Here is a picture of some of the merino top I dyed for the tulip piece. I have been busy framing two other works so that they can go off to Convergence in Tampa. I have been photographing the process I use to mount and frame my watercolor felts so that I can include it in the lecture I'm giving at Convergence on "Watercolor Felt". I had a terrible time today with the sun coming in and out of the clouds as I was trying to photograph on my porch! Usually Oregon has great, evenly lighted, overcast days. But not today!

I hope to get the drawings of the tulip piece scanned in a couple of days. And to photograph the piece as it has progressed so far.
More to come.......

New Tulip Piece in Process

I have a commission for a wall piece similar to one that I made previously. (See photo at left.) Since I never do the same image twice, this new one is going to be slightly different, but have similarly colored tulips (reds and pinks). (To learn more about the original tulip pieces, go to: http://www.peak.org/~spark/Tulips2.html)




To begin this piece, I looked through my files to find images of tulips that I liked. My friend, Kathe Todd-Hooker, had taken some pictures last year at the Woodburn Tulip Festival (Oregon) which had some wonderfully shaped tulips. But the colors were wrong. So I walked around my neighborhood and took photos of red and pink tulips, from several angles in order to get a sense of the colors I wanted to use.

Using these photos, I dyed several pieces of white merino top, in the possible colors for the piece. I also dyed some merino top in a variety of greens for the leaves. When I am working on a piece, I'd rather have more colors than I need to choose from than not have enough. I never know exactly where my mind is going to take me while I'm working, so I like to have lots of possibilities to choose from. Besides, there's always a use for dyed merino top in my felting studio!

More to come........