A few tips for needle felters and "Eye See Ewe" jewelry

Above is my new felting kit . I've been carrying all my needles in a plastic container which is sprouting holes and in danger of breaking my needles . I bought this vintage mens' traveling grooming container several years ago with no idea what I would do with it.....just thought it looked cool . So now it has a function and I have a safer traveling kit for my needles .


Above is my solution to felting fingers...(mine look like fleshy pin cushions) . Why someone with visual spatial skill problems and poor digital dexterity would chose such a dangerous hobby is just one of those mysteries of the universe . You can also find some rubber "tiny light bulb" covers in auto-part store that work pretty good but I'm always losing mine .
At the bottom of this post you can find a link to the place(Beadbury) I plan on bringing these bracelets and a few other of my felted items . A co-member of the HandmadeMN team works there a is letting other team members place their items there for Holiday sales from Dec 7-16th.
This will be the first time I have tried to sell any felt since Shepherds Harvest...(which I am returning to this year . ) I do still plan on listing items on Etsy....someday, but doubt I will make it for the Christmas season .
All of these are needle felted instead of wet felted because I really prefer the texture to wet felting when it comes to sensitive areas like the neck and wrist . I doubt it would bother most people but I do seem to have some hyper sensitivities in those areas . I find the wet and nuno felted scarves to be really comfortable but the wet felted rope irritates my skin .
Most of these are silk and merino with soe touches of alpaca . I'm finding that I really like the silk mixed with merino for needle felting . It seems to tame some of the wools fuzziness and has a nice firmness to it .

This is my line of ...."Eye See Ewe" jewelry . I used a bit of fabric stiffner to make the eye lashes on this pin . Something very spooky about floating eyes but it's the good kind of spooky to me .
I haven't added lashes to the bracelet yet and also hope to make some Egyptian Eye necklace pieces tonight .

As mentioned...the link below is the store that is so generously letting MN crafters bring in some of their items for the Holidays . For a 30% commission on sales, they will deal with the hard part of being in public and I only need drop my items off . I think doing commission sales might be the best solution for my listing/photo/mailing problems but I haven't totally given up on Etsy ....There is always next Christmas...(at least until 2012) .


http://www.beadbury.com/index.html