Earth, Water, Fire :: Felted Wool Sculptures

Completed this woolly trio, inspired by the elements, this morning. I duplicated the original study (the white polka dotted piece in earlier blog post) and added white wool to the tips of the dreadlocks in this newer version. The tree-like piece was the most challenging with its tapering vertical stripes; they needed lots of tending to in order to keep them straight-ish during the felting process. I am pleased with how nicely they play together as a trio, but not yet sure if I'll try scaling them up. Exterior: 100% wet-felted wool; interior: local Pima cotton, netting, and river stones or glass beads. ~20-23" (h) x ~7-7.5" (w)

Migration Project

This winter I am developing an exhibit which addresses immigration issues, oppression and silencing, borders and arbitrary boundaries, migration routes, and allowing and trusting in natural processes. This most recent piece is an 18" x 10" sculpture which will eventually be erected via wire or starch and finished with embroidered lettering on the back side. I'm carding all the wool fibers by hand in order to blend the roving and yield very subtle color shifts. More to come :)

Wool Hanging Cluster Sculpture

© Kim Buchheit. Hanging sculpture; 100% wool, 42" (h)

Lots of places for little critters to hide and nest! I think this piece was inadvertently inspired by cliff swallow mud nests. I did some research on them today, and there's much similarity. The cliff swallow's nests have slight bottle-necks at their openings, however, and are usually clustered horizontally-ish under a cliff or eave. Okay, now I've got my next project outlined :D

Felted Wee Bird on Juniper Branch

Design and crafted by Kim Buchheit; © Kim Buchheit.

I really enjoyed developing this little sculpture today. Initially I had hoped that the long-legged birdie would stand on his own... but, alas, he simply couldn't (poor fella). As I looked around my cluttered studio I spied a nice weathered piece of juniper wood, and that was the aha moment. I think he turned out cute, and the wood base makes him more substantial and stable. Yay! He is now hanging out with the other woolly wonders in my Etsy shop.