I will be silly.

Yes, I will. Join me, will you?

"The Art of Silliness 4," an Online Drawing Workshop with Carla Sonheim.

Here's the first day's worksheet:


My turtle on coffee:
My turtle trying to stay awake:
My turtle at the end of the day:

29 more glorious silly-full days. So much fun!
Enjoy!
~Su

Baa baa black sheep....

Have you any wool? I do!
I've been thinking about using wool locks for doll hair for a long while and I finally sucked it up and went for it. One of the best things I ever did!

I ordered from a new vendor, enticed by the locks of a Wensleydale sheep called Miss Priss. They are long, white and lustrous. They are Amazing. I kid you not:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/68271939/amazing-wensleydale-locks-miss-priss

The would make awesome hair I thought. It took 14 days. No, it was not coming from some foreign country. Shepherd's Lane is in Lebanon, OR. It's just that sometimes the postal service likes to take a while. :P Suffice to say I was dying. Meanwhile the owner Joy and I had some nice conversations by convo. Very nice and helpful lady!

When the box came, I was at work, so I didn't know it was there till after dinner. I carefully opened it and marveled. Here is the box, bursting after I cut the tape! You can see Miss Priss' locks on top, marked with yellow locks.


I thought I would be all about the Miss Priss. They are truly amazing, but in the end I was captivated by the silky locks of Silverado. They are soooo silky and silvery, from dark silver grey to lighter tips. I looove them! I also got natural colored Lincoln locks because I loved the colors. I tried all three on my newest doll (the reason I bought the locks in the first place).
<- Left to right: wensleydale "Miss Priss", natural lincoln locks, wensleydale "Silverado" silky.

<- Here I am putting on the natural Lincoln locks. On her left she is wearing the Silverado's silky. In the end she said she'd like Silverado's silky locks please!

<- washed wool samples. I love the colors on the right, but I love the feel of the wensleydale.

<- I also got some great samples of rovings and Marley's locks. I LOVE these little dark locks - Definitely need a doll with these locks!

<- At the last minute I purchased green and blue locks too. These are very short, but cute! I see a vision of a mermaid growing in my head!

I'll be shopping again soon! Thank you so much Joy! Please visit her shop Shepherd's Lane and tell her I said HI!

Aloha,
~Su

The Lauhala Experiment Pt. 5

The last few leaves, and some steps of processing!
<-Here I am, straightening leaves on the edge of my table. I start at the base and pull while holding the leaf down with a damp cloth, till I get the tip.... then turn over and do the other side. And then do that a couple more times till the midrib softens. Below is before and after the first pass.

I will still have to strip out the midrib before I strip the leaves prior to weaving. Below-left is a bamboo stripper hand-made by my kumu's father. Below-right is the one leaf I stripped. Great care has to be taken to remove as little leaf as possible because the best part of the leaf is next to the midrib. The thickness of the leaf decreases as you get near the edge, so the edges are usually discarded.


Below are pics so you can see that the "right" side is the shiny upper side of the leaf, and the "wrong" side is the dull underside.


And the final product.... I arranged them by width. And now, what shall we make?


The clothespins are so they don't unravel. I removed them before they left an imprint on the leaf. They are waiting in a brown paper bag in the garage.

Aloha!
~Su

The Lauhala Experiment Pt. 4 - Hoike!

We went to the Prince Kuhio Day Parade in Waikiki, and Ho`ike`ike at Kapi`olani Park. The kids love parades, and I went to visit my Lauhala group in the cultural craft booth.

<- the Weavers!

We came away with a fish - my second ever project! My first ever lauhala craft was a bracelet long ago at a Summer Fun Program. Have to dig that up to post!



Aloha,
~Su

The Lauhala Experiment Pt. 3

I had sick kids at home, and I had to go to work, so the lau (leaves) had to wait.

The next day, first thing after coffee, I was out in the garage. The water in the bucket went from crystal clear to darker than my cuppa joe. It's very tiring on your hands, especially your thumb. You run the wet cloth down the length, wiping with your thumb in the middle groove. Wipe, rinse. Wipe, rinse. This cleans the leaf and softens it for rolling at the same time.
<- note water before. See last pic for water after.

Kumu said they were relatively clean, considering. I had a handful that just had to go straight to the water house, there were so many ants and junk! It took several hours just the first day. I did ten leaves. Ten. See how tiny my roll is?


Here is the bundle before starting, on day 1 on the left, and before starting on day 2 on the right. Not a dent, baby, not a dent. *sigh*

It took a little more than 4 days of several hours each to finish. I am slow. And I have 2 kids running around. Even after I threw out about a dozen leaves that were too old and brittle to withstand the cleaning, flattening and rolling. I didn't have anything suitable to flatten, so I ran it over the edge of my table.

Here is end of day 2:


One more day.

Aloha,
~Su