kit and caboodle

New Work

I've finally uploaded pictures of my work from artfiberfest - scissor maiden, felt jewelry and brooches, fabric necklace and a needle felted beret! Here they are:

show and tell

I'm finally getting my act together a bit (not) and have made a mosaic of all the photos I took at the 'show and tell' on the final night - a selection of artwork from many of the classes. All of it is stunning and unusual - I think the best thing about the four days for me, was the opportunity to look at fabric and fiber in a different way, to try colors I wouldn't normally be drawn to and to learn a few new techniques. Like rug hooking, for example - I can see how that could get addictive...  The show and tell was a good opportunity to see everything I could have done - there's talk of the next AFF taking place in early July 2009, so a little less than a year away and I'd love to do it all again!

I took the Scissor maiden class taught by Syd McCutcheon - some examples by my fellow students below. I'm not a natural painter, and found painting the maiden's faces very harrowing (I know that in the grand scheme of life, painting a rubber stamped face shouldn't be defined as 'harrowing', but it was, and there we go) - however it was an opportunity to do something that I wouldn't normally touch, to stretch those limits a bit, which of course gets harder with age!!  I did love painting on canvas to make the fabric which went on to form the doll's body (it was less precise than painting facial details!). Syd said that if you painted both sides of the canvas, then there was little or no fraying, which made me think about making some little dolly kits out of painted canvas. 

 

I haven't photographed any of the stuff I made yet (slowly, slowly catchee monkey, as my dad used to say) so will try and sort that out later on today while the sun's out. In the meantime, child #2 has requested a spider costume for halloween, which I'm supposed to whip up from thin air. I've just returned from Joann Fabric where I got some super cheap gorilla fur fabric, which will hopefully look tarantula-like (shudder) when I'm finished. The dressing up thing is tricky when you're a teenager because there's an element of wanting to look a bit cool on top of everything else. I'm sure she'll look darling as a hairy spider. I made her dress up as a teabag a couple of years ago, so I guess it's all relative!

crafting 365

I joined the crafting 365 group on flickr this week with the intention of creating something (even if it is just a mess) every day for a year. You can post one photo a day of your creation and they're generous enough to allow for the inevitable catch ups! 

Here are my first three days:

365/day 1

 

365/day 2

365/day 3

The second photo also falls into the category of 'getting crafty for Christmas'. I'm making advent strings for my kids and some friends this year, after a year's hiatus. They're like advent calendars, so there will be a small gift to open for each day leading up to Christmas day, starting on November 30th. My kids draw straws to see who goes first, second etc and then stick grimly to the schedule - it's a matter of honor for them! We've kept all our little gifts from previous years - they're more precious than all that chocolate. They're a year-round reminder of the kernel of excitement that builds up through advent, which isn't entirely related to the prospect of gifts of Christmas Day. It's just a magical time of year.

felt critters

 

I purchased this book a little while ago - the patterns in it are great (love the graphics) and the critters are nice and funky.  My # 2 immediately disappeared with the book into her bedroom, and a couple of days and a mountain of felty mess later, emerged with these, which I think are wonderful:

The third photo is of tadpoles, in case you're wondering.

Felty creations

 

I've been working on a bookmark kit, cutting piles of circles, flowers and leaves out of felt, and fiddling endlessly with placement, beads and stitching.  A new bookstore just opened in our neighborhood and it got me thinking about summer reading and crafting. I'm a bookmark hoarder myself so it's always pretty easy for the kids to buy birthday and Christmas gifts for me!  The kits will have two pieces of 100% wool felt and a selection of circles in different sizes and colors, some beads and a couple of colors of embroidery thread. I doodled with the stitches, did a few lazy daisies and french knots, and finished up with blanket stitch all round the outside. Fun and pretty simple.  The summer's a great time to get a head start on all those Christmas handmade goodies, even though thoughts of the jolly snowman are far from my mind as I wilt alongside my fuchsias in the July heat.

                                          lazy daisy stitch with beading

                  simple running stitch                                lots of french knots

                        french knots and varied length stab stitch 

making felt

Spent a happy afternoon with my sleeves rolled up, sloshing soap suds and water over the floor and myself as I made a large sheet of flat felt which I plan to use in some craft kits I'll be putting together soon. I started by drafting a couple of layers of white merino then topped this with a single layer of all the blues and greens in my stash.

I squirted it all with soapy water and rolled it up in bubblewrap and a big towel for a rolling session, punctuated by partial unwrappings of the bundle to check for felting. When it was beginning to felt (the fibers stay together when pinched), I rolled it up in a bamboo blind from IKEA (which, I have to say, was truly cruddy quality) and started to full the felt by rolling it backwards and forwards.

I was pretty pleased with the outcome. It's a big enough sheet to fill 20 or so craft kits - an afternoon well spent.

washing fleece

I've had a sheep's fleece lurking in the garage for a while now, waiting to be properly washed and carded. I finally built myself up to the job (wondering why on earth I hadn't simply bought one which was washed already...) and filled the bath up with hot water and some dish soap liquid. I love the smell of fleece with its greasy lanolin feel - the ultimate water repellent (and skin softener!).

I left the fleece to soak for a while then let the truly grubby water vanish down the plughole. I was thankful my lovely husband wasn't home. I refilled the bath, being very careful not to agitate the fleece and thus end up with a matted pile of felt.

This is the fleece after a couple of washes. Looking good. I made sure all the soap suds were rinsed out, then stuffed the fleece into one of those mesh dryer bags to keep it all together. Then into the washing machine for a good spin to get rid of as much water as poss.

I left the fleece drying on our airer for a couple of days. The bath I scrubbed with some nice Ecover scouring cream.

I'll probably dye some of the wool, and use it for felting; some I may use for gnome beards and hair.