Spinning....

I wanted to try using a drop spindle to spin wool.  I actually ended up with something that looks not too bad!  I am amazed!!  :)  It does take some practice , but is actually pretty fun once you get into a rhythm.  Here is a picture of some that I worked on this morning.

Coiled bowl

My oldest daughter wanted me to dye a rainbow for her. Once the wool dried I made her this coiled bowl. It reminds me of the ones we made when I was a kid in elementary school with clay! I felted thin ropes and then sewed them together.

Simple Fun

Sometimes simple is fun!  The girls and I have made tons of baseball and softball sized balls. I have enjoyed needle felting them when they are dry.  The girls just like to peg each other with them!  :)  Ah.....life with teenagers! 

Making panels with my dyed wool

Yesterday I experimented with hand dyeing wool.  Today I wanted to make wool panels from that wool to check the color AFTER wet felting.  I am happy to say that I had no color loss after wet felting!  The following panel is one that I am going to embroider, mat, and frame.  I added some silk fibers and a bunch of the green wool that I purchased earlier.  The base and flowers are from the merino that I dyed yesterday.  I am happy so far.... I LOVE SPRING!

My Easter tree..

My results so far..

Okay so I switched the dye source.  I was going to do koolaide but was not happy with the color choices.  So I did some more research and found information on using Wilton icing dyes. 

Soaked  wool in cool water and vinegar before dyeing

Water and Dye (use a tablespoon of dye)

Wrap in plastic wrap and nuke for 2 minutes

Drying

Now off to dye the silk...... :)

Update:  The silk took the dye and left me with rich deep colors!  It does have a tie dyed effect in some areas, but I really, really like the outcome.

Glorious Friday

This post has nothing to do with felting....it's just a post about being thankful that my students and I made it through 2 weeks of state testing!!  I am extremely proud of those kids and how hard they have worked...now we can get back to the business of exploring and learning! :)  aaahhhhhhh.........  :)

If this drawing wasn't so true it might be funny!

I'm dyeing this weekend :)

I've ordered tons of undyed wool and even some tussah silk top.  Every day I come home, I have a new package!  My daughter and I are going to be dying wool and whatever else we can find this weekend.  I'm not brave enough to use the professional types of dye, so we will be using koolaide.  I figured this would be a fun way to experiment and if I find it's not for me, then I have not invested too much!  If you have any tips for me, please share!

My First Handbag

I used a plastic grocery bag as a resist for this project.  I had left over wool from my scarf project so I made a bag to match.  I hand sewed the flower from a scrap piece of felt I made at the same time.  This reminds me of a watercolor everytime I look at it. 

It worked!

I am so excited!  My scarf turned out!  It was a really fun project and now my oldest daughter wants one! I took pictures along the way....so here we go....

Step 1-Laying out the fabric

Step 2- Choosing the wool

Step 3- Wetting the wool and fabric

Step 4- Rolling it all up

Step 5- Rolling, rolling, rolling, rolling at least 20 good minutes

Step 6- Rinsing

Step 7- Waiting for it to dry! A new scarf! :)

I'm going to try making another scarf.  This time I will be using a chiffon silk fabric as the base.  I will post pictures of the process after I finish...wish me luck! :)

Glorious Greens

Look at this lovely wool that should be on its way to my mailbox soon! Oh I cannot wait to get my hands on this!  The colors are screaming Spring to me!  :)

A project I made for my baby who will be 14 soon.  Her favorite colors are blue and green, and I have been wanting to make something bright and fresh to help banish the winter blahs.  Voila! This is for her nightstand and is fairly large.  Large enough to hold CD's, an Ipod and other various electronic devices that are typically strewn from one end of her room to another.  I am going to add some clear, and silver seed beading to small areas to catch and bounce light.  I wet felted this using a resist.

Yikes!  I have been layed low by some not so fun tummy troubles.  I was just bragging a few weeks back at how I NEVER get sick...I should have known then that I was tempting the fates by uttering those words.  Today was the first day that I felt almost back to normal.  I have been catching up on all of my favorite blogs and thinking about color combinations--greens and blues are dominating my mind. Maybe I am missing blue skies and green plants.  We had another freeze last night and anything that was green is now brown....except the strawberry fields, they were watered all night and as I drove home from school today they were green as green can be.  It looks as if we are heading into some warmer weather.....  something to look forward to!