Christmas craft time with my cousins

Over Christmas I spent a night at my aunt Naomi's and pretty much brought my entire studio with me.  I went with the intentions teaching her and her three daughters (8, 11, 13) about textile art.  We ended up having two days of crazy craft time; 'crazy' being me thinking we should do EVERYTHING!

Here's what we did beginning at about 4pm on day one:

-hand-painted and steamed merino wool fleece
-hand-painted and batched cotton yarn
-block printed with found objects, and hand-painted on cotton with pigment

On day two we wet felted with the wool we had painted the day before.  They all did such a great job and I had a blast.  I had the privilege of spending the night in Celia's loft bedroom with her.  We spent the evening discerning which drawings on her wall were our favourites (I miss being 8).  My aunt will think twice before inviting me over again; we were all pretty pooped by the end. 

As you can tell they love rodents.  They pretty much have a little farm out there in Halfmoon Bay; three bunnies, one guinea pig, a dog and a hamster. 

And yes, that is a bassoon Allison is holding (popular for it's melody in the Pink Panther song).