Tag: felting

A zen sculpture and some cuteness

I saw an interesting Zen sculpture on Facebook. Now I can’t find the picture to link to of course. I think it was one of the Russian felters. Anyway, I thought it was an interesting resist and sculpture so I would see if I could do one.

first I made some circles. each one a bit smaller than the last one. then I cut out a bit where I would join them.

Then I used some duct tape to join them.

I forgot to take a picture of the layout before felting but here it is when I was about to cut it open and remove the resist.

Here it is finished. My husband’s and grandson’s first words were that it looked like a snowman, specifically Olof from Frozen. It looks a little better against the colourfull background.

It wasn’t a bad first go. I would make the balls smaller next time. Also, the bowls need to be wider and flatter by comparison to the balls. I would start early to make the bowls flatter and wider. Also, I am not happy with my colour choice. I think a solid colour might be better.

And now for the cuteness

These are the bottle lambs. Some got cold and didn’t go back some had other problems. on of a set of 4 had a strange leg that is now much better and not causing him problems but of course, it’s too late to go back to mom now. The white one my husband is holding is called Prince Ali, named by my granddaughter. The lambs are having a bigger pen made for them as I type.

 

The Show is Over

The show is over. It was a really good show with lots of people. I was really pleased with how I did. Now a day or two to recover and I have to start thinking of what to make for the next one.

This was my booth. Jan took the picture. I am hoping using the embed link from One drive will work.

I need more than a 10×10 booth but not 10 by 20, so I take two and My friend Bernadette takes half of one.

I sold one of my art pieces. My First Quarter Challenge piece. that made me very happy and sad at the same time. https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2019/03/27/first-quarter-challange-finished/

So far I am failing at my third-quarter challenge. I hade a couple of ideas and then changed my mind then picked something else and even did a layout but nope, I am not feeling it. It was another planet sort of thing. I have another idea but we will see.

This was the other planet one. The white domes are paper.

 

I wanted to remind people that World Wide Spin in Public Day is coming up, September 21, 2019. Are you Planning to spin with friends or by yourself? Or at a shop or other event? If you have been thinking about trying spinning this would be a great day to do it. I will be at the farmers market with my spindle. Here is a facebook group. There are lots of posts about places to participate. facebook.com/groups/wwsipday/

Ruffled Neck Scarf Workshop

Last week I taught a Ruffle Neck Scarf workshop. This was the first time teaching it and it went very well. I was worried about the timing but it all worked out. I thought the class at the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum. They have a nice big classroom with lots of light. and water.

As usual, I forgot to take pictures early but here are two of them being laid out

You can see the template they used to get the layout right and keep it even from one end to the other. I drew it with the outline to follow and a line on them to let them know when they had shrunk enough.

Here they are using the plastic under their scarves to make nice edges.

And a shot of the class working.

Here are the results. I really like the ones where you can see the wool that migrated through the silk.

The Class was a lot of fun. I made the written instructions more detailed than normal because I want to make it a kit. If I ever figure out video iI would like to make an online workshop.  If you were to buy a kit for a ruffled scarf would you want it to be a short neck scarf or a long scarf? the only difference really would be the amount of wool included and the length of silk. I was thinking a short scarf but include the sizing to make a longer template too. I am wondering about the template I usually use thick plastic to draw it on. but it is too bulky to fold flat and too big to ship cheaply rolled up. Should I include a template on thinner plastic or just the instructions on how to draw it up on whatever you want to use?

A felt Christmas Card

I sent a card to my partner for the Christmas card on the forum. holiday-exchange-2017   She has it now so I can tell you all about making it.

First I went through my old felt bin to find a thickish piece of felt and cut out a tree shape. It’s a blueish green even if it doesn’t look like it.

I then cut out some red prefelt I had for the background. I did 2 layers for each of these. I did the extra on so if this didn’t turn out I could go with plan B. 

Then I roughly cut out a tree shape form a silk scarf I got at the second hand store. I then layers the pieces and wet it all and trimmed the silk a little.       

Even with 2 layers the prefelt is not very thick so I added red merino to cover the extra silk and make it thicker and more sturdy. I cut the wool to give it a nice straight edge to put up against the tree and give a nice clean line.

After that was done I flipped it over and wrapped the excess around to the back. I wanted to make sure the tree would stick to the finished felt  so I did some poking with my felting needles.

This after the fulling.  I blocked them to square them up. The blue colour of the tree came through the silk more than I wanted so I gave it a shave to bring the green back.

I went through my stash looking for some fuzzy gold yarn to use as tinsel but instead found this yarn with beads that I think looks like lights. I sewed it on and then added some shiny pony beads as Christmas balls and a star.

I thought it looked ok but lacking something.  So I added some 3D sheep. I think they improve it and make it look finished.  

I printed off a post card template from the internet and using fusible web ironed it to the back of the felt. I forgot to take a picture of that but I am sure you all know what the back of a postcard looks like. I like it and my exchange partner seemed to be very happy with it. No I just wait for Canada Post to decide to get mine to me. I am hopeful it will arrive before Christmas.

Here’s  wishing you all a great holiday season,

Ann

Working on some felt pictures in the fused glass style

 

A while ago I saw some fused glass pictures and was inspired to make some summer beach pictures. I like the simple style of this type of picture. I spent a few evenings drawing and colouring pictures. I always forget how relaxing and fun colouring is.

coloured picture 1 coloured picture 2 coloured picture 3 coloured picture 4 coloured picture 5

I decided to do a seaside picture first as summer has just started. I used

seaside 1 before

I used all prefelt except for a little silk for the waves. I split the prefelt and cut it so it wouldn’t be too thick where they overlap. I tacked everything down lightly with a felting needle.

spliting prefelt

This is how it looked after felting once.

seaside 1 after firs felting

I forgot to take one after it was finished but I all became flat and slightly blurred. I decided to add some stitching

seaside 1 after sewing

It gives it much more definition. you can see how flat and blurred the house and boat edges are. I was thinking of going around the house pieces and the boats. Maybe add some little grass tufts. and underline the waves in white. What do you think, should I add more stitching?

Second quarter challenge on the Felting and Fiber Forum: Stewart Stephenson

 

As you probably know we have decided to pick a different artists for our quarterly challenges this year. This quarter I have chosen Stewart Stephenson http://www.stewartstephenson.com/home He is a Canadian artist that has a large body of work in a variety of mediums and styles. I think there is something for everyone here.

He has a gallery in Vancouver British Columbia Canada

gallery-img1 stevenson 1 stevenson 3 stevenson 5 stevenson 2stevenson 4

It says he did some sculptures but I couldn’t find any pictures. I even sent them an email asking about them but got no response. If you find some please share them with us. Have fun with this.

Don’t forget there will be a post over on the felting and fiber forum where you can ask questions, discuss and post pictures of what you where inspired to make.

Felting with friends Weekend- Hats

More on my felting weekend.  We all meat at Maureen’s ( http://www.dreamspinfibres.ca/ ) A great place, she has so much fiber to choose from.

Three of us made hats based on a hat in Judit Pocs video. It seems to be gone from the internet. It was mostly about making a rug.  This is Diane and Susan( http://www.suzannetowns.ca/ ) sizing up a template.

Diane and Susan

They made their hats on the first day. They like a really firm hat so their scaled up the template and added more layers than I do.

laying out fiber laying out fiber 2

more colour and embelishments 3 dianes hat half done 2

Susan added come great colour  and Dian used some resists to reveal some fabric on the layer underneath.

Diane and Susan finnished hats 2

Diane added a string of small felted yarn balls to her hat. The parts that stick down were up to high so the pulled them down and twisted them to get them in a better position.

On the second day I did my hat. I adjusted the pointy parts so they would be lower. and left the pointy top smaller.

my hat ready to felt my hat finished my hat finnished 2

I should have used a different colour yarn for the embellishments. The colour was much to close the hat colour.

Dian made another hat on the second day. I didn’t get any pictures of it in progress. the template was like witches hat.

dianes seconed hat 3 dianes seconed hat 4

I have to give one of these a try. I like the way it is folded in on itself.

Last Show of the Season

Last Saturday and Sunday I did the last show of the season. It is usually a good show but it snowed and there was freezing rain. The driving was terrible. So Not so great a show. It was very slow but some crazy people did come out and I made a little money. On the up side I now have a head start on next years felting so less work for me.

Here is what my booth looked like.

booth one booth three booth two

There were other great booths there too.

ofm 1 ofm 2 ofm 3 ofm 4 ofm 7OFM christmas 1 ofm 6

Christmas day was busy and lots of fun but in the middle of making the gravy my daughter and niece decided I needed more colour for the day.

christmas hairHair is fiber… right?

I hope everyone is having a great holiday and you are enjoying friends, family and fiber. Now I am off to the store to return a broken present.

The Show

I had a great show. It was busy all weekend. Many people said it was there first time attending.  They really liked it. They liked that it wasn’t a huge show with hundreds of vendors. They were impressed by the quality and variety of the work for sale.

We did have some demo space and they were selling tickets on a raffle that supports our classes.

great wheel selling tickets

There where 3 other felters there. They do mostly needle felting.

nancy

wendoride

Of course there was more than just felt at the sale.

laurie linda and judy rug hooking weavingbrooms

These brooms where beautiful. I think I would have to clean my house before using one though. Might be easier to become Wiccan.

Sadly I did not take a picture of my booth. The fingerless mitts did prove to be popular. So that was my weekend.  My feet where very tired at the end. And then of course we had to pack it up and take it home. My son Colin was a great help both for set up and take down. He is a good packer so everything is packed up the and into the van with room to spare.

Fingerless Mits Experiment

Christmas is coming so I am still working on fingerless mitts for my guild sale the first weekend in November. One of my scarves made the poster.

OVWSGposter2012-3-400

I decided to try an experiment with a couple of pairs of Mitts. I wanted to make long cuts to reveal another colour.  I wrapped some shrink tubing and some regular tubing like you might use in a fish tank in some wool. I gave it a quick felt to get the wool tight around the tube. I thought this might be the best way to keep the fibers where I wanted them. I placed them between the layers of the mitts.

tubes collage

It worked really well.  After I cut the felt and took the tubes out I steamed them and opened up the slits. They are purple and pink and pink and purple but the cameras seems to think the purple is blue. I think it is because the wool of the table is so yellow.

purple and pink pink and purple

This is what they look like on. Sorry the pictures are bad I had to take it on my own arm.

purple and pink on pink and purple on

They turned out really well . I think I could have used less wool around the inclusions. I think I might felt them more next time too.

the other thing I did recently was make a matching set of hat and mitts. I added some silk to both, scrunching it  up to make it very textured. One small part didn’t stick down properly on the hat and will need a couple of stitches.

gray hat and mitts

I have more hats on the go and need to do some scarves before the sale but I think things are going well so far. Have you tried anything new recently?

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