Bags, Books and Bowls

Where does the time go? I can't believe we're nearly into May. I have been busy working on ideas for woolfest, it's getting very close and at the moment I don't have a lot of things to sell. Here are my latest pieces, a felted bowl, which I dip dyed and embellished with buttons and this cute little notebook cover. I'm really pleased with the notebook, and plan to do some more.


I have also been playing with the Gocco, I wanted to try making a screen from a photograph, unfortunately not all of them worked so I've wasted two screen, which is a bit of a pain as I have to order them from Japan, but here's one that worked, I'm using them as thank you cards to put in with my orders.


I've also been soaking up inspiration from these two books which I'm borrowing from the library, our local library has a good craft section, which is just as well as I have no more room on the shelves for more books!!

Fabric Jewellery by Teresa Searle

Felt So Good by Betz White (UK version of Warm Fuzzies)

The jewellery book had some pompoms made from fabric which looked really nice, so I had a go with some scraps of silk I have and made this one, which I attached to bag which was lying around waiting for a little something to lift it.

And here's a bag with some lace felted into the front, it gives it a lovely texture, I dyed this the same time as the bowl, cerise pink is one of my favourite colours.


Anyway, best go now, I have some felt balls and pincushions to finish off before the school run.

Felt Making Workshops

Here are my new workshops. Each workshop is £25, which includes all your materials. To book a place you need to send a £10 deposit, this is non refundable, but if you can't make the workshop for any reason, it can be transfered to another workshop, providing there are places left. The remaining £15 is payable on the day. All the workshops are at Calcutt Village Hall, just outside Knaresborough in North Yorkshire. There is ample parking available. The maximum number is 10 so book early to avoid disappointment.

Saturday 26th of July 2008
10.30 - 3.30
Felt a Bag
Make a felt bag using the resist method of felting (no seams) and make a felt flower to embellish it.
Only 6 places left.

Saturday 23rd of August 2008
10.30 - 3.30
Felt Jewellery
Use a combination of wet and needle felting to make felt beads, sushi beads, rope, flowers and pendants.

Saturday 20th of September 2008
10.30 -3.30
Felt Vessels
Learn to make 3D felt that can be transformed into felt vases and bowls.

Saturday 18th of October 2008
10.30 - 3.30
Felted Monster Bags
Have fun making your own unique monster bag.


Saturday 29th of November 2008
10.30 - 3.30
Felted Scarves
Keep warm and snug during winter with your own felted scarf (made from merino wool which is extremely soft and comfortable against the skin).

To book a place contact me at fibrespace@gmail.com

Competitions!!!

I love entering crafty competitions, I find it motivates me to try out ideas and have a go at new things. In the past I have seen competitions on the web, and got as far as thinking about possible designs, but then the closing date has come way to quickly and I end up missing the deadline. I seem to have a bit more time on my hands now (with the youngest doing 4 half sessions a week at pre-school), or maybe I am just more motivated with my felting at the moment, anyway, I'm going competition mad. I've just entered the last of my softies in the 2nd Annual Softie Awards, I ended up entering the big blue ugly monster in the cutest face category along with his friend the blob, so as not to hurt their feelings, but between you and me, they don't stand a cat in hells chance when you look at all the very cute entries. Still, I've told them that it's the taking part that counts and that not everyone can be a winner.


I've also entered Victor into the embroidered to death category. I finished him last night. I've been wanting to do a large owl sculpture for a while now. I'm really pleased because Victor came out better than I had imagined. At one point he wasn't looking so good, but I managed to manipulate his head to give him that 'w' shape on top, which made a big difference.



Here's another competition that grabbed my attention, I was reading the craftzine blog, and there was details of a competition to make a pair of baby booties out of Michael Miller fabric. I have designed and made a few booties before and love Michael Miller fabric so I was thinking that I must enter (also there are some great prizes on offer). Then I nearly fell of my chair when I scrolled down and saw a pair of my booties posted on the blog for inspiration! Here they are, I'd made them last year for my friends little girl.

Pink

Vone got in touch and has picked Dixie, so Dixie has been wrapped up and parceled off to start new adventures over on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. So I just spent the morning listing the other mini monsters on etsy.

I was teaching a felting workshop yesterday, Nuno felted scarves, unfortunately there wasn't enough time to take photographs, which is a shame because the students made some fantastic scarves. I'm having a bit of a break from the workshops, but they'll be starting up again in June. I'd like to do some new workshops and am thinking of offering a monster bag workshop and felted vessels.



Here's my latest felt creation, another mini monster, she's my favourite so far, I've entered her into the pink category of the 2nd Annual Softie Awards , and I was very excited to see her make an appearance on Softies Central.

I have the house to myself as the rest of the family have gone to look at bikes, so I'm going to go and make the most of it now.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

I made this chap yesterday for the softie awards, I had been intending to enter him into the cutest face category, but in an attempt to do cute I think I created a pretty ugly monster! If I get chance I might just start all over again.

Functional Felt Swap

I've just signed up for the functional felt swap organized by painted fish studio and three sneaky bugs looks like it might be fun!

A parcel in the post

My lovely Japanese fabric arrived today!!! Look, they are so unbelievably cute.


And this is what I have been doing with it, making buttons to sell at Woolfest. Only I've run out of the button bits (I just bought a few to have a try a while back), so I've tracked down more supplies this afternoon. Unfortunately that means more patient waiting for the postman, in the meantime I may have to think up a project or two to use some of the fabric, or maybe I'll just look and stroke.

Curly and Veronica...

Well I went to the British Craft Trade Fair, I whizzed around in an hour and made it back in time to finish a few more monster pincushions and tidy up in preparation for some when felting tonight before heading off on the school run.

There was some fantastic stuff at the fair, it's not open to the public as it's a trade fair, but I wanted to have a look around as I'm thinking of exhibiting next year. I went last year as I'd managed to get my hands on an invite and was surprised to see quite a lot of felt, this year there wasn't as much, I'm wondering whether the felters didn't do so well last year so gave it a miss this year. Felting is time consuming so the finished articles aren't cheap! There was no one there doing work similar to mine, which is good. There was an awful lot of jewellery and glass work, if you're a jewellery designer it must be hard to stand out from the crowd. I also checked out the way people displayed their work which is often just as important as your work for grabbing peoples attention.

Anyway here's the new monsters....(as you can see I had a bit of fun with the photo shoot)...

Curly's just been caught bouncing on the bed.

Curly loves to ride his red tractor.

Curly with his girlfriend Veronica.

More Pincushions

Ok, the winner hasn't been in touch yet so I can't list the other pincushions until she's picked her favourite. However, I've just finished these two and listed them on Etsy. Rupert and Lizzie, they look very alike don't they, you could almost mistake them for Brother and Sister. I'll keep this one short as I've got a big to do list!! I can't decide whether to go to the British Craft Trade Fair this afternoon whilst my youngest is at pre-school, or stay at home and catch up with everything.

and the winner is.....

Vone said...

Those are the coolest pin cushins ever.

Well done Vone, I used a random number generator and it came out with 93, so Vone you can choose from one of the following pincushions. As soon as Vone lets me know her choice I will be putting the others in my Etsy shop (probably later tonight as the kids have swimming lessons this afternoon and this evening) . Here they are...

Lucinda

Matty


Alexander


Norman


and Dixie

Wee Owl

Here's the little felted bead, I finished him yesterday and as I was going out and he matched my outfit I decided to keep him for myself :)

He didn't photograph so well as he's so small.

Fabric and Felting

Oh my, I was supposed to have been wet felting last night, but can you believe I spent all night on the computer buying fabric!! Where did the hours go? It was because I wanted some cute Japanese fabric to cover some buttons, I'd seen a few designs I liked but really struggled to find one shop that sold them all, that is until I stumbled upon www.superbuzzy.com, and then I must have spent another two hours, looking at all they're beautiful fabric and filling up my shopping cart :) When I'd finished I was feeling a bit guilty so I made my little baby monster into a cute necklace (which I've just listed on Etsy), then went to bed. However, I then had an idea of an owl necklace stuck in my head, so, unable to leave it until the morning, I went and grabbed my supplies and started needle felting in bed!! I think I strained my eyes because my bedside lamp is pants. Do any other crafters find it hard to switch off, I now carry a pad and pencil permanently in my bag because I will come up with new ideas all the time. There's no photos of the owl yet, I thought I had finished it but H came home at lunch time and said it needed ears, he was right, I added ears and it looks much better, I just don't have the energy to retake the photos.

One of the Mini Monsters had a Baby

I didn't even know she was expecting!!

(I created this little one whilst I should have been doing housework, now I must go and clean the kitchen!)

A one horned mini monster!!

I'd like to say a big hello to everyone who has dropped on by from Craft, and thank you everyone for all your comments about my latest creations, it was so nice to get so much positive feedback. Here's another one of my mini monster pincushions, I've two more half finished which I'm hoping to get done tonight.


And in sharp contrast, here's a flower brooch which has been waiting to be sewn together for some time now. I've just popped it in the etsy shop. I'm feeling much better now and am hoping to get stuck into some wet felting, so there will be more monster bags coming soon.