drop spindle – Felting and Fiber Studio

A New Drop Spindle and the Holiday Card Exchange

October 7, 2020 shepherdessann Comments 10 comments

In early September I came across the website John Galon Designs. I think I found the link in a spindle group on Facebook but I don’t remember. https://johngalen.com/ He makes beautiful spindles, many from old, timepieces. I didn’t get a timepiece one but I did get one.

Here is the reveal

Are you ready? here it is:

It is a very pretty and cool spindle. The acrylic in the middle is actually clear but the purple of the spindle radiates out through it. There are about a dozen colours to choose from. I am really pleased with it. Now I need to spin properly with it. I am not used to a spindle with such a small whorl.

The other thing I wanted today is to announce the 2020 holiday card exchange on the Felting and Fiber Studio Forum. We have been doing a card exchange for several years now. Its a fun and easy way for us to share a little cheer at this time of year.

You can sign up on the forum, here: Holiday Exchange link

the deadline to sign up is Oct 24th, Partners will be assigned ( by random generator) on Oct 25th

You have to make a felt card and send mail it to your partner by Nov 14th

Once you receive your card you post a picture of it on the forum

The cards do not have to be Christmas cards they can be anything. There is a lot going on in late December and there is New Year too. We are starting a little early this year and on a tighter timeline, having you ship earlier so the cards have a good chance to get there for the holiday season.

Here are a few I have made over the years

Natural Wools For a Pod and Weaving

September 14, 2016 zedster66 Comments 11 comments

I made another bird pod last week, this time using various natural grey wools. The pictures aren’t the best because when I went to take photos yesterday afternoon, it suddenly went really dark, then we had the most epic hour long storm with non-stop thunder, lightning, wind and torrential rain (basically the whole city shut down for hours because of it). So, I had to redo the photos this morning, and they’re a bit flat.

I mentioned in my last post I was getting a spinning wheel, and it came last week (yay!) but I’ve not been upto having a go yet, so I did a bit of spindle spinning and then weaving. I thought it’d be nice for fairs or the well being classes to show how hand woven yarn can be used. This first one was made with fairly neat (by my standards, anyway) yarn, just single ply, and I didn’t wet and set the twist or anything, just wound it onto an old broom handle from the spindle. I wove it on a little kids loom I bought:

A closer look:

I was doing some of the weaving at night watching Parks and Recreation and thought I was using all naturals, but it was obvious in daylight I’d used some yarn I made ages ago from hand dyed Merino (green over orange, I think), but I think it matches alright.

Since not everyone has a loom handy, I thought I’d make a few pieces with cardboard looms, so I cut some rectangles and then marked out sections and cut notches in the bottom. I also used some yarn I’d made from my carding scraps – the really wiry, scruffy, short and matted bits – and some coarser wools like Herdick (the bits I used looked like unpicked Brillo pads) and a couple I got from Wollknoll which look like shredded wheat, to show that yarn, and weaving, can still look good even if you don’t make smooth, even yarn. This is a tall one I made:

That’s a dried pepper keeping it flat, I’ll probably have to wet and block some of these becasue they want to curl! Close up:

Closer:

This is a really small one I made:

A close up:

This is the larger of the cardboard looms I made:

And this is a photo of the loom above with a smaller cardboard loom (it already has the warp thread wound on it) and how they compare to the kids’ loom I have. That is probably smaller than A4/printer paper:

Do you remember the inside of my bag from last time? Well, I was watching Neighbours last week (an Aussie soap, for those who don’t know) and a character was wearing a jacket, just like my bag flap!

Little Projects

August 23, 2016 zedster66 Comments 20 comments

Thanks a lot to Marilyn for filling in for me the other day when I wasn’t well 🙂
It seems like I’ve got a lot of small or half finished projects on the go at the moment. I’ve been collecting glass beads to make a fulling board for the Well Being centre classes. I thought I finally had just enough to do one, so started on that, only to find I ran out of glue!

It still made a nice photo along the surface though:

One thing I did get finished was making some resists for vessels and pods out of the foam I got recently, you can tell which one I used for the bird pod last week:

I took them to the felting/fibre group yesterday and and we ended up with a round bowl, a wide bottomed vase with narrow neck, a bird pod, and a garden den for frogs which inspired the idea to make oven gloves! Here are the other resist shapes:

One thing I did finish a few weeks ago was a rough drop spindle to take to the group:

I cut a little notch in the top:

We only had time for 2 members to have a quick go, but both made nice, even lengths of yarn and picked it up easily. The bits of wood I’ve used so far for making the whorls on my spindles have been some I got off ebay really cheaply, probably because they aren’t very even, so probably wheel rejects. I wanted to make some better spindles, so sent off for some properly made toy wheels:

Of course I couldn’t find the dowelling I bought years ago which I thought would fit perfectly, but after searching everywhere, I found it by accident when I was rearranging the room the other week. I haven’t fixed it properly, but I tried it for size:

I might get around to actually making it in a few more months 🙂

I am Getting a New Drop Spindle.

December 23, 2015 shepherdessann Comments 25 comments

There is a lady in my guild, Laurie, that make fabulous resin drop spindles. I was very tempted at our guild sale to get one but couldn’t decide and most were top whorl.

You can see individual pictures on her etsy page. I really like the snowflakes and the purple bead flowers. Here is the link to her page. https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/AzureSkysHandcrafts?ref=l2-shopheader-name

I like a bottom whorl spindle so she is going to make me a custom one. Since she is making me one special I have asked her if she could embed a piece of my nuno felt in the whorl. She can, so I will be looking through my stash but may end up making a piece special.

I am afraid I have no new felting to share with everyone. With Christmas coming fast I haven’t had time do any felting. Right now my studio table is covered in presents waiting to get wrapped. No room for felting until that is done. Oh and the cleaning, and the decorating and the cooking ………..

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone. Hope you have a wonderful time with friends and family.

Visit to Waldron Grove Alpaca Farm

May 12, 2014 Marilyn aka Pandagirl 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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

A Busy Week and an Half

August 27, 2013 shepherdessann Comments 12 comments

I went to a small sale the other weekend. It was at a small pioneer village. http://www.langpioneervillage.ca/

I demonstrated spinning with a drop spindle and sold 10 drop spindle kits. I think I could have sold 10 more if I had had them.

The museum is also working on getting an old Jacquard loom working. This is the one that will stay as just a static display.

If you are old enough you will probably think the cards look like computer punch cards but these pre date computers by quite a bit. The cards are the pattern, they are sewn together. I will post more pictures of the loom over on the forum. http://feltandfiberstudio.proboards.com/thread/1059/jacquard-loom

After the show I stayed wit my friend Maureen who owns Dreamspin Fibres, http://www.dreamspinfibres.ca/ (shameless plug for a friend) I made a hat using prefelt. I hadn’t done that before.

The green stuff is some of that strange yarn everyone is knitting and crocheting the spiral scarves with. It is a tube so I cut the tube up one side and opened it out. It came out great.

Then this Monday I taught a bobble cuff workshop for the first time. The ladies in the class where a lot of fun. Audrey’s granddaughter was there and very interested so I gave her some wool and she made a small picture in a plastic bag and I showed her how to make a tube bead with some pencils.

By the end of the class they had the marbles in the cuffs. The cuffs have to dry before you can cut them to get the marbles out. They will do that today. I made everyone a sample with marbles in them so they could try cutting the felt while I was still there.

That’s been my very busy week and a half. I almost forgot to do my post today as I was busy making hats and scarves for a sale I have on September 7 and 8 in Almonte. http://mvtm.ca/museum/?page_id=2675 If you are in the area come out and say hi.

Felt bird houses are coming along and a fun demo.

March 14, 2013 shepherdessann Comments 12 comments

Slowly the bird houses are coming along. They are now decorated, wet down.

They have been rubbed and rolled and stuffed into the tops of pantyhose. They are ready to full. With some luck that will be tomorrows job.

Two days this week I was at the Ottawa Valley Farm Show. I was demonstrating spinning with a few friends. I took some mixed batts I made buy collecting my odd bits together and running them through the carder. They have lots of colour and neps.

On day one I spun up 2 very bulky singles and one medium weight single in pinks.

Today I plied the 2 bulkies together. My wheel is not designed for such bulky yarn but with perseverance and a few choice words under my breath I got it plied.

After that I was tired of pink so I switched to my drop spindle and the blue green batt.

I am afraid I don’t have anymore pictures that turned out. We were right in front of a big picture window that was a very nice spot but not good for taking pictures as you can see from the picture of me spinning.

I think I’ve done really well with working and playing with fiber this week. I hope I can keep it up.

Threads and Yarns

March 12, 2013 zedster66 Comments 20 comments

Around this time last year I was still doing the Take A Stitch Tuesday challenge. I struggled with it, and didn’t always enjoy it, but I did like what I produced when I used some felt offcuts from a piece I’d made with natural wools for placemats and coasters. I used my own handspun thread to sew the stitches. This is one I made using chain stitch, and this is one using cretan stitch. I hadn’t used my threads in a while, but recently I’ve been inspired by my flickr-friend, Marchi Wierson, a sculptural fibre artist who uses a variety of techniques in her work, such as wet felting and crochet, and loves working with natural wools and fibres. Her recent vessel commission and some gorgeous natural fibre yarns had me rummaging through my wools and fibres and getting my spindles out to spin more thread and yarn. I decided to use three shades of Shetland Wool.

I pulled off some of the tops from each shade.

Then I looked through my embellishment fibres for some I thought would make a nice match. I chose Soybean top, viscose top and flax.

I added some of each fibre to the Shetland tops.

Then I blended them by hand.

I got a couple of my spindles out, this is one I made and painted a few years ago.

I made a small amount of thread, though even a small amount of wool and fibres goes a long way when spinning thread. This is it wound around the spindle.

Then I blended up some more Shetland and fibres and spun a thicker yarn. I will probably use the yarn in a wet felting project, though I have used them for needlefelting before.

Do have a look at Marchi’s photostream if you have time, her work is amazing and inspiring 🙂

You might have noticed a few changes to the site recently. We’ve been updating it and adding more photos to the galleries. We’ve also added a new page for Fabrics, and Ann’s ever popular Cat Cave ‘how to’ is now listed on the Wet Felting Tutorials page.

Exhibition and Sale

November 6, 2012 shepherdessann Comments 10 comments

The guild I belong to, the Ottawa Valley Weavers and Spinners Guild, had its annual exhibition and sale this last weekend. I had a booth selling scarves and wraps and flowers and cuffs and hats etc. The guild does a display on a theme and has demos and promotes our classes. It’s our big event for the year. The venue is beautiful it is a community center now but used to be a church and has a huge domed center.

Here are some pictures of my booth and me explaining what nuno felt is to a customer.

This is one of the organisers wearing an exquisite shawl she knit using her own hand spun alpaca.

This my friend Judy,http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jumaka.com%2Fspinning%2Fpetfur.html&h=fAQGCIXhy , she not only likes to spin yarn, including dog and cat fur she also likes to spin wood on a lathe to make nostepinne for manually making a center pull ball) and drop spindles in several styles and weights including supported spindles like she is using in the picture. This is her booth, she shares it with another friend who is more camera shy.