Some of us are serial monagamists, sometimes some of us eat cereal and beer for dinner, and more than a few things have serial numbers as well as serial ports. I am a serial artist. Or as Emilie Wapnick terms it, a “multipotentialite”. I suspect most miniaturists are.

At the 1975 GRAMMY Awards, when the impossibly fabulous David Bowie addressed the audience, “Ladies and gentlemen… and others…” something zigged and integrated in my awareness about all the way things could be. I remembered his words when I recently came across Jessica Peill-Meininghaus’ The Gnome Project, an engaging book chronicling “one woman’s wild and woolly adventure” making a needle felted gnome every day, for a year.

For a year!?…

Of course I had to see what this was about. I had a bunch of wool roving, chenille stems and felting needles on hand from other (abandoned) attempts — I wasn’t instantly as good as Victor Dubrovsky, for instance — and Jessica’s gnomes looked doable-enough.

I learned a lot from making the first one, dubbed Gnome001. Like needle felting is very, very repetitive and stabby.

And even more on the second one, Gnome002. Needle felting can be very, very painful, stabby sharp and barbed. And as Keli added: bleedy.

These two took me what seems like a disproportionally looong time to make over the course of two days. How a woman with four children at home made one gnome every day for a year is beyond me.

Last night, because of Hallowe’en champagne, they got braids :)

I have a Scandinavian tomten and nisse heritage, plus my elemental preference is more elven :) so I want to make these guys more my own “other”. Thinner, with ears, and boots.

Here’s the beginnings of GnomeOther003. Wish me inspiration, patience, an accelerated learning curve, and financially appropriate amounts of time?

Also: This year’s raccoons are total hooligans!