How I spent my spring vacation........

 Above critter is my only new felt for my time off from work . Below are older critters that I spent 2-6 hours each doing reverse felting to make them fuzzy . A lot of work but I like the effect .

 Above are some of the new collars I am making for my animals . I actually found a bag of Tandy leather bracelet kits at the thrift store and put several together . I made the tags with my signature and Wool Alchemy logo using shrinky dinks plastic+permanent markers+ VISTA print self inking stamps<-------(this are worth the money) . It took me about 6 hours just to make 50 tags but since I can't get my printer to work, this was an "old school" solution for tagging my critters .

 I have my animals on about 8 different book shelves, so I packed up some of my least favorite felts  and reorganized my newer animals so they are ready for getting an inventory list made . I am not looking forward to that task .

 Most of my wet felting table runners and fabric to be sewn into bags and hats are in one closet but I still have to sort through several boxs of "almost done" projects and match them up with the right hardware to get them finished .This is mostly "to do" with some smaller finished bags and felt jewelry.

 I also cleaned out several cloths closets and 2 garages but below you can see the mountain of craft supplies I still have to organize . It's a bit of everything...leather, fabric and fur that I cut up from thrift-store coats, beading supplies, sewing and other things to finish up all those half done projects that may just need a button, zipper or accent beads . Wish me luck . 

It was difficult to limit my felting the past 3 weeks to do the tedious part of crafting but the up-side is my finger tips have fewer holes .

Happy felting and spring cleaning to all .

More Fuzzy make-overs and a few needle felt new animals

These are my only new animals this past week . That isn't to say that I have been totally lazy . I did spend a lot of time on-line looking for more wool sources and I designed new tags for my animals , both projects I hope to share in the next few days .To give a bit of size perspective, I measured the black box behind them and it is 12" long and 8" high .

 Before my new wool arrived, I also did several make-overs of some of my older needle felts . I think I feel much better about selling them now, as I fixed some very basic mistakes using some better quality materials then I started with and made them much furrier . I wanted to do a before and after make-over post but am not patient enough to look through all my pictures to find the originals . Some things are harder to fix then others but I think they are all improved in some ways .

I think there may have been a few others but these were the most noticeable make-overs . I still have about a  hundred old ones I want to make fuzzy, but for now, I can't wait to get my hands in my new fiber and create a few new friends .

A few of my needle felt animal supplies/ Etsy shops

Just a few of the places that I buy supplies . I plan on doing a more extensive list in the next week but wanted to give people a starting place . I have had some very bad experiences buying supplies on and off Etsy recently and hope this list of reliable suppliers might be helpful to others .

alpaca clean and raw


eyes


brown bamboo fiber


colonial saddle brown /Ashland Bay fiber


Alpaca and silk roving



fine fiber for needle and wet felting



reverse barb Inverted felting needle for furring

Bakasko wool artist.....(what I won)

I think sometime in September, one of my favorite felters was hosting a giveaway and I entered.....and won . I seldom bother to enter drawings but I did on an impulse and he contacted me (From Hungary) for my address . I then waited, and waited and waited and assumed that it had been lost in the mail until a few weeks ago when it finally arrived . It's a great example of his love of color and his attention to detail .

It was worth the wait . I think it is gorgeous and a mystery in how it is made because it has such detail but is hollow . I understand wet felting and needle felting but have never seen anything like this . You can see more of his beautiful work on his blog which has a new video of his work .

Balasko Wool Art

Go check him out...you will be inspired .