Needle Felted Work by Jolene Klassen

My needle felting guru Jolene has been working for 9 months on a commission and has finally finished and delivered it. In the below photo he his 99% complete.

Photo by Bob Holliday

Despite the problems that life has thrown her way she has managed to find the time to endlessly stick a needle into a bundle of wool fibres and create this wonderful creature "Trek". Here he is with the actual Trek.

Yes, I'm in awe too! The earliest photos I have of this creation is before his fur and while he is getting his ears and lower jaw.

 

And these, Jolene tells me she is working  is on positioning of the ears and decided to rework them. The nose needed to be reduced in size. "Luckily in needle felting that is easy to do."
In the last photo...  “Well, how do I look?”  A silly pose, we just gotta have fun!  I made a new set of front legs, these came out a bit too long.

Sorry I've been out of touch

Since my mom's passing, I've been so busy closing up her apartment and sorting through the bits and pieces of her life. I'd thought that once that was all done, life would get back to normal. Unfortunately my normal was sharing the day to day with my mom. So everyday since the busyness of all that comes with re-renting her apartment, I'm trying to rediscover who I am without my mom. I thought I had a pretty good idea, but I had no idea how much the things I did with her touched every part of my life.

I now need to figure out a new routine. I am finding the usual schedule of phone calls and dinners, what I watch on tv and when is all affected. I have been living with the tv off most days and just sorting through stuff or reading a book is what I do most. I grieve in the weirdest places. shopping for plants, groceries, going to the library, the bank. I try to do all of them and sometimes have to leave the store. I'm sure these things will pass as I suck it up and try to get past it. But mostly lately, I've been avoiding. I think I don't necessarily need a routine, maybe no routine is best for me right now. I'll do it what and when I feel like it.

I know this is a sad post, but it's where I am right now. It's only my studio to be sorted out now. I got a lot of my mom's crafty stuff, so although I've sorted through the bits I would like to keep, I need to find a home for them. I hope once that is done I'll feel creative again.
I started a doll about three weeks ago, thoughts  from the Snow White and the Huntsman movie, that I hope to get back to soon and will post some pics.
Thanks for bearing with me. I really do appreciate all your kind messages, it's only now I've found the courage to rejoin the world. I really miss my mom.
Thank You!