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Ramzee is now on ebay!

One of our award-winning pieces is now for sale on ebay! Take a look. He’s a beautiful needle felted ram and he won fourth place in the Fine Arts Competition at the 2008 Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. Click on his picture to go to the auction.

Alley the Radiocat

What is a Radiocat, you ask. Unfortunately, my beautiful Alley will become one on June 23. Here she is in all her cat beauty lounging in my cool, Mango Tango laptop case. “Hey, you did buy this for me, didn’t you?”

About 3 weeks ago I became concerned over Alley’s weight loss. She’s had a good appetite and was definitely eating. I took her to Dr. Engel at Brookeville Animal Hospital imagining all the bleak possibilities. Having been through various serious conditions with kitties over the years I was not looking forward to the diagnosis. Alley is 13 years old and usually weighs around 13 pounds. This day she only weighed 6 1/2 pounds. I knew she was smaller but this was a shock. Anyway, blood was taken and we were told to wait for the results.

It turns out that senior cats often develop hyperthyroidism. This really is the best possible diagnosis. The condition is treated either by life-long administration of oral meds or by Radiocat. Radiocat is Radioactive Iodine Therapy and is curative. There are specialized hospitals that provide this treatment and even though the price seems liek alot, by the time you pay for meds and periodic bloodwork for a couple years, it is really a deal. Not to mention that Alley has already become wise to the pill-pockets making if difficult to get the necessary medication into her.

She will be in the hospital for 4 days with no visitors. Apparently the place is radioactive along with the kitty patients. Once we bring her home she will still be glowing for 2 weeks so her litter has to be disposed of in an environmentally safe way. That means flushing it down the toilet. They say the special litter is okay for septic systems. I sure hope so.

Hopefully in mid-July I’ll be able to report a successfully cured Alley.

2008 MD Sheep and Wool Festival – Connections

When you attend a sheep and wool event for the first time like we did and you have the opportunity to wander through the barns and touch the animals, you can’t help but form a connection to the wool bearers that provide the stuff on which our creations depend. It occurred to me that after 35 years of the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival the original intent is still at the forefront–to bring growers in direct contact with artisans. I suppose I am just one of many who attended for the first time and walked away with a feeling of excitement and renewal and a true appreciation for the wool and fiber industry.

Anyway, enough gushing….on with the pictures.

Scottish Blackface Lambs – 5 Weeks Old

Suri Alpaca

Nosey Alpaca

Angora Bunnies

Jacob Ram – WOW!

Karakul Sheep – Straight Wool

Is your mama a llama?

Hungry Lamb

I’m spying on you…

Curly Horns

It doesn’t get more beautiful than this!

That last sheep was a sweetheart. She posed so still so I could capture her beauty. Actually, I think she just wanted her head scratched. Look at that beautiful face. There are even tiny locks growing down her nose. This was my favorite critter of the weekend. She will be the subject of an upcoming felted sculpture.

Saturday – 2008 Maryland Sheep and Wool

Now comes the good stuff….

Deborah and I left her house at around 11:00 a.m. to make the 15 minute drive to the Howard County Fairgrounds. We finally got parked at around 1:30 p.m. Take a look at the parking field. UNBELIEVABLE!

We had already planned that our first stop would be the Skein and Garment competition to see how the judging went. We made the long trek through the cars feeling sorry for the river of cars still waiting to be parked. The items in the competition were scattered on different tables so it was difficult to find them all, but eventually we did and this is what we saw…

All of the items we entered won prizes. Starting on the left Merlin the bunny won second place in the small sculptural or figurative felted items. The Pussy Willow Bunny won first place in medium and has already sold on ebay. The Panda took second place in the small category and is currently listed on ebay with a bid. The frog, Phineas, took first place in the small category and a Special Award for Best Sculptural or Figurative item. Deborah has perfected a new technique call “Cloisonne Felting”. These four items were entered in the Skein and Garment competition.

Deborah entered the ram in the Fine Arts Competition. All items must be sheep related and compete against all mediums in the Sculpture Category. Ramzee took fourth place. What an accomplishment. This was our first competition and we couldn’t be more pleased. What an honor to place against so many talented fiber artists.

After calling our husbands to tell them the good news we continued on to the packed buildings. The first two buildings were full of beautiful sheep. If you’ve never seen a Karakul… now you have. They have long straight wool which is traditionally used for rug making. We could immediately see putting it to use on projects that are floating around in our heads. Oh the possibilities! Later in the day, in the main exhibition hall we look at the fleece show and sale just out of curiosity. There was a Karakul fleece on the table that looked just like our sheep friend so we snapped it up right away and tool it to the Fingerlakes Woolen Mill stand to send if off for scouring. We’ve always ordered our wool on the net so being able to pick the exact fleece we liked was a real treat.

Our purchases continued at Delly’s Delights Farm. I scored a great bag of Border Leicester natural, washed locks. There booth was fabulous and a felter’s dream.

This is just the tip of the iceburg. I’ll show you lots more including the rest of our stash and lots of great animals.

Friday – 2008 Maryland Sheep and Wool

Well I’m partially recovered from our expedition to the 2008 Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. My arms are sore from carrying stash, but no pain–no gain. I have so much to say, I’m going to break it down in to several posts. Lets start with Friday…

We packed up our entries for the Fine Arts and Skein/Garment Competitions. Deborah entered a ram felted with natural locks in the Fine Arts competition. All entries in this contest have to be sheep related. That means a painting, sculpture, etc. of a sheep. It’s only a dollar to enter; so it’s worth a try.

We had four needle felted sculptures in the Skein and Garment competition.  Deborah entered a long-haired bunny called Merlin.  I bet you can’t guess…he’s a wizard.  She also entered a fabulous frog done in a new technique she invented called “Cloisonne Felting”.  I can’t wait to try my hand at it.  My two entries were a Panda and a standing bunny with pussy willows mounted on a display base.

Running short on time we couldn’t really sneak as big a peek as we wanted at the vendors setting up for Saturday’s opening.  However, the quick glimpses let us eager experience our first fiber frenzy.

It is a beautiful evening in Central Maryland.  All the windows are open and DH is out mowing the acres.  I will continue later since time is getting close to my secret vice (shhh!  American Idol)!  I’ll need a few minutes to shut the windows so I can hear the tube over the mower.

2008 Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival

It’s almost here and we couldn’t be more excited. This will be the first time we’ve attended and we plan to enter several of our needle felted creations in the fine arts competition. Here’s a picture of “Spring’s First Gift”. I will probably remove the bandana so that none of the sculpt is covered. The eyes are handmade of polymer clay and the pussy willows were felted and attached to natural twigs.

Deborah will be entering a beautiful ram’s head done in natural white and gray curly locks. I’ll post a picture as soon as the final touches are complete.

We are lucky to live just a few miles from the fairgrounds so we won’t miss a thing. We’ll take lots of pictures so we can share our experience at this top notch event.

Have a great evening!

Bunnies on the brain…

Remember I told you Deborah had bunnies on the brain. Well here are two of her little fellows for you to enjoy–Mr. Whiskers and Snoozer. Needlefelted with clay eyes and nose, they are a sight to behold. They are up for auction on ebay for the next seven days. Click on the photos to go directly to the auction pages. You can see why needle felting has become our newest addiction. Mr. Whiskers’ jacket is free-form embroidery with felt and various glitzy fibers.

I’ve started creating our auction templates myself because we had a difficult time finding themes that fit our art and personalities. I make the backgrounds and graphics in Paint Shop Pro and put the page together in an html editor. I’m

thinking of offering auction templates for sale. Let me know what you think. I love vintage postcards and I think adding contemporary graphics gives them just the right touch.

Next up on the horizon are some more bunnies, a kitten and a doll based on a pattern by Judy McCullough.

Have a great week!

Laura

Bunnies on the brain…

Remember I told you Deborah had bunnies on the brain. Well here are two of her little fellows for you to enjoy–Mr. Whiskers and Snoozer. Needlefelted with clay eyes and nose, they are a sight to behold. They are up for auction on ebay for the next seven days. Click on the photos to go directly to the auction pages. You can see why needle felting has become our newest addiction. Mr. Whiskers’ jacket is free-form embroidery with felt and various glitzy fibers.

I’ve started creating our auction templates myself because we had a difficult time finding themes that fit our art and personalities. I make the backgrounds and graphics in Paint Shop Pro and put the page together in an html editor. I’m

thinking of offering auction templates for sale. Let me know what you think. I love vintage postcards and I think adding contemporary graphics gives them just the right touch.

Next up on the horizon are some more bunnies, a kitten and a doll based on a pattern by Judy McCullough.

Have a great week!

Laura

Today is a day of firsts…

I was thinking about what to write for my first post and mother nature was my inspiration. Today is our first snowfall. It’s been snowing steadily since nine o’clock and the white stuff is sticking to everything.

Flights of Whimzy (Deborah and Laura) write from rural Carroll County, Maryland. We are both married and our kids are grown. We love to create and feed each others ideas. Our collaboration has resulted in success at local juried craft shows and sales on ebay. Our new etsy shop is our most recent venture. Not only will we share our art, but we will let you know about great books, products and suppliers as we find them.

The first supplier to tell you about is the Woolstock Yarn Shop in Glyndon, Maryland. Deborah and I are hooked on needlefelting but have not been able to find a local source for fiber. On a whim, we visited Leslye Solomon’s shop last week. They brought out a huge box stuffed full of wood roving in all the colors of the rainbow. We were like kids in a candy store. The kind staff didn’t mind us emptying the box all over the store so we could make our choices. We pulled off hunks of yummy wool which were weighed by the ounce. At $1.50 per ounce, we have enough to keep up playing for quite some time. Deborah has bunnies on the brain right now; so she should have several critters to share in the next few days.

Did you have any firsts today?