Felted Landscapes

These felted landscapes are interpretations of my own nature photographs, constructed by wet-felting the background of the photograph, then needle felting in mid-ground and foreground details.  Most are ready for framing.

This woodland landscape features layers of trees and a forest floor pattern of leafy groundcovers.

Hollyhocks stand against the stone wall of a Mineral Point building.

Poppies dance in the sunlight.

Detail from Poppies

Yellow coneflowers wave in a summer breeze in the prairie garden.

Crabapples reflect from the still early morning surface of a lake.

An aspen woodland of contrasting white and green.

Bloodroot is a spring wildflower of the woodlands that is beautiful and fascinating.  Green-blue leaves hold water droplets in a shower, delicate flowers attract pollinators, and the sap of the stems and roots is a brilliant orange, giving the plant its name.

Detail of the flower.

The diversity of a prairie flowers from a photo taken at a restoration  in late summer.

 A nest in the branches of an orchard tree.

Fall colors in a mixed species woodland.

A birdnest nestled into the stems and leaves of a vine.

Fall Art Tour 2010

Fall Art Tour happens on the third weekend of October each year in the Mineral Point area. While not actually on the tour map, I am surrounded by those who are and so I demonstrate one of my media on that day. This year again, I was felting. Working with images from my nature photographs, I pre-make the wet-felted background mats during the week prior, and then during the event, add details and foreground images to the mats with needle felting. Felting needles have fine notches along their edges that grab the fibers of the yarns or wool fleece and push them into the felted mat to hold them onto it. This process builds up an artwork image much like layers of oil painting are built up. The finished images are about 9 inches by about 13 inches and are available as is for your own framing or in a shadowbox frame. Both works need some finishing touches such as squaring up the edges, but these are my results for FAT 2010.

During the event, I also made a felted vessel by wrapping roving around a children's play ball and wet felting it. This forms a hollow vessel of felted fiber. This yellow-orange and rust vessel is about 8 inches wide and about 7 inches tall.

The felted oak leaves will be $380 unframed or $420 framed plus $25 shipping. The trilliums will be $420 unframed or $460 framed, plus $25 shipping. The vessel is $85 plus $5 shipping. Call 630-728-9998 or email. Other vessels and felted pictures are available.

Paintings and Fiber Art by Sheri Lee Butler

Sheri Lee Butler has new fun paintings in the gallery. Vibrant colors and textures that make you want to go up close for a better look make these pieces a delight. Her fiber art features female figures ornamented for a celebration of life. They are made of wool and other fibers felted and tied and sewn onto art canvases and ready to hang on your living room, family room, bedroom, or office wall.

Checkered Animals Paintings by Sheri Lee Butler

Sheri Lee's whimsical series of animals in checkerboard patterns are delightful and fun. Choose one of these or ask her do the animal profile of your choice as a custom order. This is the fun side of Sheri's often serious work.

Wood Strip Canoes by Randy Pfeifer

These canoes are custom made of cedar wood strips bent around a form. The artist glues each strip on individually, using no staples or ties, resulting in a perfect flawless exterior. The wood is covered inside and out with fiberglass and epoxy to render it water-tight and lake- and river-worthy. Gunwale design, seat design, deck design and other details can be individualized, and a number of shapes and sizes are available. Custom inlay work can decorate the sides of the boats, and dark and light strips allow design elements to grace the hull of the canoe. These boats will turn heads, whether on the car roof-top carrier, in the water, or hanging from the ceiling of your home. They are beautiful.

Jimi Lee Weber Baskets

Karma Grotelueschen's Painted Silk Scarves

Using a resist process, nature motifs are painted onto 100% silk scarves.

Tiny Playdoh Food

Nate, the Glassblower

Cheryl Mahowald's Collage

Karma Grotelueschen's Ink & Brush Drawings

Sheri Butler's Fur Dog

An ongoing project, FurDog is the studio mascot and guardian, and is NOT available for adoption or purchse. Grrrrrrrrrrr.

Sheri Lee Butler's Waterlily Paintings