Author: micheleballantyne

Mother of 9, Grandmother of 12, blogger, artist, horse and animal lover, plant lover, nature lover!!! Currently I am involved in fiber arts making scarves and wall hangings. I also love spinning wool and will be including my character yarns into my fiber art! Yay!

Dreaming Writing

About Michele, Stories

I dream I am laying on my paper filled desk, giving birth. As I labor I find it odd to be laying on my desk instead of in a hospital, or in a bed. My labor progresses and I give birth; not to human babies, but to puppies! I wake up.

Having been taught dream interpretation by my teacher, and how to look for clues and understand my own filters, I realized I was giving birth to something which was not a human baby. I was laying on my desk where business is taken care of, but the puppies were emerging on the little pull out board which is used when the desk is full and something flat and hard is needed to put paper on for writing. Soooo, they were born on the writing part of the desk! I am giving birth to my writing. The writings are my children. The symbol of puppies showed me I am not dreaming about giving birth to my human children (which I have done many times), but to something else. I am creating something different now. Something from me, of me, and by me. I am creating my story to share.

A couple more photos of the new roof.

Art : Drawing; Painting; Fiber; Etc., Building Cool Stuff

So we had to take down the old rafters because they were getting rotten along the top and on the ends due to the white tarp disintegrating. We put up new 2 x 6 rafters and 2 x 4 stringers to support the galvanized metal roofing we are putting on now. Since I’m not using it as an art studio anymore, and it is being used for storage, we are not trying to make the roof translucent anymore.

New roof on my old studio

Art : Drawing; Painting; Fiber; Etc., Building Cool Stuff

In Florida I had built an open air art studio in my backyard. We had used white tarp on the roof as a way to let in light as I painted. When I moved away we used it for storage and the tarp was falling apart. I’m back in Florida now with John, replacing the roof with new wood and metal roofing panels. More photos to come. 

Felted Sample: Fluffy Clouds

Art : Drawing; Painting; Fiber; Etc.
Felted Clouds sample of felting.

This little sample was originally about 12 x 20 inches. It shrunk to about 3 x 5 inches. That is the way of fluffy clouds in felting. There was no other structure other than two layers, one of fluffy clouds of merino wool, very thin, and another layer of fluffy clouds of plant fibers, laid on very thin. I love the result and I will certainly be playing with this more in my jewelry making.

This sample is one of the exercises assigned in the structure and surface texture online class I am taking from Yekaterina Mokeyeva of the Etsy shop: Feuer und Wasser.

Felted Sample: Chunky Knit?

Art : Drawing; Painting; Fiber; Etc.
Felted merino wool and silk.

As I may have mentioned in another post, I have been taking felting courses online from one of my two favorite fiber artists in the world, Yekaterina Mokeyeva ( https://www.feuer-und-wasser.com/about ) This felted piece is my latest homework in her structure and surface texture class which is ongoing right now. I love this technique and what it produces! I have learned many new techniques from “Katia” and am so inspired by her work.

The colors and design of this sample were inspired by a photograph of rock strata on Pinterest.

If you are interested in felting, or are a fiber artist, you may enjoy taking one of her workshops. She travels all over the world teaching in person, and I am so grateful that she has also added online classes to her teaching schedule so I can attend!

Thank you so much Katia!