The Fyber Cafe

Today I finished some paper pots. The glass pots are covered with very fragile paper from a wasp nest that I collected this spring from under my deck. I made a point to use large pieces to keep the swirls intact as much as possible to make the pots to look like the nest ball. The black paper on the rim is my handmade paper. The tassels are twisted wool yarn and the large pot has a woven band I bought in Peru. I also finished a flat ancient-looking pot with my handmade papers, some ink and black painted burlap backing. It reminded my of all our travels in Utah’s canyon country with the Anasazi ruins and relics.

I finished my little Peruvian Burial Dolls collage! I used burlap backing, a reused wooden frame, my handmade paper, and these delightful and precious little dolls found at my local Goodwill. From my research, I believe the dolls are reconstructions of ancient dolls which had been buried along with Mayan family members in Peru, with the technique and most of the fabrics coming from the 1000+ year old graves themselves. The dolls are made with an assemblage of fabrics collected last century near the pilfered graves. The graves had been raided over the last few centuries (where more valuable items have been stolen) and the fabric pieces abandoned and scattered on the ground. The dolls had been sewn together on a 1/2 inch thick backing piece made with rough fabric and filled with crunchy plant fibers. I feel grateful to have found them and able to celebrate their adorable sweetness as well as preserve their history. The last two photos show the first Peruvian Burial dolls I found years ago in a Denver import shop and then mounted them on my handwoven fabric and a wood frame. The third photo shows a close-up of the dolls and you can see the rough primitive nature of the ancient fabrics.

Hi y’all - this week I ran out of dog hair commissions so had a welcome chance to play with my handmade papers. On the left is a batch of new greeting cards I decorated with paint and other stuff. On the right photo are three new woven collages with my papers and ammonites (fossils), with the lower right piece decorated with some rusty sweeper-truck brush-bristles I found in the street gutters on my daily dog walks. The lower left piece in this photo is still an idea - I scored the little family of Peruvian burial dolls from Goodwill and looked them up on AI. These are replica burial dolls made with last century’s dolls clothed in ancient fabrics rescued from pilfered burial sites in Peru. I hope I can conjure up a collage worthy of their millenial-plus history.

Holy shamoli look what my neighborhood biome has gifted to me! After my son’s sting when last we inspected this humongous paper wasp nest under my porch in late 2025, I vowed to tame the herd. Er hive. So today I grabbed at stick and donned running shoes and heroically vanquished the under-porch beasties straight on. Hence no more stings or freeBee abode (so to speak). The basketball-sized nest came down and I collected all the fiber remnants. What spectacular paper fiber gifts they were! I am eager now to do another big batch of handmade paper and see what these paper-thin beautiful layers of locally-derived papery stock will create! I am simply the medium and they are the creators. Stay tuned!

This is why I keep doing what I do. This Email welcomed me this morning after my client had opened her box with the bridge landscape and dog hair yarn I made for her (see previous post). It gave me chills. I love what I do, but reading something like this touches me far beyond just the love of making stuff. It really is about the human connection, shared excitement, and of course loving those dogs!

While readying for our recent sailing venture in Washington, we took time to stop at Deception Pass just south of Anacortes where our boat was waiting for charter. I knew then that I had a felted landscape commission to do which would be based on a photo provided by my client who lives in Anacortes. The commission had started for me simply to spin her dogs’ fur (5 of them) into yarn and then grew into including the landscape. During our stop at this bridge, I studied the powerful current and beauty and stance of the bridges (2 of them) and tried to capture this dynamic place in my mind. Deception Pass is a narrow pass which connects the Strait of Juan de Fuca and ultimately the Pacific Ocean with the water channel east of Whidbey Island and the north wing of Puget Sound near Everett. Each day as the moon passes across the earth, its gravity pulls oceanic waters into tides which surge beneath and then retreat away. The tidal changes in this area are many feet deep, so imagine how much water flows every day from west to east and back to fill then drain this immense waterway through a channel as narrow as Deception Pass (see map - toothpick points to Deception Pass). Boats ride the surge but cannot cross it. When I returned to Denver, I finished this commission based on the photo provided by my client. The felted landscape is made mostly of dog hair, with highlights from dyed blue and green wool and Bombyx silk for the sun and shimmers.

Today Shilah and I crashed the Goldens in Golden annual crush of dogs to enjoy being in a crowd that was mostly non-human. We crashed the event because Shilah is not a Golden Retriever. But my mittens and business card holder are Golden Retriever brushings, my hat was pure sheltie, and my scarf was collie. No one tried to pet my hat or mittens though they are friendlier than my dog as far as getting petted by strangers.

Here’s a new way to use dog hair - sent to me by a recent client for whom I made a hat with his Akita fur (second photo below). My client is a repeat client and loves his dog of course and the matching blanket I made for him this summer. The German shepherd belongs to a friend of his, and I just might hear from him soon and get to spin up this luscious fiber!

A couple more made yesterday. The left side one I named Grimmacing Grammy and possible friend to Hannibal Lector. But someone thought she looked like an Indian Warrior. So I have renamed her…Grammbo - Native Warrior! Watch out!

While nursing a fever (my first in over 25 years) and a virus invader for weeks, it has been easier than usual to just hang around, shirk my waiting commission work, and let my hands play uninterupted in the studio. Yarn and rocks became the chosen medium. I have been using unusual materials for a rock wrapper (usually just rocks and caning) because that’s what I have: beads, stencils, candy wrappers, found objects, estate sale trinkets, discount rock show finds, ungroomed wool wads, repurposed jewelry, heaping piles of yarns. Despite all the new work it has not made a dent in the SABLE (Stash Amassed Beyond Life Expectancy). One group of new favorites is my new “rock” band (they only play Wrap music on hair guitars - teehee). Two of the members (Keith Richards and Janis) were featured in the Denver Post’s 2025 Music Guide. So now they are famous even though they still cannot carry a tune.