February

February.

The shortest month in terms of days and yet it is the month that somehow seems the longest to many people.

The excitement of Christmas and New Year are long past and although the days are getting longer, there is still more dark night than sunlight, and there is that cold to deal with.

There seem to be many fire celebrations that have been historically celebrated in the month of February.
St Bridget's day, Candlemas, Imbloc, and Groundhog Day. All seem to have something to do with the return of the sun. Which is a big ball of fire.

So I decided that February would be about fire.

Prototype of fire.

 The prototype was not exactly what I would call successful. It was rather blob like and not as defined as I thought that "fire" should be. But I learned from my mistake. As often happens, I learned what not to do.

I didn't like the black on the bottom so I removed it. I stitched the vessel that was soft felted in a shibori technique and then felted some more.

Stitched vessel

 I then undid the stitches and using a small stick pushed the sides out to resemble the traditional flame.

Here is a detail of the texture created by felting while stitched. I see a whole world of possibilities opening up!