style – Felting and Fiber Studio

Bird House Time

March 8, 2013 shepherdessann Comments 28 comments

Spring is on the way and its time to start thinking about birdhouses. I have an Easter show. Not much in the way of felt really sells at this sale, it’s mostly about food. Bird houses are the exception. Here they are ready to put to the decorations on and then be put together for felting.

This one has its decorations started

That is as far as I made it. they have been sitting there for most of the week waiting for me to get back to them. I have hopes for this weekend and when they are done I will show them to you.

the wool I used I died myself. It is sold as washed gray Romney but it is really brown and white. If you card it without dying it, it does end up looking gray.

Here is what it looks like if you dye magenta, purple and chartreuse.

I love the way the “gray” wools dyes. all the mixed shades you end up with. A spinner friend says its called depth of colour, so it’s not flat. I wish I could find other breads of wool that were that varied in colour to dye.

Remaking my Boots

March 2, 2013 shepherdessann Comments 7 comments

If you remember I am taking a felt boot class. http://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2013/02/12/felt-boots-progress/

The boots looked pretty good when done but I wasn’t happy. I kept putting of finishing them and so I sat down and had a good look at them to see what I didn’t like. Well, the way the resist is made just didn’t work. I ended up with the extra to account for your calf in the front not the back. So when you put them on you end up with a big fold in the back of the ankle.

Also because you make the tongue first and then wrap it around the front of the resist it gets felted in at an angle and that doesn’t change as you felt so when you pull the tongue up along the front of your leg you get a big fold that would be uncomfortable. Her boots look fine and I haven’t seen any questions or complaints on the class blog so maybe if you don’t have big calves you don’t have this problem.

I decided to make another pair. I cut the resist at the ankle and turned it around. I also added a little more in the depth of the foot. I think I would rather trim it than only just have the fit.