Ruffled Felt Flowers

For the past few days, I’ve been refining a couple of flower variations, wittling down my process with each attempt.

The first two were mock-ups as I hashed out my working ideas in felt. The stamens were added after the fact and the center layer of the pink flower was sewn in place with a needle and thread. Still, they worked well enough that I knew where to take the next versions. I sewed pin backs on them, satisfied with them as they were.

The next flower was felted with three layers of merino roving and handpainted silk cap; the stamens were placed in the center early in the process so they felted in position.

Then I tried a five layer version using merino roving and tussah silk. This took considerably more time, but mostly because I didn’t lay down enough roving with the first layers.

Each flower ended up a little different as I experimented with varying the amounts of roving for each layer, the amount of silk on the top layer and the formation of the stamens. The possibilities at this point seem almost endless. With every new batch of handpainted roving, there will be another flower shape.

This set thrills me to no end, mostly because I worked them through from the germ of an idea, tried it out, refined the process and continued to work on it until I had something that was just what I wanted. Perserverance isn’t exactly my middle name, so this feels like a particular triumph.

This set is destined for the Columbia City Gallery, but they have been so fun to make there will be another crop in my shop shortly.

Drop Spindle Cases Finished

Phew! I can’t believe six weeks have gone by since I first started working on this consignment. At long last, with plenty of interruptions, working in fits and starts, I’ve finished ten cases.

Much to my surprise, I learned that I enjoy working in production on the right product. There was enormous satisfaction in laying out yet another square of roving shingles, working the piece of felt until it was firm and then adding to the stack of finished pieces. Then trimming and sewing each of the bags consecutively gave me even deeper satisfaction as each one walked through my machine with little difficulty.

While I had hoped to make a set of fifteen bags to send to Maia at Tactile Fibers, the reality is that each piece took over two hours to make. I just don’t think there will be much market for a drop-spindle bag with that sort of handmade pricetag. Since I wanted a very durable felt, I chose blue faced leicester roving, a fairly slow felting fiber compared to merino. I worked each piece of flat felt hard on my glass washboard until they were really stiff. These two factors resulted in a piece of felt that took much longer to finish than I initially projected. Still, I’m really happy with the finished project and glad to send them on their way.

Yart Sale & Indie Roundup

What is a Yart Sale? Art + Yard Sale = Yard Sale.

A great promotion running June 10-14 across Etsy.com. Type the word ‘yart’ into the search field  to see the great things on sale. Nothing is sacred and there are no limitations: art, supplies, patterns and vintage are being cleared out.

I’ve listed scarves from last year and beyond. Time to push the old stuff out to make room for the new. There just isn’t space in my studio for more. Free shipping on all Yart Sale items. Valid through June 14th.

While I’m promoting Etsy, I have to mention four wonderful women I met this weekend at the Indie Banditas Bazaar. There were many familiar faces from the EtsyRain community and a couple of artists I recognized instantly from other indie venues. However, the women at these four booths were my neighbors on the floor. Their businesses were new to me, though I hope to see much more of them in the future.

Laura makes funky, fun and colorful menstrual pads for Amy’s RagBag using reclaimed cotton, flannel, hemp and silk. She is a sweet, generous woman with a great sense of humor. Just don’t put any SoftSoap in her way. While it may be a scandalous and bold idea, I’m planning to put together loot bags with her pads from my daughter’s tenth birthday, with her full consent of course.

Shannon of Greenbelts shared my corner of the room on Saturday. She makes cuffs, belts, dog collars and rings with repurposed buttons, belts and other bits of ephemera. Her winning smile charmed an awkward tween boy deliberating over his first leather cuff and mesmerized my daughter.

Hillary of Island Provisions makes uber cool guitar straps, bags, wallets. I want to learn how to play the guitar just so I have an excuse to wear one of those straps. Maybe I can incorporate one of her straps into a new felted messenger bag. Island Provisions gets a gold star for the best booth set-up: four stools and some hinged boards covered with cloth, plus some firewood and great signs nailed to weathered chunks of 2×4. Love their woodsy aesthetic.

Last, but not least, Lisa’s gratitude journals and notebooks stole my heart. The perfect pocket sized notebook with a gentle reminder to mark each day with a note about the good things in our lives. Lucille’s should be open for business shortly.

All in all, it was a great show. I met lots of interesting people, talked lots of felt and needlefelted three geodes during the quiet moments. Many thanks to Katie and Rhonda for the work they putting it all together. I look forward to the next show.

Bazaar & Kits

Two quick announcements:

First, the Felt Flower Kits and the Felt Ball Kits are finally available in my etsy shop.The Flower Kits are also available for purchase as a pdf for the enterprising crafters who may have their own stash of supplies on hand.

Come see me this weekend on Bainbridge Island at the Eagle Harbor Congregational Church where SpiderFelt will be sitting pretty among a fantastic array of artists at the Indie Banditas Bazaar. In addition to the kits, felt soaps, and jumbo felt rocks, I will be selling last year’s inventory of felt scarves at clearance prices, 30-50% off.

Hours for the bazzar are from 10-4 on Friday and Saturday. Stay late on Saturday for the post show concert, where four artists will be making music. Check out the blog for peeks at the vendors and clips from the musical guests.

Project Beanbag

Several weeks ago, an acquaintance asked me if I would be willing to sew a beanbag for her son, a former preschool classmate. We were briefly reacquainted at last year’s Swap-O-Rama-Rama, part of the larger GreenFest at the Washington Trade and Convention Center. As a volunteer, it was my job to get folks started creating something new from the heaps of fabric donated and acquired by the organizers of the event. I helped her son sew small sleeping bag out of some recycled fabric. From that interaction, she decided that I had enough skill or blind initiative to wrangle a beanbag into being.

While I had never sewn anything similar, I’m always game for a new project. A quick google search brought me to a pattern which seemed easy enough. Soon, a bag of flannel and muslin appeared on my porch and a personal imperative loomed.

Determined to work this out on my own, I drew a 1″x1″ grid on two large pieces of paper and then sized up the pattern. This process took one hour. Once that was done, the rest was pretty simple. My sewing machine struggled with topstitching the double layers of flannel once the seams were folded over. I can only imagine how difficult it would be to work with something like corduroy or denim.

My only complaint surrounded the zipper. The materials list specified one zipper, when in fact two zippers are required: one for both the muslin lining and the other bag. The instructions for inserting the zipper weren’t very clear, so I turned to Amy Karol’s book Bend the Rules Sewing, where the illustration and step-by-step directions were both clear and concise.

Start to finish, I put six billable hours into this project. There was considerable unbillable time spent filling, scooping up the spills, emptying, scooping up the spills, and filling the beanbag. Lesson number one: cut a small hole in the corner of the pellet bag. Lesson number two:  insert lining into outer shell before filling. It won’t fit otherwise. Duh.  Lesson number three: wait until someone is home to help you hold the beanbag open.

Now that the project is finished, it is time to sit back and relax…for a few minutes…until it is time to bike to school for pick-up.

Next Stop: Columbia City Gallery

Hear Ye! Hear Ye!

I am thrilled to announce that SpiderFelt art and objects will soon be available at a new Seattle location in the vibrant Columbia City neighborhood.  New work will soon be on display in the gallery store at the Columbia City Gallery.

In honor of their 10th anniversary, the artists of this co-operative gallery are curating a new show: Urban Icons.  Featuring gallery artists Lori Duckstein, Esperanza Gomez Grundy, William Herberholz and Lisa Lamoreaux. The gallery will host an artists’ reception on Saturday, May 30th from 5-8pm.

In addition to these new felt vessels, I also have large felt rocks, felt flowers and rose brooches and a few ladder scarves for sale in the gallery store.

Brain Dump

In the last few days, I’ve come across an abundance of amazing events, letters and websites. Since my work at the moment is in a pure production phase, I’m going to share other people’s cool stuff instead.

Wet spring weather brings out the godzilla slugs in our garden. Before I go to bed, I walk out in the rain to peel them off my tender new lettuce. Despite my dislike of the creatures, I couldn’t resist this felt snail.

I can’t recall what chain led me here, but Gartenfilz von Frauke is only one of many fantastic pieces in the Filz Galerie, a German gallery of felt pieces created by participants in Feltalong. I really, really wish I read German because I want to know more about the other pieces in the blog.

If you want to participate in the Crafster Feltalong challenges, search for ‘feltalong‘ discussions on the Craftster felting discussion boards.

Get on board for the International Day of Felt, October 3.  2009 is the International Year of Natural Fibers, as declared by the United Nations. Sign up, spread the word, plan, organize and participate. More details at FeltUnited.

Future Craft Collective is a very creative group of energetic folks working to make something beautiful in community. Two things melt my heart: seeing people make art together and watching a child bring an idea to life. Some lucky folks in Austin may get to work with them in person; I’ll have to settle for admiring from a distance and then continuing to build art in my community.

The yummy felt bead necklaces made by  Kleas and company for Mother’s Day gifts look good enough to eat. These remind me of the world’s best salt water taffy, but made of wool. What more could a mother want?

Not sure how to describe the next bit, except to say watching this video and getting into the mind of this woman led me to dimensions I had never imagined. See and watch crochet coral as examples of hyperbolic geometry.

Time for a slight fiber detour to the world of paper craft. Make some crazy collage, paint some paper, sew some paper together, fold a boat and then mail it to Joanne Kaar. Each piece will  be auctioned in support of Mary-Ann’s Cottage, a living history museum in Scotland. Submission deadline is August 10, 2009.

Stating my intention here,  in the hopes that will make it happen (thank you Future Craft Collective), I plan to embellish paper with the parents and children of Seattle API at the next monthly gathering of the Handcraft Group. Look on theirblog for photos of the oustanding pieces they have received so far.

Artwalk Wrap-Up

The coolest thing about our neighborhood is the number of community events that take place just blocks from our doorstep. Let’s start with a short list: farmer’s market, beer taste, wine taste, home renovation fair, a summer children’s parade, hot-rod car show, street fair, lots of block parties and last but not least, the Greenwood Phinney ArtWalk.

This was my first year participating, slipping in through the back door as an invited guest by one of the businesses, as opposed to a juried artist assigned to a business.  I was invited by the sweetest little children’s store, my personal favorite store from the time my daughter was just a wee one, Rising Stars, to display some felt art in their playroom along with printmaker, Yoshi Nakagawa.

Not sure what to expect from the crowd and the event, I brought a mixture of items: five pieces of felt art, a large assortment of felt balls, felt flowers and brooches, kits and handouts for my upcoming summer felt camp.

After living on the edge of the Phinney neighborhood for close to five years, attending two neighborhood preschools, participating in a neighborhood babysitting co-op and teaching felting classes from my home, I was delighted to see so many friendly, smiling faces walk through the door. All night long, an endless parade of friends, students, children and colleagues stopped in to say hello, see what I had brought and give me their encouragement. The evening was like one long hug.

I wish I could say that I sold every piece I hung Friday afternoon, but the reality is that the experience was much more valuable than any money I could have earned. Because of the deadline imposed by the artwalk, I finished the second and third of the leaf & vine triptych; revised, edited, printed and packaged my felt flower kit; embellished and wetfelted twenty-three felt balls; hung three mostly-finished-but-not-quite-done art pieces; and got back into the writing/documenting/publicizing habit that had fallen by the wayside during those lazy months after Christmas where I had no deadlines.

Now I have lots of stock to list in my etsy shop, which I will be doing systematically over the next few weeks. Each piece will be listed, one at a time, one piece per day, in order to draw out the exposure that comes from listing a new item as it tickles the etsy search engines.

F is for Flower

How long can I run this theme? There are a lot of single word ideas piling up in my head.

After months and months in development, testing, trials, comments and revisions, I’ve finally finished a WetFelt Flower Kit.

Materials included in this kit are sufficient to create three large flowers with stems: 1.5 oz merino, 12″ square of tulle and 12″ square of bubblewrap, photo instructions and an online photo tutorial.

Thank you to the kit testers who helped enormously in the refining stages of this kit. My hat tips as I do a deep curtsy to Lora Shinn for the gorgeous photos she took on a very grey day in March.

*Edit: This kit will is now for sale in my Etsy shop; for crafters who have materials on hand, the tutorial is available for purchase as a pdf.

T is for Turtle

The same weekend that gave life to the pink pig, I began building an enormous pile of felt balls. It seemed like a good way to occupy my hands as we watched movies. First, I tightly wound a handful of roving into a rough ball shape. Next, I gently needled it to hold the stray fibers in place. By the time the weekend was over, there were twenty-three balls ready for designs.

Starting at 10am on Sunday, I began embellishing the balls with stripes, polka dots and letters; my imagination was supplemented with a couple of books of illustrated poetry on the bookshelf outside my studio.

Once every ball was adorned, I wetfelted each one for several minutes to solidify the design and firm up the ball. Then the whole set was tossed in the washing machine for a rinse and spin cycle. The lights went out in my studio at 11pm.

I plan to bring the assortment to Rising Stars where I will be exhibiting some felt art pieces for the Greenwood Phinney ArtWalk this Friday, May 8th and Saturday, May 9th. There were also be some kits available, for those inclined to make their own squishy spheres.