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while in philadelphia this summer, my Dot Dot Dash show came down and the work traveled around the corner to the clay studio. 
i was lucky enough to witness the work on display in the front window! oo la la!
attn: Kansas City
RIC RAC ROUNDUP!
SATURDAY JULY 24 9-4pm
Parking Lot @ 300 Westport Rd.
i'm actually doing a craft fair IN TOWN! please do check it out - i will have the normal foldedpigs line as well as the foldedpigs 2nd sale! woo hoo! buy one 2nd, get one 2nd half off!
my good friend whitney got hitched a few weeks ago & i was lucky enough to be in the wedding party. the whole shebang was beautiful & the flowers were dynamite! i pulled my bridesmaid bouquet apart and put it in a Paul Donnelly flower brick. it looked so great that i had to take a picture & post it!
i love love love the color combo.
more summer updates to follow...
last weekend i took a workshop on how to make victorian hair flowers. it took place in "leila's hair museum" in independence, mo, and was taught by leila herself.
we started out with "flatwork". basically like decoupaging with hair - also has a bit of paint by numbers quality. here is a detail from my flatwork project.
it's like hair veneer!
then we moved into learning the basic "stitches" of hair flower construction. i did not made these "gimp" stitches, this just shows what it's suppose to look like and to show how small it can be...just wait until you see my attempt. ugh.
here are a couple stitches i made - the "fold" & "loop". for all the stitches, they look different depending on how much hair you use and the length.
now if i made a ton of these, i could make 1 flower. ha.
here's the ATTEMPT at the "gimp". it's the most used stitch as far as i can tell and i'm totally determined to master it! my first attempts are really not so good. it's wrapped around different size knitting, crochet, or darning needles, and are wired stitched together. once again, each different size needle used & amount of hair will change the look. you can use really small amounts of hair: 2 -4 stands. i could never get the wire tight enough!
now for the pros...
i was able to take some photos in the museum. the quality is not the best because they're all under glass, but you'll get the idea. here are a few of my favorite wreaths. this one is GIANT!
a few details from the above wreath. there are some extra beads here and there that make up some of the centers of the flowers.
a more fine line wreath. it's unique in that every single flower in this one is different. only 4-6 hairs were used in each petal.
this one is made completely from dyed horse hair - in theory it was made by a native american woman. i really do love the color and it makes me want to get my hands on some horse hair.
a detail of the dyed horse hair. it almost looks like fishing line in person.
leila took a picture of me in the museum... it's a bit blurry, but it gives an idea of how large her collection is. the entire museum(2 rooms) is covered floor to ceiling with wreaths. 
this will be an ongoing project for me!
i love love love the color combo.
here are a couple stitches i made - the "fold" & "loop". for all the stitches, they look different depending on how much hair you use and the length. 
here's the ATTEMPT at the "gimp". it's the most used stitch as far as i can tell and i'm totally determined to master it! my first attempts are really not so good. it's wrapped around different size knitting, crochet, or darning needles, and are wired stitched together. once again, each different size needle used & amount of hair will change the look. you can use really small amounts of hair: 2 -4 stands. i could never get the wire tight enough!
now for the pros...
a few details from the above wreath. there are some extra beads here and there that make up some of the centers of the flowers.
a more fine line wreath. it's unique in that every single flower in this one is different. only 4-6 hairs were used in each petal.
this one is made completely from dyed horse hair - in theory it was made by a native american woman. i really do love the color and it makes me want to get my hands on some horse hair.
a detail of the dyed horse hair. it almost looks like fishing line in person.
leila took a picture of me in the museum... it's a bit blurry, but it gives an idea of how large her collection is. the entire museum(2 rooms) is covered floor to ceiling with wreaths. 
this will be an ongoing project for me!
the museum is only a few rooms, but they are jammed packed full of an amazing hair work collection. 
i just signed up for the hair flower workshop given by leila herself (pictured above) to take place in a few weeks. !!!!!!!!
(i am pretty sure the white hair is actually horse hair and not human.)
ps - rita's did not supply the swedish fish topper...
