D.I.Y. kits

A few weeks ago I did the Contemporary Textile Fair down in Teddington, I gave out lots of cards, so if you're a new follower from the fair, "hello". The fair was excellent, so much talent there and it was very diverse, bearing in mind that all the stands were textile based. I had some new items on the stall which went down really well, particularly the puppy brooches. Hopefully they will be available in the shop some time next week.

I'm now preparing for the BCTF (British Craft Trade Fair) which starts a week on sunday, yikes. I'm slowly working my way through the massive to do list. Last year my D.I.Y. kits in tins did really well so I have expanded the range. I now stock:

Puppies

Flowers

Birds

and Pussy Cats

All available to buy in the shop www.fibrespace.bigcartel.com

Oh, and if any of you are going to the BCTF I will be on stand 172, please pop along and say Hi.

Giveaway!!

OK, here it is, my little giveaway to celebrate the International Day of Felt. The theme for this day was the segment of the colour wheel yellow through to red. So I've made a little felted flower from merino wool and dyed it yellow using fustic. For your chance to win just leave a comment and I'll draw the winner at random on Friday the 9th of October.


Oh, and I promise not to show any more flowers for a while, they have rather dominated the blog recently.

Why it's been quiet...

I haven't listed anything new in the shops for a while becasue I've been busy with this lot. Forty flower brooches and ten soap stone are now on their way to Italy, phew! I've now got a couple of custom orders I'm working on then I plan to make a whole batch of products for the shops. I have lots of ideas for a coordinated range using natural dyes which I'm very excited about. I'll be showing sneak peeks on here before they are listed so keep a look out.


Did you know today is the International Day of Felt, our region of the IFA has worked on a project for this event which will be displayed at the IFA stand at The Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate.

To celebrate this day of felt I'm going to offer a little give away either today (or tomorrow if I don't get the item finished in time), so please call back soon.

Oh, and one last thing. I am debating whether to sell the instructions to make my flower brooches in a PDF format in my etsy shop, would anyone be interested?

Flowers

More flower brooches which have been dyed with natural dyes, they look so yummy together, can't wait to make more.

Tweet, Tweet

Here are some little birds I've been making for woolfest, the first two are perched on a dry stone wall of felted soaps. I still have lots to do, not enough hours in the day!

I'm still here.....busy felting

Oh my gosh! I just changed my profile photograph (thought it was about time you see what I look like), and noticed my last post was March the 24th, how could I let a month go past without blogging. In my defense there has been the two week easter holidays, and I never get much done when the kids are about, but they've been back at school for nearly a week now so no more excuses. I have been very productive this week, but still have a lot of projects unfinished. Inspired by these over on the other blog (who was I kidding when I thought I could write two), I have been experimenting with needle felting.


These two now grace our mantle piece, I think they'll make good props at craft fairs so I plan to make some more in spring colours.


This is my latest bit of felting, I'm really pleased with how it's turned out. I'm using the colours as inspiration for my latest range of felt goodies. DH took some photos of me modeling it at lunch time so I can get it listed on etsy. There was actually one of me smiling which doesn't make me cringe so I'm going to make it my avatar, don't look to closely though, as you can clearly see grey hairs, I must go and purchase some hair dye, does henna cover grey?

I'm also busy finishing everything off for my City and Guilds, we're having an exhibition on the 2nd of May. So when I've finished my outfit I'll have a go at modeling that as well, and I'll share the resist for the cape.

Hopefully it won't be another month before I'm back.

Make Do and Mend

That was the title of the contemporary recycled arts and crafts exhibition at the Chapel Allerton Festival. So I had a stall selling brooches and cuffs made from felted jumpers. I used the jumpers as a base to needle felt onto (at the festival quilts I bought one these, and one of these which I can't recommend enough, well worth the expense). Here are some of the pieces....



I did quite well and met some lovely people, so nice to meet customers face to face for a change.

I also treated myself to this gorgeous bag from deco-blue designs, for those of you who are local check her stall out at the Harrogate Knitting and Stitching show this year, she has some lovely products.


Now the craft show is out of the way and my eldest is back at school, soon to be followed by my youngest (big first day at school on Monday!), I am getting back into the felting groove. I have really missed creating over the summer. I'm working on a collection of new monster bags, here's one which is a custom order.


Got to fly, my youngest is insisting I play playmobil airports, roll on Monday!

I have two brooches finished!! My felt brooches seem to be evolving into miniature pieces of felt art, but I'm quite happy with the results, still on a bit of a learning curve with these, trying to find my style.



And look what the postman brought yesterday. I've managed to have a go this morning, but the prints are still drying, so no photo's yet. My purchase is thanks to the power of blogs. The Gocco machine has cropped up a few times in various blogs, I read a piece on tiny happy and followed the link to felt cafe's tutorial. After reading I really wanted one, so convinced myself it would be great for making my own promotional postcards. By the end of the day I had ordered one from print addict. Until I began reading blogs I was completely unaware these existed, but I'm really pleased to have had it brought to my attention, I think I feel a new crafty hobby coming into my life. I have already brainstormed many, many ideas for using my little printing machine, all I need now is a little more time!