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Month: December 2019

My Year End Round Up and A Big Thank You

My Year End Round Up and A Big Thank You

Comments 14 comments

Each year towards the end of the year, I like to go back and review what I have created throughout the year. That is one reason that I like blogging. It helps keep track of what I have done and many times, by the end of the year, I have totally forgotten some of the things that happened at the beginning of the year. Does that happen to anyone else?

One of my themes this past year has been to “use stuff up”. My studio room is filled to overflowing and I need to get some of that stuff out of there. So many pieces were made to work on that goal.

These are some of the pieces that I created in the first quarter and used stuff up each time.

I completed my Level 3 Art & Design class with Gail Harker Creative Studies Center and we had our graduation in March. I really enjoyed this class, a lot of work, but fun!

I had two sessions of my online classes this past year and want to thank all my students for such a great job. It’s always fun to see what others create from online classes.

Another thing I experimented with this year was differential shrinkage with fiber layout and prefelt.

These were great fun and I plan on continuing with these experiments and perhaps adding some free motion machine stitching into the mix.

I did an experiment with Sulk Sticky Fabri-Solvy with machine stitching wool pieces together. I have also tried it as a pattern transfer with hand stitching and found it to be way too sticky to use with hand stitching. It makes me want to never hand stitch again! So I will stick to machine stitching with it.

This fall, my publisher reworked my original felting book into a new book called First Time Felting.

I reworked this still life into a new piece as I wasn’t happy with the original. This was part of the using stuff up movement 🙂

This past fall, I was ‘poked’ by one of Antje’s post to create a fabric collage landscape. This was inspired by a lake in Glacier National Park and I really liked the result even though it took quite a while to complete. I will probably do more of these types of collages as I have tons of dyed fabric to use up. So the theme of using stuff up will continue into 2020.

I thoroughly enjoyed Lyn and Annie’s quarterly challenges this year. Thanks for the challenges and I look forward to next year’s challenges.

And just to make things exciting, I started a new two year course with Gail Harker, Level 3 Stitch. I have been doing tons of color studies. You can see those on my personal blog Permutations in Fiber.

I would like to thank all of our contributors this year for all of your wonderful posts. We will be continuing with guest contributors in 2020 and if you have something to contribute, just let me know. You can also join our free forum to share your work. We love to see and hear about what all you felt and fiber artists are creating.

I would also like to thank everyone who gave to the “Zed Needs Your Help” campaign. We raised over $1,500.00 US and I am so grateful to all of you who helped out either by a donation or by purchasing an item from Felt by Zed. It was heartwarming to read all of your comments and to feel the love from our fiber community. Zed was overwhelmed by the response and will be writing a thank you to everyone soon.

Here’s wishing you a happy and creative year in 2020.

 

 

Plaited felt vessel

Plaited felt vessel

Comments 23 comments

This is a guest post by Kim Winter of Flextiles.

In September I started a two-year part -time basketry course at City Lit, which is an adult education institute in London. Although it’s only one day a week in college, there’s at least another day’s worth of homework, so it’s quite intense. But I am enjoying it immensely.

Plaited paper vessel

In the first half of the term we focused on plaiting, mainly with strips of watercolour paper. In the second half of the term we moved on to willow, which was much harder on the hands! You can read more about either of these subjects on my blog if you’re interested.

Stiff paper or card is ideal for plaiting, as you can get nice sharp edges and the structure retains its shape. But I like messing about with different materials, so I wondered what would happen if I plaited strips of prefelt and then felted them afterwards. How would shrinkage affect the overall shape and pattern?

If you don’t know how to make a bias weave plaited basket, there are some good instructions here. I don’t usually twine around the base as shown here – I just use pegs! – but otherwise the method is the same.

I used commercial prefelt for this experiment, in two colours. The white prefelt was merino wool, while the grey prefelt was Gotland. Gotland has a sturdier finish than the merino, but in my experience they have slightly different shrinkage rates, so that was another thing to throw into the mix! 🙂

I cut six strips of each colour and then wove them together to make a squarish 6 x 6 base. I pinned them together as I went along, and when all 12 strips were in place I then stitched horizontally and vertically. I did a couple of back stitches at the beginning and end to secure the threads but left the ends long so I could use them to continue stitching up the sides.

Prefelt strips woven and pinned together
Prefelt strips stitched together

(Apologies for the quality of some of these photos, but they were taken in artificial light, as the days are so short at this time of year!)

Once the base was stitched, I started weaving the sides by overlapping the central two strips on each side and then continuing to weave under and over the adjacent strips. I pinned and stitched as I went along.

Weaving and stitching the sides

This is what the piece looked like after I had woven the sides and cut off the excess felt.

Normally with plaited baskets you have to make a border by tucking the ends in or stitching a band around the edge. The advantage of felt, of course, is that it is self-sealing as the fibres mesh together, so I planned to finish just by trimming the edge after felting.

Once the weaving was complete, the felting could begin. I wetted the piece down, rubbed with soap, and started gently rubbing it all over, turning it inside out to make sure that both sides were felted.

I had to keep opening it up and turning it around during the rubbing phase to make sure the sides didn’t stick together (I could have used a plastic resist but didn’t bother, as I never rubbed for too long in one position).

The prefelt strips felted together fairly quickly, but despite the care I took when rubbing, holes started to appear at some of the intersections. So when the piece was partially felted I did some more stitching to ensure that there were no holes. I’m afraid I didn’t take any photos of this as it was quite dark by this stage!

This is what the piece looked like after felting and fulling.

I was tempted to leave the felted ends on, as they gave quite an organic feel, but in the end I trimmed them off, and rolled the piece some more to seal the cuts.

I also initially thought I might leave the stitching in, as I liked the marks and texture it added. But when I took out the stitching on one side for comparison, I felt that it distracted from the subtlety of the pattern, so I ended up taking it all out!

The inside and the outside have different patterns due to the weaving, but during felting some of the fibres have migrated through, so you can get an idea of what colour is on the other side.

Scaled up and turned upside down, I also thought this could make a good flowerpot hat – I can see Audrey Hepburn wearing something like this, can’t you? 🙂

So it is possible to plait with felt, though it is rather fiddly and time consuming. The forms are softer and more rounded, and you get a subtle idea of the pattern on the other side.

Thank you for reading, and I wish you all a very happy and creative 2020!

2019 Early Christmas Mice

2019 Early Christmas Mice

Comments 5 comments

I have Wire and wool, now what should I make for Xmas this year?

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Mice!!  Don’t mice just scream Christmas to you too? In their tiny little mice-y voices of course.

I had been in Dollerama again ( I am beginning to think this may not be as good a plan as I first intended) looking for floral wire and floral tape for an unrelated felting expedition. I will tell you about that if anything interesting happens. While there, I discovered this is not the time of year for floral wire but if I would like the short pieces of, again un-gauged, wire I could buy up to 3 packages of them. The pieces are just over 5 inches long or just under 13cm. They are a little more flexy than I had hoped for from looking at the package.

 

I started to make an armature frame for the first mouse. Since the wire was much shorter than I normally work with (I do have to stop putting things in “safe places” so I can find them later!)  I made samples of different numbers of wire to figure out what stiffness might work. I found mouse one to be a bit too flexible. I loosely braided the back leg wires together then because I had short wires to work form I  entwined the 3 strands I used for the tail and the wires used for the spine through the leg wires. To add more stability I increased the twist on the legs after I had integrated the tail and spine.

 

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To further stabilize the join between the spine/tail and hip /legs I laid in the comb waste from the extra long Shetland. (the same one from the post on demoing at the wool growers co-op and then again for washing fleece – this has been an amazing fleece.  It just keeps on being usefull). The comb wasted worked very well for all the core wool and actually made a very nice outer layer to the body.

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To wrap the legs I attached one end of the fiber to the body core then wound the fiber keeping it flat against the wire down to the foot loop. I secured the fiber by working through the foot loop end then needled carefully up along the wired legs. I did the same for the tail then started to add a short neck and back of the head.

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Next was adding the head and ears. Then back to shape and firm up the general mouse shape.

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Mouse 2; I augmented the wire for legs and added wire for the ears. Yes much better. Still a bit thin on the butt.  Needs more sculpting.  Actually mouse one is a bit tall and lightly butted too. Hmm, better fix that later.

 

Ok on to starting mouse three, same armature layout as mouse 2 but better buttage.

 

Glenn noticed my start of a mouse army of invasion and wondered if I could make one an angel mouse for his mom for Christmas? That sounds like a good idea.  She has a very extensive Christmas angel collection!

 

To make an angel mouse I will need wings.  Since I would like this to be a mouse dressing up as an angel I need detachable wings and I should really have a halo too. Hmm, wings come in lots of shapes, bats, birds, butterflies. I think the bats would not be as accepted as angelic so that’s leaving birds or butterflies or some sort of hybrid.

 

I looked for wing pictures on the internet. I feel inspired.  Lets make an armature in white wire.

 

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First cover the armature structure with some of the combed long white Shetland. Starting from the bass and using the end loops to make sure the wire stays covered.

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I added curls from a baggie (labeled wool curls – very helpful) and then  a bit of angora with a gentle crimp to give a bit more lustre. I worked mainly from the visible side of the wings but also added a few wool curls carefully to the underside to make sure the support structure was not visible.

Note I have left the very bottom centre part not covered by felt. This is to allow the belt to be added and the wings tied to the mouse. I added the wire for the halo.

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Glenn had originally suggested a gown for the angel. I have a love of lace and have as good collection of different types including a damaged circle of tatted lace just about the right size for a mouse

 

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Interesting but not quite what I was wanting. Maybe she needs a pearl necklace?

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Closer but still not quite what I was envisioning. Maybe drop the robe and add some flowers?

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Yes much better. Now how to present her? She will not fit in a shadow box frame. Doesn’t Ikea still have a bell jar? Let me think about that for a bit. There is still time before she has to be delivered to Glenn’s Mom.

 

A few days pass

 

It snows

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Most of it melts.

 

Its time to go visit! We picked the weekend before Xmas, packed up presents to give and presents I was working on and off we went. On Saturday afternoon we declared early Christmas and gave Glenn’s Mom her present. (Glenn’s Dad’s present was saved for Xmas proper.)

 

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I am sure mouse will be very happy with the rest of the angel collection. These are a few from the living room.  There are more in the dining room too.

 

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So my Christmas mouse angel has a new home and seems to have found a spot on the coffee table. Glenn’s Mom will have her great granddaughter over on Christmas day.  I wonder if she will like the little mouse too?

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Canada give away winners and my colourscape

The Canada give away winners and my colourscape

Comments 5 comments

First, on this Christmas Eve, I get to announce our Canadian giveaway winners. The numbers were generated by a random number generator.  Congratulations to:

operationcreationnicki says:
December 18, 2019 at 1:23 pm

This is very generous! I would like to try spinning art yarns and this would be fun to use.

Susan Ozembloski says:
December 19, 2019 at 8:18 am

I live on Vancouver Island on the west coast of Canada. I would love to win to make some felted soaps and vessels. Thanks for this generous giveaway.

Susan

dennise2016 says
December 19, 2019 at 10:13 pm

Would love to be surprised with a bundle of fiber. Each fiber tells the weaver what it should become. I’m ready to imagine!

We will contact you for your addresses and mail your wool packages after Christmas.

The other thing I did this week was finishing my 4rth quarter challenge, colourscape. https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2019/10/01/fourth-quarter-challenge-2019-colourscapes/

It took a lot more thinking than I thought. After making a nice Autumn coloured background I traced some leaves onto some dissolvable webbing. First I thought I would free-motion to embroider the leaves but I need more practice. I very slowly did two leaves and switched to hand stitching.  This is not such a big deal for me as I quite enjoy hand stitching. I am not good at just sitting in front of the TV. If I knit I would be all set but I don’t.

pictures with webbing

Once it’s all done just a quick rinse under the tap and all the webbing is gone. The colour is not true. for some reason when I took the paper off the phone lightened the wool and turned my couch from the forest green it is above, to the blue below. I tried to change it in the photo program but nothing helped.

I may zig-zag around it to make it square and then trim off the excess but I am not sure. I may just square it with some matboard. Then it can be changed if I want to.

The other question is should I add the main line up the middle of the leaves? And the several main ones on the maple leaves or leave it as it is? When the webbing was in place I thought I should but now the webbing is gone I don’t think it needs it. The stitching is more subtle now and I like it. What do you think?

And I am editing this in because I forgot to say Happy Holidays to Everyone.

Another Colorscape

Another Colorscape

Comments 14 comments

Before I show you my new colorscape, I am excited to announce our three UK prize winners! The winners were drawn by a random number generator. The prize winner are:

AdventuresInFelt says:

Thank you for this lovely giveaway! I would be happy with any of the bundles as I have been doing a lot of wet felting lately. I see a scarf in there somewhere! Or a hat! or handwarmers! 🙂
Arlene

Leonor says:

Lovely giveaway! I’d love to get prize 3, but any would be great – I’d use it to play with 2D needle felting, something I’ve been toying with but haven’t properly started yet 🙂

Best of lucks to everyone!

yarnbelle says:

Any prize would be amazing, I love all things wool! I’m currently designing and sampling ideas for mothers day gifts, hands, figures, mother and child images. I enjoy creating human stories with my favourite animal’s fibre. Thank you to the humble, but brilliant, sheep. Xx

Rae Bell

I will contact you for a snail mail address by email. Lyn of Rosiepink will be mailing your prize and it will be mailed after Christmas. Congratulations to our winners!

I decided to try another colorscape and went with one of my assignments for color studies in my stitch class. This one is blue-green, yellow, red-orange and violet. I used some short fiber merino that Paula gave me, thanks Paula! I didn’t worry about the edges because I was planning on cropping and trimming the piece at completion.

I then added a layer of Mistyfuse to fuse the top layers of sheer fabric down to the felt. I realize that I could have nunofelted these in place but I wanted a less textured surface.

I then layered some hand dyed silk organza over the top and fiddled around with the small pieces until I like the result. Then I fused it in place with an iron on a cool setting. This isn’t a very good photo but the best I could get.

Then I free motion machine stitched over the silk organza, cropped the edges and cut the organic edges off. You can click on the photo to enlarge it to see the stitching a little better.

For all felt purists out there, I took a photo of the back that is just felt and stitching without being covered up. Perhaps I can make it a reversible piece!

 

 

Knitting & Stitching Show 2019

Knitting & Stitching Show 2019

Comments 14 comments

One of the highlights of my calendar in November is always the Knitting & Stitching Show at Harrogate. I’ve never thought that the title does this show any justice as it’s so much more than knitting and stitching!

The event, held over several halls in the Harrogate Convention Centre, features a wide range of exhibitions, most of which have the artist in attendance so you get to meet and chat to them about their work. There are also a number of artists in action (literally), workshops, lectures, demonstrations and a huge variety of craft retailers as well as artists selling their handcrafted items.

I’m guessing there will be a lot of our readers who didn’t attend this event due to location so I thought I would show what to me were some of the highlights.

Marian Jazmik “Beyond the Surface”

Marian Jazmik is a mixed media textile artist who uses a wide variety of materials, often heat distressed, to create stunning highly textural pieces of art. I was particularly drawn to her work by the wonderful neutral colour pallet. Depending on which piece you are looking at, close inspection might reveal sisal, plastic straws, packaging, cotton buds, scrim, beads and free motion stitching. She often uses heat treated Dipryl, a spun-bond fabric similar to Lutradur.

Marian Jazmik “Beyond the Surface”

Catherine Kaufman aka the “Woolly Queen” is a Feltmaker working with locally sourced fleece which she needle felts to create life size sculptures celebrating the female form. It was the scale, and again the colour scheme, that made this exhibit stand out for me. Also hearing how the figures are worked on at home on her kitchen table! Catherine begins by making a wire armature which she then covers with fleece. I felt the most powerful figure was Rapunzel and, learning that the hair for this figure was Catherines first attempt at spinning, I’ve been inspired to have a go myself!

Rapunzel by Catherine Kaufman
  • Catherine Kaufman
  • The Three Fates
  • Catherine Kaufman
Catherine Kaufman

Daisy Collingridge explores the potential of the human body and celebrates its physicality through her textile sculptures. The human form is so unbelievably varied, despite us all being built from the same components. Daisy has a strong fascination with human endeavour and the extremes the human form can take, dictated through genetics and choice.  These soft sculptures came from a desire to push the traditional craft of quilting to the extreme. The technique used is no longer recognisable as quilting in the traditional sense but the fundamental idea of sandwiching fabric is the same.

Daisy Collingridge

The figurative work has a grotesque element and body image and body transformation are obvious narratives through which to view her work. Each piece is a “body suit” and as part of the installation viewers can watch a film of the figures in action.

The Artists in Action area is always an interesting space with Textile artists and Feltmakers creating their work and demonstrating to the public. It was nice to meet Lizzie Houghton and watch how she creates her beautiful hats.

Artists in Action – Lizzie Houghton

Angie Hughes, one of my favourite Textile Artists, was also there demonstrating surrounded by samples of her beautiful work.

Artists in Action – Angie Huges
Vivienne Morpeth

In a different part of the hall I came across Vivienne Morpeth, a fellow Lincolnshire Feltmaker who specialises in fabulous Nuno felted garments.

Vivienne Morpeth – Nuno detail

CQ London, a subgroup of The Quilters’ Guild of the British Isles, have been meeting since 2017 in Camden Town, London. It is an eclectic group, whose members possess a wide range of skills and interests. This was their debut exhibition and it consisted of two themes, London and Notan, a Japanese design technique featuring positive and negative shapes in a harmonious balance of light and dark. The following two quilts were standout pieces for me. The Southbank building was instantly recognisable and very dramatic in its simplicity. The fabric was painted with acrylics before bonding and stitching.

Southbank 14 by Sabi Westoby

City Textures by Connie Gilham was another favourite. Depicting St Paul’s, Roman walls and the Thames it was created using painted and dyed silks, cottons and sheers, again a very striking image.

City Textures by Connie Gilham

On a smaller scale, but equally beautiful, were these exhibits in the Embroiderers Guild area. Out on Tiles won the Beryl Dean Award for best hand stitching.

“Out on the tiles with a crumb of comfort” by Patricia Blinco

Alyssa Robinson won the Val Campbell-Harding prize for best machine stitching.

Alyssa Robinson

This piece by Jane Dexter titles Wood Grains was also one of my favourites.

“Wood Grains” by Jane Dexter

This is just a tiny snapshot of the show, there was so much more and I came away with my head full of inspiration and my bag full of goodies! If you live in the UK and haven’t been it’s well worth a visit if you get the chance.

Time for the fabulous fibre giveaway Canada.

Time for the fabulous fibre giveaway Canada.

Comments 33 comments

We here at The Felting and Fiber Studio would like to wish everyone a happy holiday season. In celebration, we will be hosting several giveaways for your woolly pleasure! To make this a little easier and less expensive on postage, we are doing more than one give away by country. Please make sure and sign up for the correct one depending on where you live.

Ruth’s friend Paula is the one to thank for all the woolly goodness. She has decided to give away her wool supply as she is no longer doing any felting. She has moved on to other art forms.

So I have piles of mainly wool, mainly merino. Some of it is marked as to what it is and some isn’t. Some have been in plastic bags for a while and maybe a bit matted down. But that shouldn’t bother any of you since if you win, it’s free!

Heres the box of wool Ruth sent to me.  We will have three separate giveaways, a US giveaway, aUK giveaway and a Canada giveaway. Please only comment and sign up for the give away if you are in the corresponding country. If your name is drawn and you aren’t in the appropriate country, another name will be drawn.

This give away is for Canada. If you would like to win a padded envelope full of wool and a few other embellishments, please comment below. Tell us what you want to create from the wool. Feel free to spread the word through social media. We will announce three winners in a post next week. The USA and UK drawings are now over.

Please only enter the giveaway if you live in Canada

Giveaway Guidelines:

  1. Leave a comment on the comment form below. Your comment must be left on today’s post to be eligible to win.
  2. Be sure that your comment has your name on it so there won’t be any misunderstandings of who won.
  3. Make sure that there is an email address associated with your comment. If I can not contact you, it isn’t possible for the prize to be sent to you and another number will be drawn.
  4. Leave your comment before 4:00 pm mountain standard time on Monday, December 23 13, 2019. The winners will be announced in my post on Tuesday, December 24th.
  5. In your comment, tell us what you would like to create from the wool
  6. Only residents of Canada are eligible for this drawing.
2020 Online Class Schedule

2020 Online Class Schedule

Comments 0 Comment

Teri and I have come up with our online class schedule for 2020. If you are interested in signing up for any of these classes, please fill out our contact us form and include the name of the class in which you are interested. We will contact you when registration opens. All classes are held online so you can be located anywhere in the world and still take the class. You don’t have to be present at any certain time and there is opportunity to show your work, interact with other students and ask as many questions as you have.

Felted Bags with Teri Berry will be held beginning February 13, 2020. Registration will open on January 30, 2020. Take a look at more details about the class here.

Felted Concertina Hats with Teri Berry will be held July 16, 2020. Registration will open on July 2, 2020. Here is more information about the hat class.

The four modules of Embellishing Felt with Surface Design – A Mixed Media Approach with Ruth Lane will be held for two sessions in 2020. These modules do not need to be taken in any order, they are all stand alone classes. Click on the links below for more information.

February 21, 2020 (Registration opens on February 17, 2020)

May 29, 2020 (Registration opens on May 15, 2020)

Nuno Felting with Paper Fabric Lamination

Experimental Screen Printing on Felt

Printing, Stenciling, and Playing with Thickened Dye on Felt

Free Motion Machine Stitching on Felt

Our online Wet Felting for Beginners Course is always available. You can sign up anytime here. 

 

Wonderful Woolly Holidays – UK Wool Giveaway!

Wonderful Woolly Holidays – UK Wool Giveaway!

Comments 24 comments

It’s time for our second giveaway in our Wonderful Woolly Holiday Giveaway series. This one will be for our readers in the UK. But before I show you the three prizes available, I will announce the winners from our US giveaway last week. The winners were picked with a random number generator. The three winners are #5, #18 and #32:

Karen Gordon How lovely! Thank you for this opportunity! I have been working with wet felted floral landscapes and gardens, but am also working on a Maine seascape series. That said, blues and greens and earthy colors would be great, but there’s always room for bright reds, pinks and yellows! Anything would be just lovely! Thank you again and best wishes for the holiday season!
Jess M I would make a felted vessel or bowl. Greens and yellows. Thank you for making this giveaway happen! Happy holidays!
Shoshana Avramovitz Wow what a beautiful thing:)
I am a glass and encaustic wax artist and recently acquired some felting supplies from a very ill artist friend who has since passed. I think of her often on this new amazing journey in wool fiber. I’m just loving it, the colors and feel of the wool makes me happy:)
Thanks for doing this hugs 🤗

 

Congratulations! I will contact you by email to get your snail mail addresses.

My friend Paula is the one to thank for all the woolly goodness. She has decided to give away her wool supply as she is no longer doing any felting. She has moved on to other art forms.

The three photos below show you the prizes for the UK giveaway. Some of it is marked as to what it is and some isn’t. Most of it is merino wool. Some has been in plastic bags for a while and may be a bit matted down. But that shouldn’t bother any of you since if you win, it’s free!

Here is prize number 1 with all kinds of woolly goodness.

And prize number 2!

And last but not least, prize number 3.

The first giveaway is for readers in the UK.

If you live in the UK and would like to win one of these lovely packages of wool, please comment below. Let us know which prize you prefer (and we’ll try match the winners with their favorite one) or you can say ‘any prize would be wonderful!’ Also, in your comment, let us know what you’d like to create with your new wool. Feel free to spread the word through social media. I will announce the winners in my post next week.- You will not receive the prize until after the holidays. The Canada drawing will be soon, so keep an eye out for that post.

Thanks so much to Lyn and Annie of Rosiepink for distributing the prizes!

Please only enter the giveaway if you live in the UK. 

Giveaway Guidelines:

  1. Leave a comment on the comment form below. Your comment must be left on today’s post to be eligible to win.
  2. Be sure that your comment has your name on it so there won’t be any misunderstandings of who won.
  3. Make sure that there is an email address associated with your comment. If I can not contact you, it isn’t possible for the prize to be sent to you.
  4. Leave your comment before 4:00 pm mountain standard time on Thursday, December 19, 2019. The winners will be announced in my post on Sunday, December 22nd.
  5. In your comment, tell us what you would like to create from the wool and what prize you prefer.
  6. Only residents of the UK are eligible for this drawing.
Zed Needs Your Help!

Zed Needs Your Help!

Comments 11 comments

If you have been reading this blog for any length of time, you will remember Zed’s posts. She does some wonderful experimental felt making and is always trying out new fiber, embellishments and other fun stuff and letting us know what happens. Zed has not posted here since June because she has been having a very difficult situation in life. She has been on disability benefits ESA and PIP due to conditions called Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) and Basilar Artery Migraine. Last year, Zed was offered the chance to try self-employment for a year under a government scheme. Although it wasn’t a ‘runaway success’, with the safety net of Working Tax Credits to make up the difference in income to the same amount as ESA, she decided to try and make a go of ‘Felt by Zed’. Zed didn’t realize that she wouldn’t be entitled to the other low-income benefits she’d previously claimed which help with rent and council tax, so she used her savings and money from her mom’s will to cover these. Unfortunately, the savings ran out at the same time a PIP re-assessment resulted in a benefits cut of 33%, so soon income was less than expenses.

Zed’s debts have spiralled and due to bad advice, and other unfortunate experiences with the system, Zed is now being threatened with eviction. Zed is unable to work a normal job due to ME and is finding it difficult to even afford food. By raising $1,000.00, Zed will be able to pay past debts and start fresh. Zed may be entitled to Universal Credit but won’t be able to get an appointment until after the holidays. It takes 5 weeks for the applications to be approved.

We here at The Felting and Fiber Studio feel it is important to help our own. We have started a GoFundMe campaign for Zed and have contributed $200 to start out the campaign. Here is the link if you would be so kind as to donate a few dollars or pounds.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/zwgeb-zed-needs-your-help?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_campaign=p_cf+share-flow-1

If all our readers could afford a few dollars, we could reach this goal very quickly. Or if you don’t feel comfortable giving through GoFundMe, would you consider buying one of Zed’s e-books? https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/shop/felt-by-zed/

Your generosity will allow Zed to pay back any debts owed and afford the basics over the holiday season. We appreciate any amount that you are able or willing to give. Thank you!

The Felting and Fiber Studio Team