Needle Felted Humpty Dumpty
I’ve been wanting to needle felt Humpty Dumpty for a long time; I saw the kid’s movie Puss in Boots the other day and all the cute fairy tale characters in the movie inspired me to finally make him. I didn’t have a detailed image of Humpty in my mind before I started him, I just knew that he should look like he just stepped out of the pages of Mother Goose’s nursery rhymes.
Humpty lives life on the edge.
I also imagined that my Humpty would be living his life to the fullest, taking chances and not always taking the “safe road”. I wanted Humpty to balance on the wall he’s so famously known to be sitting on. How did he just fall off a wall while sitting there; he doesn’t really look athletic to me, but really! So my Humpty is walking along his wall, dancing, moving and balancing.
Humpty Dumpty is fearless
Humpty Dumpty detail
Of course the face is my favorite part of the doll, I’ve come to the conclusion that one of my next projects should be needle felting a “portrait” or bust of a real person to see how close I can come to achieving a likeness. Portraits were one of my favorite things to draw and paint; I haven’t done one in quite a long time.
Humpty on stage
My kids think my Humpty Dumpty is “creepy”, but then they think all dolls that don’t look young and storybook beautiful are ugly. I asked them to imagine who this guy is, what does he do for a living and why is is cavorting on a stone wall! I think Humpty looks kind and is probably an eccentric. What do you think?
Humpty Dumpty 2012
Humpty Dumpty is needle felted from wool. He has glass eyes. He stands 11″ tall x 4.5″ wide.
The Cow Jumped Over the moon
Hey diddle diddle
The cat and the fiddle
The cow jumped over the moon
The little dog laughed to see such sport
And the dish ran away with the spoon
(Hey Diddle Diddle, a traditional English nursery rhyme, published in 1765, author unknown)
Needle Felted Moon
Nursery rhymes help children learn to speak (they use alliteration, onomatopoeia, similes, rhymes to help memory and basic sentence structure ), nursery rhymes help teach children counting skills (for example: One, two button my shoe), teach life lessons (Little Bo Peep lost her sheep because she was snoozing on the job) and nursery rhyhmes entertain. Many rhymes were based on tawdry and grotesque historical events inappropriate for children (for example: Ring Around the Rosie is about the plague) and were thus re-written by the Victorians to better represent the times and make them more suitable for children. For me, fairy tales and nursery rhymes just bring back nice childhood memories.
Over the Moon
Would you ever have guessed in a million years that the cow jumping over the moon was supposed to represent Hathor worship (the Egyptian cow goddess) or the Jewish Flight from Egypt or stories about Queen Elizabeth I and her royal court. Nothing is as it seems in a nursery rhyme, often the earliest oral versions of the stories were lost and non-sense evolved, but this fact has not kept people from analyzing them. I was relieved to read that the cow jumping over the moon in Hey Diddle Diddle was probably just a nonsensical tale, with no deeper psychological musings!
Needle Felted Nursery Rhymes
vintage shirts
July 1st was my birthday, I started the day like off at the flea market. Going to the flea market has been a yearly birthday ritual of mine. I went by myself this year which made it a quiet, reflective and enjoyable trip.
apartment overlooking the flea market
This is a beautiful, old apartment overlooking one of the main streets of the flea market. When I see interesting homes, I like to imagine who lives in them and their lives might be like.
nargila shop
I wandered through the crowded streets, looking at the old, vintage/junk items for sale. This year I wasn’t as excited about being in the flea market as in previous years; I found everything was messy and crowded together, which hadn’t bothered me in the past. I felt a need for order and peacefulness as I manuvered through the market.
an old shop with lots of character
I left the flea market and crossed the street into the old city of Jaffa. The old city is on the sea, I felt the need to be by the sea. I’ve been to the old city so many times that I challenged myself to to see things differently, so my photos would be new and fresh.
funny, tall trees next to the Jaffa church tower
The first thing I encountered as I approached the old city was a dilapidated building, as I passed it I heard very loud chirping. ! ? I turned around to peer into the glassless windows to see what was making so much noise. The crumbling, vaulted ceilings were COVERED with little bats hanging upside down. There were four owl bodies hanging down from the ceiling, obviously they were meant to scare the bats away, but it wasnt’ working at all. There were so many of them that the ceiling appeared black and undulating. I continued on.
Jaffa port
I ate lunch at a seaside restauant that looked Greek. After lunch, I continued on my way down the smooth, ancient and winding stairs of the city, into the port area. The Jaffa port is authentic, it’s dirty, the boats are working boats, there are piles of fishing nets topped by florescent buoyies, there are no fancy yachts. There are no chic boutiques lining the port area as there are in many other ports I’ve seen (the Tel Aviv port being one of them), but there is a fish restauant and a bars/art galleries in the old warehouse spaces which appealed to me very much. There is art all over the port inside and out.
giant murals cover a warehouse
One warehouse in particular was covered in huge murals, all the characters appeared bleak and many offered to mutilate themselves for something in return, I think it was the opportunity to be taught something. All the graffiti and art I saw was depressing. Is that the state of affairs of Israeli-Arab artists? I suppose it could be, Israel is an intense and often depressing place if you live in reality here. Many choose to ignore what’s going on around them, it’s how you live a more peaceful life.
huge bar/gallery space
I found a huge bar/gallery space in the port. Such large spaces are rare. The walls were covered by wire sculptures.
man trying to fly?
This figure seems to be trying to fly or he is floundering in some way-interesting, but depressing-again.
crumbling Jaffa building
I noticed that I had a bit of a sunburn, so in the late afternoon I started heading back home.
heading home along the sea
I was pleased with my day of photography and the moments I’d captured. It was now time to go home and take a birthday nap!
best friends
I took a photo of these two dogs (the original, real live dogs) in India. They were sleeping at the base of a monument, one was using the other’s rear end as a pillow and they were the most raggedy dogs I’d ever seen…but they looked happy.
Let sleeping dogs lie.
It took me a week to make this sculpture, working on and off between the girls’ end of the school year activities. I find these two dogs sweet, I think the black and white cow patterned dog is much older than the blond dog, maybe she’s the mother. My girls look at the original photo and tell me that “everyone needs a butt for a pillow”, oh silly girls!
May I use your butt as a pillow?
As I felted these dogs, I thought about friendship and how a few very good friends are a gift and that the simple things in life are the best. These dogs brought many nice things to mind as I felt, felt, felted away.
sleeping dogs detail
MY bone
I've been waiting all my life for a bone like this!
oh crap
sigh......
