GameStop Rocks Christmas contest

Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme

TodaysMama (link to: http://bit.ly/tmwishlist) and GameStop (link to: http://bit.ly/gamestop10) are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.

1. What is your holiday wish for your family?


 My Holiday wish is that I could spend it with my BF's family as it has been to many years since we have seen them and they are such wonderful people .

2. What is your Christmas morning tradition?

It seems like I always end up working Christmas Eve over night so the morning tends to be coming home and giving cats a special breakfast and going to sleep . 
3. If you could ask Santa for one, completely decadent wish for yourself, what would it be? 

I suppose my own Polar Bear is out of the question....so next would be a horse or someone who would come to my apartment and help me clean and organize .
 
4. How do you make the holidays special without spending any money?

Having my favorite people and animals around doesn't cost a dime and that IS what makes the Holidays special ....that and my mom's cookies . 
 
5. What games did you play with your family growing up?

Lots of card games and more recently dominoes....(.I grew up in a pre-Gamestop world .)
 
6. What holiday tradition have you carried on from your own childhood?

I don't recall to many traditions other then eating decadent food with less guilt .  
 
7. Where would you go for a Christmas-away-from-home trip?

Either Kansas or Florida to be with family .
8. Check out GameStop (link to: http://bit.ly/gamestop10) and tell us, what are the three top items on your GameStop Wish List this year? 


Well, I tried to get some cool pictures from GameStop but am not tech savoy enough to cut and past the images so.....uhhm .

I would love a Wii with the Yoga mat and sports board because we are in some serious need of exercise here and I would like to get Flicker here .

The Kenect looks really awesome and would also help shed some Holiday pounds .

I would love some learning and gaming software for my computer .

Well, I think that's it, I've never won a contest before but couldn't pass this one up so go check out the links listed and enter on your own blog .

Needle Sculpting with Mohair and Merino blend

I needle felted a few more friends this week . Despite my resolution to not make more as I have run out of room to display them in my own apartment and have still not managed to set up my Etsy shop , I could not resist the urge to needle felt .

This is one step closer to setting up an Etsy shop however, as I am "practicing" taking pictures using my wet felt wool table runner and a print of one of my favorite paintings .

I'm not sure if it's to distracting to others, but I really like the surreal look of it .

Taking pictures also helped me see that I am a bit out of practice needle sculpting . I need to add bigger eye lids and more pink roving to the mouth area of the large mohair animal . It looked fine in "person" but looks washed out in the picture and the eyes are a bit spookier then I had intended .

well ....I am losing the light but thought I would go ahead and post the "after" picture . I added a bit of pink to the inner ear and snout and eye lids and think they help , though he actually looks pretty upset about something . If there a market for smirking, disgruntled or angry animals , I think I have it covered .

Also forgot to mention how much I like using the mohair for the "loose hair bits " . The individual hairs stand out much better then when I have tried this with my usual merino .

I really am going to try and organize my crafts and begin posting my felt on Etsy this week . It would be nice to make a few sales before Christmas....then again, I've been saying that since last year so the operative word here is "try" .

needle felt jewelry ...and cat peace

 Finally took some of the hundreds of needle felted "beads" I make when I'm to tired to sculpt and animal and added them to the sculpted wool amulets and mixed them with some semi-precious stones, glass and pearls to make these necklaces . Obviously, not for the faint of heart , no dainty chains and butterflies here just bold colors, textures and shapes . Large but amazingly light weight...one of the advantages of wool .

I wasn't exactly sure how I would bead these but s large sewing needle and regular Beadalon worked fine . The only draw back is that I had to constantly take the needle off, thread the beading wire through the bead then rethread and sew through the wool bead...repeat x 100 . I like the contrast though so it was worth the effort for me .

Wet felt fabric to sew into....? probably bags but I might make a few cuffs and pins as well .

 Up-date on Balhoo and Max....best buddies in less then a week . I think Balhoo was starved for another  boy to chase and wrestle with and Max has much the same desire...win/win .

 Both recovering from a bout of "chase and wrestle "

 Balhoo says that Max tastes delicious !

Hope your all enjoying felting along with preparing for winter Holidays .

Needle felt jewelry from peapod brooches to "knot braclets"

I haven't done much felting this past week as it has been filled with cat wrangling . The below pieces are made using a slightly new method that some might be interested in, though I warn that it does take some patience .

I started with a piece of roving about 3X the length of your wrist and then knotted along it's length . The knots should be firm but not hard as you don't want to brake your needle . I then just firmed the fiber from one end to the next leaving a few inches of fiber at each end to connect the piece into a circle .

I made a smaller knotted roving to make the red "peas" and then lightly felted (prefelted) some green roving and felted it over the red knotted peas .

The larger braid is the beginning of either a pet collar or a choker but I just not sure what to do to finish it off  The two smaller circle pins will be decorated with a few beads and a pin back and used to decorate a purse or scarf .

Needle felt jewelry

Welcome Max the cat

Welcome our new family member Max....Mitch, my SO, says he is the cat version of a Great Pyrenees dog which I would love to get if I ever had the space for a dog...not likely this life time but one can always dream . In the mean time....this guy will do . We got him "accidentally" after a quick visit to Human Society . (I just went to look !)

He's almost 13 pounds of muscle and fluff....lots and lots of fluff that I have already started collecting to felt myself a scarf . Thankfully, he loves to be brushed as much as cuddled . The only draw back so far.....is his housemate Balhoo , our black fluff ball, is not really sure that he needs such a big "little brother" . Balhoo had really enjoyed several years of hunting and pouncing on his big sister Wolf ,  a 17 year old  cat 1/3 his weight . A bit like matching your grandma with The Rock in a cage match . He's not so fond of the odds now but thankfully Max is a gentle giant and not really interested in proving his dominance .

Below, Balhoo takes a quick sniff of the interloper . I think that's pretty good progress in relations for 24 hours....look how long it's taken to try and find peace in the Middle East .

wet felt scarf with silk gauze on bottom and merino accented with silk bell caps

I wish I could figure out a better way to photo large head scarves . As the title suggests...these are a layer of wool between silk gauze on the bottom and silk bells on top....silk and wool sandwich . The top picture  is showing the turquoise silk bells spread over the blue and peach merino . The silk base is sort of a deep pink .

The above picture is the back side, the wool colors are showing through the peach silk gauze . I found it interesting how the blue wool on the reverse side looks purple when seen through the peach silk scarf base .

I am really enthralled with the texture created by the thin wisps of the silk bell as the wool shrinks up with felting . It looks bumpy but they are silk "bumps" and really soft . I think this would be a beautiful head scarf or shoulder shawl on a sleeveless black dress . As you can see, I'm still not quit ready for winter colors .

Needle Felt Monster From The Blue Lagoon, wet felt wrist warmers

Guarding my own sweet cat Baloo is the....." less scary then disgruntled"....Monster From the Blue Lagoon . Not to be confused with his more cranky uncle.....Creature from the Black Lagoon . 

This is the first needle felt I've done in several weeks as I have been exploring wool dying and wet felting . I did him in honor of Halloween . I hope you all had a happy one !

Below are my first experiments in wet felted wrist warmer cuffs . In the past I have only made these by needle felting.....taking about 4 hours to make just one cuff . That would be a bit cost prohibitive to try and sell so I decided to go "industrial" and create my own mass production by laying out many cuffs at once....all with different mix of roving colors and silk bell accents .

I was a bit surprised to find that it actually took longer to get these to felt then the scarves . There were two that actually need to be needle felted to continue firming them up . The other problem I had was that I waited to long to fold over the edges.....at first I was going to leave thinner jagged edges but decided after a few rollings I didn't like the look and tried to fold up the edges to be more symmetrical rectangles . A few of the pieces had already felted to much (created a skin) so the edges would not totally bind and will also need to be needle felted . I plan on adding some beading and small bits of  "exotic fabric" that I bought on Etsy as accents and probably some re-purposed suede on a few of these .

slide show of nuno felting ruffles and silk bell caps

Silk Bells in Nuno felting and ruffles with out using resists

 The above are three new nuno felt scarves using silk gauze "inserts" and turquoise dyed silk bell caps . I am in love with the weird texture of the silk bells as they give so much softness and shine to the wool . They are a bit tricky to work with as separating the thin layers of silk from the bell caps and laying them down on the whisps of wool fiber ......well, lets just say that silk does not always cooperate .

 I think the end result makes it worth the effort though as the shine and texture makes a contrast on the wool .

 Apologies for the pictures as some were taken with a flash. If you click on them you can get a better idea of the detail . I still have not found a good way to photograph in my dimly lit apartment when the Minnesota weather is over cast .

 I have been working with my own dyed silk and wool and am still not over spring colors but I did dye some new fibers last night that are a bit deeper and richer for winter wear . Unfortuantley I don't have any matching silk dyed up so will have to mix lighter silk and dark wool colors and just see what happens . Hopefully will find a nice counter balance .

I found a better way to do the double ruffle with out using a resist so will try and do a tutorial of that tonight ....if I remember to bring the camera .

Nuno felting ruffles...who knew resists could be this fun

 Lots of pictures of some new nuno felting but I'm to tired to blog much . I think the most exciting part for me is that I used my first resist to create the double ruffle on one of the scarves . I'm going to try to remember to bring my camera tonight so I can do a tutorial on how I made it . It's not difficult but I have never seen it done before and really like the effect .

 

Needle felt Dr. Seusse Key chain "widgits" and more fiber dying

These are slightly larger version of the abstract needle felt sculptures that I have been making for decorative pins . I think they have a Dr. Seusse feel to them . I have been experimenting with the different colors the I dyed to see how they look together when felted . I think needle felting them is a good way to make a sort of "sampler" for when you begin to do your wet felting....which I hope to do tonight .

Below are some more items I recently bought from Dettas Spindle . There is some beautiful mohair and Merino roving blend as well as a couple silk bells . I also dyed a bit of silk gauze for nuno felting that I bought from Dharma .

 

As you can see, I'm refusing to give into the impending winter colors .

Alien "adult toys" and dying wool

Another sculpture with an alien twist . You can decide for yourself if it is a plant, animal or sex toy for aliens . It can be a piece of art to put on a shelf or a functional object (to hang bracelets on or other uses should you happen to be intimately involved with an alien .) For me, I just like the colors, shapes and texture .

This is one of the first large pieces I have done with my own dyed fiber and there is some satisfaction in having dyed it myself . I was pretty interested to see all the different hues that came out of a few colors as they blended together in the dye pot .

I found out that the name of the type of dying I am doing is called Immersion dying . I think that adding the vinegar directly to the fiber as well as the dye solution helps the dye "stick" to the fiber as I pour it on and then the liquid dyes mix in the pot and over dye the white and colored areas .

The result is almost a tye dyed effect which has been really fun to work with although I have yet to use it for wet felting . There are a few small white spots and some color contrasts that I don't like but they are easy to pull out as I'm felting and just use as core fiber .

Some of the fibers were dyed in a rice cooker (immersion) and others were wrapped in plastic and paper and steamed in a large vintage roast pan . As far as I can tell, they both worked equally well though the rice cooker was easier .

You can see the basic process in my other post about dying and the only difference is that I used the new dyes from Dharma and I really do like them...they go along way . I dyed about 6 pds this week so have a lot of fiber to play with in the coming weeks .