Felting and Fiber Studio

Knitting

February 8, 2015 zedster66 Comments 20 comments

I haven’t had chance to do any felting at all recently. With working on the Wet Felting workshop and trying to work out all the details for outside tutors, not to mention having to move the entire contents of my kitchen into the living room, I’ve barely had time to sit down with a cup of tea! Last week during a well deserved tea break (Russian Caravan) I thought I’d look up some How to Knit videos. I’ve been wanting to learn how to knit for ages. I have tried in the past, but always found it hard to keep the stitches loose enough to force the needles through 🙂 I don’t even know how many videos I watched about casting on, but none of them made sense, it was like watching close-up magic or something ‘so you get this, you do this, and … shazam!’ I almost gave up, but then I found Kristen ‘GoodKnitKisses’ and her How to knit videos. This is the Beginner’s Cast on Video:

I did it first time. I couldn’t believe it! So then I watched the ‘How to Knit’ video. That took a few tries for me to feel like I’d got the hang of it, maybe if I hadn’t used some synthetic version of thick and thin pencil riving, I might have been better 🙂 So, being a ‘master knitter’ now, I thought I’d make myself some needles out of dowelling:

Then I went hunting for something to use, and found a bag of raw Jacob I carded not so long ago. I made it into rolags and spun it on my drop spindle. The next day, I knitted it up straight from the spindle. Luckily GoodKnitKisses has a casting off video too. I’m not sure I did the last stitch right, but it isn’t coming undone, so I must have. I was really pleased with my knitting:

I had an electrician in the other morning, so while all the electric was off, I found some spare ends of white wools and mixed fibre batts and started some thick, nobbly yarn for my next knitting attempt:

If you want to start learning how to knit, I would definitely recommend those videos!

Online Class Give Away and Q&A

February 6, 2015 ruthlane Comments 7 comments

As Zed announced last month, we are starting a new venture here, online classes. Our first class is Wet Felting for Beginners starting on March, 1 2015.

And for all of you who are holding your breath, waiting to see if you won one of the 4 slots for the class in the give away, the winners are: Micah Bach Kinder, Minnie Rapley, Jolanta and Daveen. Congratulations 🙂 we’ll contact you soon with details.

If you had your name in for the drawing and you didn’t win, you can still sign up for the class here by filling out the form at the bottom of the page. Be sure to include your Paypal e-mail address if it is different from your usual one. Be sure to sign up before February 22, 2015 as that is the closing date for sign ups for this first session. If you can’t complete the course now, don’t worry, we’ll be offering this course on a regular basis, probably at least once a quarter.

Now since we are new at this entire venture, there were a few misunderstandings I’d like to clear up.

First, all of our classes will be online classes that can be taken by anyone, anywhere in the world. All of the classes will be given in English. Each class will be offered on a set date and last for a prescribed number of weeks. Each class will have access to an online forum and daily access to the instructor to ask questions and also to interact with other class members. The classes will include supply lists, PDF written learning material and some will also include recorded videos. But the most important part is the class forum. This forum will include only the instructor and the students for that session and the daily interaction will allow for a wonderful added learning experience compared to just buying an e-book or self guided course.

All classes will be billed by Paypal. Paypal accepts all major credit cards. You will be invoiced for the class at the time of sign up. Your class information, materials and forum link will be sent to you just prior to the starting date of your class. The supply list for your class will be available on the class information page here on the website. You will have access to all class materials for the length of the class plus the length of extra forum time given at the end of the class. This will vary with each class. All PDF’s will be able to be downloaded and printed out for your personal use. Videos will be available between the published class opening and closing dates. After the class forum closes, videos will no longer be available for viewing.

We will be presenting new class offerings as often as we can and we are looking for interested outside instructors. If you have a fiber art class you would like to offer in this online format, please use the Contact page to let us know. We are currently working on the guidelines for outside instructors and will send these to anyone who has contacted us once they are completed.

I do hope that this answers everyone’s questions. We would also like to thank everyone for spreading the word about our classes. We appreciate it. Thanks to all the students who have signed up and we are really looking forward to getting to know you a bit better and spreading the felting ‘bug’.

Winter Inspiration

February 4, 2015 ruthlane Comments 21 comments

I live in the northwest corner of Montana in the Flathead Valley. Our house is about 75 miles from the Canadian border. Our valley in the wintertime can get kind of dreary. Weather conditions can cause the valley to get covered in clouds and we won’t see the sun for weeks. It’s called an inversion and if you can get up in the mountains, the sun will be bright and you’ll look down into the valley and just see clouds. This is great for skiing but if you’re in the valley, it can get a little bleak. Last weekend, in the midst of an inversion, I was thinking about writing a post about color. I looked outside and all I saw was grey, dull colors. What to do? I took the dogs for a walk and started seeing lots of interesting shapes, line and value changes. Many times, when there is a lot of color, you get overwhelmed by the color and that’s all you might see. But since there wasn’t any color, I could really see value changes in the scenery. Value, is dark and light. So one end of the value scale is black and the other is white with a variety of grays in between. I wrote a post about using a value scale here.

So I went back to the house to get my camera. This shot is from the front of my house.

Because of the freezing fog, ice crystals form on branches and just about everything. This doesn’t happen all the time so it was fun to get some shots of all the ice crystals.

These are the aspen trees covered in ice crystals.

But then I saw the Ponderosa pine needles and I was entranced.

And the close up shots were amazing. They looked like fireworks.

And even the ice under my feet was looking lacy.

Then I turned a new eye on the landscape. Many times, when you’re trying to work out what values to use, you are told to squint your eyes and see if you can pick out the darker areas in a landscape. Or if you have a photo, then put it into a photo editing program and turn it into black and white. With these photos, I could immediately pick out the dark and light values. Can you?

So why go on and on about value? I think it is one of the most important parts of a composition. If all of your colors are the same value, you end up with limited contrast and the composition isn’t as interesting as it could be. You need to have dark, medium and light values so there is contrast in your composition and your eye will be led from area to area in your composition.

So even in the winter, when it’s dull and dreary, if you look close enough, you can find some inspiration. What’s been inspiring you this winter (or summer if you’re on the other side of the world)?

This and That…

February 2, 2015 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 19 comments

I had been traveling during the holidays and on the return home I had to start working on baby shower favors for the shower I’m throwing in California for my daughter in law later this month. It’s an exciting time, but also stressful with additional travels for graduations and birthdays coming up.

One of the first things I did when I returned was to go to The Fold to stock up on fiber. I needed primary colors to work on the color wheel for our first quarter challenge.

I also bought some Yak and ramie.

I’m not a pink person, but my first granddaughter will be born soon so I stocked up. I’ve been making booties for party favors, but I don’t think I bought enough roving. Thank you to forum member (Tina) Cherry for providing me with the template.

While we were in Hawaii my husband Craig and I had the opportunity to meet Tina Cherry and her husband for lunch at Duke’s On The Beach. Thanks for lunch Tina and Stan! We had a great visit.

Samples made.

I wanted one side to be lighter than the other so I proceeded to make batts combining white and pink to lighten the color.

I made 12 resists. Since I’m not sure how many people will attend the shower, I expect to make extras. I used two layers. One light and one darker.

Process started.

Here’s the third side done waiting to put the final layer on.

So far I’ve made 24 experimenting with different ways to speed up the process. Since we are in the middle of a blizzard here in the Chicago area, I ordered more fiber from Paradise Fibers in Spokane. I’m hoping it will arrive by Wednesday when I’m sure to be out. And of course, I have to decide how to decorate and fill them.

Well, back to the resists for round two…

Exciting News and a Giveaway

January 31, 2015 zedster66 Comments 41 comments

We’ve been working on a new venture for The Felting and Fiber Studio … online Workshops and Classes! The first class we’re offering is “Wet Felting Workshop for Beginners“. The first one starts on Sunday 1st March 2015. It’s a 3 week course developed to give absolute beginners a good foundation on which to develop their wet felting skills. Not only are there the expected ‘How to Felt’ instructions, but there are also simple exercises designed to show what happens when wool felts under different conditions so you can control the outcome. There is also lots of info on using different types of wool and animal fibres, tips for inexpensive tools, alternate techniques etc. For more info on the course, have a look here: http://feltingandfiberstudio.com/wet-felting-for-beginners/

We have lots of ideas in the pipeline and some classes are in development, keep an eye out on our Classes page for further info. We are also hoping other fibre artists will ‘hire’ the Studio site and the Class support forum as an online venue to teach their own classes from. We haven’t figured out the details for this yet, it’s still early days, but it won’t be expensive, we just want to cover hosting costs and media storage expenses; our aim has always been to support the community, not make our fortunes 🙂 Feel free to contact us if you’re interested.

So, to celebrate the launch of the Workshop, we’re giving away 4 free class places. The giveaway is for the 3 week course, you just need the supplies and felting equipment listed on the class information page. All you have to do to win is leave a comment in reply to this post. We would really appreciate it if you would blog about it or share the info on Facebook or other social media. We’ll announce the winners on February 6th and contact you with the details. If you’d like to sign up for the course, please use the Contact Form at the bottom of the Class Info page. Good Luck!

***Just to clarify: if you want to enter the giveaway leave a comment on THIS post. To sign up for the class, please use the contact form on the class info page: http://feltingandfiberstudio.com/classes/wet-felting-for-beginners/

The Giveaway is now closed. Please have a look at the winners announcement post if you’d like to know who won and for more details about the course. Thanks to everyone who entered and helped spread the word 🙂

Swirly Rainbow

January 29, 2015 zedster66 Comments 22 comments

Ann’s daughter went into labour yesterday, so I’m doing a quick post to fill in. Thinking about the first quarter challenge on colour, I remembered a swirly rainbow piece I made a couple of months ago. I started it the same way I usually make my rainbow pieces, but instead of just adding wisps of the colours from adjacent rows to blend them together, I blended the wisps roughly by hand, then fluffed them up before adding them. I realised this might look a bit odd once it was felted, so I fluffed up wisps of all the colours and added them to the top before felting.

Mostly the wisps/rows all blended together nicely. I don’t know whether I used too much yellow here blended with orange or if maybe a few wisps wafted out of place.

You can see the texture of the swirls on this close up:

Have you done anything for the challenge yet?

Designing a Set for Into the Woods

January 27, 2015 ruthlane Comments 27 comments

I have been traveling and haven’t had much time for any fiber art. Each year I go and see my sister Rebekah in Richmond, VA and then we travel on to a handcrafted wholesale show from there. This year the show was in Washington, DC and the name changed to the American Made Show. Because it was closer to Richmond and Rebekah’s home, we did have a bit of spare time. Rebekah has been involved with the Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School Drama Club since my niece Lizzie attended the school. She still occasionally helps out with set design and while we were visiting, the director for the upcoming show of “Into the Woods” had asked her to help out with designing a set. I sat in on the meeting with the director and several others who were helping out with the set design. Even though it isn’t fiber art, it is a creative pursuit and I found it very interesting. If you haven’t seen “Into the Woods”, there is a new movie out with Meryl Streep or you can find one of the older Broadway productions online to watch. It’s a musical with a mix of fairy tales.

After the meeting, once Rebekah had an understanding of what the director wanted, she got out her supplies. She always builds a mock-up of the set first in 1/4 or 1/2 inch scale using card stock and foam core board. She needed to build a set piece that included Cinderella’s castle, an interior of a home with a hearth and Rapunzel’s tower. The director wanted it to be all one piece that would have wheels and could be turned around to match each scene as needed. He also thought it would be a good idea for the center to be hollow so the actors could move undetected from one scene to the next.

Here are Rebekah’s first drawings of what that set piece might look like. Meanwhile, I was supposed to be working on creating trees for the forest. So I searched online for photos of “gnarly trees” and forest scenes.

Then I started cutting out trees in card stock. These were supposed to be 1/2″ equals one foot but I think I might have messed up because they ended up being too big.

I used more card stock to make the trees stand up and to give the trunks further support.

Here are a few of my trees standing in front of our chosen backdrop photo.

I also made a bunch of branches that would be put at the front of the stage coming down from above to denote that you were moving back “Into the Woods”.

I also added charcoal to the trees since the blue card stock wasn’t exactly tree like.

Meanwhile, Rebekah made this amazing structure. This is Cinderella’s castle.

The side door into the tower.

Rapunzel’s tower.

And the village hut with a hearth. This is a three-sided structure, you can see the bottom of the steps to the castle on the left side. The hearth is open so that actors can get in and out of the center. There are plans for a ladder so that the top of the tower can be reached.

This is a view of the inside of the structure. The hearth door is on the left and the stairs of the castle are towards the top. You can see Rapunzel’s window in the bottom right of the photo.

Since I got finished with my trees before Rebekah was finished. I also made a cow and a hen. These are props for Jack in the Jack and the Beanstalk part of the story. I had a really good time helping to create the mock-up for the set. I hope that Rebekah will be able to get me some photos of the set after it is built full-scale. If you are in the Richmond, VA area, you might want to check out the production.

Pandagirl’s Year in Review

January 25, 2015 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 25 comments

I know I’m late to the party, but I’ve been traveling and have several family affairs looming that need my attention.

I started out in 2014 as a forum member and then in March I was a Global Moderator! This past year has brought many challenges and delightful learning and wonderful outcomes in terms of felting.

My year started with experiments in dyeing.

I shared my venture into encaustics.

Tried my hand at painting with wool.

Experimented with different wools.

Participated in the quarterly challenges.

Stewart Stephenson - Marilyn — Stewart Stephenson – Marilyn

Monet 2 after felting — Monet 3rd quarter

Tried framing methods.

I broke down to drum carder envy and began my foray into making batts. Woo hoo!

Cathy and I tried indigo dyeing.

My marketing blogs…

I know it’s been awhile, but its more fun felting than marketing… Sorry.

I taught a felting class.

There was a period of obsession with pods and vessels.

I ventured into free motion stitching.

Then I experimented with embellishments and making a book cover.

Designing and making a handbag was a huge accomplishment for me.

I experimented with 3D felting – grapes and flowers.

I learned a lot of new techniques in Fiona Duthie’s class.

It was a busy year visiting farms, mills and fairs.

I made scarves including a cobweb scarf.

A big project was a 3D free motion stitched bowl, oh my!

Felting a rooster, I learned to combine wet and needle felting.

Our holiday exchange was an experiment of combining beading and felting.

All in all, it’s been a very productive and inspiring year felting. Of course, there were many more projects that were completed. It has been a wonderful year. I want to thank all of you for teaching, inspiring me and encouraging me to do and try more. Thank you! A special thanks to my fellow moderators and Luvswool (Cathy), Leonor at Felt Buddies and Nada for pitching in and contributing to the blog. It’s been a terrific, fun journey. I can’t wait to see what 2015 brings and what I learn and try!

Silk Nuno Samples

January 23, 2015 zedster66 Comments 18 comments

I bought some silk fabric from a seller on ebay quite a while ago. It was listed as Silk Organza and it felt ‘stiff’ like some of the thicker synthetic organzas can, but was even stiffer. It kind of ‘bent’ rather than folded! I mentioned it on the forum and after suggestions decided the best thing to do was wash it and see how it turned out. I don’t have any photos of it as it comes, I remember trying, but it was acting like patterned shirts do on the telly. This is how it looked after a wash:

It started to crumple up and look like foil, and didn’t want to uncrumple. In some places it started to fall to bits:

I googled, and came up with a couple of sites talking about vintage fabrics, and especially how delicate silk taffeta is with its metallic threads and something about how taffeta is prone to disintegration because of the metal salts used to give an opalescent sheen. So, I’m fairly certain it is taffeta and not organza. I did a sample using a piece before washing, at the top, and a piece I’d washed, at the bottom:

The unwashed piece kept its shape better than I thought. Actually, so did the washed piece, I wouldn’t have been surprised if it just fell to bits. I did a similar sized sample with just one piece unwashed.

The taffeta still feels stiff after felting, but it does look nice. Angled:

You can really see the sheen and texture on this close up:

A few weeks ago, I made some more drum carded blended batts. I used 18.5 mic primary yellow Merino blended with hand dyed Milk, Silk and Soy fibres; and 18.5 mic Merino blended with black bamboo and hand dyed Milk, Silk and Soy fibres; then I blended them together.

A few people pointed out they fit in well with the first quarter colour challenge, making a shade. I’m hoping I get chance to felt a little sample of them soon, I’m curious how the fibres will show through.

Felt and Stitch Bowl Attempt

January 21, 2015 Shepherdessann Comments 14 comments

I needed a liner for a basket for collecting eggs. This is a small basket but I will need a bigger basket before long as we got some new chickens.

I thought I would try sewing around and around a flat piece of felt as I had seen on Lyn’s blog. http://rosiepink.typepad.co.uk/rosiepink/handmade-felt-and-stitch-bowls.html she sells an ebook of how to do it. If I had downloaded it and if I had followed it I probably would have had better results. I am much to clever for that, not. I did it form a vague memory of Lyn mentioning something on the Forum.

So I found a piece of felt and cut it to what I hope will fit my basket. Nothing beats guessing when its right. 🙂

Next I started stitching, switching the machine from turtle speed to rabbit speed as neatness doesn’t really count here. I also used up all my part bobbins so now I have some empty ones.

As you can see after the first go round it is still flat felt. I decided there was not enough stitching so loaded up the machine with orange and off I went again around and around.

As you can see that didn’t help at all. There was a slight curving on one side but not what I would call a bowl. Still I needed a basket liner and after all this is not a beauty piece but a partial piece I cut it.

and sewed it

Here it is with some eggs in just to prove it really is an egg basket. I haven’t really used it yet in the barn. Theses are some that where collected this morning that are not in cartons yet.

I think the problem besides not buying the tutorial and following the instructions is that my felt was fairly thick and well fulled. I do know from my few attempt at free motion machine embroidery that the felt does strange things if not backed with something. The other thing that may have done it was I started at the outside. Perhaps if I had started in the middle the felt would have reacted differently. All in all I ended up with a basket liner and had fun sewing like the wind round and round.

Felting and Fiber Studio

An International Collective of Felt and Fiber Artists

Knitting

February 8, 2015 zedster66 Comments 20 comments

Like this:

Online Class Give Away and Q&A

February 6, 2015 ruthlane Comments 7 comments

Like this:

Winter Inspiration

February 4, 2015 ruthlane Comments 21 comments

Like this:

This and That…

February 2, 2015 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 19 comments

Like this:

Exciting News and a Giveaway

January 31, 2015 zedster66 Comments 41 comments

Like this:

Swirly Rainbow

January 29, 2015 zedster66 Comments 22 comments

Like this:

Designing a Set for Into the Woods

January 27, 2015 ruthlane Comments 27 comments

Like this:

Pandagirl’s Year in Review

January 25, 2015 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 25 comments

Like this:

Silk Nuno Samples

January 23, 2015 zedster66 Comments 18 comments

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Felt and Stitch Bowl Attempt

January 21, 2015 Shepherdessann Comments 14 comments

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