Class coming up

No, I did not really fall off the edge of the earth. I'm just having a hard time getting any felting done. But deadlines are a good thing. On Saturday I am teaching a needle felting class at Crossings. It's just a basic class, but I need to get supplies ready and an outline, and samples. Looking for samples and fiber got me digging through my stash, and everyone knows that when you do that you find things you forgot you had, and projects you didn't finish. Somewhere in all of that I found fresh motivation to get going again. Here is some of that motivation:

This is some colorful wool from The Fiber Studio. Looking into my crystal ball, I see some bright, colorful scarves in my future. What is in your felting future?

A Time to Felt

Is there ever time to felt? I seemed to have been consumed by non-felting projects lately, not to mention that life moves at the speed of light with all the children's activities. But, we did get our camera back, so here are pictures of the very few things I got done in January.

A felted merino scarf with a little bit of silk and some wool curls at the ends.

A felted hat that my friend helped me make using Navajo-Churro wool. My daughters are coveting this "cowgirl" hat.

A small felted vessel I made while teaching Basic 3-Dimensional Wet-felting.
I was happy that the class went well. Everyone seemed to have a good time and they were very patient with me. It was my first time teaching adults. There were 12 fun ladies in the class.

Next time...pictures of the wool purchased from The Fiber Studio. I am ready to make some scarves.

January felting plans

Happy New Year. I am back from holiday travels, the kids start back to school Monday, and I am suffering from a serious lack of felting. I couldn't do any actual felting today, but I spent some time trying to plan out some goals for 2009, and I looked at the calendar to get a feel for what is coming up.

• January 24th I am teaching Basic 3D wet felting at Crossings in Zumbrota.
• January 22, I am getting together with another Minnesota feltmaker for a day of felting fun. Feltmaking for me is usually a solitary occupation, so I am looking foward to working with someone for a change. This young lady makes hats using Churro-Navaho wool.
• February 7th I am taking a class by Jill Lynn at The Fiber Studio in Minneapolis called Fusion Collage Scarf.
• March13-15 I am taking a scarf workshop by Chad Alice Hagen.

Speaking of Ms. Hagen, the grapevine has it that she will be teaching at the Midwest Felting Symposium in July. Jean Hicks is also said to be teaching there. I can't wait until the schedule is posted.

Our camera started giving us a memory card error of some sort, so it has been sent off for a repair. I hope it comes back soon. Blogging without pictures, even my poor ones, is not nearly as much fun for you readers. And my sitemeter tells me that people have been stopping by from all over the globe. Hello to all of you! I hope you enjoy yourself when you stop by here. Please feel free to comment. It is fun for me to hear from you.

My goals for the week are:

• prepare for the class I'm teaching
• finish needle felting a bowl I've started
• make one scarf using the ultra fine merino I ordered before Christmas

Basic Three Dimensional Wet-Felting

I'm teaching in January at Crossings in Zumbrota, Minnesota. The title is Basic Three Dimensional Wet-Felting. I'm excited, but suddenly nervous, after seeing my name right there on the Internet. Yikes! Anyone out there in southeast Minnesota, come check it out. We'll have a lot of fun, I promise.
I'll also have some felted vessels on display for the Holiday Open House at Crossings the weekend before Thanksgiving. I'll post the link when it is there.
This week I've been working on scarves. Michael's had a sale on Paton's Pooch yarn for $1.99 per skein so I loaded up. Pooch is one of those yarns that lends itself to felting projects. It has texture like popcorn. Anyway, I had to justify spending $xx on yarn, so I incorporated it into a few scarves. My daughter named one of them the Seaweed Scarf, and another the Puppydog Scarf.
Meanwhile, Child #6 turned 2 years old yesterday. We had a Coldstone ice cream cake. That is the third birthday in our house in the last 10 days. That's a lot of Coldstone ice cream cake, so I will have to work out today. Not something I really enjoy, so I'll really have to exercise my self-discipline as well.
Have a great day!

Wet Felted Vessels

I've been asked to teach again. (Yay!) This time it will be wet felted vessels for adults. Here are a few samples. These were made on 5-7" inflatable balls. I've started experimenting with shaping these small vessels instead of leaving them round.
The proprietor asked if I could come up with a more catchy name for the class, and I agree"wet felted vessels" doesn't sound all that glamorous. Ideas anyone? I googled, and almost everyone lists similar classes as "wet felted vessels" or something very close.
I am trying to stay productive. Two more vessels are laid out ready for felting, and I'll also try out some scarf ideas that have been simmering in my head for some time. If I accomplish that this week, I'll be pleased.

Some Felting Pictures

I am busily getting ready for Fabrications V at Crossings in Zumbrota (December) and also for a little art/craft show that is put on at the Rochester Athletic Club in December. Here are some of the things I've made lately. I've really enjoyed working with some new fibers, especially some multicolored merino top from Frabjous Fibers.

Here is a really beautiful scarf in colorway Tango. It also has a little silk embellishment. This one would make a nice warm coat scarf.

This second scarf is also in Tango with silk embellishment. It is very thin and lightweight, maybe a nice little accent scarf with a blouse.

This scarf in whites, is another of my romantic series that has lace embedded into it along with various yarns, all bound together with some white merino/silk blend.

For this scarf, I used Optim white merino---ultra fine! It has a sparkly white yarn running through it, with just a touch of color to embellish it.


I am really pleased with this vessel. The outside is a multicolored silk cap. Just underneath is a sparkling layer of Angelina. Blue and purple layers of wool make up the body.

More functional items--these can be potholders or trivets or table toppers.

I was playing around with needle felting and came up with these flowers. I haven't decided quite how to use them. They'd make pretty pins, or embellishments for other pieces.

And a few more vessels.

This one is extra tiny. It started out as a round scrap-the leftover top from cutting open a small vessel. I steamed it and shaped around the smallest cup I could find. It would make a cute ring holder. It is about 2 inches tall.

Here is the last picture. This vessel has been sitting around for awhile, waiting for inspiration to strike for its final form. I steamed it and started stretching it, and it decided it wanted to be square instead of round. I like it much better this way.

So there you have it. More pictures and less blathering, as promised!

My Mini-Handbag

I thought it was time for some pictures. Here is the little handbag I made in Lisa Klakulak's workshop at Midwest Felting Symposium.

Structurally, it came out well. The handles are firmly attached, and the felt is strong.

I like the flower on the front, but the cord is a little on on the long side. I got a little carried away, learning how to join 2 lengths of cord together, and I didn't stop to think what length would look best.

Here it is opened up. The flap also has a pocket, created by a "design opportunity" that came up when I realized the flap would be twice as long as the handbag if I cut it the way I intended. The discolorations are actually partial felts that were supposed to come out a little more vividly.

It needs a closure. Here, I am trying out a felt button I made. It is quite large in scale with the small bag, but since the handle is so doggone long, it just might work.
Here is a bad closeup of the button. I'd take a better picture, but I already put the camera away. I can see I need more light in my photos. Photography is not something that comes easy to me. I am too impatient to set up properly, use a tripod, work on the lighting. Maybe that has something to do with having six little studio assistants running around asking for snacks. Ah well, school is a mere 19 days away.

A Time to Rest

Wow. It's been a pretty intense time, and I'm ready for a break. Textile camp wrapped up last Friday.
Here is the project I did with 26 kids in textile camp. I gave each child a small inflatable ball, about 5 inches in diameter. They wrapped their ball in 3 layers of wool (Harrisville fleece). I had prepared the wool beforehand by separating the batts into managable strips of wool. Each layer used about 4 strips to cover completely. The last layer took the most wool, since it had to cover the ball and 2 layers of wool. Finally, they wrapped novelty yarn around the outside of the wool in a random fashion. This was decorative and helped hold the wool in place when covering the whole thing with nylons.
On another day, we wet-felted the covered balls. The kids did well, but I discovered how hard it is to keep them moving when they've decided they're tired of rolling! I told them that they'd just have a ball of fluff if they didn't get the felt nice and hard. What I didn't tell them was that I was going to tumble all the balls in the dryer. This was partly to harden them up a bit more, but mostly because I wanted them as dry as possible when I cut them open to remove the ball. I did that part myself, at home, because I don't have enough scissors for the kids to do it themselves. Plus, to be honest, I didn't want them to puncture the balls I used. They were hard to find in that size and I want to be able to use them again!
I presented them their bowls on Friday, making sort of a big deal about it. They had the option of adjusting the cut edge, adding some beads, or other embellishment. Since some of the kids chose not to add anything, I gave them the option of making some simple beads, and demonstrated jelly roll beads to them.
When the evaluations come in, I'll have a better idea how camp went. It seemed to vary from group to group, which were divided by age. And, alas, I have no pictures because I was just too busy with the kids to stop and take pictures of them. But the bowls all came out well, and I think the kids can be proud of what they made.
This was my first time teaching, and overall, I think it went well. I would do it again. It occured to me, about mid-week, that the kids learn a lot more than a textile skill. They have to learn perserverence, patience, kindness, self-control, etc., etc. So camp is a good experience for them for more than one reason.
Right after camp finished on Friday, I left for the Midwest Felting Symposium in Madison, WI. Susan McFarland, of Susan's Fiber Shop does an amazing job of bringing together teachers, vendors, and felters from everywhere. It is a great opportunity to meet and take workshops from some of the most well-known felt makers in the country, and a few from other parts of the world as well.
Lisa Klakulak (kla-KOO'-lak) from Ashville, NC gave a good workshop on making a 3-D handbag (one with a flat bottom and side gussets) using a 2-D resist. Among the techniques we learned was making good strong cord for the handles, grafting cord together for longer handles, and attaching the handles so that the finished product was one solid piece of felt.
The tricky part for me was figuring out the placement of the cuts, in order to make the flap and gussets. But I really liked the workshop and am letting my brain ruminate on what we learned. I'd like to apply the techniques to some vessels.
The other great thing about MFS was meeting some of the wonderful people that I had only met online. Hi, ladies! You know who you are!!! There was quite a contingent from Minnesota there, and several of us took the handbag workshop with Lisa.
Of course, it was "intoxicating" as someone put it, to wander through the vendor booths. Lots of books, and tools, and beads, and buttons, and silk, and yarn, and wool in just about any form you can think of.
And, every year, there is a wonderful gallery of work brought in by participants. The diversity and craftmanship is something to behold.
Sunday night, when I got back home, I couldn't sleep, so finally, I got up and started writing down all the ideas that kept popping into my head. I have lots of new things to try out now. But first, I need a little break.

Midsummer

Goodness, it's been a long time since I've posted.
Now, I am in the midst of teaching at the week-long textile camp. On our first day I taught the basics of felting. We did beads, so the kids could get the feel for working with the wool and see how it changes when you add water, soap, and aggitation. Today, we started on some small bowls, done on inflatable balls. We "dressed" the balls in 3 layers of wool added decorative yarn, then covered them with 2 layers of nylons. Thursday we'll do the wet felting, and Friday we'll do the finishing touches.
Friday, after camp, I leave for the Midwest Felting Symposium in Madison, Wisconsin. Lisa Klakulak is teaching a two-day workshop called: Felting Three-Dimensional Mini-Handbags. I know it will be fun.

Textile Camp: Run with Scissors

Here are a few of my smaller bowls. They are examples of what I will teach at Textile Camp this summer at Crossings in Zumbrota. They are made of merino wool (mostly), embellished with yarn and beads, needle felting, and some cutting. They are made using the wet felting method. Textile camp is for kids grade 3-12 the week of July 21-25. Two other teachers will be there, teaching crochet and sewing. I will also spend one day teaching Embellished Jeans. We will use Bleach pens to discharge the dye and make designs.