September Moon #9 - Kimberly Kostal

Hello Little Alters Artists,


With the September moon upon us, I hadn't finished my project. No matter what I think I want to do, sometimes my muse isn't working. Or you could say "My Mojo was way off! Enough said about my 3-D skeletons! Help me Mr. Wizard!


Thinking about Gwen and her love for her animals, I thought a kitty would be purrrrrrfect! And her love for fiber pointed the way: so I decided to felt a Kitty for space H!


My thought was of a cat stretching low with high quarters up, looking up at a butterfly. I took 18 gauge wire to create the shape of the kitty. I love the neutral wool colors with black & gray wool fibers and soon Kitty began to take shape. Wire pieces were used for the whiskers; seed beads for the eyes; ( I sewed white lines around the beads ) and red seed beads for the little pink tongue.


I took construction cloth, painted it black and added a copper wire of loops to frame a section of the space. Next I added stemmed - top coiled pieces to give height . I wrapped a variety of seed beads on both sides of the Butterfly & attached it to the coiled piece. A Red textured paper filled the background and completed the piece. Kitty pops in under the wire shaped butterfly.


Lesson learned: not be so hard on myself. Sometimes we just need to refocus and move on.


I like Butterfly & Kitty and hope Gwen does too!.


Happy Fall,
Kimberly Kostal
Lazy K

September Full Moon #1

This month's little scene is going to Lynn V.  This month I wanted to pay homage to our dear cat and dog companions.  If you don't have a dog or cat I'm sure you know someone who does and they love them dearly (I know I do for sure)!  These little ones are playing together and running through a beautiful meadow.  It's a warm early fall afternoon and the sun is shining brightly with a few puffy white clouds in the sky.  They've been playing all day and are thinking about a cool drink of water and a little nap before they take off again on a new adventure. I hope you all have a fabulous Sept. Love, Lou

AUGUST FULL MOON #4

Hi Peg,

Here my Little Alter project for August. This little guy is going to Cyn.

I thought I'd honor our owl friends with this tiny picture. I hear the owls that live in my area nearly every night....it's such a wonderful sound!

I hope everyone had a wonderful, creative August...now on to September!

 Lou

AUGUST FULL MOON #1

Dear Fellow Artists!

It is the corn moon and while I played around with several thoughts about incorporating corn into this month’s section – it just didn’t come together.  Going through my “PO” I found a corn charm – but not very exciting.  And then I found the handle of an old silver spoon that had corn on it but it was too late to make a mold and use PMC to make something a little more exciting.  So that will get saved for another day!

Most all of you planted your seeds that were generously given to us by Peg.  As I knew no one would be home to tend them as they started to grow I have left them in the packets…maybe next year!  So instead of corn I decided to make my own fantasy flowers to share with all of you.  They are a combination of bead embroidery, vintage buttons, felt and horse hair flowers. 

I started with felting around glass marbles and then cut the hollow felt balls off of the marbles.  Now that is a challenge!  Trying to get the felt thickness even around the marble and then trying to cut them in half and have the halves even took a little doing!  I made them in a variety of colors and two different sizes.  The different sizes allowed me to stack the smaller halves in the larger halves to give them a little more “punch”.  I also felted a small flat piece that could be used for the back ground.  The center of 3 of the flowers have blue woven horse hair flowers in them that come from Chile.  The others have a combination of beads and vintage buttons.

The flowers were then sewn through a piece of foam and the green felt so they would fit nicely into the space and the piece had some body to support the flowers.  The horse hair flowers originally had green horsehair stems that I couldn’t let go to waste.  I stitched the green stems through the backing to look like blades of grass coming up through the flowers.

So now you have seen my fantasy flowers….all coming from those wonderful seed packets given to us by Peg!  It was a fun project and now I have visions of felted and embroidered flowers on wire stems so one could make a bouquet.

Now on to the next space…….H.  And my mind is racing with things that start with H…..happy…hooray…holy cow…..hallelujah……halibut…hamster….handles…hat…..heaven…..so many!!!!!

Kathy

JULY FULL MOON #6

..I've been gone for almost two weeks in Idaho helping with our daughter's wedding.

This month's project was a little challenging but I was able to put together a couple of things that, I feel, relate to July.

I wanted to make something that we might all see at some point in July namely: balloons and lavender!  I made a little line of balloons on a string and a little packet of lavender from a bush that grows in our yard. This month's project is going to Gwen.  Happy July everyone!


Lou

JUNE FULL MOON # 9

June inspirations started with the explosion of plant life in the garden. The weather cannot decide if it should be hot or cool, Rain squalls have played  tag with a day or two of summer-like  heat, meanwhile rain batters the flowers.

Moss has really taken hold and I find it fascinating to see all the different varieties in my garden. Using the moss as inspiration I created texture plate from moss I found in the rainforest  of the Olympic Peninsula. It has a zigzag shape and that is what I used to create this tiny kimono in copper. I added the full moon in the background of white glitter paper on a background of felted velvet and red wool .

 The tiny butterfly came from my Susan Clarke Button collection and there is a tiny star caught up on the bottom of the dress. The twig is from my contorted hazel shrub and I added a wee pink pearl flower I hand wired in place.  I searched far and wide through my stash for just the right word to finish off my piece for Marilynn and after many distractions (ohhh shiny things, hmmm I forgot I had this….) I found Summer!  

Perhaps it will appear now???

JUNE FULL MOON #5

Hi Peg, here's my Little Altar for June. This one is Beth's!

Here name is Beth as is our daughter's name. I wanted to create something that would celebrate the first letter of her name, so I chose to make a little picture of our humble but beloved bumble bee!

This little bee has been very busy and found a little flower to pollinate...it's also a pin Beth can wear if she'd like to. 

Love, Lou

May Flower Seed Full MOON #7

I'll tell you the story behind it:

The crows had a get-together with the gnomes, fairies, elemental s and sprites and asked them to erect a May Pole so they could welcome Spring.  Everyone got involved and low and behold a May Pole was erected.  The crows were ecstatic and the sun was shining bright. The earth was green with new growth everywhere. Each crow picked up a red ribbon in its mouth and began flying in a circle so all the ribbons would encircle the pole.

 A great feast was prepared by the elemental's and a joyous and peaceful time was had by all!

 

I'll be sending the celebration of spring to you tomorrow! Love Lou 

SEED MOON #4

The full moon is here!!  And it arrived early as far as I can tell!  I have been entrenched in making jewelry for the Camano Arts Studio Tour and have hardly come up for air.  You are all invited to come up!  The information can be found through my websitewww.kathydannerbeck.com or through the Camano Arts Association website atwww.camanoarts.org .  I would love to see you!!

The project for this month has been in the works for a while.  I too did research and found that this is the month for planting, seeds and all the good things that Peg told us about.  And this full moon is also called the pink moon.  So in trying to do something that fit with the moon names and knowing that Beth loves gardening and plants....I came up with “Strawberry Fields Forever!”

The strawberries are sort of pinkish/red, they have seeds on them, and Beth loves gardening!  The slight little snafu is that all the berries didn’t ripen yet so there is only one in the spot now....but with more to come!

The berry is felted and then bead embroidered!  Fun to make!!  If only we could eat it too!

 Kathy

SEED MOON #3

Hi Peg, here's a little picture I made for the April 'Little Alters' project. This one is going to Kimberly.

When I received the sweet packet you sent recently with the seeds enclosed I was instantly inspired. You mentioned that this month's moon is known by two names: the Pink Moon and the Seed Moon.

I then thought I'd make a picture of a newly planted seed as it progressed from germination to full bloom. Love, Lou

Snow Moon 4

Love &
 Hope Stitched Heart
It was hard to figure out what to do for Lou. I like Halloween also, and it is the month of her birth. But that was not it. Then maybe magic! What I wanted to do could not find the supply needed for it and ordered but it was late in coming. So it came down to the month of love, February, so thus the heart. I have made these before and also taught a class in beading using these little hearts. It is always a joy to work with beads as it calms me working with my hands. Each stitch is taken with a wish or hope even if I am not aware of or know the person that will receive it. I do look forward to meeting all next year.

Marilynn