Today is Valentine's Day. I am not much of a holiday person - except for Halloween - but I enjoy getting and giving a little something on Valentine's Day. Coming up with a gift that shows I love my Honey is important to me. I came up with a cute idea a few days ago:
On Wednesday, it snowed. A lot. We got 12 inches or more and school was canceled. While surfing the internet I saw an article on Etsy on how to make little bears out of wool using a process called felting (I won't even mention what Griffin now calls it). It was very cute and just in time for Valentine's Day.
I save all sorts of things thinking that I might use them in some future art project. Many times the things I save end up never getting used or I sell them to make room for other stuff. One of the things I started to save about 2 1/2 years ago was dog hair. Every time I would wash the dogs I would brush them out when they were mostly dry. Their fur was beautiful and came out in globs. This was when Ling, our Bernese Mountian Dog was still alive. (We had Ling put to sleep October of 2008. It was a very had thing to do, she had cancer at the age of 6.)
I had collected over one pound of hair in about a year. One pound of hair may not sound like much, but it stuffed a grocery bag full, and I mean stuffed full! Eventually, we started getting the dogs professionally groomed and so my hair collecting slowed to a stop. I tied the bag closed and put it away with my other 'potential' art materials.
I had saved the hair of another dog back in college, my Keeshond, Cindre. They are smaller dogs and the hair I had gathered didn't amount to the mass I got with Ling and Bella. I did use Cindre's hair for a project, I actually spun it into yarn and used it in a sculpture. It was so soft and fluffy. Perhaps this was what was in the back of my head. Dog yarn.
The bag moved farther and farther back into the supplies. After we had Ling put to sleep, I would occasionally find and open the bag and 'pet' her fur. It still smelled like she did right after a bath and brought back many fond memories. I still miss her so much. She was a great dog and a wonderful companion for Bella, our Great Pyrenees. Bella is now the lone dog in the house. We tried adopting another dog, a five year old German Shepard, he was a disaster and we gave him away after six months.
So I came across the bag of fur again not too long ago and wondered what I could do with it. When I saw the article on felting, I thought that looked like a good project to do with dog hair. Ling was Griffin's dog, and the lure that brought me into his life (I can't resist a puppy). He adored her and putting her down hurt so much, but he did it out of love, because she was suffering at that point. Again, Griffin's strength in love amazes me.
On Thursday, we had another snow day. So I did a little more reading on felting and figured I could easily make a little bear out of Ling's hair and give it to Griffin for Valentine's Day. Felting is not done with an ordinary needle, it requires a special, thick, extra sharp needle with barbs on it. The needle is plunged into the fiber over and over and the barbs on the needle drag the fiber with it essentially creating a mat in the hair. When you do this process on a round ball of hair you can create a three-dimensional felted object.
I did not have a felting needle, so I tried to use any sharp metal object. I used a pottery needle tool, an awl, a lacing needle for leather. None of which really worked. I Googled how to make a felting needle and found that you could use any of the above things and cut barbs into it using a chisel. This was a dangerous option for me. I am not the most graceful person and this seemed like a good opportunity to lose a finger. I put on some work gloves and gave it my best shot. It didn't work out so well. I didn't lose a finger, but I didn't really make any barbs either. I needed to buy a felting needle.
The internet is a great place to get anything, as long as you can wait for it. I needed this needle now and had to venture out into the real world to find one. I did some research ahead of time and found that AC Moore carried them, Michael's did not. I got directions to the nearest AC Moore and headed out. When I got there, I looked all over but could not find what I was looking for. When a sales person helped me, she showed me the one slot where the felting needles should be, and there were none.
I was also on my way to Morristown to pick up the copy of my chart from my soon-to-be former OB. I left AC Moore and went to Morristown. When I spoke to the receptionist she told me that my chart hadn't been copied yet. I had gotten a message days earlier from the office manager telling me how much it would cost and that they would send it out when they got my check. To me, this meant they had copied it and figured out how much that cost. I was wrong. $38 seemed like a random number, but it was the number they came up with by leafing through my chart. The receptionist told me that she could make the copy now if I wanted to wait. Yes, I wanted to wait.
Griffin and I had an appointment with the midwife at 3:30 that day. It was almost 1pm and I figured I had enough time to get the copy head towards home and go to the other AC Moore in the area to look for the felting needle. The copy took about a half hour. I paid and returned to my original mission. I tried and failed to find the other store, and somehow ended up on the road to our home, so I went home instead. I knew we had to leave at three to get to the midwife's office at 3:30 or before. I called to confirm our appointment and found out that she had a mother in labor and needed to reschedule. I was free again!
I headed out to the other AC Moore after consulting with Mapquest. Now, I knew where they kept the felting needles, if there was one to be found, so I went right to that section. I looked at piles of felt and felt cutters, just as I was going to turn and leave I saw them behind me. Lots of felting needles and colored wool too! Normal people felt with sheep's wool, not dog fur. I picked up a package of two needles and a pack of pink and wine colored wool.
When I got settled at home on the couch with my dog fur and needles I was really excited. We were going to have dinner at my in-laws' house at five, so I had an hour to work on my new project. I decided to make a "Bella" and a "Ling" and would start with the Bella, since I had a lot more of her fur to work with. Felting is rather difficult to get used to, I suppose it is more difficult with dog hair instead of wool. The dog fur flew around and didn't want to bunch up. I was determined and tried many different approaches before I found one that worked.
The process involves poking the needle in and out of the fiber many, many times. I found that my fingers got in the way and I poked them about 15 or 20 times. Not just poked to hurt, but poked to bleed. Every few minutes I would do it again. I would squeeze my finger, produce a little drop of blood, wipe it off and continue working. I was mostly hitting my index and middle fingers on my right hand. They became very sore. I managed to make a body and head before it was time to go.
When we got back three and a half hours later, I found my work, shredded on the floor. Bella had taken the little "Bella" and ripped it up. Perhaps she didn't like the idea of me making a voodoo doll of her, perhaps she was just bored and this was fun for her. My fingers were tired and sore, so I gave up for the night and watched a DVD with Griffin.
On Friday, had to go back to work, but it was a half day. I packed up my felting materials and headed out the door without them. I was very disappointed to realize that I had left everything at home. The morning went along alright, the classes were just 30 minutes long. I tried to get as much teaching in as I could, but it was tough. By third period my chest was on fire with heartburn. I haven't gotten it in school before and it was awful. I was trapped in my room, because I have 4 periods of classes in a row, but I ran out between bells to go to the nurse. She gave me a bunch of Tums and I dashed back to class. The Tums helped somewhat, but I was getting really cranky. I am only used to heartburn at night and this was nine in the morning.
The school day ended, I got lunch with a friend, I went back to school with my chest in flames and abandoned my school task. I was supposed to work on rewriting a final, but there was no way I could even think at this point. I drove home moaning. When I got in the door I raced to the bathroom, chugged some Pepto and ate more Tums. I made myself a giant glass of ice water and went into our library. I sat on the couch and put up my feet. My chest started to feel better so I pulled out my felting.
I managed to make a Bella and a Ling body when Griffin announced that it was time for pizza. We had missed our pizza night the day before, and he was hungry. I packed up my felting and put it high out of Bella's reach. When we got home, I finished making my little project and managed to poke my fingers many more times. I was really excited about my progress, so I ignored the pain.
When we went in to watch our DVD that evening (we are on Private Practice now) I brought my felting with me. I decided to try to make a polar bear. Bella looks like a polar bear and the color was right, so I sat and poked - the felting and my fingers. I managed to make two very cute polar bears and learned a lot in the process. Griffin was very patient and let me work next to him.
On Saturday morning, I made two more polar bears. I looked at photos online to get ideas for poses. It is so much fun to do and I am getting better at not poking my fingers so much. As I work, I am discovering new techniques, so I keep going back to the old creations and adjusting. When I looked back at my first project, the Ling and Bella, I realized they needed a little help. I spent an hour adjusting and improving them. I added little hearts to their chests and made them look more like tiny dogs. Cartoon dogs, but dogs, nonetheless.
We went out shopping for a bed that afternoon. Our bed is nine years old and queen sized. Griffin's back has been hurting more and more and his snoring is getting worse. I flip over and over at night and my hands fall asleep before I do. After 30 minutes in a Sleepy's we had selected a bed, pillows, headboard got it all paid for, scheduled delivery and headed home. The bed would be delivered on Sunday. This would be our last night on that sagging old thing.
Saturday night I made another polar bear, this was the smallest one yet. It is much harder to work small. Trying to keep the details tiny takes a lot of precision and finger poking. It came out great and I just love its expression. My fingers were so sore, I couldn't make another one, so I ate ice cream instead.
This morning, Valentine's Day, I put the little Bella and Ling out on Griffin's computer. He thought they were very cute and seemed to like them. He has gotten used to seeing me felting, but I told him these were the first ones I made, so they were special. I had washed them in our doggie shampoo a few days ago, so they smelled like our freshly washed dog used to. When I had sniffed them I got choked up. Maybe it's just the pregnancy, but that scent really moved me.
Ling has always held a special place in my heart. When I had met Griffin for the 4th or 5th time, it was at a Halloween party. We spent the party talking, dancing and drinking together. In the end it was the promise of meeting his puppy, Ling, that got me to go home with him. I fell in love with her and I fell in love with Griffin. I miss her so much. I hope Griffin knows that the little Ling I made for him is filled with the love that developed around that cute puppy and then grew into the wonderful life we have now.
Happy Valentine's Day.
"Ling" and "Bella"
"Five little bears"
No comments:
Post a Comment