especially pleased with the way the socks turned out, they will have no problem staying on, but are big enough to look stretched out and slouchy.

Doll Clothes

2011-08-28T17:35:00.000-07:00

Some of the doll's clothes are finished. Yesterday I made a crinoline for her, and today I made her shirt.

Peaty cat was nice enough to pose with the doll for the first picture.

And Here is a close-up of the shirt, I used glass beads for the buttons and wonderful linen fabric for the shirt itself.

A doll for Zillah, "who drank too much gin."

2011-08-27T07:36:00.000-07:00

It's strange how inspiration strikes us sometimes. I this case I was looking through an Edward Gorey book, trying to come up with an idea for a totally different project (painting an old suitcase and turning it into a pet bed), when the idea for this doll came to me and I HAD to start making it right away. First I felted the head using two colors of wool to get the "aged bone" color just right, then adding the eyes and nose in last. After the head was finished I sewed the arms, legs and body using very soft cotton fabric (an old sheet, actually). I jointed the arms at the shoulders and the legs at the thighs and knees with button joints. Here she is so far, I'll start making the clothes for her soon and post them as they're made.

Catnip

2011-08-18T14:00:00.000-07:00

I've started a new line of catnip toys for my Etsy store! So far I've made Chipmunks,

and bluebirds,

mice (I love the way these turned out!),

juncos,

black widow spiders (this is the underside),

crows,

and bats these are my favorite!).

All of them are hand sewn, with 100% wool felt bodies. For safety, their eyes and other details are stitched cotton embroidery, and they spider legs are wool yarn. Inside they're stuffed with a little bit of wool roving and a great big wad of catnip blend: wild catnip and super-potent catmint from my garden.

Birdhouse Transformation phase 3

2011-07-07T13:25:00.000-07:00

It took a lot longer than I expected to get the supplies I needed to finish the birdhouses, but they're finally finished! All it took was a little something extra.

Birdhouse Transformation phase 2

2011-05-07T14:08:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I lied, I wasn't finished with the painting! I think I am now though... I added Perches to the houses, which had to be painted, then I thought that they needed a little more something, so I just kept going with the paint.

Sorry if the detail shots are a tad fuzzy, I'm still working on my skills as a photographer!
I have some ideas for more embellishments, but they require a trip to Crafts 2000 in Monroe, so I'm not sure when I'll be able to pick that stuff up.

Birdhouse Transformation phase 1

2011-05-06T07:54:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I know that I should have taken "before" pictures, but believe me when I say that these bird houses were ugly before I started. They were painted an especially awful yellow (like the color of the plastic bottles that yellow mustard comes in) with the roofs, "doors", and trim painted either bright red, dark brown, or light brown. I have three vintage metal yard chairs that I've cleaned up and painted (well, the main color is done, I still have to do the cream trim on them); one is pale salmon pink, one mint green, and one light blue, which I used as inspiration for the bird houses.

After I slap on some poly, I'll add some embellishments to give each house its own personality. More pictures to follow...

I made a new apron!

2011-05-02T15:53:00.000-07:00

I had some extra oilcloth in my fabric bin just begging to be made into something! Some of the scraps that were left over from another project are destined to become lunch bags (I'll post pictures of those as soon as they're finished), but luckily I had a big piece that was the perfect size for an apron! I picked out some pieces of contrasting fabric for a front pocket and a bit of ruffle on the sides, and added some polka-dot grosgrain ribbon for the neck strap and ties.
Now I have the perfect apron for working with clay (I just happened to sign up for a tile-making class today- it starts Thursday!), painting, gardening, or making messy sauce!

Dixboro

2009-07-24T15:00:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, August 1 I will have a booth at the Dixboro fair in Ann Arbor. Here are some of the things that I will be offering for sale: Hat St ands Little painted boxes in three sizes, each with a different animal on them

Hand felted objects (Elf Shoes)
Painted furniture (Bird Magazine Rack)
And ceramic objects (Birch Bird Feeder)

Winter Projects

2009-05-16T15:39:00.000-07:00

I made several new projects this winter. The first one is called "Plant Heart," made of wool (dyed wool roving and hand-spun yarn), glass beads, and sycamore branches. The yarn was spun by my friend, Allie.

The next piece I did was a series of crows made out of black wire. I mounted them onto fabric which is embroidered with wire crow forms. Some of the embroidered crows have wire parts coming out of the
fabric.

After that piece I felted several newborn baby birds, these are made entirely out of wool.

Felting

2008-12-08T12:50:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I hand-felted my first 3-d object: a pair of little slippers! They needed a little something extra, so I appliqued on little wool felt acorns and oak leaves, then added a pair of "cat bells" from Germany.

2008-12-03T08:28:00.000-08:00

I'm in a juried show! There were over 200 submissions and only 38 pieces got in. Two of my pieces were accepted: Teapot, which is made entirely out of teabags, and Goose Calls, which is a seriese of six party horns, each a different breed of goose. I was the only artist who had more than one piece accepted, so I'm very proud.