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Author: Marilyn aka Pandagirl

What Does Your Calling Card Look Like?

What Does Your Calling Card Look Like?

Comments 29 comments

In a few weeks, Cathy (Luvswool) and I are going to attend the Midwest Fiber Fair in Grayslake, IL.  I started thinking about what a great opportunity it might be to introduce some people to the Felting and Fiber Forum/Studio.  But I didn’t have any business cards.

So, while working on one of my felt projects I decided that if I’m representing a fiber collaborative I should have business cards that reflect that concept.

I pulled out a bunch of prefelt pieces leftover from other projects and piled up a stack of embellishments and went to work. Of course, I forgot to take a picture before I felted them.  I used just one layer of prefelt so that it wouldn’t be too thick and proceeded to play with the embellishments using yarn, silk, silk habatoi, silk hankies,  sari threads, throwsters waste, silk gauze with sequins and ribbons.

When I finished felting/fulling the pieces, I cut out a business card size plastic piece and cut out the cards while the felt was still wet and soapy.  Then I worked the edges some more before rinsing and drying.

biz cards wool side

After they dried, I steamed and shaped them a little more. Some of them shrank while drying so I did a bit of pulling and stretching.

I didn’t want to sew them on, so I used three different types of glue (Elmers Clear, Sobo and Tacky Glue) to see which would work best, but all worked nicely and didn’t leave any residue.  I applied it using a wooden stick so it was evenly covered. The nice thing about the glue was that while it was wet I was able to stretch and manipulate the felt to cover the card.  To make sure they stayed put I piled a couple of heavy books on them to let them dry and flatten.  I left the organic edges because I like that look.

2014-06-27 13.10

I’m not sure how people will react to wool business cards, but I think it sends the right message.  I’m definitely a fiber enthusiast.

2014-06-27 13.09

The next time I make more cards I will stick to silk and embellishments that are flatter.  While the yarn and ribbon are nice and very textured, it is a bit more bulky.  What do you think?

 

Third Quarter Challenge 2014

Third Quarter Challenge 2014

Comments 19 comments

I have chosen (Oscar) Claude Monet as the artist for the challenge this quarter.  He was born in Paris, France in 1840 and died in Giverny, France in 1926.

MTIwNjA4NjMzOTE3NzY5MjI4Monet was named the creator of “Impressionism” because he was more concerned with light and form than realism.  The painting that inspired the name came from his painting “Impression, soleil levant (Sunrise), 1872,  which now hangs in Musée Marmottan Monet,Paris.

Impression, Sunrise 1872
Impression, Sunrise 1872

He preferred outdoors to school and amassed a huge body of work based on studies of various landscapes at different times of day, season and weather conditions to study the changes in light and form.

 

Japanese Bridge 3
Japanese Bridge 3
Japanese Footbridge
Japanese Footbridge

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Like many artists of his time, Monet suffered from depression, poverty and illness.  However, it never dampened his passion for his work.

“My only merit lies in having painted directly in front of nature, seeking to render my impressions of the most fleeting effects.”
—Claude Monet

Sunflowers The-House-Seen-From-The-Rose-Garden2-small

 

 

 

 

 

 

Claude_Monet-Madame_Monet_en_costume_japonais Claude_Monet,_Grainstacks_in_the_Sunlight,_Morning_Effect,_1890,_oil_on_canvas_65_x_100_cm

There are several good sites of his work, but this is probably the most comprehensive,  cataloging over 1700 of his works.  http://www.claudemonetgallery.org/

There are many repeating themes in his work and also a wide variety of styles throughout his long career as his style evolved.  I think there is something for everyone and a lot of it will lend itself nicely to felting and mixed media.

claude-monet-irises-detail Claude-Monet-Water-Lilies-38-Oil-Painting claude-monet-the-artist-s-garden-at-giverny-c-1900

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Still-Life-With-Pears-And-Grapes-small cliff-near-dieppe

Happy creating!

Remember to post your challenge pieces on the forum: http://feltandfiberstudio.proboards.com/board/18/studio-challenges

 

Felted Pictures Serving as Illustrations for a Book by Nada Vukadinovič

Felted Pictures Serving as Illustrations for a Book by Nada Vukadinovič

Comments 15 comments

Our guest artist/author today is Nada Vukadinovič (Halay) who has some exciting news about felting in the book publishing world.

The other day I visited a local exhibition in Mozirje, Slovenia, where a local felter, Spela Oresnik, displayed about 20 felted canvases. All had been made for a particular purpose, i.e. to serve as illustrations for the book entitled Gori doli sem in tja (Up and Down and Everywhere) written by Marta Oresnik. I found this approach very interesting. Usually a painter is engaged to make illustrations for a book but in this case a felter was invited to use wool to depict the scenes from the stories. She used local wool from the Solčava breed, which is a rather coarse wool, mainly used for making slippers, hats, bags, etc.

1. 3.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The book is an interesting collection of old anecdotes and folk stories which were passed from generation to generation, written in a dialect spoken in this region, e.g. someone meeting a devil, or death, dwarfs, Solcava in fire, witches everywhere, blueberry and strawberry etc . She used wet felting technique to do the background using local wool and needle felted 3D figures which were attached to the base. Only the coloured fibres were bought.

10 2014-05-30-369

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The collection of old stories was made as part of a national project. Here I need to mention that Slovenia is very small country in Central Europe with population of only 2 million people and a lot of effort is being put into preserving the language and culture. The size of Slovenia compares to the size of New Jersey, however, there are seven main dialects spoken and 49 sub-dialects. The dialect which is spoken in Solcava is spoken only by 500 people. This means that on a walking distance of one and a half hour one comes across another dialect.

2014-05-30-371 2014-05-30-370

 

 

 

 

 

 

lovec 2014-05-30-373

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The book has been published and includes a CD so you can listen to it in different dialects. You can learn more about the book here: http://www.mohorjeva.org/oresnik-marta/gori-doli-sem-in-tja  There is a felted picture on the front page. The publisher was Mohorjeva družba (2013).

The Solčava felters to whom Špela Oresnik belongs, are organised in a local felters union, but I think I’ll leave it here for now and describe the felting scene in Slovenia in another post.

Thank you Nada for bringing this exciting new venue in book publishing to our attention.

What exciting things have you seen in the felting world lately?

 

 

Second Quarter Stephenson Challenge

Second Quarter Stephenson Challenge

Comments 18 comments

I’ve been working on the challenge on and off for a couple of months.  My first impulse was to chose his Blue Vertigo. 

blue vertigoI made some batts and used them to make the circular design. I pulled strips off the batt and laid them out.  Then added bits of colors as needed.

batts design of purple

 

 

 

 

StephensonThis piece worked out well, but I wanted to try another of his watercolor like pieces.  So, the next one was based on his Purple Rooftop. 

purple rooftop

I used some black pencil roving in the middle, a black background underneath in the center of the piece to help shadow the reflection in the pond and some mulberry silk for a reflective effect.  Unfortunately, the purple wasn’t as obvious in mine after felting.

Stephenson 1Stephenson’s Green Love reminded me of the carving technique I learned in Fiona’s class, so I wanted to try that, too.

GreenloverSM

The background is black prefelt and with a white center of merino over cotton batting and some of the radiating lines with different colored roving.  The carvings weren’t as wide, but I like the effect.

Stephenson 3a Stephenson 3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I enjoyed the challenge and the variety of techniques I was able to use to achieve the different effects.  Have you done the challenge yet?

 

 

 

 

 

The Four Day Dye Experiment

The Four Day Dye Experiment

Comments 28 comments

I recently read some new instructions for dyeing using citric acid and salt. Well not new,  I took a class a couple of years ago where the instructor used similar instructions. Normally, I use vinegar for dyeing.  But I like to experiment.  I have also been wanting to try some new fibers and have never dyed something I’ve already felted.  So, I decided to combine the experiments.

I made samples using Cheviot, Romney, Icelandic, Texas Mohair locks and Domestic 56’s.  On each sample I put a piece of silk Habatoi, silk gauze, thick and thin yarn, mulberry silk and prefelt. I was going to make a placemat out of them, but they all shrank differently, so I have to rethink what to do with them.

felted samplesAccording to the instructions, I had to weigh the fabric to dye (before soaking in synthrapol).  I had a large pot so I put together some Merino, silk habatoi, wool yarn, and wool thick and thin yarn along with my samples.  All total 128 grams.  Next, into the soak, then on to mixing the citric acid and salt solutions.

After a thorough search, I couldn’t find the citric acid I thought I had. Whoops.  Well, it should still work with vinegar, right?

1 gram of fiber= 1 milliliter of dye.  Then depending on the Depth of Shade desired the amount can be multiplied by 1 through 5 (light to dark.)  When I filled the syringe with 120 ml of dye, it looked like a lot so I decided just one DOS would be enough to start. Normally, I would use a tablespoon of dye.  If I wanted a darker shade, I could add more dye later or overdye it.  I used my own dye stock that I had on hand.  After getting the fiber and dye bath up to temperature (185 degrees), I let it simmer for 30 minutes and checked it.  The water was still very dark.  I added more vinegar and let it simmer for another 15 minutes. No change. Another 15 minutes, then I added more vinegar and turned the heat off and left it until morning expecting it to be exhausted.

day 1 BSurprise!  Beautiful colors, but plenty of dye left.  I removed the fibers, rinsed and rinsed then let them dry.

Back to the dye pot.  I decided I probably didn’t need more teal fiber, so I added a couple of teaspoons of yellow.  Then put in some Domestic 56s, alpaca/silk, kid mohair yarn, Cheviot and silk gauze after soaking in vinegar. I repeated the dye procedure.

day 2Staring at the dye pot the next morning, there was still plenty of color left.  So, on to day 3 with Domestic 56s and Cheviot.

Day 3bOkay, enough, right? Dont laugh. I had to see this through.  Day 4 included thick and thin yarn, wool yarn, a piece of felted Wensleydale, silk habatoi, Romney and Merino. I expected some pastel colors the next morning. No.

Day 4Finally, the dye bath was exhausted and I had the biggest surprise of all. The Romney was darker than the fibers on the first day.  It’s a good thing I like teal.

4 days

I finally realized my mistake — my prepared dye mix  is 1 teaspoon dye powder to 8 ounces of water which is double the concentration than what the instructions were for making the dye solution.  (1 part dye powder to 100 parts water — i.e. 5 gm dye powder to 500 ml of water.)  I didn’t pay attention to the dye solution instructions because I had already had some made.  My bad.

I haven’t given up.  I have citric acid now but will try a much smaller amount of fiber and the right amount of dye solution.  But now on to make some batts and start a new project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Results are in…

The Results are in…

Comments 16 comments

In an effort to evaluate our marketing plan and see if we were meeting our Felt and Fiber Forum Members needs, we conducted a member and guest survey May 20 though 27.

Overall, the results were good in terms of the satisfaction of our members.  There are a few things we will be working on to make some improvements to enhance the site and information available to members.

Our first question  was “What Brought you to the Felt and Fiber Studio forum/Blog?”  Since we are an online community, it was important to know how people find us.

forum

I added invitation to the list on the graph because several comments we had included that as an option we hadn’t offered on the questionnaire.

For those members who found us on an online search, half of the respondents chose “wet felting” as their search criteria, 25% “fiber,” and 25% used “needle felting.” Other comments included — felting, fibre, fleece,  and wool roving.

93% of the respondents said they were satisfied with the interaction on the forum. Sometimes was the response for 7%.  The comments for “Why not” were,  “I don’t feel I have much to contribute to the conversations, but find them interesting” and “I check in occasionally, but not regularly.”

Meknittingmbers (79%) feel valued.  65% feel their interests are well represented. Friendly and helpful members rated 93%.  Comments requested more information on spinning, weaving, crochet, etc.

 

 

One of the most interesting answers for me was the activities members are looking for on the forum.

activities

Comments included “Mixed media is more interesting to me,” and “online classes.”

class

Participation would be higher if we were able to give our members more time.  100% of the respondents checked this off.  What this tells me is that those regular members somehow make time to visit, while others pop in occasionally when they have a few minutes timeavailable.  Giveaways and classes were also considerations at 8% each.  “A larger membership with increased posts would naturally prompt me to respond more frequently” was a surprising comment for this question.  We’d love to have more members participate, if only we could find a way to give them more time!

 

92% of Forum members also subscribe to the Blog.  Again time was mentioned in the comments as to why members did not belong to both.

One of the reasons I wanted to do the survey was to see how we could get our members to help us increase our membership and participation.  Here were the results:

promotingAgain there is that power of “word of mouth.”

I was also curious how people felt about the lack of advertising since we make an effort to keep the site uncluttered and supportive of the purpose of the forum without compromising the integrity of the site.  71% liked not having advertising.  29% had no opinion.  However, the comments were revealing — quality fiber related vendors would be welcome. Others commented that the sponsorship banner was a good idea.

What does all this mean?

Generally, it means for those members who responded,  The Felt & Fiber Studio Forum/Blog is doing a good job as a friendly place to share most things fiber enthusiasts care about.  The information gives us a few directions to improve or make changes that would benefit our members and, hopefully, engage our current members to help attract new members and other ways such as Search Engine Optimization clues to drive more online traffic our way.

Can we improve?  Of course!  There are things we will be doing in the future to offer more of what our members want to see and do.  In addition, we will provide some material to promote the forum for anyone who wants to help.

help

In the mean time, keep telling your friends about us and come by often to share what you’ve been working on with us, offer some tips or let us know how we’re doing.

Our thanks to everyone who took the time to complete the survey!

We hope to see you all on the Forum soon! http://feltandfiberstudio.proboards.com

 

 

 

A Sneak Peak at Surface Design Class Samples

A Sneak Peak at Surface Design Class Samples

Comments 26 comments

I’ve been talking about Fiona Duthie’s Surface Design Online Class for months.  Ruth Lane first announced a class giveaway on February 19 on the Felt and Fiber Studio Forum.  I entered, but didn’t win.  However, I signed up immediately after learning I didn’t win because I was intrigued by what the class had to offer.  The class was a big commitment for me — six weeks long and more than 21 different techniques to learn plus a final project.

Over the following few weeks, I found I wasn’t the only one from the Forum to sign up. Cathy (Luvswool) and a few other members also registered.  Since Cathy and I live in the Chicago area, we started excitedly messaging about our preparations, supplies, resources and after the class started our plans and progress.

Part of the class agreement was not to share Fiona’s techniques because this is how she makes her living, but we are free to share our class work.  So, today Cathy and I are sharing several of our favorite samples.

I had never taken an online course so this was a totally new experience for me.  However, Cathy has taught online, but I think we both agree this was a unique experience.

Here are Cathy’s favorites:

Cathy’s Wool Breed Inclusions

 

Cathy's Pockets and Loops
Cathy’s Pockets and Loops
Cathy's Spikes
Cathy’s Spikes

 

Cathy's Nui Shibori
Cathy’s Nui Shibori

Now a few of my favorite samples:

Marilyn's Carvings
Marilyn’s Carvings
sdo 5 anemones
Marilyn’s Anemones
Marilyn's Tiles
Marilyn’s Tiles
SDO 4 spikes flower
Marilyn’s Spikes and Iris

Since I’m always looking for functionality, I chose to use the spikes above as ring holders in case you’re wondering why there is jewelry hanging around.

These are just some of the wonderful techniques we learned during the class.  It was a great experience doing the assignments then seeing the different interpretations of the techniques by other students on our weekly discussion site.

For more information on Fiona’s workshops check out her website http://www.fionaduthie.com/

Of course, I couldn’t complete the course without including a panda and bamboo in a sample (which are not felted, just the background.)

Marilyn aka Pandagirl's Loops and Pockets
Marilyn aka Pandagirl’s Loops and Pockets

Thanks to Cathy for sharing her work today. Anyone else who is taking the class, please contact me if you’d like to share your samples or post them on the Felt and Fiber Studio Forum.

What new techniques have you learned lately?

 

Evaluate Your Marketing Plan

Evaluate Your Marketing Plan

Comments 16 comments

In our last marketing blog, I used the Felt and Fiber Studio Forum as an example for determining marketing goals towards developing a marketing plan.  We discovered the who, what, why, where, how, and when for the plan creating a road map for our plan.

photo 3Now it is time to evaluate our plan and see if it meets our needs in terms of our goals. However, before we do that we need to take a look at what is working and what is not.

If your business is humming along just fine, you may wonder if this is really necessary.  There is no one right answer.  If you are satisfied with how much you’re selling and the way you are marketing and selling, it’s probably not necessary.  But what if you want to expand your market?  Make more money?  Diversify your offerings?

woman shopping

If you were running a restaurant and sales were down, customer complaints up, low tips for staff and few return customers, you’d have a good idea something wasn’t working.

However, in the internet world of marketing for arts and crafts, you don’t have the luxury of easy or obvious measurements of what is working.  At a craft or art fair, you can see your competition, compare pricing and quality first hand.  It’s easier to see how your products differ on the spot and ask customers what they think.

survey_clipartIn our Marketing Strategy for the Felt and Fiber Studio Forum the Driving Action for the goals of the Forum is participation.  So, in order to determine how we are doing since we can’t meet face to face, we are asking our members (and blog subscribers) to take a simple ten question Membership Survey so we can evaluate our plan.

What do we want to know?  We want to make sure we are serving the needs of our online community in a friendly, giving and nonjudgmental way.

Please use this link:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RX2XM9W

There will also be a link on the Forum under the Business section.  Please only fill out one survey.  We will not collect any personal information.

keyboard

I realize some of the people that read the blog, may not be Forum members.  So, if you would like to take the survey, please answer the questions applicable and put in the comment section of question number 8 that you are are a blog subscriber.  If you read the blog on a reader, please mention that in the same section.

dog and computerThe survey will be available for a week.  I will publish the results after I have collected and analyzed the data.

Please feel free to leave any comments here or on the forum.  We’re always interested to know how we are doing and what more we can do to help you.

Thank you for taking a few minutes of your time to participate!

 

 

 

Visit to Waldron Grove Alpaca Farm

Visit to Waldron Grove Alpaca Farm

Comments 14 comments

Last weekend, I took a little ride to the Waldron Grove Alpaca Farm in Campton Hills, Illinois for their annual Open House and Art Sale. The two day event featured their 30 Suri alpacas and an array of handmade items for sale and demonstrations by five featured artists.

alpaca farm

The farm is owned by Susan and Ron Waldron since 2003.  Susan is an oil painter and felter.  She combines needle and wet felting using her Suri Alpaca fleece exclusively for her designs.  She and Ron also specialize in alpaca farm start ups.

The alpacas are a little shy so they kept to themselves, but it was fun watching them in the field.  Susan had two wonderful weather days for the event.  (Lately, our weather has been very iffy.) A little windy but sunny and warm.

The garage was filled with wonderful art pieces for sale.  While I was there I was able to watch a spinning and drop spindle demonstration by Laurie McGee who is a dyer, spinner, weaver and knitter.  She also makes custom yarn, hand combed tops and gives spinning lessons.

Laurie spinningLaurie w

 

 

 

 

 

 

Laurie 1

There were many of Susan’s oil paintings, tapestries, silk scarves, shawls, silk coverups and clothing beautifully displayed around the area.  She also sells alpaca needle felting kits featuring alpacas, irises, and other flowers. You can learn more about Waldron Grove at www.susanwaldronart.com

                            more scarves shawl on rack scarves

 

felt kits          clothes rack

LuAnn Toborg and Anita Riemer were manning the cash register while I was there and I had an opportunity to talk to both of them.

LuAnn specializes in hand dyeing yarn with natural plants, berries and flowers.

Lu AnnLaurie

Anita creates dyed yarn with acid dyes and makes cowls, scarves, hats, felted wallets, jewelry and baby blankets.

Anita

While I was there, Susan demonstrated needle felting and hand carding for her guests. She’s modeling a wool jacket she embellished with alpaca.

susan demo

Of course, I bought some alpaca to play with.  I also arranged to come back to take a lesson on using the needle felting machine.

It was a fun afternoon talking with fellow felters and artists and perusing all the wonderful works of art available for sale.

What special events have you attended recently?  Remember, if you have a project or event you’d like to blog about, please contact one of the moderators and let us know.

Ready, set… plan!

Ready, set… plan!

Comments 15 comments

Have you thought about what your goal is for your business?  To help you incorporate the marketing concepts we’ve previously discussed into a marketing strategy to understand your goal, I am going to use the Felt and Fiber Studio Forum as an example of a business.

goals

Here is a quick recap of our previous marketing concepts blogs:

  • The six P’s of marketing — Product, Price, Promotion, Placement, Positioning, PR/Publicity and People
  • The customer is key.
  • Identifying customer problems and product benefits (Ideal buyers — our strategic assets)
  • Communicating with customers for market research

With these concepts in mind, we’ll develop a marketing goal which will be the basis of a marketing plan for the Forum.

Marketing and PR Strategy Planning Template for:

Company —  Felt and Fiber Studio Forum

  • Who (members/customers)
    • Fiber enthusiasts from all over the world working/playing in a variety of art forms

    pile of batts

  • What (problems the forum solves for members) also the Forum Product
    • Information, sharing, techniques, resources, engaging experts, experience, problem solving
    • What actions does the Forum want members to take
      • Participation
  • Why (How is the forum remarkable?) (Positioning)
    • It is self supported, membership of experienced to novice fiber enthusiasts around the world, full of resources for a variety of fiber arts, free to the user (Price)

internet

  • How
    • Personality — friendly, giving, nonjudgmental  (Positioning)
    • Creative/Design (Look and feel) — fiber graphic, easy to navigate  (Positioning)
    • Tone of Voice — casual  (Positioning)
    • Keyword Phrases — Fiber, Nuno Felting, Weaving, Knitting, Dyeing, Needle Felting, Wet Felting, Spinning, Crocheting, Surface Design, Business, Fiber Festivals, Studio Challenges, Wool and Other Fibers, Hand Stitching, Machine Stitching, Fiber Marketplace, General Discussion, Shows and Classes, Take a Stitch Tuesday, Beads/Beading  (PR/Publicity and Promotion) — This is how members find us with search words in addition to word of mouth.
    • Marketing Tactics and Content Strategy –Blog, Facebook, free tutorials, quarterly challenges, quarterly newsletter, welcome email, occasional giveaways, holiday exchange, resources for information, supplies, tools, links to other blogs, resources (Network of People and Promotion)
  • notepadWhen — Things to do today, next week (Actions to take)
    • Blog posts every other day by Moderators or guests (Promotion)
    • Monitor posts daily, encourage members to post new projects, questions, resources, events

 

Generally, the goal of the Felt and Fiber Studio Forum is to build a community of fiber enthusiasts who can share their work, ideas, techniques, resources and get information and questions answered in a friendly, caring environment.

The Driving Action for the goals of the Forum are primarily:

  • Participation
    • Registering to be a member
    • Like on Facebook
    • Subscribe to the Studio blog
    • Participate in conversations and/or challenges on the Forum
  • Download free tutorials
  • Ask questions, submit projects, tutorials, resources (share)
  • Refer the Forum to friends (word of mouth)

road mapThis is a road map of the thought process of planning our marketing strategy and understanding our business goals.  You can use this as a general guideline to ask yourselves the same questions about your business.

Ready, set….plan!  What does your road map look like?

Look for more discussion on the Forum http://feltandfiberstudio.proboards.com