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Month: May 2012

Giveaway Winner and some Texture photos

Giveaway Winner and some Texture photos

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The winner of the notebook giveaway is….. Mattie! 🙂 

Thanks to everyone who joined in and left nice comments.

Textures

I’ve been working on a project about using ‘other’ fibres in felting and noticed that ‘texture’ has been a common theme lately. I thought I’d post some photos showing different textures from wet felted pieces I’ve made. This first piece is green organza which was used as a base:

This is the top, strips of organza over blocks of coloured Merino:

This is another organza base, a slightly stiffer gold:

This is a piece of cerise organza:

This is a close up of silk in textured nuno felting:

This is a blue-green piece of textured felt, made with lots of layers and inclusions and felted mostly in the washing machine:
 
And lastly, this is a piece of texture felt using reds, pinks, oranges and yellow shades:
 

Do you have any photos of textural felt? How do you like to create it? Do you like to add to your felt to create texture with stitch or other fabrics and fibres? I’d love to see photos of your work 🙂

First Quarter Update

First Quarter Update

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I try throughout the year to review my intentions and make sure I am “focusing” on the essentials. My word for the year is focus and it has been a helpful word so far. You can see my original post about my goals for 2012 here. I have a tendency to see something new or see someone else’s projects and want to dash off and start trying out that new technique or idea. This year, before I veer off course, I say to myself “focus” and then I step back for a moment and determine if I should really try out this new and exciting idea, or just write it down and save it for later.

One of my biggest focus points this year is my Level II Hand and Machine stitch class. I have been working very hard on my homework which was mainly Kantha stitch. When I first tried this stitch I wasn’t too impressed and thought I wouldn’t really like it. But after a bit of practice, I have to say I’ve really enjoyed it. Now I when I see a pattern, I think, hmmm… that might work well for Kantha stitch. I will be off to our third session at the end of this month and we’ll be concentrating on machine embroidery.

In regards to my other intentions for the year, I have started teaching classes at my local yarn store and that has been amazing. I find that I love to teach felting, it’s such fun to share my passion with others and encourage them to get hooked by the “felting bug”. I did preliminary investigation into teaching at the community college but I think that needs to wait until I’m finished with my stitch course.

I mentored several artists in my gallery and went over some of the same information that I have been writing about in my Marketplace Monday articles. Again, it is rewarding to be able to pass on information I’ve learned over my 14 years as a shopkeeper to artists that are just starting out. I’m sure I’ll continue with this mentoring activity.

I have been keeping up with our blog here and the forum. That really isn’t a chore at all as I love the interaction between felt makers all over the world. It’s great fun. I have been struggling with Ann’s latest challenge of abstraction but I’m sure I can work something out in the next couple of months.

I have started on a bit of planning for the yurt project and that will be ongoing. I also did a bit of exploration into the combination of machine stitching with felt and hand stitching with felt. Our surface design group continues to play with various techniques. Our latest activity was making hand-made paper. I’ll show the results of that soon.

The two things on my list that I have not started on at all are making video tutorials and learning more about Photoshop. I did get a video camera but I haven’t even turned it on or looked at how it works. I plan on starting work on the videos this summer. Zed inspired me with her videos that she posted on the forum.

We’re already four months into 2012. I think I have done fairly well on keeping my focus. I have found the best way to meet your goals is to just get started. Don’t keep studying what you plan on doing, just begin. That is the most important step for me. That and turning off the television and ignoring the computer. How are you doing on meeting your goals or plans of what you want to accomplish this year? I’d love to hear how you’re doing.

Felted Cityscape

Felted Cityscape

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I was asked about my cityscape in gallery so  I thought I would tell you about it. I made it about 3 years ago so there are no pictures of it going together .  The base is wet felted. There are 2 layers of merino, then a layer of cotton gauze and then 2 more layers of merino. I added the cotton gauze to make sure it wouldn’t sag when the temperature and humidity goes up.  I do live in Canada and although many people think its cold here all the time the summer temperature gos up above 85 frequently and we get high humidity to go with it.  I also wet felted several rectangles in diferant colours for the buildings and the windows. To put it together I used a little feltcraft needle felting machine.

small feltcraft needlfelting machine.

I placed all the buildings on the background and then tacked them in place by hand. Just a few quick jabs to keep them where I wanted them. I then went over all over them thoroughly with the little machine. I only broke a few needles.

I put the windows in with a single  needle first. I was afraid they would disappear if the corners were not well anchored.  Then went over them again with the machine.  The moon and the haze around it where put in the same way.  The stars are pearl beads, hand stitched to the background . Originally I wanted to sell this one so I made a smaller one to keep. I ended up keeping them both. I never did  offer it for sale. The moon in the smaller picture isn’t actually blue. the felt I used to make it was quite thin and the black showing through it makes it look blueish.

wet and machine felted aprox 20×15
wet and machine felted picture aprox 10×10
Giveaway

Giveaway

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We thought it was time for another giveaway!

A few weeks ago I did a post about a piece of felt I’d made with lots of natural fibres, with the intention of making a notebook cover out of it. Well, I’ve finally made the cover 🙂 So if you’d like to win a notebook with a handmade, hand sewn felt cover, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post.

This is the front of the book:

Back:

And inside:

The notebook is lined and a standard A6 size, which is about 4.25 x 6 inches.

The competition ends next Tuesday at 10 am UK time. I will announce the winner sometime on Tuesday, so please check back then, and if you have won, please leave a comment on the post so I can contact you for shipping info. Thanks a lot and Good Luck!