The winner of Polymer Clay Simply Made is…. Anne L. Congratulations, Anne! Please leave a comment so I can send you a download link. Thanks a lot for all the entries and all the nice comments too 🙂
I thought it was time for a well earned rest after finishing the Polymer clay book, we had a ridiculous heatwave here too, so it was far too hot to blink without sweating. I took refuge downstairs where it was a bit cooler for a few days and then had a look through my felt box to see what I could work on next. I found the pink nuno pieces I made for Ann’s Challenge and decided to work on those. I started with the larger piece I made for a notebook cover. I’d measured carefully when I made the piece so I’d get the ruffles just on the front and back. This is the front:
And this is the back:
I must have measured properly because it worked out well. I didn’t want any of the ruffles where the flaps for the inside would go.
I’m going to swap the notebook for a red one, then list this on etsy. I’ve already cut the other piece for making a camera case, so as long as it stays cooler, I’ll work on that next.
Most of our readers will probably know that apart from the four of us who do this blog, there are a lot of regular commenters who contribute too. We also have lots of regulars over at the forum and we know from the stats that we get an average of 160 ‘unique’ visitors to the site every day. We’d like to give anyone who’s interested the opportunity to get more involved.
You probably know that we’ve already had a few guest artists and writers. And we want to expand that. We want to do more ‘Meet the Artists’ but we’d also like to meet the suppliers who make all this possible: the people who provide us with our fabrics or wool, fleeces and animal fibres; the people who dye the wool, threads, yarns and fibres we love to use; those who sell haberdashery supplies or jewellery findings…anything we use in the production of our felt, fibre and mixed media artworks.
We’d really like to feature more guest writers. The posts we’ve had before were really popular. So, if you have something you’d like to write about that you think our readers would be interested in…a visit to a fibre fair or maybe a farm; your experience of selling at a craft fair or market; a project you’re working on; a tutorial you’ve written or maybe you just want to tell us about your craft, we’d love for you to get involved. It doesn’t have to be a unique article, it could be one you’ve written for your blog. And it doesn’t have to be new, we’re always interested in reading about felt and fibrey things and we may have missed it. You don’t have to have your own blog either or have written something before, and it doesn’t have to be a certain length.
So, if you’re interested, let us know. Leave us a comment in reply to this post and we can email you back, or PM one of us on the forum. If you have something you want to promote or feature for a specific date, like a craft or fibre fair, try to let us know in good time so we can schedule it. Thanks 🙂 Oh, and if anyone missed the post about it on Facebook, the last day of every month is a kind of Promote your Product day, detailed here.
My fiber arts group, Tangled, A Montana Arts Collective, is sponsoring a fiber arts exhibition at my store The Purple Pomegranate in Whitefish, Montana during October. The theme for the exhibition is Shelter and I cordially invite you to apply for the exhibition. I know that lots of our readers do not reside in the US but you are also invited to apply. You would be responsible for the shipping to and from the exhibition so it probably isn’t that practical but I don’t want to exclude international entries.
The information about the exhibition is below and if you have any questions just let me know. You can download the information and an application form here.
Artists are invited to submit applications and jpg photos for a Fall Presentation Exhibit at The Purple Pomegranate Gallery in Whitefish, Montana.
Submission Deadline: August 15, 2013, for October 1, 2013 Exhibit opening.
Theme of Exhibit: Shelter. Shelter is one of the basic needs for all living creatures. What constitutes shelter? Is it an actual structure or metaphysical? From the lowliest tent to a mansion, shelter exists in many forms and has many different meanings. What does shelter mean to you?
Guidelines for Artist’s submission:
Size: Each piece of work must fit within 36” long, and 24” wide exhibit space. It may be 3-D in form. Art must fit through a standard size door.
All art must be an original piece of work, not shown prior to this show and created in the last two years. Artists may submit from 1 to 3 fiber works for the one time, non-refundable application fee of $20.00.
Each piece should be priced for retail sale, with 40% commission being retained from sale of work.
Art must be stable and be easily displayed on a wall or pedestal that supports a maximum of 20 pounds. No perishable organic material. Art must be structurally sound. Each submission should be able to be hung from one point of reference on the wall, portable or permanent or placed on a pedestal. Included with submission should be instructions for hanging or display.
Artist must submit an artist statement, with the application. Statement must be in context with the theme, Shelter.
Artist will need to submit proof of insurance coverage OR release the Purple Pomegranate from any liability related to harm of the art. Artist is responsible for shipping or delivering the work to the Purple Pomegranate and for sending a prepaid return label FedEx/UPS for pieces to be shipped back to artist.
Jurying: The jury process will include a panel of judges reviewing jpg photos sent by e-mail. Submissions that do not follow rules of entry will not be submitted to jurors. Only entries received by August 15, 2013 will be considered. Works selected for exhibition that are not accurately depicted by jpgs may be removed from the exhibit at juror’s discretion. Works selected are to be available for the entire exhibit. E-mail notification of acceptance will occur by September 15, 2013. Delivery of work September 25-27, 2013. Pick up work November 1-3, 2013.
As a side note, the piece of green nuno felt that I showed you last week is for my entry for this exhibition. I still have a long way to go on the piece but I have begun and I’m excited about the possibilities 🙂
I’ve had a lot of really nice comments and support recently since I published my book. One thing I noticed from the comments on the giveaway was how many people are fairly new to felting or in particular nuno felting, and would love to learn more. Buying a book can certainly be a good way, and most of us have probably learned most of what we know through trial and error, but another good way is learning from each other… and other people’s trial and error 🙂
A great place to do this is a forum. A little over a year ago we posted about starting The Felting and Fiber Forum. We said how we really wanted more interaction with like-minded people to share our enthusiasm for felt, fabric and fibres. We hoped we would get a few members and get to see what people are working on and share tips and get advice. I don’t think I’m alone in feeling that it is far more than that. The forum is somewhere I really look forward to logging onto each morning, to see what new projects everyone is working on, see if there are new replies to posts asking for advice, reading about what new crafts or techniques have caught someone’s eye, finding out what the weather is like all around the world! (We get a lot of weather!) 🙂 I was going to say that it really has grown into a great community of fibre artists from all over the globe, but we’re not just members, we’re friends.
It’d be really nice if we had even more artists in our community. I’ve been clicking to look at the blogs of recent commentors and there is such a wealth of talent, not just in felting, but all kinds of fibre art, mixed media, stitching and more. I know I’m not the only one who would be interested to know more about a wider range of fabric and fibre arts. And there are lots of members of the forum who would be more than happy to offer help, advice and support to those just starting out on their felting adventures. We even have a 12 step program for fibre addicts (1. Buy more fibre. 2. Buy more fibre 3…. Just kidding!)
The forum is open to everyone, just follow the link at the bottom of this post or click the forum button on the sidebar. Once you’ve registered, we just have to ‘approve’ you… don’t worry, it’s just a measure to keep spammers out 🙂 The forum is free, which means it does get advert banners, but no one likes a forum full of annoying adverts, so…. we have a novel way of dealing with that… for $7 per month we can make the forum ad-free, so we replace the advert banner with one sponsored by our members which also redirects to their site. If you are interested just let us know. You don’t even have to be a member of the forum if you’d just like to support it while promoting your own blog, etsy store, website etc. but we would love it if you’d come over and join us 🙂
Here in the U.S. it is Thanksgiving. Most people stuff themselves with turkey and all the fixings, watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and football games on TV and try to get along with all the visiting relatives. Many of us forget to think about what Thanksgiving is really about. Giving thanks, being grateful for what you have and counting your blessings. I thought today I would take a little time to do just that.
I am grateful for the beautiful area where I live. Northwest Montana is gorgeous in any season and is such an inspiration in my artwork. I used to live in Florida and really missed the change of seasons, mountains, and snow. I might complain at the end of the winter about the snow, but I am happy to see it snow and I love to ski, so I’m praying for snow again.
Thank goodness for sheep! I am grateful for the wool they provide and the magical ability of the wool to felt. It still amazes me when I take a pile of fiber and turn it into a piece of felt. And isn’t it nice that wool is a sustainable product that doesn’t hurt the sheep to produce? Just think how many different types of sheep and wool there are in the world, isn’t it wonderful that we have all those varieties with which to experiment?
Iris Vase
Speaking of fibers, I am grateful that there are many different types of fibers and that I get a chance to play with them. Finding your passion is a wonderful thing and I hope that you have found something in your life to be passionate about. It has been wonderful this year for me to focus on fiber art and to participate in learning more about machine and hand stitching. It is a wonderful journey to be following and I hope it will continue to be as fun and fulfilling as it has been for me this year.
I am thankful for owning my own business and being able to make a living. Pursuing your dreams is not always easy but I am so glad that I took the jump nearly 15 years ago to start my own business. All the hard work has been well worth it.
My family is very important to me and I am grateful that I have a loving, supportive husband and two healthy and happy dogs.
I am really grateful to my friends here at The Felting and Fiber Studio. Thanks Zed, Ann and Karen for all your support, we make a great team! I am also thankful for all of you who read the blog, participate in the forum and post photos to Flickr. We appreciate your comments and hope you’ll keep coming back as we have loads more fiber fun in store for you.
Take a few minutes today and think about thankfulness and gratitude. With the holiday season upon us, it is easy to get busy and stressed out. Taking a few minutes each day to make a list of reasons that you are thankful can put a little peace into your life. Happy Thanksgiving 🙂
P.S. Take a look at this post by Christine Kane about gratitude.
We’ve actually had such a long cold wet winter here in oz that the site of some sunshine is so lovely and with the weather finally starting to warm up I found myself at the beach briefly the other day just taking in the ocean and some warmth, so I thought for this challenge we could felt a piece depicting our own weather no matter where in the world we live, and be it the ocean and sunshine or freezing temperatures with your lovely snow topped mountains, its your seasons.
And just a couple of lovely pictures of our Island in the sun !!
This is a place called the Nobbies were all the little fairy penguins live
Just a gorgeous sunset on the Island, would make a gorgeous felt piece
Looking forward to seeing everyone’s weather challenge to see the difference in our temps right now. Happy Felting and we’d love to see you in our interactive forum where we all love to share some great information or just have a chat, so come along and join in the fun http://www.feltandfiberstudio.com/
I just got the news that my book has arrived at the warehouse. (Much hopping up and down and waving of arms in the air going on here.) The publisher is now in the process of filling all pre-orders, so if you pre-ordered yours, it should be arriving soon.
I checked on Amazon but it still says pre-order on their site but if you order the book there, I’m sure you’ll get it soon. I am in the midst of planning promotional activities and a couple of local book signings so if you’re in my area, I’ll be announcing those events soon. I am really pleased with the book and hope you will be too!
If you’d like to order a signed copy of the book, I will soon have a way for you to do that from my blog. So more announcements to come!
Since starting the website a couple of months ago, we’ve had lots of great comments and interesting feedback. Some of the things we’ve noticed since starting the site, and more recently, the forum, is that more people would experiment with different fibres if they were more easily available and not quite so expensive.
So, we’ve opened an etsy store 🙂 The four of us have all been felting for quite a few years now and all have our favourite fibre suppliers, both locally and internationally. It’s not our aim to make a profit from selling fibres, but to use that knowledge, along with our own skills to source fibres and felting supplies and make them more accessible and affordable, especially to beginners who would like to try sample sizes without having to pay extra for them.
We’ve started with a silk fibre sample pack. This has 20g each of silk hankies, silk noil, silk carrier rods and silk throwsters waste. We’ll be adding more items as they become available. We’ve already had lots of feedback on the forum about the kinds of things people are interested in: samples of plastic, nylon, viscose and cotton fibres; handmade yarn samples; a sample pack of different silk fabrics; buttons and beads, and sewing threads; and embellishment fibres.
We’ll be keeping our eyes out for bargains or offers that we can then pass on through etsy but we’d love to hear from you if you have any ideas for things you’d like to see. There’s a button on the sidebar to take you to etsy or just click the link below. Feel free to contact us on etsy if you have any specific requests 🙂
When we started working on this website/blog, one thing we were all really keen on was having interaction with likeminded people, sharing our enthusiasm for felt and fibres with others and helping each other out.
The website is a great way for us to share and connect with others, but it does have its limitations…So, we started working on building a forum. Now we have a place where we can have more interaction, where anyone can start topics, ask questions, get help and support from a wide community, share great photos, advice and info, meet friends and have fun!
We’d love it if you came and joined us at the Felting and Fiber Studio Forum, and shared your enthusiasm, curiosity, knowledge and photos. Whether your interests are felting, mixed media, spinning, weaving, freeform crochet or something we probably haven’t heard of and need to see, we’d love for you to be involved in our new community 🙂
To register, just follow the link at the bottom of this post, or click the Forum button in the side bar. Once you’ve registered, we just have to ‘approve’ you… don’t worry, it’s just a measure to keep spammers out 🙂
I thought it was time for a well earned rest after finishing the Polymer clay book, we had a ridiculous heatwave here too, so it was far too hot to blink without sweating. I took refuge downstairs where it was a bit cooler for a few days and then had a look through my felt box to see what I could work on next. I found the pink nuno pieces I made for Ann’s Challenge and decided to work on those. I started with the larger piece I made for a notebook cover. I’d measured carefully when I made the piece so I’d get the ruffles just on the front and back. This is the front:
And this is the back:
I must have measured properly because it worked out well. I didn’t want any of the ruffles where the flaps for the inside would go.
I’m going to swap the notebook for a red one, then list this on etsy. I’ve already cut the other piece for making a camera case, so as long as it stays cooler, I’ll work on that next.
We’d love it if you came and joined us at the