If at first you don't succeed....

Well, I made another piece of felt this morning to use for the cover of What I Felt. (My previous misadventures can be found here.)

This seems to be much more successful: I still made only three layers, but they are considerably thicker. Rather than simply giving it a gentle circular massage, I gave it a good rolling back and forth (taking out my frustrations and working up a good sweat), and poured multiple passes of hot and cold water over it.

Much harder felt than the last batch, and should work better as a cover "paper," although it still retains that wonderful Corriedale softness. Tomorrow, I will needle-felt the title on the "front" and a small feather from a black-billed magpie (below) onto the back.



I'm going to change tactics on backing it from last time as well, following a hint posted on the Book Arts List to use iron-on interfacing instead of wheat paste to glue the paper to the felt.

My adventure of drop-spindle spinning for the masses at Stampede was fun, although it was cantankerously hot down at the grounds. I was also pleased that one of my entries in the craft competition won first place in its class, while the other was second, and lost to the entry that won the section.

Last Wednesday, I went to go see Dougie Maclean play a solo acoustic guitar show: I've been a fan of his since he played with Tannahill Weavers, and his album Indigenous frequently turns up on my iTunes playlist. Great concert, and a source of inspiration for an upcoming project that I am now starting to develop. Details soon....

I would like to update this blog more often and will try: it's hard to believe that I used to write everyday for a living and never found it to be an onerous chore.

Getting back to it, here as well as on Flickr and in my journal, has been increasingly pleasurable, so much so that I have been trying to find more outlets for it. I'm encouraged that The Globe and Mail ran my story of meeting Beverly Sills when I lived in New York.