Painting with Wool

I mentioned I took a class at The Fiber Studio with teacher Judy McDowell. The class was called Paint a Picture with Wool. This is my piece from the class. It is a bowl of ice cream with chocolate syrup (in case you can't tell...my daughter thought it was a bowl of yarn!). I used corriedale roving, a little silk roving mixed in the tabletop and a brown wool/silk yarn from Kristen's Knits for the chocolate syrup. Judy was a great teacher and we learned how to make better edges, how to make prefelts, and how to apply yarns and ribbons with better control. The pieces were felted using the rolling method.

While I was at The Fiber Studio, I picked up some Angellina fiber, and some rainbow dyed merino roving, and some silk roving. It was really hard to control myself because Pam stocks a wonderful variety of merino, corriedale, and silk, a great selection of beads and other findings, books, some yarns, and even some mixed fiber batts that she dyes and cards herself. One of her new items was sheets of needled prefelt. I think they came in 9" x 9" sheets in a variety of colors. It was a great day.

Beauty and the Beast---Wolf Masks

Here is my daughter modeling one of the wolf masks I made for Beauty and the Beast. I constructed it out of "Better Fur" from Mills End Fabrics. I shaved the hair away from the eyes, and also from underneath the snout and ears, so I could sew the pieces on with less bulk. The snout is shaped into a nose with 2 short seams at the front. It is attached to the mask with just a straight seam under the eyes. The tongue is needle felted wool with a chenille stem imbedded in it. I used silver glitter glue to make drool on the tongue, to make the teeth shiney, to outline the ears, and to make eyebrows. The teeth are made of white craft foam. There is also a floral wire duct taped inside the snout to make it stand up straighter. It is kept on the wearer by a shoelace cord with a toggle. My son, who plays a wolf, says the masks are awesome. That made the hours worth it.

Next post...I took a felting class at The Fiber Studio in Minneapolis. Judy McDowell of Misty Meadow Icelandics was the teacher. My piece was a still life "painting" of a bowl of ice cream. Stay tuned.

Janome Xpression

Happy Birthday to me ! My DH got me the Janome Xpression needle felting (needle punch) machine for my birthday. Isn't he great? I haven't had much time to play with it yet, I did some fiddling around. It goes pretty fast, and has some serious needles...size 36 or 38. If I get an accessory from my Janome dealer, I can get different gauge needles from Try Our Designs. This site also has some good techniques for using a needle felting machine for various projects.
I would like to start a project with my new toy, but first...
I am in the midst of making wolf masks for the school play. I thought about wet felting some masks, but I found a remnant of "better fur" at Mills End Textiles that was just the right color, so I am sewing them. They look pretty cool. So I must finish them before I start anything else. My son is one of the wolves in the play, so I have a vested interest in the masks.