The Wool Gatherers

Blue Bird of Joy

Chicken Little

The Swan

I may not be able to get into the studio lately and paint but I have been joyfully creating none the less.

I was fortunate enough a few weeks ago to organize a wool needle felting workshop where a friend of mine taught over 20 people how to create items from wool. I was blown away by the imagination and creativity that all the people , young and old, expressed. The fantastic thing was that none of them were classically trained artists yet each of them created something that made everone go "WOW".

So inspired was I that I started to pick away at a few things myself and quickly I found myself with these little gems above. I figure since I have sheep, I have wool and since I only receive about $0.05/pound if I sell it locally that I might as well enjoy using it in some artistic manner. An economist may call it "value added", I just call it fun.

I was demonstrating how to do this at a local art show and one young man stopped to watch. Within seconds he was smiling and he said to me

"Out in a field somewhere there is a sheep screaming "Ouch..Ouch.... Ouch!" Each ouch coincided with a needle punch!

This young fellow suggested that I start making wool humans and selling them as Voodoo dolls so that students may poke an offending teacher when the mood arose!

Remind me never to piss off a young person!!