Tottie Talks Crafts Blog

August 8, 2014 · 8:03 pm

Woven Women- Small Bird Sang and All Was Forgiven

When we went on holidays in July, I took along 4 small looms- My Norwegian Cradle loom, my 8 inch Mirrix tapestry loom, my wee copper pipe loom and my tiny peg loom.

I warped up my Norwegian Cradle loom with fine cotton to weave a narrow band, using my Swedish double slotted rigid heddle.

The heddle is actually too wide for the Cradle loom, but oddly enough, this worked well in a quirky way.

I wove and wove and wove and wove as we drove for many, many days, with the Norwegian Cradle loom in my lap:

The cotton thread in the narrow band is in the same colors that I was using to weave the sampler for Part 2 of the online tapestry course offered by Rebecca Mezoff.

I knew that I wanted to have narrow bands as part of the figure that I was weaving, using the sampler as the body.

And here she is: Her name is:
“Small Bird Sang and All Was Forgiven”.

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay www.tottietalkscrafts.com

Her body is the sampler that includes the techniques that were covered in Part Two of the course.

I wove her arms separately, using techniques from Part 2 as well.
I have included driftwood from our beachcombing at the ocean, as well as found objects.

Her hands, head, feet and the archway panel are cut from Baltic birch plywood. (Lovely stuff!)

I burned the features with a wood burning tool, and then painted and embellished with encaustic.

She is 36 inches/90 cm tall.

I wove her body first, then re-warped the loom and wove the arms separately.

Her body and arms were woven on my 8 inch Mirrix tapestry loom, which I also took along on holidays, as it’s a fabulous little traveling loom.

8 Comments

Filed under Loom & looms & small loom weaving, tapestry, weaving & handwoven, Woven Women tapestries and woven works

Tagged as double hole Swedish rigid heddle loom, hand weaving, hand woven, Mirrix loom, narrow band weaving, Noreen Crone-Findlay, Norwegian cradle loom, Rebecca Mezoff, tapestry, tapestry weaving, textiles, weaving, Woven Women tapestry by Noreen Crone-Findlay

August 7, 2014 · 11:24 am

Tottie Tomato meets the Quimper Hittys

Tottie Tomato and I are enchanted by the magical blog: Quimper Hittys LINK

When we went on holidays at the end of July, Tottie Tomato and I (Tottie Tomato, Pinkie and Blue Bear always travel with us), were delighted to be able to meet the Quimper Hittys and their charming Mamma.

Quimper Hittys’ Mamma bravely scrambled in under the rosebush and cedars by our trailer to take pictures of Tottie Tomato and the Quimper Hittys that had hopped into their traveling basket.

Bravely, say I, as Jim had been eaten alive by the fierce rosebush when he stalwartly anchored our awning, while being pierced by the lovely rosebush’s monstrous thorns!

Luckily, the rosebush allowed us to take pictures of our girls together.

And, I took pictures of the Quimper Hittys’ human as she got the girls posed together.

Tottie Tomato and Perdita Quimper Hitty especially took to each other.

They were both so pleased to meet another doll of greenish hue!

Tottie Tomato was delighted to meet Min, Agathe, Constance and of course, Perdita.

Mungo Hitty had come along to see what all the excitement was about, but balked at being photographed.

It was a wonderful morning, sipping tea with a kindred spirit!

The Quimper Hittys gave Tottie Tomato some very beautiful gifts, which she showed admiringly to Pinkie and Blue Bear, as well as Wee Charlotte who lives in my traveling tatting case:

There were other splendid gifts, and I will tell you about them very soon 🙂

And, I hope that you are sipping tea with a kindred spirit, too, perhaps admiring a tiny pot of lavender and marveling at

Mouse Melons!

2 Comments

Filed under doll & dolls & dollmaking & doll making

Tagged as doll making, hand carved wooden doll, Hitty, Hitty dolls, Noreen Crone-Findlay, Quimper Hittys, Tottie Tomato, wooden doll, wooden dolls

August 5, 2014 · 4:00 pm

The Fairy Door opens again

Tottie Tomato and Peggotty Caroline heard sounds coming from the Fairy Door down by the apple tree.

What’s that?

A hand!

A hand opening the Fairy Door?

Oh!

A new friend!

Tottie Tomato shakes hands with Victoria Kjersten Hitty, known as ‘Tennie’, but, Peggotty Caroline is so excited to meet their new friend, that she throws her arms around Tennie in a welcoming hug.

Tottie Tomato and Peggotty Caroline decide immediately that Tennie Hitty is going to be a good friend.

Sometimes, you can just tell, can’t you?

And, they are thrilled that Tennie has come through the Fairy Door to live in the studio with them.

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay www.crone-findlay.com

Tottie Tomato and Peggotty Caroline are very interested to hear all about how Tennie came to be behind the Fairy Door…. I’m sure she’ll tell them all about it over a lovely cup of tea.

7 Comments

Filed under doll & dolls & dollmaking & doll making

Tagged as doll, doll making, dollmaking, dolls, Fairy Door, hand carved wooden doll, Hitty doll, Noreen Crone-Findlay, Peggotty Caroline, Tennie Hitty, Tottie Tomato, wooden doll, wooden dolls

July 20, 2014 · 4:17 pm

On the river

Yesterday, my husband and I, and our son and his wife and her sister, and our daughter and her husband and their son and her husband’s parents all had a blissful ‘staycation’.

Here’s Jim and me with our beloved little grandson, watching the world go by, thanks to the gigantic paddle wheels.

We had a magical ride on the Edmonton Riverboat Queen, which paddles up and down the North Saskatchewan River in the heart of Edmonton, Alberta.

I have driven, walked, and biked over the river. I have walked along it, and even dabbled my feet in it, but I have Never. Been. ON. it.

Jim and our son and his wife have all canoed and kayaked it, but not me.

I am a ‘fire’ person, not so much, well, not at all, a’ water’ baby.

But, oh, my goodness! I really got it about how wonderful it is to be ‘messing about in boats’, as Ratty in Wind in the Willows always says….

It was ‘time out of time’, and I had a whole new sense of the history of the city, as we saw how the original people of this land would have seen it.

And, also, how the Voyageurs would have paddled their gigantic loads up and down it.

The rain had been pelting down, so it started out cool and overcast, but in typical Alberta summer fashion, the sun soon poured through and layers came off.

We topped off the afternoon with a wonderful picnic, and the singing of variations on birthday greeting songs, as many of the family are summertime babies.

Truly a magical day, filled with beautiful times.

I am blessed.

🙂

8 Comments

Filed under personal stuff

Tagged as Chloe Findlay-Harder, Edmonton AB Canada, Edmonton Queen Riverboat, Edmonton Riverboat Queen, family times, paddle boat, picnic, riverboat

July 13, 2014 · 10:13 am

Woven Women- Edith’s Song

I’ve just finished weaving a new piece that I have called: ‘Edith’s Song: No Regrets’:

For the last 3 weeks, I have been weaving away, loving working on a sampler for Part One of Rebecca Mezoff’s online tapestry weaving workshop. LINK to her course outlines. (Love the course, highly recommend it!)

While I was weaving it, I got inspired to weave the last section in 3 panels- one for the torso, and 2 for the arms.

I shaped the upper edge in a semi circle to be the neckline of her bodice, and left empty triangles at the elbows so I could shape bent arms.

I pulled the warp strands to bend the arms and to shape her torso.

I chose to leave the slits unstitched in the lower panel so I could weave in narrow bands that I had previously woven on my double hole rigid heddle loom.

I also used the narrow bands as the hem and other embellishments.

I cut the head, hands and feet from 1/4 inch plywood.

The wings were a serendipitous thrift shop find.

The beads around her face are a peyote stitch tube that I made a couple of years ago and have been waiting for the perfect project.

Woven on my 16 inch Mirrix loom, using Paternayan tapestry yarn that I inherited from my mother and handspun from my daughter in law.

She makes me feel happy. 🙂

6 Comments

Filed under Loom & looms & small loom weaving, tapestry, weaving & handwoven, Woven Women tapestries and woven works

Tagged as hand weaving, hand woven, Mirrix loom, Noreen Crone-Findlay, Rebecca Mezoff, Rebecca Mezoff online tapestry workshop, tapestry, Woven Women tapestry by Noreen Crone-Findlay

July 1, 2014 · 2:23 pm

Juerga Flamenca at the Works Festival June 2014

Last night, my wonderful husband, Jim Findlay’s flamenco trio, Juerga Flamenca, played at the Works Festival in Edmonton Alberta Canada.

Juerga Flamenca means a flamenco gathering or ‘jam’.

The players are: Jim Findlay, guitar, Clint Pelletier, guitar, Dean Pierno, percussion – master players all, and three of the loveliest, most wonderful men you could ever imagine!

Jim wrote all but one of the tunes that they played…. it was just so wonderful!!!!

Sorry about the wobbly shakiness of the video…. I forgot to bring a tripod, and sitting still is not my strong suit!

Oh, bliss…. I LOVE Jim’s music!

4 Comments

Filed under personal stuff

Tagged as Clint Pelletier, Dean Pierno, Edmonton Alberta Canada, Flamenca, flamenco, flamenco guitar, flamenco music, Jim Findlay, Juerga Flamenca, music, The Works Festival Edmonton Alberta Canada, Works Festival

July 1, 2014 · 10:55 am

Tapestry diary June 2014 -Doorway

Having committed to weaving a tapestry diary for the year of 2014 has been a wonderful experience for me.

As I have been experimenting with my diary pieces, I have come to a huge ‘aha’ about the ways that I love to work.

I have found that weaving tiny tapestries, 3 inches/7.5 cm by 5 inches/12.5 cm truly makes my heart sing.

Here is my completed tiny tapestry for the month of June:

I wanted to show the small size of the tapestry by placing it in the context of my studio, and I inadvertently included a little self revelation that made me flinch when I first saw the pic.

My little rock with ‘good enough’ in chalk….. not feeling good enough has been a life long struggle for me, and it’s rather ouchie to have my little ‘good enough’ rock in the photo.

BUT, I figured that I am not alone in this struggle, so, what the heck…. if it feels too uncomfortable to leave the pic as is, I can take it down… but… maybe it could be helpful to someone else who navigates that particular minefield, too, so, I’ll leave it for now.

To be honest, the weaving in this piece does have aspects that are not good enough.

But, as I have lived with now for the few days since I finished it, I have decided that there’s more to it than meets the eye, and I like how I have had ‘aha’ moments with it- finding new meaning in it.

One of the rules of the tapestry diary that I have made for myself is that I have to ask myself:

Where am I right now? What am I working on?

And, then do a drawing that feels like it has possibilities to show me more about that.

When I began my June drawing, I was deeply grieving the death of one of our beloved little dogs, as well as several other losses.

It made me really aware of how those we love do come and go, and how tender and precious life is…. and that’s what came up in the drawing and the weaving.

On the other hand, my daughter in law thinks it looks like something out of Star Trek or sci fi.

LOL!!!! That works for me! I say: If you see something in it that I didn’t, then, YAY! that’s a win.

….. and that’s good enough for me…..

🙂

9 Comments

Filed under Loom & looms & small loom weaving, tapestry, weaving & handwoven

Tagged as diary, handweaving, handwoven, Noreen Crone-Findlay, tapestry, Tapestry Diary

June 20, 2014 · 7:30 am

Woven Sloth

The day my daughter said to me: “Mum, you should design a woven sloth!”, turned out to be a happy one 🙂

I had always liked sloths, but until I started designing one, I didn’t realize how incredibly enchanting they are.

Their sweet nature is so clear to see on their faces!

I’ve been weaving and selling sloths in my booth at Maker’s Faires and Artisan Markets for more than a year and a half now, and people just love them- they always spark a chortle or a grin.

My daughter in law wants me to make one for her to hang on her spinning wheel, so I got out my potholder loom today and started working on one for her.

She told me that this week is ‘International Sloth Week’, so I thought… okay….

it’s time to publish my pattern in honour of the sweet slowpokes!