My Experience and Silk Overload

Whew!  What a whirlwind these past few months have been.  The Southeast Animal Fiber Fest (SAFF) has come to an end and I find myself with weekends to spend how I choose.  More on that later, now I want to share about the workshops!

I had a fantastic time teaching at SAFF.  Imagine getting to spend 4 full days with
women who are brimming with creativity and getting to play with wool and silk the whole time! Lots of smiles and laughter were shared and I was astounded by the many ideas that came from everyone.

The only drawback to being a newbie to teaching large groups (20 felters at a time), was making sure I had enough supplies to give them a large choice of colors.  All of the nuno classes incorporated silk hankies into the designs.  So I dyed 3 lbs, yes, 3 lbs of hankies!  I had every color under the rainbow available and realized at the end, I truly could have stuck with about 1 lb. and had plenty.....so now I have HUGE mountains left over. Horrible problem eh? ;)

So that is what inspired some new designs I am playing with. This new design is EVERYTHING I love.  Color, over the top texture, silk, and cotton.  The style is what was described to me by a close friend as natural, earthy, very boho.  Okay, I'll go with that.  I'm not much of a bling gal, so there is something about this combination of materials that really pulls me in.....and I get to use the hankies!  Win!

If you made it this far, thanks for sticking with me through my rambles. Off to visit the critters.

XO.
Kelly

Another Long Lock Bag

A few weeks ago I was in Asheville, N.C. taking a felted garment class.
I was able to hang out with some fiber friends while I was not in class and was asked to make a felted bag similar to the one I was carrying my stuff around in.  She sent me home with the long locks (an easy 10+ inches long) that she wanted me to used and Viola, here it is!  I added a chunky hand spun detail across the front to add a bit of sparkle, 'cause I know my friend loves her sparkle!

The seamless bag is finally finished and has been sent off to its new home.  I hope she loves it as much as I loved making it for her!

Scarves Using Batts

I have had many requests for scarves from friends lately.  I love most when I am just given a color and then told to make it fun.
Now that I have a dedicated workshop and am able to see all of my fibers in one place, making batts becomes a free for all!  The scarf pictured above is one that I kept.  I love these colors together.

Using batts to make scarves with tons of textures is a semi obsession for me right now.  For once I actually documented the process...well sorta'.

In this 1st picture above, the fibers have been layed out and wet down.

This next picture shows the scarf after a few hundred rolls. 

And finally the finished scarf.  This was the first felted project that I made using some of my own animals fiber.  I cannot tell you how thrilling it is to be able to do this!  

And here is a picture of my alpacas checking out Piper after her recent hair cut- she is not too concerned with them at all.  They get freaked out when she hops and take off out of their barn to pronk around their pasture.....they are big goofballs!

Oh what could it be?????

Hmmmm...what could make me a happy gal?  I'll give you a hint....it has something to do with this orange container.

Let's just say it has something to do with the fact that I will have an entire summer to create.

And that I have the worlds most supportive husband.  Hands down- the best!  Not one complaint from him about my purchase.

It almost felt like Christmas did when I was a kid when I opened the box.

Oh heck..I'm terrible with building suspense...I will leave that to Heather-she is a pro she always leaves me hanging with her 2 part posts!

So.............here it is......

30 lbs, of the softest, fluffiest, wool......oh my goodness! 

I think I have enough to last me a lifetime...lol

I plan on starting this weekend....I am setting up the garage as soon as I am done posting and I am going to have myself a wool dyeing "fiesta"........  And the first color on my list is ORANGE!!!!

I'm here

It has been a few crazy weeks with work since I posted last.  I have started making batts with the wool that I dyed in the previous post.  The first batt I made was made from my leftover pieces of wool.  It's a hodge podge mix of different types of wool that I ended up tossing into the emerald green dye pot.  The colors that resulted are exactly what I envisioned!  This batt is approx. 3 oz.  I will be working on the rest of the green today, and then need to finish cutting some prefelts for a "spring" project I am working on.  More later...thanks for reading!

Slippers.....

I felted these around a flat resist.  I had a hard time trying to make the seams not too bulky.  The first pair I tried had thin areas at the seams.  I have some leather that I am going to add to the toe and heel sections on the bottom so they are not so slippy on the floor.  For a first "Officially Wearable" pair. I am so-so happy with the result.  Now to go work on some smaller felted projects that involve wood, embroidery, and felt......

My first stocking...

Last year this time I had no idea what felting was, and I am trying to think back to what sparked me onto this new obsession.  I truly cannot remember......Whatever it was I am thankful for it because I have had so much fun this past year learning!
I have been thinking about making some stockings for Christmas since this past summer.  So today I decided to try.  I chose a natural oatmeal colored wool.  I made my template using wood laminate flooring underlay.  I wet felted the stocking and then needle felted a heart onto one of them.  I think I like them nice and simple like this.  These would be wonderful for small gifts...hmmmmm 
Here's to hoping you had a stress free day :)

Kelly

The rug...

I have learned tons from this experience.  First and foremost, wetfelting a rug is VERY wet business! :)  It was a perfect day to work on this outside.  We have been having warm but dry weather here and that is a rare thing, so I took advantage of it!
I got quite a workout so I figured I can have a nice big piece of my homemade pumpkin bread tonight!
Here are some pictures of the process.....needless to say, I think my antics while making this rug were entertaining to my family...I'm quite pleased with it!

Inspiration

I was inspired by Suzanne's post, at Hooked On Felt, about her pod hanging in her garden.  I could not make up my mind on the colors, so I used my bag of wool scraps.  It's a pretty large bag and I think I got a little carried away with the size of my pod.  Mind you, I had no idea how to make one of these, but I figured all I could do was try......I used a ton of old plastic shopping bags for the resist.  I balled them into the shape I wanted and then taped them into a solid using packing tape.  I love how it brings a colorful spot to an otherwise shady spot in the garden.  It felt good recycling pieces of wool that are bits and pieces from projects that I have made while learning about this thing called felting.......

Well I think I just may have worked out the need to make these wallet sized pockets.  I have one more drying and then I think I will need to try something else. :)  I do love all of them!  Every single one of them has taught me something about working with wool.  The cream one with the neps was the worst to make.  I really tried to get them to incorporate into the wool better than they did.  My daughter made me the button on it so I will always cherish it!  I have some more wool on the way, and am excited to get it and have new colors to play with!

Naughty dog...

I came home today to find various felt projects deposited around the house.  It seems that Morgan has her own ideas on what should be done with them.  This was a prefelt hollow ball that I was going to use for a project.  Needless to say, it probably won't make it..lol  :)  I guess I need to make sure I put everything away and out of reach of my newest felt lover!

More fun...

I have been enjoying my spring break.  I have had the freedom to create whenever the mood strikes me.  This process of learning how to felt has taught me small lessons along the way.  I have enjoyed the process!  Here is another bag.  This one I wet felted the handles onto the body of the felt.  I also tried building up higher layers to create ridged areas on the body of the bag and let the top edges take whatever shape they wanted..  I love the result!

This next project was creating a hollow ball.  I used saran wrap as a resist on the inside.  Hot pink on the outside and purple on the inside.

Another bag

I worked on this bag last weekend.  Finally it is dry and I am happy with the size and shape.  It is 12 in. x 12 in. at its widest points.  I made it with a super soft merino wool.

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!