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Category: Tutorials

Food color dying

Food color dying

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Because we’ve been talking about all sorts of different dying methods and different dyes i thought i’d show you how i usually dye my wool. this pdf shows dying fibre with food coloring and a steamer which is an inexpensive way to create lots of different colors. If you dont have a free standing electric steamer then just use your stove top with a pot and steam basket. It is a lot of fun to do this,  its quick and easy and the dye does hold up to wet felting but sometimes the red will run. If your dying fibre to use in needle felting then this technique is perfect.

food color dying   

Felt Scrap Bowl Tutorial

Felt Scrap Bowl Tutorial

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Mixed Media Bowl made from Felt Scraps

Last year I made felt poinsettias for Christmas out of red and green felt. I ended up with a pile of felt scraps. I saved them of course. Who knows when you’ll need a small piece of felt? Recently, I saw someone online (I’m sorry I don’t remember where or have a link) making scrap bowls from left over quilter’s cotton fabric.  I thought that would make the perfect project for using up my felt scraps. So I used water-soluble stabilizer, some yarn, the felt scraps and free motion stitched it up on my sewing machine. It worked like a charm.

I have included the PDF tutorial below (Thanks Karen for helping me out with that!) and I’d love to see what you make using the tutorial. After I made the bowl, I thought it would be a great idea to use the green scraps to make small Christmas tree ornaments. I haven’t gotten those done yet but if I do, I’ll show you how they come out. This process could be used in a number of different ways and I’d love to hear if you come up with a different way to use the technique. Have fun and if you make something from the tutorial be sure to post it to our Flickr group photos.

felt-scrap-bowl-tutorial

Direct Dyeing

Direct Dyeing

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Direct dyeing is a method where the dye is applied directly to the fibre. This can be done with very small or fairly large amounts of fibre depending on what utensils are available to you, but it is particularly good for smaller amounts. One advantage is that the fibres don’t move around so there is less tangling or felting. Another advantage is that very small amounts of dye can be made up, reducing the risk of waste.

Dyed Silk Throwster’s waste

 I have written a step by step tutorial with lots of photos and a table to help work out very small amounts of dye/solution. I apologise to anyone more familiar with imperial measurements, the quantities used are so small that the tiniest measuring spoons are used and they are metric, so it was easier to stick to one measurement. And also US and UK fluid ounces differ, and even cups have metric, US and Canadian versions 🙂  If anyone needs a converter I find online conversion is excellent for everything.

Direct Dyeing Tutorial, please click for PDF

Marketplace Mondays

Marketplace Mondays

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Marketplace Mondays is a regular article that will be featured on most Mondays. If you are interested in topics about the business of being an artist, make sure to stop by each Monday. We will be discussing issues such as developing a product line, reviews of various venues where handcrafted work can be sold, pricing strategies, retail vs. wholesale, working with galleries, photographing your work, developing your “brand”, writing an artist statement and much more. If there is a specific topic that you would like more information about, please leave a comment and we’ll try to accommodate your requests.

For our first post, Zed has made a terrific tutorial on how to make a banner for a website such as ETSY. Making your own personal banner from your own photographs will help to ‘brand’ your store and attract people to buy your products. Think about what you want your banner to symbolize first. What type of photographs best represent what you do? If you already have a logo or business cards with photos, consider using the same photos or logo in your banner. Consistency is very important so that your customers will recognize you no matter the venue. If you have a Facebook page, a blog, a website and an ETSY shop, using a similar or the same banner on all of these sites will establish a consistent web presence.

Once you’ve picked out the photos you want to use for your banner, just click on the PDF file below and follow Zed’s tutorial. She uses Photoshop but most photo editing programs will be similar. If you don’t have a photo editing program, check out Gimp at http://www.gimp.org/. It’s a free program that you can download and use to edit your photos.

How to Make a Banner