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1st quarter jewellery challenge

1st quarter jewellery challenge

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This is the last of my contributions to this quarter’s challenge. I am looking forward to finding out what the next quarter’s challenge is.

Last time I showed you my circles of silk and wool to be made into flowers.

First, I rubbed and rolled them until they were well felted.  Then I folded them into a cone and started rolling in my hands and pulling on the point. That resulted in this:

Next, I cut some leaves from the flat green piece and needled them onto the flowers.

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I thought they need some stamen. I used locks. These are Wensleydale cross locks I bought already dyed. The first few I made, I didn’t like. The stamens were too long and they looked more like some sort of horror movie flower monster that was sticking out their tongues.

I shortened them. I think I need to dye some locks yellow for the rest. I should have time as we are all staying home.

I will add pins, probably safety pins, to these. Then they can go on a hat or coat or anything really.

I haven’t found good broach pins yet. The ones in local stores all seem to fall apart after a few uses.  I had a link to a supplier but there was no way to tell which ones were good and which ones were not. I will have to order samples maybe.

I was surprised while editing the flowers on how hairy they look. You don’t really notice them in person. The camera really picks them up. The other interesting thing I discovered was that the lid of my new laptop is great for taking pictures. It is flat black and doesn’t reflect the light.

 

 

 

The Finished Hat

The Finished Hat

Comments 12 comments

So this week I managed to finished the hat in my last post.

I left you with this picture:

Next I covered it and rubbed it for a while. then rolled it up and into the dryer with no heat for 10 min. while I was waiting for that I started to lay out another hat. After the first tumble I took the hat out flipped and rotated it and rolled it up again. you can see the other hat I am working on under the bundle.

After a few turns in the dryer I cut the hat open and shifted it so I would not be felting in the seam crease.

I continued to roll it in the dryer shifting the hat on the resist each time. Once is had shrunk some, I continued to full it by hand.  This is what it looked like still wet and in need of a rinse.

and this is after it has been rinsed reblocked and dry. not really much different. the close up picture is a truer picture colour wise. it is a light silvery grey with pink and grey accents.

I like it, it is simple but interesting. I think I will leave this one the way it is. the next on in this style may be more embellishment after there fact. I need to dye more silk hankies.

 

The Hummingbird and the Tiger Lily

The Hummingbird and the Tiger Lily

Comments 18 comments

I know a lot of people are experiencing different seasons around the world.  Here in the U.S. summer has finally arrived.  One of the things I always look forward to is seeing the hummingbirds fluttering around my flowers.

While the hummingbirds haven’t been seen yet, I decided to make my own.  I started with making a base with Domestic 56 batts, then I added a thin layer of batts and silk hankies as a background felting it slightly and letting it dry.

I decided to make the bird and flower in three dimension.  I shaped the bird first by doing some needle felting and putting it in place then covering it with handmade prefelt and silk hankies. I did a little needle felting on the wings to get the detail of the wings.  The beak was made like a spike and attached before the final wet felting.

The Tiger Lily petals and stamens and stem were made from prefelt and again the stamens were added right before the final wet felting. I used little resists under the petals and needle felted the stamens to stay in place.

A little plastic wrap around the stamens  and beak to keep them from felting to the petals or background.

The felting was slow and I tried not to get it too hard. I wanted a soft look.

I added more needle felting for detail.

Here are several different angles to see the dimension.

Looking at it from above it doesn’t show the dimension.  I may have it framed in a shadow box.  What do you think?

More Cup Cozies

More Cup Cozies

Comments 14 comments

This week I made more cup cozies. I made 2 sets of flat ones that will have buttons. I started out with a rectangle. I decorated them in a random way. I then cut them into 4 at the prefelt stage. The purple has some orange blobs of orange throwers waist. It should show up again when they are dry. The green has some of my hand spun single yarn. It is quite stable until you wet it then it get its twist back and goes all crazy.

purple cup cozies green cup cozies

I finish them on a glass wash board. It is very fast.

roling on washboard

These are the rest of the ones I made. They will get buttons. Some will fit a coffee mug and some will fit travel mugs or water bottles.

fan of cup cozies

Here are some of my buttons I will be picking through for these. I have many more if I need them. I will use a thin round black elastic loop to close them. That way I think people may be able to adjust them by looping them once or twice as needed.

buttons

I also made some that are like the cardboard sleeves you get at take out places.

tube cup cozie black with white silk white with black silk

The multicoloured one was made using a batt and prefelt triangles I cut out of some scraps. The black one is regular merino top with a white silk hanky stretched over it. The white one is made with prefelt and a black silk hanky stretched around it.  The white one shrank much more top to bottom then the other two. I didn’t look carefully at the piece I had before using it. Prefelt is directional. If I had looked I would have used it in the other direction.

rolling tube cup cozieI use the washboard to finish them as well.

This is the group drying. I really like the way the back and white ones look like marble.

finished tube cozies.

If you made it this far here are two unrelated pictures. One is my grandson helping me with my ice cream cone at the farmers market on Sunday.

icecream

And the turkeys I showed you  a few weeks ago. The first one is when they are 1 week old. They are now 4 .5 weeks old. They grow very fast. They will be moving to new quarters this week.

turkeysturkeys

 

Project Bags and Tea Cozies

Project Bags and Tea Cozies

Comments 26 comments

This last little while I have been making some project bags. I made a flat rectangular style using prefelt. I wrapped some prefelt around the resist. You can see I split the edges of the prefelt and cut one layer away so that the overlap would not be thicker than the rest of the bag.

overlaping prefelt ready to felt prefelt bag

Everything is prefelt except the stripes. They are an unknown wool roving I bought because I liked the colours. I put a stripe inside too so the bag will be reversible.  The finished pictures shows how you can use migration to your advantage. When I was about half way through fulling I cut a slit in each side for the handle. I healed the cut edges with some soap and finger rubbing. I stretched the hole upward to get the shape I wanted. I am pleased with how it turned out.

prefelt bag 1This side used dark green and white prefelt

prefelt bag 2This side used all black prefelt.

I also made 2 nice round bags with a built in strap. This pictues shows the bag with a balloon blown up inside it and the panty part of some panty hose stretch over it to hold it well while it is fulled to about the half way point. At that point it is nice and round and just needed to be shrunk more.

grenn bag on balloon

Once I was finished fulling it I rinsed it out and then blew another balloon up inside it to make sure it dried nice and round. I did a smaller blue one as well. Both were covered in one layer of silk hankie. The green one also had a silk hanky flower on it.

green bag dry blue bag dry

They need their closures. I haven’t decided what yet.

The other thing I made was a couple tea cozies. sorry for the picture quality but I couldn’t get it to show better despite trying several things on the camera and computer.

teacozies

The cat needs some whiskers. The flower is a made with a silk hankie.

 

 

Felted Flower Class and Some Lambs

Felted Flower Class and Some Lambs

Comments 23 comments

I taught felted flowers this last week as a short evening class. We had a good time. This is proved by me not taking many pictures again.

First they did a morning glory style flower to get the idea of laying out. Some of the students had not ever used roving before. Here they are shaping their flowers.

shaping flowers morning glories

calenes morning gloryThis is Carlene’s flower

Next they made more delicate flowers using silk hankies and they learned to make stamen and stems.

Carlene’s again

carlenes silk flower

and everyone together

Flower class finnished

And be cause it’s spring her are some lamb pictures.

lamb on mom lambs and mom 2

when lambs are born we put them and their mom into a small pen to make sure mom has milk and  everything is going well. After a few days the lambs get their eartags and vaccinations. Then into a small group pen with other moms and lambs and then after a few more days out into the big group pen were they can get outside too. It is fun to run and jump with other lambs.

This is my house lamb, he is a preemie. He is very small with not much wool and no body fat. He was born late Tuesday night. And just because I like them here are the roosters roosting on some lambing pens for the night. They go to bed early as you see it is still daylight out.

preemie lamb roosters

Making a Gift for a New Grandma

Making a Gift for a New Grandma

Comments 32 comments

As you may be aware my daughter in law Mari  is due to have a baby girl any day.  While we wait for the “phone call,” I decided to make her mother a small cosmetic case/clutch.  This is her first grandchild and she has traveled from Japan to be with her daughter and my son for the big event.

I made a template allowing for a 30% shrinkage rate.  I had planned to use some prefelt and merino, but I realized I was almost out of black merino.  So, I substituted some black Corriedale for a middle layer.  The bottom half of the resist was 9″ x 11″ (23 cm x 28 cm).

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The inside layer was a turquoise merino.

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The second layer was the Corriedale batt and the last layer was a black prefelt.  Then I laid out the embellishments.  As usual, I was so engrossed in the process I forgot to take pictures.  The embellishments were 100% Peruvian thick and thin hand dyed wool yarn, a turquoise and metallic silver mohair yarn, silk hankies and green and turquoise throwsters waste.  The template for the flap was not used as a resist, but as a pattern for the shape and size of the flap.

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Once I was finished felting and fulling, I shaped the bottom and sides using an ice cream scoop. The shrinkage was less than I expected.  But it was well fulled so I was satisfied. The finished size was 8″ x 7″ high (20 cm x 18 cm)

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I used the yarn to put on her initials — ST on the flap and embellished it with a silver button and will either use a velcro or magnetic closure.

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I was pleased with the outcome.  It is sturdy, yet not heavy or bulky.

Dyeing Some Silk Hankies

Dyeing Some Silk Hankies

Comments 16 comments

I was running out of dyed silk hankies so it was time to brake out the dyeing supplies. before I started anything I had to soak the silk Hankies. They do not like to get wet the way silk fabric does. They really resist. I soaked them for 24 hours in some water with a little soap.

I used MX dye and a low water technique. I smooshed the silk in the bottom of some small containers form the dollar store.

silk ready to dye

Then I mixed up some dye in little measuring cups using only a small amount of water. Just enough so the silk will be covered after I add two colours.

dye for hankies dye sticks

I added the dye and let it sit for about an hour at room temperature. I mixed up some PHup ( the stuff you use for pools, sodium carbonate) 1 spoon full for each cup of water used in the dye and the water you are mixing it in. I poured some into each container and let it sit a while longer, about 15 min.

hankies dyeing

I then rinsed them in room temp water and then some soapy water then clear water. One was to much all one colour so I did a spot dye.

spot dyeing

And here they are drying on the table.

hankies1

I will use them  for surface design on hats and pots and to make flower designs on surfaces by folding and twisting them. you can layer them or stretch them out thin. You can spin with them too if you like.

If you want full instructions on low water mx dyeing I learned about it here http://www.pburch.net/dyeing/lowwaterimmersion.shtml

 

 

Arm Warmers by Cathy Wycliff

Arm Warmers by Cathy Wycliff

Comments 19 comments

 

Our guest artist/author today is Cathy Wycliff aka Luvswool who made a variety of arm warmers this Christmas for her family and friends.

Most of my felting this year has focused on wall hangings and scarves. Earlier this year, I went through a nuno-felting craze, followed by designing and felting cobweb and thick, wooly scarves.
But mostly, I focused on wall art, which included entries for the Quarterly Challenges, as well as some portraits, landscapes and seascapes. In November, I decided to experiment with arm warmers, or fingerless gloves and–if they turned out well–I would gift them to my mom and four sisters at Christmas. I looked at many wrist cuffs, arm warmers, gauntlets and fingerless gloves on-line and decided to start out simply with arm warmers–that is, short and long felted cuffs which extend over the fingers but do not include thumb or finger holes.

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My first pair would go to my youngest sister, who works in a cool office and wears arm warmers as part of her daily outfit. She mostly wears black, but I asked if I could toss in a color as well, and she chose olive. Using black Gotland and olive Coopworth (torn from a batt), I fashioned a rectangle which would make a pair. My intention was to cut the piece in half and then use buttons to close. Because I like to work on two projects at once, I then chose some grey Navajo churro and some mixed color merino and tussah for the second pair. Felting the wool was as easy as making a piece of flat felt, but choosing the proper buttons and making the buttonholes proved to be problematic.

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I have a modest collection of vintage buttons, some of my own from sewing 40 years ago, and some which were given to me by friends and family. But many of those buttons are one or two of a kind, so it was a challenge to find enough buttons for my project. I chose olive ball buttons for the first pair, and teal wavy buttons for the second pair. My mistake was in thinking I could snip small holes into the wool that would serve as buttonholes. I tried needle-felting, hidden binding, and blanket stitching; however, the holes remained loose and too large in some cases. My solution was to use hidden stitches to bind the seam and make a seamless arm piece. And yes, wool felt “gives.” The buttons became a decoration, rather than a functional part of the cuff.

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I continued to make enough arm warmers for my female family members, choosing the colors and lengths I knew they would prefer: pink, blue & white merino for my sister-in-law; shorter cuffs in black merino with embellishments for another sis, and finally small white wool cuffs with silk hanky embellishment for my mom. With the rush of the holidays, I never got around to making a pair for myself, but I am jumping on the slipper bandwagon next. My new lasts are ready and waiting!

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Thanks Cathy, I’m sure your family and friends will enjoy these lovely gifts to stay warm in the cold Chicago weather.

 

Online Suppliers

Online Suppliers

Comments 36 comments

Do you buy fibres, wool or other felting supplies online? Could you spare a minute or two to tell me your favourite places to buy supplies online and what your most commonly bought items are? I’d also like to know what fibres you would like to try that you haven’t yet. For a long time, I’ve been planning to do a blog post comparing the prices of online suppliers. I’d like to choose one main supplier each from Australia, Canada, UK and USA, then compare the prices for a few commonly bought felting supplies and the shipping costs to each of the same countries.

I know everyone would like to support their local communities and small businesses, but with the current economic situation, we also like to save as much money as we can wherever possible. I know too, that for a lot of us, we just don’t have local shops that sell fibre supplies or nearby farmer’s markets, or there are other reasons which make buying online a necessity.

I’m hoping that by being more informed about the costs of supplies online, we can find the best places to buy from. Hopefully, it will make a wider variety of fibres more affordable and accessible.

I think it will really help new felters too, it can be overwhelming searching for online suppliers and trying to compare prices in different currencies and a variety of weights.

I’d also like to post about any bargains or exceptional quality wools or fibres, so if you have a favourite seller/supplier who you think deserves being more widely known, I’d love to know about these too. They don’t have to have a huge range of items, just something of great quality and great value for money.

Thanks a lot for your help and input 🙂

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