A Summer's Gift

At hues of nature, I am able to blend my loves of nature photography with fiber arts. I want each visit to hues of nature to include a bit of magic and sense of wonder. Tonight, the light was fantastic when I finished my latest fairy. We were minutes away from a storm, but it had not started raining yet, so the quality of light was perfect. I headed to our purple cone flowers that began blooming this week, for a fairy photo shoot. When I downloaded the images, I was blown away by the colors! Aren't they fabulous? What a summer's gift!

Book Fairies and Elves

My second set of book fairies and elves just arrived at our favorite independent bookstore, McLean & Eakin. I've made a little field journal for each of the lil' flower pixies and lil' forest elves from recycled paper from BeeDazzlesGifts on Etsy. Thanks, Bee! I'm so pleased to work with McLean & Eakin. They are a gem of northern Michigan, donating books to local schools and are truly the nicest people you will ever meet. We have been treated to the most wonderful authors and illustrators! My girls dressed in their fanciest clothes for the Fancy Nancy Tea Party this spring with author Jane O'Connor. We've laughed with Tony DiTerlizzi and Jon Scieszka and were amazed by the paper folding talents of Robert Sabuda. Our dear friend, photographer Pete Souza will be signing his book, The Rise of Barack Obama on August 14 from 4-6pm. Tickets are free, but required. Just call the bookstore if you are in the area. I picked up ours today.

French Angora Bunny!

The girls and I visited the Fiber Arts Festival at Castle Farms in Charlevoix, MI yesterday. What a fabulous collection of beautiful items! Very inspiring. We came across Chickasaw Farms where I was able to purchase beautiful French Angora wool combings. Fellow Etsy and Northern Michigan artist, Mary Jill Lemieur, suggested I try an Angora bunny and I am so glad she did. So soft and light as a feather. How fun to create a bunny of bunny fur!

It was a fantastic summer day! My construction engineers headed outside and began looking for the perfect places to construct our new fairy homes. They gathered sticks, pine cones and needles, dried flowers, bark and wool roving from our friend's sheep named Blackberry. Our fairies will be sleeping much better tonight, though I think they'll be sharing their new home with a robin who flew away just as I took the picture.

BEEutiful Booties!

I just finished my first pair of wet felted baby booties and I am so thrilled with how they turned out! I have been in love with Joyce's hand painted roving from Elliebelly and the colors turned out completely delightful. I can't keep my eyes off them, or my fingers. They are SOO soft! I have been working on them, off and on, for several days. Wet felting involves soap, water and a lot rubbing until the fibers mesh together. Then alternate hot and cold water baths, more rubbing, and repeat baths until the booties felt and shrink to baby proportions. Because felting is a bit magical, each piece is truly one of a kind.

When the pair dried, I needle felted, by poking many times with a barbed needle, wool roving along the tops to give the appearance of flowers and for added softness. I added a needle felted bee to each and hand embroidered wings and a flight line. What a happy addition to huesofnature.