Something Different !!

Well i havent been able to do anything for a while now due to Father In-law being in hospital ( hes finally on the mend and at home) so things can settle down a bit now and we can get back to some normality
So having said that this week at the resort i manage we had a lady ( Dianne) staying for the week who came down to teach workshops in Paverpol Dolls, and since i havent done anything for what seems like ages and i'd never seen them before i couldnt wait to do a class with her, good or bad move i'm not sure yet as i think i'm hooked lol  I love them
Ive made these 2 dolls using an electrical wire amateur, wrapped in skin, dressed and coating them in paverpol, they set very firm so once possed they'll stay that way, i'm already starting another one tonight and because i havent been able to do much lately i had so much fun with this workshop


This green girl was the first one and i really like her although i think she's a bit on skinny side

This one is bit more solid and i made a little bunch of flowers for her to hold out of the silk paper that i made the other week

I know its not felting but i thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing , Thanks Dianne for giving me something else to obsess about  lol 

Frustration

I havent been able to do much of anything lately, my father in-law is quite sick in hospital so we've been running back and forwards, seeing him and cleaning his house for when he comes home and its a 3 hr round trip so makes for long days, also my Daughter is doing a beauty course thats about an hour and 20min drive away so guess who sits in the carpark waiting all day lol   im using that as my chill out day either reading or stitching all by myself , its lovely
So this morning ( sunday) i was itching to try some silk paper making, not good,  i started out with mulberry silk and then added silk throwsters waste, silk rods and hot fix angelina and i can tell you that NOTHING stuck to the mulberry silk, not sure why and the dye ran a lot.  I tried a few times but just couldnt get it to work, i didnt have any trouble with the straight rods, waste and angelina so i can only assume that the mulberry isnt something that you can use to make paper ?  has anyone else ever had trouble with that fibre ? 
So heres a couple of pics of what happened
the layers seperated so i could put my hand through lol nice

The mulberry just would not stay put

again using mulberry in a different color, dont know why i thought that might work lol

 using silk rods, waste and angelina, I even added in some Rainbow Trilobal that zed sent me and it worked fine

straight silk rods

on to the next one lol  ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh

A New Bag !

It was time to attempt another bag and i'm a lot happier with this one, i still need a lot more practise but i'm actually going to use this as my everyday bag,  its only day 1 so we'll see how it holds up lol

I've used Alpaca, BFL, merino, silk, silk waste and some nylon that Zed sent me. The top was a bit to wonky for me so i've turned it in and blanket stitched it down, i've also created a seam at the bottom that i'm hoping will wear down, i guess i used to much fibre at the edge ? 
I'm still very happy anyway and looking forward to starting another and improving as i go !!!

I also have to find another button or some sort of button as the black one was the largest one i had and i dont really like it

and the back

Roll on the next one !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

I've  posted this in our studio to at

http://feltingandfiberstudio.com/

Not quite a pod

Some of the girls over on our Studio site and forum  have been making bird pods and they look amazing. Well i thought i'd try my hand to and it didnt quite turn out lol


My so called pod ended up looking more like a pink sorting hat from Harry Potter, as i started felting i realised that i'd cut the resist all wrong, thinking only of the top and not the bottom, silly me so, what started out looking like this

then became a secret fairy house with a very shy fairy, i was quick though and managed to get this shot lol

These flowers were probably the best ones of done so far .  I ended up having some fun with this so i'll try another pod shortly.

So come and join us over at the studio and have some fun in our interactive forum
See you there and happy felting  !!!

http://feltingandfiberstudio.com/
http://feltandfiberstudio.proboards.com/index.cgi?

More from me !!

I've just put the blog post up in our studio site along with and felted note book cover i made

I  have added to my tree project in my mixed media course.  I”ve added some more stitching with some leaves and flowers  in straight stitches and French knots and I did try to be very clever and create a picot stitch, ( on the right up the trunk )  I haven’t done one of them before and I want to do a vine going around and up the tree and in a 3d kind of effect,  so this is my first attempt at that stitch and while I thoroughly enjoyed how it works I will more than likely take those few out and re-do. That was just a bit of practise J  I’ve also added a spider web and the dreaded spider ( sorry zed )  he's a friendly one   J    

I am really enjoying this and although nothing is perfect  and its not supposed to be, I’m loving how its all coming together.  I still need to add more foliage and I’m not really sure what to do with the background but it does need something, maybe a shrub or to in the far distants.   I’m just taking my time with this project and as things come to mind I’ll be adding them in !!

This is my latest note book cover using stitch and beads

The whole post is over at our Studio Site

http://feltingandfiberstudio.com/

Happy Felting & Stiching xo 

More Mixed Media

Sorry I haven’t been able to post in a couple of weeks, we’ve been very busy with Family and friend commitments, weddings, engagements and 50^th birthdays.  I’m so glad its all over now and we can get back to normality, plus I’m partied out and pooped lol

 I'm a bit behind in my course with Victoria but as its an online course this one is able to be done at leisure and I’ll always have it, which is great

For this course we had to do some pages in a book and as I’m not a really big fan of altered books, although i have seen some gorgeous ones,  I’ve used some pages and then on calico and a couple of canvas’s.  The pages are so far done using acrylic paints, pressed flowers and stamps made from leaves, you can see that I’m not very good at the stamping bits lol  But I am still having fun so that’s the main things, and i will add some stitches on this to see how it goes.

The next one is on canvas and using water color pencils and painting with coffee, of all things, lucky I bought a jar that we really don’t like so I’ll keep that for this use.  And yes its smells like coffee everytime i pick it up lol

I do prefer to work on calico so this is my tree. This is done using acrylic paints and coffee again. Victoria uses memory thread which I don’t have ( YET) so  for the main area of the tree I used the 6 strands of thread and the rest is using 3 strands, I still have a fair bit to do on this as it needs flowers, bugs and spiders. The foliage is her thread salad stitch which I really like and can be used for a lot of fill in work and more foliage.

And last but by no means least is my gorgeous Granddaughter Charlie,  She’s such a little sweetheart, at 7 weeks old she’s  full of smiles and a very contented baby, at least until she's hungry lol  Were all in love J

So till next time Happy Felting and Stitching or whatever it is you love to do

Something new !

Well I’m getting into my Mixed Media Course with Victoria and I’m loving it.  Our first week was creating a book page but I did mine on a canvas, I’ll be working on either canvas’s or calico during the whole course, I will play around with making a book to but really want to create separate pieces.  In the first part we had to go foraging for flowers and leaves, use paints and dyes. So on this canvas I used some left over dyes just poured on and moved around, it was a bit pale so I went over it with some watered down paints, just for the background.  I pressed flowers and leaves for a week and the added them in.  The theme was nest’s using paint , stitch and flowers. I couched down some of my hand made yarn for the branches and then added her thread salad stitch for the nest.  Glued down the flowers and leaves and added a couple of egg shaped beads for the eggs.  I really pleased with the results although I’m not sure I have the whole composition exactly right, but I still love it .

Then I was just playing around and my daughter is totally into drawing right now and her favorite artist is Tim Burton ( she’s 16) and she loves him lol 
One of her drawings I totally fell in love with and asked her to draw one for me so I could stitch it.  Its not perfect but it was definitely  a lot of fun

I’m almost finished last weeks TAST with the lasy daisy stitch, I just have to embroidery the name

Doing Victoria’s course is really opening my eyes to so many more possibilities and I’m  looking forward to including what I learn in some felt pieces.
Would love to hear what your all working on this week and if you haven’t yet joined our interactive forum
http://feltandfiberstudio.proboards.com/index.cgi?
What are you waiting for !!!

Making a purse

Well i tried my hand again at making a little purse.   I used BFL for the main background then added in threads, silks, merino/silks and rainbow nylon. Its a bit thin in spots ( i still cant seem to get it nice and even) and i did only use 2 layers to this as was small

 So i have a couple of problems, or questions really

 Sorry this could be a bit long winded

My first problem is in the layout, i cut a resist of bubble wrap and started on the back. I know a lot of people use resists and then cut the felt later to open it up , i'm wondering if that might be easier ? 
i know its a bit fluffy but this is the back of the purse , the resist is underneath and cut at the top to create a curved flap and its here im already thinking, if i get this back how i like it and then turn it over , the fibres from the front are going to wrap around and sit on top of these fibres here,  right, so if this was perfectly how i wanted it right now at this stage , how do you get around that.
                                               

So the back is now wet and had a little rub, i actually love how this is turning out though !  

I've turned it over and added the fibre to the bottom half, on top of the resist ( didnt think to take a pic first) and started just lightly rubbing to hold in place, then of course its lots more rubbing and a few rolls and more rubbing rubbing & rubbing, i was a little scared to roll to much as thats when it really started to shrink up and go a bit wonky, i was stopping a lot and reshaping but the opening  length always goes a little wonky and the corners are never right

The top corner bits from the underneath never seem to get super strong

and i had to add more fibres to this side to, to hide the fact that the fibres from the back wrap around to this side and you could see the difference, although slight, in how it was placed. Can you tell why i wanted to make a smaaaaalllllll purse lol  

So this is inside ( of course)

And this is the back with the front folded down. I'd like to line it with something nice and add lots of stitches and beads and maybe use it for a make up purse or put it away and never touch it again lol

I will finish it to see how looks all lined and embellish but i just wanted other opinions on how to get all of the above perfect !!!!

I'll have to keep practising as i really would love to make myself and nice big bag, but if i cant get something this small right then, what hope have i got  haha Its back to the felting board !!  

A Hot Sunday Afternoon !!

Hi Everyone,
Its a gorgeous day today, bit hot outside so i thought i'd stay in and do some felting today.  First after checking out our Studio site i found that Ruth had put up the Felting Around the Web Post. She always seems to find some really great links so i thought before i start felting i'd have a go at making some Skeleton Leaves
http://feltingandfiberstudio.com/

What a joke,  i used mainly gum leaves and few others i found and after simmering away in the solution for nearly 2 hours this is what i ended up with.  No skeletons in there lol   nothing i did would take off the outter green leafy bits and the whole pot just went to absolute mud. Smelt like rotten peas to lol
Anyway i did have some fun watching and seeing what or if anything would happen and took some lovely pics for you to see haha


                    This is after almost 2 hours of simmering away, it was a thick slushy mess

Still leaves,  and not even soft enough to strip away the green outter layer, in fact as they cooled down they became as stiff as a board lol  Dont think i'll be trying that again and now i have to clean that pot  lol  

While waiting for that to do what it was suppose to do i layed out some more fibres to make another sheet of felt.  I used BFL with lots of threads, silks, organza, and rainbow nylon.  Some of the organza didnt really want to felt in but i'll stitch that down when i decide what i'm doing with it

                                                                  Before Felting

After Felting , it has a nice sheen with the nylon

Happy Felting xo

Felting with Nylon

I've been playing with some different fibres to see what i can do,  Were were talking on the forum about shredding sari silk yarn or ribbon so this is what i did.
The base is 2 layers of BFL liecester and then on top i added lots of bits of shredded up sari silk ribbon, then shredded or peeled layers of organza yarn, which ended up a bit like silk waste and then topped it off with some rainbow Triloban Nylon top, that the lovely Zed sent me, Its like Angelina but really lovely and  soft.  Its still wet when i took the pics and it seems to have gone a bit dull but i'm hoping once its dry it will pop again.  I really like the colors all together and i might turn this into another journal cover.

Before Felting

After Felting, but still wet, yes i'm impatient lol

Now that its dry and it does have a gorgeous sheen to it. sorry you cant see in the pic

 

Week 2 of TAST !

I've just finished my week 2 of TAST (Take a Stitch Tuesday) this week was the Buttonhole stitch, I'm really loving this and now i have another page for my Stitches Book :)

Our first Giveaway for our new site is almost over with the winner drawn tomorrow night, We have had an impressive number of entries for this and some really lovely comments , Thankyou you all so much.   Its not to late to enter  so follow the link to add your name,

http://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2012/01/08/our-first-giveaway/

Happy Days Everyone :)

Our First Giveaway

We've decided to have our first Giveaway in celebration of our new Felting and Fiber Studio

For more information and a chance to win,

 please follow the link and leave a comment over at our site :)

http://feltingandfiberstudio.com/

Take a Stitch Tuesday

or TAST from Sharon B's Pin Tangle site,   which is learning a new stitch every week ,so this is the latest project we'll be working on and hopefully get through every single week of it
I've decided to make mine using a square frame and calico, i'll do random stitches in the square until i'm comfortable with that stitch and then at the end of the 52 weeks i'd like to make my squares into my own book of stitches, not sure how i'll do that yet and there's no hurry as we still have 51 weeks to go.

                                                       This is the first one, a Fly Stitch

You can see where i started, on the left lol  and got a bit more adventurous as i moved across, i had to add some french knots, there's not many stitches that i know but i can make a frenchy lol  I thoroughly enjoyed doing this and it'll be a great reference point to keep going back to.  I'm looking forward to next weeks stitch.  If you click on the pic it will enlarge so you can see the stitches better !!
If you'd like to join in then please just follow the link below to Sharon's site
Happy Stitching xo

http://www.pintangle.com/journal/2012/1/3/take-a-stitch-tuesday-week-1.html

Simply Amazing

Well it finally happened, We became Nana and Pop yesterday afternoon,  WooooHoooooo

Here is Little Charlie weighing in at 6lb 4oz's and the most devine little thing ever , My son Sean is over the moon and just cant believe he's a Dad. Mum Kelly doing very well and cant keep the smile from her face.

How Gorgeous

Daddy's got you Charlie Girl !!! He cant take his eyes off her and its so gorgeous :)

WIP Album Cover

Hello  bloggerets  and now we have  another year over and a new one starting, I hope to be able to create much more felting and fibery fluffiness in 2012. In the last couple of months i have finally discovered that Mixed Media is my thing. Yeahhhh i cant believe that it took me so long to work out lol 

 So now for my latest  project which was going to be a baby album cover but i dont thinks its as suitable as planned so im just continueing with it for a normal album cover and i'll lay out some more suitable fibres for the baby album. This is all i've managed so far, not much i know ( with Christmas and stuff)  and i dont think i could have picked a brighter color bead than orange lol   The next row of beads will probably be green (bright) or maybe purple and i'll add lots more stitches with brighter threads and different beads to go with.  

I also think i picked the wrong color thread for what i've done so far, but its all good practise anyway so i'm not really worried and i'll just keep going and see how it turns out !

So for now Happy Felting Everyone and Happy New Year !!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Wishing all my blogging and fibre friends a Fantastic Christmas and an Inspirational 2012
Thankyou for being part of my life , for sharing, caring and being wonderfully supportive. May your next year be filled with fibrelishes goodies and your creativity flows free :)

                     MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!!!!

Mixed Media Stuff

I've just finished this small mixed media wall hanging and i'm really liking it. I started out with a flat piece that i cut into different sizes, adding lots of stitching and beads and a hand made fimo button in the centre, i then mounted it onto a book cover that i gesso's, painted and repainted with shiva stixs, I like using them although they do take a while to dry being oil paints in a stick, amazing things

I also once again tried my hand at textile beads , using tyvek, metallic threads and some gorgeous decorative plastic strips zed sent me. A lot of fun but fiddly little buggers lol 

Happy Felting

Dying Fibre

We've been talking alot lately about dying fibre with all sorts of different dyes , so i've added a food color dying tutorial to our site as well. Its easy and fun and you can produce so many different colors with food coloring and a steamer
http://feltingandfiberstudio.com/

Happy Felting xo

Lots Happening

Hi Everyone
Well there's lots happening over at our new site , we've started a new Feature called Market Place Monday, it will be a regular feature on most Mondays . If you are interested in topics about the business of being an artist, make sure to stop by each Monday. We will be discussing issues such as developing a product line, reviews of various venues where handcrafted work can be sold, pricing strategies, retail vs. wholesale, working with galleries, photographing your work, developing your “brand”, writing an artist statement and much more. If there is a specific topic that you would like more information about, please leave a comment and we’ll try to accommodate your requests.  Please check out the whole post by following this link
http://feltingandfiberstudio.com/

Were also really excited to have created an interactive forum for all things wool so if you'd like to become a member ( free) then follow this link to register and join in some wonderful conversations, share knowledge or just chat with likeminded soles. the forum is related to all things wool, felt, yarn, knitting, nuno, needle felting, wet felting   ect so come along and have some fun. We have decided to keep this forum private for the time being so you will have to register to view and interact, it just feels the safer thing to do right now :)

http://feltandfiberstudio.proboards.com/

Cheers Everyone and Happy Felting xo

Challenge at the Studio

Hi Everyone
Over at our new site we will be adding a Studio Challenge every quarter, this is just for fun and the first one is a challenge on creating any Twist's Twirls or Spiral to add texture to Felt
This could be anything including Coiled or Twisted Wool in Felt or a Mixed Media piece
Check out the link and come have some fun  http://feltingandfiberstudio.com/ we'd really love to see you there and see what everyone comes up with :)

We did have a bit of heads up with first one lol but here's a bit of what i've made for this

                                                                         Happy Felting

Something Amazing

Hi Everyone, well i can now let you know what we've really been up to lately.

I'm so excited to announce that myself and 3 of my Felting Friends from different parts of the world have joined forces to created an amazing new site . We went live this morning and although we had some stressful times , its been so much fun working with these 3 great ladies.  So  Ruth ( from the US) , Zed (from the UK) , Ann (from Canada) and me Karen (from Australia)  have created the Felting and Fibre Studio
http://feltingandfiberstudio.com/  
We'll be doing studio challenges, tutorial based challenges and putting up lots of information on different fibre arts  projects, mixed media, nuno, wet felting, needle felting, or learning about different fibres for different projects
We would love you to come along and join in the fun, feel free to leave a comment  or follow along with us
Happy Felting xo

What i've been up to :)

I know im a bad blogger sometimes but i promise i'm not sitting idle !!

This one started out as a flat felt piece and i didnt really like it so turned it into a book cover. Im still going to add something for the binding, a tassle or something twisted, its just not quite finished.  

This is a mixed media small wall hanging using felt ( of course) beads and stitching and then i mounted it onto a background from an old hard back book which i added gesso, paint and used shiva sticks.  I really like the way it turned out and definitely going to do more !

A little piece of the next one and basically just playing with my camera  ha

Next post will be a huge announcement and i cant wait to tell what i've really been up to, apart from the above .  Sorry to be a tease but thought i'd stir and keep you all guessing lol   Its Big :):)