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Needle felting book fist impresions

Needle felting book fist impresions

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I am home from surgery, and still quite sore. Last week I was feeling too sore to felt, so tried to keep reading my new book but none of the words wanted to cooperate and enlighten me. hummm. Ok, let me try that again in a few days ( Stupid anaesthetic brain). It’s now a week later and words are not just pretty shaped line, so I returned to enjoying my new book, still a bit slower than usual but then I will just enjoy it longer. I would like to give you my first impressions. But first, you probably want to know what it is I am trying to read.

For Christmas, I received the third felting book in a series by author Cindy-Lou Thompson; A Masterclass in Needle Felting Endangered Species: Methods and Techniques to Take Your Needle Felting to the Next Level. I have her two previous books and was excited when I saw the third listed as soon to be published. My husband seems to have noticed that excitement since it was there Christmas morning. (I found an excellent blacksmithing book about making locks for him).

1) Christ mass presents from 2024 candy, bergus shails stuffed fossel creature, and felting book 1) Christ mass presents from 2024

This is not written as a beginner book. The felter is expected to know how to, or figure out sculpting shapes to create a firm under-structure. She includes an interesting overview of her tools and covers specific techniques as she explains her projects.  She explains she was self-taught and has, as a result, come up with some interesting ideas that I had not seen in other books.  This creative approach makes her books worth looking through and considering for your library.

2) Cover of Cindy-Lou Thompson latest book 2) Cover of Cindy-Lou Thompson’s latest book

 3) A sample page from the chapter Getting started tools and equipment3) A sample page from the chapter Getting Started, tools and Equipment

Book Content:

  • Dedications and acknowledgements
  • Preface
  • Introduction
  • Getting started tools and equipment

Projects:

  • Snow leopard
  • Przewalski’s Horse
  • Painted Dog
  • Secretary Bird

 

  • How to prepare and blend Merino wool
  • Fur attachment
  • Glossary
  • Suppliers

Four endangered species are used as examples, to show some of the techniques she uses to make her sculptures. She uses cabochon eyes and the tinting of fibre with pastels or makers as well as fibre blending to create colour. Again she assumes previous knowledge of sculpting with wool but she does show how she does a lot of her finishing

  • Snow leopard – eyes and armature wire, adding spots (blending, markers or powder pastel)
  • Przewalski’s Horse – hooves and reverse needling. Silk clay and Mod Podge
  • Painted Dog – Short reverse needle coat, clay nails, acrylic eyes, on a grass base
  • Secretary Bird – eyes and feathers

4) Sample page of snow leopard instructions4) Sample page of snow leopard instructions

5)sample page of Przewalski’s Horse project5)sample page of Przewalski’s Horse project

There are odd little bits of information that were left out. Such as,  what kind of mettle is in the coated wire she is using. Ok, I might be the only one really curious about this. I am suspecting it may be steel since the coated garden wire I have found here is steel and not aluminium. This may be a UK vs Canada shopping thing, and there may be coated aluminium there.

I also found her understanding of fibre prep a bit odd, her definition of core wool is a bit unspecific. I have a strong suspicion she does not spin fibre, so has not investigated the difference between Combed (top), whose fibre alignment is generally parallel, which makes worsted yarn, VS Carded (roving or batts) whose fibre structure is more disorganized, thus easier to needle felt, which make woollen yarn. Carded fibre can be removed from the carding drum as a batt or various widths of roving. Unfortunately the word “roving” is missuses by some sellers who sell combed top as Carded roving since they both look like long strips of fibre. If you look carefully at the strip, if the fibres look mostly parallel it’s combed top, if it looks more disorganized it’s carded roving. Core wool is usually carded or carding waste, not a breed or special type of preparation. World of Wool sells both a roving and carding waste version of core wool. I have used both but found re-carding the carding waste made it easy to use.

That said even with a few odd bits of vocabulary, this is a book worth looking at and probably getting. I am not sure I will try any of her projects, but some of her techniques may turn up in something else I do in the future.

Sorry this is a bit shorter than the small books I usually write, but recovery is a bit slower than I had hoped and so far has been an exciting roller coaster of pain, but it’s much better than last week!

Win a New Knitting Book!

Win a New Knitting Book!

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We were contacted by Sellers Publishing again to see if we would review a couple of their new books. They generously offered to have a book giveaway without limiting it to a certain area. We have no connection with Sellers Publishing but they have provided a free book for us to review. So if you’d like to win a copy of the book reviewed below, please leave a comment on this post. I would appreciate it if you also shared this post on social media as well.

The first book to review is called Baby & Me Knits by Celeste Young. I will review the second book next week so keep your eyes peeled! Since I am not a knitter, I had a couple of my knitting friends, Sally and Paula, give me some input on the book.

Baby and Me_Knits_3D

Here is what the publisher has to say about the book:

Baby & Me Knits (978-1-4162-4541-4) features 20 hand-knit designs for every season and style. Knitters of all levels will find inspiration in author and new mom Celeste Young’s patterns — simple knit and purl textures that give way to subtle lace, cables, and stranded colorwork, each accompanied by clear instructions and how-to photography. Young’s combination of modern, washable yarns and stitch patterns are sized for newborns through 24 months of age. The blankets, sweaters, and coordinating accessories for baby and mom are perfect for that keepsake knitted gift from a friend or family-member. “The patterns in this book are designed to work individually and in sets, perfect for creating heirlooms for your family or special gifts for an amazing parent and child,” said author Celeste Young. “I have left plenty of room for interpretation in my designs so that you can add your personal flair to them. Choose your own color scheme for the Sweet Berries set, for example, or knit simple or wildly striped socks and fingerless gloves from the Bright Stripe set, or increase your yarn gauge and repeat count on any of the baby blankets to create a full-sized throw. It is my hope that Baby & Me Knits will introduce you to fun, new techniques and empower you to be creative as you make these sweet knitted pieces.”

Baby and Me-1

From my knitting friends:

This book has beautiful photos and appealing patterns and designs. It is primarily for babies 3 to 24 months old with a few coordinating accessories for mom! The difficulty key and needle size information right at the beginning of the book is very helpful and information about interpreting it your own way is great to take the ideas further.

Baby and Me-2

Directions were clearly written and easy to understand. The photos and breakdown of specific techniques and tips was very helpful. Each of the projects had specific technique photos for a certain portion of the project. The book assumes you know the basics of knitting but these additional explanations will certainly help a beginner to progress to more difficult projects. Each of the projects is marked as to how difficult it is. These are fairly simple patterns using cables, stockinette stitch and pattern work. Enlarged charts are a plus! It’s good book for a beginning knitter and new Moms.

Baby and Me-3

There are projects for Mom and Baby and the authors has suggestions for ways to increase the designs to make a standard size throw instead of a baby blanket. All patterns call for Cascade worsted weight yarn but any worsted weight yarn could be used. It would have been helpful to list types of yarn you could use for each project instead of listing a specific yarn. But all in all, we all thought this was a great book. It would be perfect for a knitting mom to be, new moms or grandmothers or even if you knit and want to create a keepsake gift for  a new baby. I took a look at the Amazon listing for this book and it already has four 5 star reviews.

Leave a comment and you could win a free copy of this charming book. The giveaway is open until October 17th. I will be announcing the winners of both of the books on October 18th. Please make sure to have an e-mail attached to your comment. I won’t be able to contact anyone who comments anonymously. Then Sellers Publishing will send the book to you directly anywhere in the world.

Creativity is a Verb

Creativity is a Verb

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This isn’t a new book, but one that I have enjoyed reading numerous times. Creative is a Verb: If You’re Alive, You’re Creative by Patti Digh was published in 2011.

Creative is a verb cover

 

This is the description that is on Patti Digh’s website about the book: Your life is the work of art. Following up on her successful Life Is a Verb, and in the tradition of Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, Patti Digh here presents a book that leads readers by both heart and head to acknowledge, reinforce, and use their own creative spirit. Creative Is a Verb is a book for everyone, whether you say, “I’m not creative” or “I’m just a dabbler” or “I’m an artist.” Original artwork enhances each essay, contributed by artist/followers of the author’s blog, 37 days. Thirty-three related essays are organized around six overarching themes that guide readers beyond the fear of creativity to embrace their inner artist. As the author says, “If you’re alive, you’re creative.” Among the themes: “Be Ordinary,” “See More,” “Get Present,” and “Catch Fire.” Each essay is followed by creative exercises for the reader, allowing her to apply the principles of each story to her own life.

I’m not always one to do all the “exercises” in a book but I was certainly inspired by the essays and the quotes that are scattered throughout the book. I really like the way she tells who the book is for:

“This book is for everyone who courageously creates their life as a work of art, sometimes beautiful, sometimes messy, sometimes painful, sometimes mundane, and always an expression of their unique vision; for everyone who notices the color Chartreuse and crazy clouds wherever they go; for everyone who makes art from stones, from trash, from loss; for everyone who longs to climb back into the marvelous; for everyone who yearns to reclaim their creative spirit, their art spark and for those who want to jump into their yearning and walk toward their obstacles. Yes, I mean you.”

Does that sound like you?

Book Review: Creating Felt Artwork

Book Review: Creating Felt Artwork

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Creating Felt Artwork: a step by step guide

This is an excellent, information packed, 60 page, full colour e-book by Rosiepink fibre artists Annie and Lyn. Using one of their own pieces, ‘The Meadow’ as a guide, they show you a step by step process and give you all the information you need to make your own beautiful, unique felt artwork. There are lots of nice, clear photos throughout, and simple but detailed instructions with lots of excellent tips and advice. Before the main part on how to create your felt wall hanging, there is a great section about finding inspiration, how to interpret your ideas into a design and planning your artwork.

The information in the main step by step guide is excellent. It starts with a detailed equipment list with lots of hints for using inexpensive items you’d find around the house, and advice about preparing your work area. The instructions for how to lay out the wool for your design are very clear and detailed, and there are lots of photographs to illustrate each stage. There’s a very detailed explanation of the whole felting process and valuable information about choosing other fabrics and fibres to add to your design.

The next section teaches you how to enhance and embellish your artwork with simple machine embroidery. This part is packed with information and advice too. There’s everything you need to know about stabilising your felt artwork and choosing the right colours and types of thread to work best with your design. There’s information about techniques to create the effect you want and how to add detail. This section also has advice about adding hand stitching and how to use machine and hand stitching to create effects and texture and also about using other fibres for adding extra texture and detail.

Once you’ve finished your felt art wall hanging, you’ll want to display it. There is a great section on how to back and hang your artwork simply and effectively, with clear instructions and photos. But if you’d like to display your artwork a different way, there is also a separate section on alternate ways to display your artwork and how to care for it.

There’s information and tips throughout the book for techniques to help you realise your own design and create your own unique artwork. This includes how to make and use prefelt for more control over your design; how to re-use spare felt in the same way; using yarn and small drafted sections of wool for design, and adding other fabrics and needlefelting to enhance your artwork.

So, what if you’ve followed all the instructions and you’re not happy with the way it turned out, or maybe you made a few sample pieces to try out your colour choices and don’t know what to do with them? There’s even a section for that, with some great ideas on what to do with spare pieces of felt.

And don’t worry if you’re an absolute beginner and have never tried felting before, or don’t really know what all the felting terms mean, there’s a glossary at the end with everything you need to know and an appendix with a complete step by step guide to making felt, with lots of clear photos.

This really is excellent value for money. It’s an invaluable source of information and advice about creating beautiful feltwork and enhancing it simply with easy tips and techniques. And the great advantages about being an e-book is you can have it instantly and zoom into the photos for even more detail 🙂

If you’d like to own a copy, visit Annie and Lyn’s website http://rosiepink.typepad.co.uk/rosiepink/creating-felt-artwork-ebook.html   It’s also available on Craftsy http://www.craftsy.com/project/view/Creating-Felt-Artwork/43696