Craft fair and blogger being uncooperative : (

I keep trying to post a link to the craft fair I will be at next week AND the poster for the show but the blog is not cooperating..... so please view this and following post as one post . (Dang technologies !)


Here is the facebook page if you would like to find out more about the organizations sponsoring this show and what they are raising money for . ......

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=137477752987391

I've been working hard to get some of my items ready and am terrified about participating...mostly due to my social and driving phobias but am determined to follow through as I think it is a good cause and I did make the commitment .

Besides this sale, I will  hopefully be selling at Shepherds Harvest Mothers-day Weekend....I enrolled to late to get a booth, so am sharing one with my friend Eileen of "Knot all That"...she is a spinner and will have spinning wheels and supplies as well as a bit of her own handspun yarn...always yummy stuff . 

It is painful to have to take a felting break to try and organize my things to attend these events but unless I want to end up buried in my own wool creations....(which doesn't sounds that bad to me), I need to start sharing a bit of it .

Wish me luck and I hope to be back to playing with wool and sharing some tutorials about making "marketing items", like labels and tags, starting the middle of May . Wish me luck and if your in the area, come visit me at the shows .

I will be at this craft fair on Saturday ! Come support2 good orginizations and buy Mothersday gifts .

Bunnies and friends needle felted to celibrate Spring

 Happy Easter , Passover or spring solstice, which ever is your proclivity .

I most often make critters that  could not be identified in nature... cat body with gopher face and bunny feet, etc . This time I actually tried my best to make a couple bunnies ....perhaps you can find 2 in this picture . Granted, they are still no totally anatomically correct and more cartoonish then natural but I think they are more bunny-ish then not .

 The other two animals..(each sitting next to their bunny friends)... are just my traditional "critters", fitting no specific classification but doing there best to look lovable . All animals are a mix of merino, alpaca with just a touch of white angora cat hair on both bunny tummies .

 Above and below is my latest table topper with yellow and blue silk fibers, blue mohair curls and black, teal and red merino . I actually made an attempt at creating a "pattern" which is pretty rare for me but I do like the result . No size reference in the picture but they are about 4' by 3'(just guessing).

 Above close-up and I'm Loving the mohair and plan on using much more of that in the near future .

 I took two sets of photos to see the different lighting in mid-afternoon light and shade to see which was more "true' color . Any suggestions on which you prefer?

 This is the reverse side with out silk or mohair  embellishments .

 Above and below are pictures of my "failed" attempt to felt in some nylon meshing which seemed like a cool idea but resulted in poor felting and all the fibers being hidden by the tan and blue netting , so it had to be removed . At least not a complete loss as the nylon pulled off with some effort and I finished felting for a table runner or bag to sew up later .

 I saved the netting and will be using it for something not involving felting .

Below is the sans-netting result with lots of silk and thick layers of merino  which should be a good cushioning for a computer bag.

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend with family, friends or wool . We are headed to The Old Country Buffet to enjoy an Easter dinner .

The Official Simon's Cat Website

The Official Simon's Cat Website: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Earth day video (to cloudy for pictures of new felt)

I had hoped to share some new felt animals but the sun did not show today to take pictures and so hope you find the above video as inspiring as I do . Hopefully , sun will be back tomorrow so I can get some descent pictures of my new bunny felts in time to celebrate Easter .

Hot pink nuno felt for spring

 Click on the pictures for better detail . I don't know if you can tell but this is actually doubled and I laid wool in-between and on top of silk edge so the draped part is actually two layers and no hemming .

 This is the back side of the same shawl .

 Two smaller light weight scarves with layers of silk, wool, silk and colour !

 Above and below is another doubled chiffon wrap....I cut fringe along the edges after it was half felted .

 Above is sans chiffon but light layers of silk and wool fibers and below is another hand dyed chiffon with wool and silk edging . The white is bits of silk fiber "smoke" .

 Below is a mistake but I think it's redeemable . I was actually trying to make a computer bag and used some netting on top of the wool,( instead of silk), but only the edges, ( where it was sandwiched between the wool), actually felted ..... which turned out to be a good thing as it just covered all the silk, wool and mohair fibers . Fortunately, it wasn't to hard to remove it and keep felting . I'm not thrilled with the color or lack of design but the silk and mohair turned out OK so I will probably still sew it into a bag .

 Below is a lay out using some of the silk chiffon I dyed this week . You can see how much they shrink in the following picture .

 I also made a larger , double layer cape using a top layer of the turquoise chiffon and bottom layer of the red chiffon . You can sort of see a W in a peach color that is actually sandwiched between the two chiffons and give it sort of a butterfly look when worn over the shoulders .

 

 Below is a picture of another project (and one step closer to actually trying to sell some of my things....I bought to stamps from Vista print...one black with the shop logo and smaller red stamp with my Etsy and blog addresses . I cut the circles out of some of leather and deer hide that I found at my local thrift store .I  glued a non-fraying backing to give them more stiffness and coated the leather with pearlized sealer . It's been a lot of mindless busy work but sometimes "mindless" can also be very Zen . I also made some silk labels for my scarves but I'll show that later .

 ....and as if that wasn't enough......I also bought some stuff to make dog collars....plastic clips, D rings and cotton webbing . I thought it would be a great way to make use of all my scraps of felt  and vintage material I have been collecting for years . It's "easy" sewing, so these are kind of fun .

 You would think after all that work, I was the one who deserved a nap, but looks like 2 of my 3 favorite guys beat me to the bed again .Happy felting !