Random Bursts of Creativity

This project started a while ago. The fiber is from Good Fibrations and was gifted to me. I wasn't sure what to do with it, until thought of sunsets and looked up some pictures.

To spin the gradient I separated out all the colours and blended them on my hand as I spun, trying to make smooth changes.

It took me 2.5 hours to ply today - it was spun very fine and chain plied. I don't have the length yet, but I gave it a rinse and it's drying. I'm really happy with it.

It’s the final few days of the Bluminarmour Project! After some issues with Kickstarter let’s see how far we can get!

If you want to see fantasy tropes, historical movement and silly tricks tested in authentic full plate armour, please consider chucking a few quid over (or like and share this post):

Kickstarter removed my highest funding tier so I lost £11k of funding since earlier today.

BUT

I'm offering: A few diverse handdyed and natural colour fibers ready to spin (100% wool), for example a total of 150 grams of fiber (could be more!). Maybe making it a bit of a care package with a postcard, a knitting/spinning notion or two and some snacks?

I'm looking for: The same as I'm offering! We will make a list of the exact content of the package together :)

I know I never post my other arts-n-crafts stuff here but this Microraptor pattern I did recently was something I just HAD to share with you guys (⇀ˬ↼‶)

More photos under the cut

finished a shawl, blocked the shawl, took pictures of the shawl

very, very pleased with this one. it's soft and drapes amazingly, the gradient flows like i was picturing in my head and i was able to make the shawl i wanted

pattern is Knitting By the Pool by Romi Hill. great pattern, not so complicated i couldn't watch something while knitting while being just complicated enough to make sure my brain stayed engaged. also an excellent pattern for a gradient. i could see making this pattern again in another gradient, possibly for gifting purposes

yarn is a handspun 2 ply laceweight 100% BFL gradient from Hilltop Cloud's Never Ending Gradient Club. i used around 90 grams for the shaw,and i extended the last section by 8 rows. the yarn is from the beginning of my study of consistency in spinning lace and gradients so i can see the areas i was looking to improve at the time and how i would handle them now. still i'm very happy with how the yarn knit up

Odyssey 19.149–150. Emily Wilson translation.

a weaving based on Dora Wheeler's "Penelope Unraveling Her Work at Night", which is one of my favorite works that looks woven but is actually embroidered. I wanted to try out deborah silver's split-shed weaving technique, so I chose polychrome taqueté with linen and cashmere. I maybe should have chosen an easier technique with fewer colors to start, but here we are! on the right side, I left the uppermost warp threads bare to show the unraveling.

reference below the cut:

Just over ten months' worth of spinning progress, from first to latest -- at least in terms of my spinning class! I'm pretty sure I'm missing a few skeins, and this doesn't include everything I've spun since class ended in April, but it's so cool to see all of my progress laid out like this!

Completed ‘Silver Needle Tea’ shawl in gradient cotton yarn & tigers eye/yellow crystal accents dangles.

Knitting finished as of last night! Still need to weave in a few ends, wash, and block.

I need to remember to take pictures of braids before I unravel them, I just get too excited.

This is a Merino/ silk blend from the Felting Ewe.

Spun as a fractal.

There was a fair bit of singles left on the short repeat bobbin, so I chain plyed it off, and it turned out to be three whole repeats. The colours are so vibrant.

It's cool seeing the skeins next to each other.

This project is definitely a marathon and not a sprint, but I’ve finally gotten far enough that I can get a better picture of the ‘right’ side. It’s definitely going faster now that I’ve figured out the rhythm of the design a little more but we’re still talking like. Two inches an hour.

Very cool technique! Looking forward to doing more (with wool instead of cotton) in the future. The material makes a pretty significant difference in design legibility.

I wanted the birds to look like they were actually in the space so first thing after doing the draft was to do a lighting study

after that I covered the walls in letters in lieu of a projector/vr headset bc i have neither of those :) Then i take a picture of the section of wall and superimpose the lineart over top of it so I can pencil in the lines

et voila

GIVE IT UP FOR BIRD NUMBUH 5, THE CANADIAN GOOSE, Branta canadensis!!!!

bird 5/14, Bluejay, Cyanocitta cristata

birds 6 and 7: American Goldfinch, Spinus tristis, male and female

BIRD NUMBER 8, (yellow shafted) NORTHERN FLICKERRRRR, Colaptes auratus

genuinely made me start questioning my sanity around day 3, it's half the size the of the goose, WHY did it take me 4 days to finish??

Bird number 9: Red-tailed hawk, Buteo jamaicensis

my chains are broken i am FREE. although i did have a great deal of fun with this, the barring on the wings itself took me like four days and i am READY to move on

this was a week and a half of continuous work so please excuse me for getting a little emotional in the bg 🙏

BIRD NUMBER 10!!! The Male Mallard Duck, Anas platyrhynchos

the male and female ones are gonna be posted separately bc they're taking a lot longer lol but yea! super happy i was able to capture the iridescent green of the head, i found metallic green and blue paint at a craft store that really made his head POP. it looks better in person i promise

ALSO!! As this is the 10th one, BIG announcement. The end is in sight!!!!! I plan to finish within the next 3 weeks and there will be a small dedication ceremony/ unveiling happening at the library to commemorate its completion on the 16th of May. If you live in the Western New York region and want to check it out for yourself shoot me a dm!

aaaand another one bites the duck,

we're movin right along with bird numero 11!! The lady Mallard!! Anas platyrhyncos

power couple that they are, here's bird number 12 and 13,

the Northern Cardinals, Cardinalis cardinalis

and NOW that they are complete, ITS GO TIME, in the next five days (library's closed for mother's day 😭😭) i need to have the GBH fully rendered, the names of the birds vectored, weeded, masked, applied to the wall, and then painted, plus additional cattails throughout. I may be able to get away with just getting the GBH done in time for the unveiling and then just have the names and cattails added later, but i'm gonna really try to get it all done in time. BUT, i have a plan. Part of why i take so long on these is because i really am just figuring it out as I do it lmao. there have been many a time where i am sitting on top of the ladder googling "how to paint birds" but I think if i take the time tomorro to do all that figuring out how to approach it beforehand, this will go a lot faster. I may also recruit some of my artist friends to help with the placing of the names... hrmm we'll see.

Anyways, shout out to the librarian who tracked down exactly the thing i needed so i could figure out where to place the highlights in my birds eyes, ur the real mvp

Bird number 14 out of 14,

The Great blue heron, Ardea herodius

thank you to everyone who reached out or got excited about this project, it genuinely gave me the fuel i needed to keep going. In total, the 480+ total hrs it took me to cover this wall pales in comparison to how long its expected to spend on there, hopefully imparting a sense of beauty and love for the natural world to the next generation and here's hoping i'm only getting started with these.