Sisyphus

It has been an uphill struggle. This week I have been finding out just how hard it is to make felted pictures to order. It's hard to make pieces to a desired size and it's also hard to copy an existing piece. I have been finally getting on with a picture for a friend who asked me to make a copy of one I'd already sold during Arts Week. Here is the original:-



I set all the wool out, carefully copying the colours and rough format of the original. I was hoping some wild movement would form as I was felting, but actually nothing much shifted and even after stitching it looks quite a bit calmer:-

I have been worried that my friend might not be too impressed, so my next thought was that if I made a second one and showed her both, I would have a better chance of pleasing her. And I would have a spare to show to galleries once I am ready to go. So I had another go. And did the wild stormy movement materialise? Again, no not really:-



So I have emailed her both photos and I will see what she says. She might well not like either. I can't wait to see.

I have also taken the first steps in working on some small affordable pictures for my brother's gallery; he has asked for some that are small enough to put on the front of a 6" x 4" card. Which sounds simple doesn't it? I had a vision of a green background with a daisy and on the other one a dandelion clock (it has been a good spring for dandelions unfortunately and on sunny morning walks home from school I have been taking lots of photos of the seed heads; yes they are a pest but they are stunning, especially backlit by sunshine). I laid out a couple of small pictures that seemed teeny and started felting. There is always an element of shrinkage in felting and the great thing about it is that you can keep rolling away at it and it will keep shrinking almost indefinitely. But little did I expect that I would have to keep at it for nearly an hour to get them both down to under 6" x 4" and that by that point the designs would be much fuzzier than intended. I had to do an enormous amount of embellishment to get this dandelion clock out of a weird white cloud in the middle of an expanse of green...



I'm not sure if it's finished yet; I need to do my now customary wait for a couple of days to see if I'm happy. In the meantime I must see if I can get positive about the school's summer fair. Sometimes as Chair of the PTA I am reminded of Sisyphus rolling his boulder up the hill and every day it rolling back to the bottom. Right now I feel as if the rock rolled over me on the way down and it is making me question every aspect of my existence. The gloom will rise, I know it will, but for now I need to wallow for a while...