Creating ~ A Little Differently

So apart from papercrafting, my real life is spent as a professional singer. What I created that debuted this week (actually on my birthday) was a CD with my fellow friends entitled Vespers. Vespers is a piece written by my dear friend Kile Smith, whom you may know from WRTI. Kile is a first-rate composer. He wrote this piece for Piffaro and they asked us, The Crossing, to collaborate with them. The Crossing choir is made up of all professional singers and is conducted by Donald Nally who is now living in Chicago and working for Chicago Lyric Opera. Donald flies in to work with us and program a full season dedicated only to the performing of new works. This is a special group. A group that relishes the process and a group that embraces their audiences as if they were a part of the ensemble. It was an absolute joy making music with my friends, and would love it if you watched this video to get just a glimpse into the amazing people involved with this project! ***I am the one wearing the peach peasant top*** ;)

Flower Pins

Finally!
Just in time for Mother's Day.
A couple of flower pins.

Bridge (version 2)

Sometimes you just have to know when to quit. I originally posted this image a couple of weeks ago, and have been fiddling with the sky. I think I'm finally happy with it- a little less flat. The photo isn't very good, but it's still too wet to scan!

Embroidery: Work in Progress

Horsies on a hill

Hmm. My first attempt at an amigurumi-bearing hat looks just like a first attempt. Next time, I will make the stitches tighter, and make a more supportive hat and add the green eyelash yarn on top of it, instead of constructing the whole hat out of the fragile eyelash stuff. Still, I think the hat does have a hopelessly homemade, lopsided charm of its own.... And I'm still hugely amused by my friend's idea of making one's head look like a grassy hill. I may attempt this again but add crocheted dandelions or something instead of heavy figurines.

I'm almost done with a custom order for an octopus hat in super-girly pink and purple with sequins for suckers. My next plan for a character hat is a Harry Potter-themed one featuring wee figurines of Hermione and Professor Snape (in calico, I think, to avoid the heavy stuffed amigurumi issue) peering out from inside a cauldron.

felt board curtain

I haven't posted much in the last couple of weeks, because the main thing I had to make was room on my hard drive for more pics. Now my computer is sufficiently backed up, and I can post again!

I could write about the total failure jacket I made out of old Tshirts. The concept was cool and a little a propos for Earth Day--reduce, reuse, recycle and all that. But the jacket turned out really, really dumb looking. So I'm going to post about a little idea I had for my almost 4yo son's room.

We basically have a one bedroom apartment, since we are caretakers for a historic house. The room off the kitchen (commonly known as the dining room) is my son's room. I've done a lot towards making a kid's paradise in the very limited amount of space I have. The door between the kitchen and the room has windows on it, so we've always thrown a blanket over it to block the light from the kitchen at bedtime. But that's a little unsightly. So I FINALLY made a curtain (I hate making curtains) from some navy blue canvas I had lying around.

We can't waste any space, so I put a couple of large pockets on the bottom for storage. But the major addition was a felt board. I had a pile of acrylic felt (from back before I knew you could get/make wool felt, if you can believe it!) lying around that needed using up. I tried pinning and sewing first, but it was a little unwieldy, so I fused the edges down and then zigzagged the finish.

Ellis immediately loved it. He had me cutting stuff out as fast as I could (hence the stars and houses that are a little unshapely as I freehanded them). There's pockets right underneath the felt for easy storage of the felt pieces. I positioned the felt board just high enough that he really has to stand on a stool right now, but he never has to worry about his one-year-old brother messing it up.

--Jeannette

Perfect for Earth Day: New Stencil

I know I have been inconsistent, but I am trying to remember to post every week! Here is a new stencil I just made. Hopefully in the next few weeks I will be able to post some art I will make using it =)